Akbar Akbar is remembered in Indian history as one of the greatest rulers along with Ashoka.Akbar was able to secure Mughal rule after the disastrous reign of Humayun.Akbar built the basis of power of the Mughal dynasty for a century or more thanks to work which Sher Shah Suri had done, this granted Hindustan welcomed stability.Akbar was also very tolerant of other religions and he promoted this through Din-I Illahi,the religion of God. Early life Jalaluddin Muhammed was born to Hamida Banu Begum and Humayun on 15th October 1542 at Umarkot in Sind.Akbar grew up in a somewhat bewildering environment since his father was a fugitive king.Akbar was tough, strong and hyperactive, he once got into a fight over a painted drum with his cousin.Akbar preferred playing to studying and not surprisingly as a result of this, he remained illiterate throughout his life. However one tutor, Abdul Latif, Instilled a love of Sufi Poetry in him, but Akbar preferred hunting with dogs and racing horses, horsemanship, archery and was an expert with muskets. These skills along with a knowledge of human nature were vital for the role as a future king. Accession to the throne On Friday 14th February 1556,Akbar acceded to the throne at age of 13 at Kalanaur on the Ravi river ,however he wasn’t interested in affairs of state so he left governance to his regent Bairam Khan,who Akbar fondly called Baba Khan,father Khan.Bairam Khan was a Turk, originally in the service of the Safavid Shah and he went on to serve Babur and Humayun.The position of the Mughals was far from stable however, since two Sur monarchs were still at large,Sikander Shah in Punjab and Adil Shah in Bihar and there was the rising power of Hemu.Hemu was able to lead an Afghan army and conquer Agra and Delhi, and proclaimed himself Raja Vikramaditya.Hemu had served Adil Shah and he wished to drive the Mughals out of Hindustan once again. The Second Battle of Panipat On 5th November 1556,Hemu confronted the Mughals led by Bairam Khan at Panipat,which once again would decide the future of the Mughals.Hemu’s forces were numerically superior.It seemed that all was lost for the Mughals,when by chance,according to Abu Fazl: Suddenly…an arrow from the bended bow of divine wrath reached Hemu’s eye, and piercing the socket, came out at the back of his head This one act,meant that Hemu was senseless and his army melted away,granting the Mughals an outstanding victory and securing the future of the dynasty.Hemu was decapitated with his head being sent to Kabul and his torso to Delhi. In a style reminiscent of Amir Temur Gurgan, many captives were slaughtered and a tower was made from their heads. After the battle,Sikander Shah eluded the Mughals for a while,but he agree to surrender and lived the rest of his life in obscurity in Bengal. Thanks to the greater stability,Hamida Banu Begum and other members of the royal family set out to join their men folk,Akbar went out to meet his mother.Akbar went on to marry his first wife,Ruqaiya,and Bairam Khan married Akbar’s cousin,Salima Begum. The Fall of Bairam Khan In October 1558,Akbar finally returned to Agra,frictions had begun to develop between Akbar and Bairam Khan since Akbar had declined to slay Hemu.The arrival of Hamida Banu Begum and Akbar’s foster mother,Maham Anaga,meant that Akbar no longer had to rely on Bairam Khan.Akbar was also no longer a child and resented the authority of Bairam Khan,fearing that he may not relinquish it easily. In March 1560,Akbar made his move to break with Bairam Khan,he informed the amirs of the empire that Bairam Khan had “deviated from the straight path”.However Abu Fazl reported Bairam Khan’s reaction: Bairam Khan,in spite of all his wisdom and discernment, was unaware that the throw of the dice had been the reverse of his wish and the scheme of the world had taken another form, and was unconcernedly beating the drum of power Bairam Khan advanced to Delhi to submit to Akbar,Akbar sent him to go on pilgrimage to Mecca,however on his way there,he turned back suddenly in Bikaner, Rajasthan since he felt that he had not left with diginity thanks to Maham Anga.Bairam Khan.Akbar composed this couplet at the time: Who puffs a God-lighted lamp Sets fire to his own beard Bairam Khan now advanced to take Lahore,however at Jalandhar he was halted by a Mughal army led by Akbar’s step father,Atga Khan.In the early stages of the battle, it seemed that Bairam Khan was winning, however his elephants got bogged downed in paddy fields and he was forced to retreat to Tilwara in the Shiwalik hills,but offered to submit there,when besieged by Mughal forces.Bairam Khan was made to go to Mecca once again but on his way there,near Patan in Gujurat,he was murdered by an Afghan gang who had a vendetta against him Consolidating power In 1561,Akbar,sent Adham Khan and Pir Muhammed to invade Malwa,which was ruled by Baz Bahadhur,a Sur Pathan (Afghan in Hindi/Urdu).The Mughals easily defeated Baz Bahadhur and captured his capital,Sarangpur.Baz Bahadhur fled and left his harem and treasure to the Mughals.After the Malwa campaign,Akbar set out to reduce Maham Anga’s power,which he did so in 1561,by removing Munim Khan,a confidant of Maham Anga.Maham,However Anga Maham soon died later,grief stricken by the death of Adham Khan,who had been executed on the orders of Akbar.After this,Akbar went on to marry Mariam-uz-Zamani at Sambhar in 1562 , she is better known in history by the name Jodh Bai,she was the daughter of Raja Bhara Mal of Amber. Padshah of Hindustan Akbar once said: A monarch should be ever intent on conquest,otherwise his enemies rise in arms against him. The army should be exercised in warfare, lest from want of training they become self-indulgent. These were pretexts for Akbar’s conquests,in 1564 Akbar conquered the Gond Kingdom ruled by Rani Durgavati as a regent.Akbar also had to deal with a rebellion from Uzbek nobles in 1564,they invited Akbar’s brother Hakim to invade from Afghanistan.Akbar was able to defeat the Uzbek rebels and punish the leaders by trampling them to death with elephants. After returning to Agra, Akbar set out once again on what was to be remembered as his most famous campaign against the Rajputs in mid-July 1567. War against the Rajputs The Mewars held sway over Rajasthan,their ruler was Rana Udai Singh,whose territory was strategically important for Akbar since he controlled the routes from Agra to Gujarat and the Deccan.Jahangir said this of the Ranas of Mewar: The Rana was the greatest of the …rajas of Hindustan.All the rajas and rais of the country have acknowledged him and his ancestors to be their chief and head Rana Udai Singh, keen to preserve Rajput honour, demanded that he be exempted from personal attendance on the emperor and not give a Mewar princess in marriage to Akbar.Akbar overlooked conditions of marriage,however war soon broke out after the Rana refused to pay respects to him and Akbar set out to punish him. Rana Udai Singh was too weak to oppose Akbar,so he left Chitor to the command of his generals,Jai Mal and Patta and fled to the Aravalli Range, where built a new capital,Udaipur,this is still where the Mewars live.Akbar however set out to besiege Chitor,this siege would become famous. The Siege of Chitor Chitor is perched atop an isolated, rocky hill rising sheer from the plains,this means that it was a difficult fort to storm.However the Delhi Sultan,Alaudding Khilji had captured the fort in the 14th Century and more recently it had fallen to Bahadur Shah of Gujurat.Akbar was faced with a problem, approaching the fort walls without getting mowed down by enemy fire.Akbar solved this problem by building massive covered approach corridors called sabats. It took 5000 men and cost more than a 100 lives to build these sabats.Some 500 men were supposed to attack throught the sabots however the two mines were not synchronised correctly so there was a delay,which ended up killing the 500 men.Maulana Ahmad said that the explosion: Blew friends and foe together into the air, scattering their limbs in all directions…The vast army for a time; stones, corpses and limbs fell from the air, and the eyes of the soldiers were injured What finally ended the siege however, was a lucky musket shot by Akbar on Tuesday 23rd February 1568,which killed Jai Mal, the Rajput general. The Mughals stormed the fort, and a slaughter ensued, rather than die without honour, the Rajput women committed sati, self immolation.Akbar remained in Chitor for three days, he forbade its repair so that it wouldn’t be used again.Akbar built a tower of heads in a fashion, once again reminiscent of his ancestors. Conclusion of the Mewar campaign Within months after the fall of Chitor,Akbar besieged the great fort of Ranthambhor,however the defenders only offered token resistance since they didn’t wish to suffer the same fate as the defenders of Chitor.Rana Udai Singh passed away in 1572 and was succeeded by his son Rana Pratap Singh, who recommenced war with the Mughals,which was a disaster and led to the Mughals even seizing Udaipur.The Rajputs continued to offer resistance until 1615 when Rana Amar Singh surrendered to Akbar’s son,Jahangir. A son In 1562,Akbar began his annual pilgrimages to the tomb of Sheikh Muinuddin Chisti in Ajmer and he also visited Sheikh Salim Chisti in Sikri in order to wish for a son.This wish was granted in August 1569, when Akbar’s wife, Jodh Bai gave birth to Jahangir.Akbar celebrated by setting out on a thanksgiving pilgrimage,where the entire 360 kilometre journey to Ajmer on foot.Akbar built his new capital at Sikri in what is now Uttar Pradesh in India,this would be remembered later as Fatehpur Sikri. Conquest of Gujurat and Bengal In July 1572 he set out to conquer Gujurat, which was flourishing from overseas trade,it was also where pilgrims departed for Mecca during Hajj.Akbar could also claim it to be his patrimony, since Humayun had briefly occupied Gujurat.Akbar was able to drive the Mirzas away and occupy Gujurat,he left his foster brother, Aziz Koka as governor.In order to commemorate this victory, Akbar renamed his capital Fatehpur Sikri.In the same year,Daud Kararani had usurped the throne in Bengal and had the khutbah read in his own name.Akbar order the governor of Bihar,Munim Khan to attack the rebel, however Daud refused to confront the Mughal army so Akbar left the campaign to his generals to complete. However in 1578,something outstanding happened to Akbar that would change his outlook on life and he would be remembered for this. Din Ilahi In 1578,Akbar was hunting at Bhera on the banks of the Jhelum river in Punjab, he took position under a fruit tree to begin the hunt.When all of a sudden he was seized by a strong frenzy and a strange state came upon the emperor,according to Abu Fazl.Akbar appeared to have had some sort of epileptic seizure or had fallen into a trance.This event changed Akbar’s outlook on life completely, since shortly after the incident, Akbar had discussions with Muslims,Hindus,Jains,Jews,Zoroastrians,Christians and even Buddhists attended the debates,despite being largely confined to the Himalayan foothills in Ladakh,Bhutan and Nepal for example.Akbar also granted land in Amritsar for the Sikhs to build their shrine.Akbar felt that any contempt for religion was a contempt for God, according to Thomas Coryat, a British traveler to India.Jesuit priests from Goa thought that they could convert Akbar to Christianity since he had seemingly abandoned Islam,however he was only keen to learn from all religions and deemed them all equal.In 1579,Akbar made his first move towards his concept of Din Ilahi in 1579 where Faizi wrote a poem which was recited by Akbar: The Lord who gave us sovereignty Who gave us a wise heart and strong arm, Who guided us in equity and justice, And drove from our thoughts all save equity, His description is higher than the range of thought, Exalted is His majesty-Allahu Akbar! This caused a controversy among orthodox Muslims,who interpreted this as meaning that Akbar was god,Akbar could not believe such an accusation and exclaimed “Ya Allah!”,Oh God!.However Akbar was keen to bring all religions together so he created Din Ilahi for this purpose,but Din Ilahi would die with Akbar,since his successors would not be interested in continuing this religious fraternity. Meanwhile while formulating Din Ilahi, Akbar encountered a serious threat from rebellions. Rebellion In Bengal, rebellion broke out, with a clamour by the Mughal officers against the growing rigour of Mughal administration. In January 1580,the rebellion spread to mutinous troops in Bihar,Akbar sent Aziz Koka with a large army,to suppress the rebellion, which he did successfully.Akbar didn’t personally lead the force because he perceived a greater threat in the west, since his brother Hakim had invaded Punjab by the end of 1580,seeing his brother weakened by rebellions in the east.On 8th February 1581, Akbar set out from Fatehpur to confront his brother, however Hakim retreated back to Afghanistan,Badauni said of this retreat: He that cannot seize the skirt of fortune by might, His bootless efforts is like the dyeing the eyebrows of the blind. Akbar pressed on with 50,000 cavalry,500 elephants, a camel corps and matching infantry ,however the only problem was the reluctance of the army to proceed to Afghanistan since many of the troops were afraid of the cold there and the Hindu officers cited their traditional taboo which forbade them from crossing the Indus, but Akbar spurred them on.in August 1581,Abkar was able to enter Kabul virtually unopposed since Hakim fled into the mountains,Akbar handed over the province to his sister Bakhtunnisa Begum to govern.In September 1583,there was an uprising in Gujurat,which briefly expelled Mughal troops, however the province was soon reoccupied.The western frontier of the Mughal empire was vulnerable since Afghan tribes there had become unruly, thus Akbar was stationed in Punjab for fourteen years in order to send troops to deal with this threat.Akbar sent Birbal to deal with the rebels however Birbal and 8000 of his forces were killed in an ambush by Afghan tribes.This was tragic for Akbar since Birbal had been a good friend of his and according to Abu Fazl: For two days and nights he did not take his daily food and drink It took a few years for the Afghan tribes to finally submit to the Mughals, but while in Punjab,Akbar was able to annex Kashmir,Baluchistan and Sind.Kashmir.Kashmir would become a private garden of the Mughal emperors and their favourite summer retreat,Akbar vacationed there thrice.Akbar then set out to take Kandahar,which was in Persian hands since 1558,Akbar occupied the Kandahar by April 1595,after the Safavid Shah had not sent troops to reinforce Kandahar.Akbar set out in 1599 with 80,000 cavalry to invade Ahmadnagar,by 1601 he also controlled Asirgarh and Khandesh.However.The campaign was cut short by the news of Jahangir’s rebellion. A son rebels In 1600 Jahangir had risen in rebellion against Akbar,this may have been influenced by his addiction to alcohol and opium. However Akbar sent a stiff letter to Jahangir, and Jahangir retreated back to Allahabad,which is now in Uttar Pradesh.In 1602 Jahangir had the khutbah read in his name and coins also struck in his name as emperor.Akbar sent Abu Fazl to intercede,but Jahangir had him killed, which greatly displeased Akbar.Then Akbar’s wife Salima and his mother Hamida Banu Begum intervened to try to resolve the problem but to no avail. Finally in 1603,Jahangir faced a rebellion from his son,Khusraw and he was persuaded to come to court, where Akbar slapped his face and then put him in charge of his doctors. On 10th September, 1604,Akbar received some sad news, his mother,Hamida Banu Begum had passed away at the age of seventy-seven, outliving her husband by forty-eight years, soon he would pass away as well.However by this time the wealth in his hoard alone was astounding,according to Palsaert it consisted of seven million gold muhrs,100 million silver rupees,230 million copper dams and a vast treasure of gold and silver bullion,gems and ornaments. Death In October 1605,Akbar’s health began to wane and by 25th October,Akbar had passed away after having endured a severe illness. The mausoleum that Akbar had planned for himself would only be completed by 1613.However Akbar would not be left in peace in his grave.In 1691,Akbar’s grandson,Aurangzeb was busy campaigning in the Deccan, pushing the frontiers of the Mughal Empire.A wild band of Jats broke into Akbar’s mausoleum at Sikandra,pillaging and desecrating, they threw Akbar’s bones into the fire and burnt them, it appeared to be a Hindu end for Akbar after all.
Not a big fan of his personal and religious policies, but I love his administration stuff. His creation of Mansabdari was a stroke of brilliance.
how come? religious tolerance is a logical policy in a country like India
No, that's fine. All Mughal emps were religiously tolerant, even Aurangzeb (even though he was an egotistical maniac). My main problem is that he wasn't Muslim, and that he went out of his way to kind of proving it.
Aurangzeb definitely wasn't tolerant, he forbade the repair of Hindu temples as well as the construction of new ones.
No, that's fine. All Mughal emps were religiously tolerant, even Aurangzeb. My main problem is that he wasn't Muslim, and that he went out of his way to kind of proving it. I agree with that.
yet his rule was surprisingly stable? especially compared to the bigoted policies on Aurangzeb
In India, multiple religions are established. So if religious tolerance is not there, India's population would be halved from civil wars, disorders and murders.
I would just like to mention here that the images we have of Akbar and Aurangzeb are those which some modern countries want us to believe for their own political purposes. Akber is often idealized as the secular hero when in fact he forced many temples to be converted in mosques. On the other hand however did you know that there were more Hindu Mansabdars in Aurangzeb court than in Akbers? I have no problem in calling Akber great, but that is more due to the fact that he (with the aid of Bairam Khan of course) re-established and expanded the Mughal Empire. Without him and Bairam Khan the Mughals may have ended with Humayun and would have just been percieved as interlopers today of the Delhi Sultunate.
Akbar did celebrate Hindu festivals and married Hindus.Aurangzeb did employ Hindus but nonetheless his campaigns in the South of India were lengthy and ultimately led to imperial overstretch.Aurangzeb's harsh treatment of the Sikhs didn't help matters either, plus the imprisoning of his father was hardly showing the respect that the Quran asks for one's parents.Akbar did drift considerably from the central tenets of Islam and instead advocated syncretism which was heavily centred around him and didn't outlive him for long.
