HUMAYUN AND THE EARLY DAYS OF AKBAR
Brave, genial, witty, a charming companion, highly educated,
generous, and merciful, Humayun was even less qualified than his
father to found a dynasty on principles which should endure. Allied
to his many virtues were many compromising defects. He was volatile,
thoughtless, and unsteady. He was swayed by no strong sense of duty.
His generosity was apt to degenerate into prodigality; his
attachments into weakness. He was unable to concentrate his energies
for a time in any serious direction, whilst for comprehensive
legislation he had neither the genius nor the inclination. He was
thus eminently unfitted to consolidate the conquest his father had
bequeathed to him.
It is unnecessary to relate in detail a history of the eight years
which followed his accession. So unskilful was his management, and so
little did he acquire the confidence and esteem of the races under
his sway, that when, in April, 1540, he was defeated at Kanauj, by
Sher Khan Sur, a nobleman who had submitted to Babar, but who had
risen against his son--whom he succeeded under the title of Sher
Shah--the {51} entire edifice crumbled in his hand. After some
adventures, Humayun found himself, January, 1541, a fugitive with a
mere handful of followers, at Rohri opposite the island of Bukkur on
the Indus, in Sind. He had lost the inheritance bequeathed him by his
father.
Humayun spent altogether two and a half years in Sind, engaged in a
vain attempt to establish himself in that province. The most
memorable event of his sojourn there was the birth, on the 15th of
October, 1542, of a son, called by him Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar. I
propose to relate now the incidents which led to a result so
important in the history of India.
In 1541, Humayun, whose troops were engaged in besieging Bukkur,
distrusting the designs of his brother Hindal, whom he had
commissioned to attack and occupy the rich province of Sehwan,
appointed a meeting with the latter at the town of Patar, some twenty
miles to the west of the Indus. There he found Hindal, surrounded by
his nobles, prepared to receive him right royally. During the
festivities which followed, the mother of Hindal--who, it may be
remarked, was not the mother of Humayun--gave a grand entertainment,
to which she invited all the ladies of the court. Amongst these
Humayun especially noted a girl called Hamida, the daughter of a
nobleman who had been preceptor to Hindal. So struck was he that he
inquired on the spot whether the girl were betrothed. He was told in
reply that, although she had been promised, no {52} ceremony of
betrothal had as yet taken place. 'In that case,' said Humayun, 'I
will marry her.' Hindal protested against the suddenly formed
resolution, and threatened, if it were persisted in, to quit his
brother's service. A quarrel, which had almost ended in a rupture,
then ensued between the brothers. But the pleadings of Hindal's
mother, who favoured the match, brought Hindal to acquiescence, and,
the next day, Hamida, who had just completed her fourteenth year, was
married to Humayun. A few days later, the happy pair repaired to the
camp before Bukkur.
The times, however, were unfavourable to the schemes of Humayun. All
his plans miscarried, and, in the spring of 1542, he and his young
wife had to flee for safety to the barren deserts of Marwar. In
August they reached Jaisalmer, but, repulsed by its Raja, they had to
cross the great desert, suffering terribly during the journey from
want of water. Struggling bravely, however, they reached, on August
22nd, the fort of Amarkot, on the edge of the desert. The Rana of the
fort received them hospitably, and there, on Sunday October the 15th,
Hamida Begam gave birth to Akbar. Humayun had quitted Amarkot four
days previously, to invade the district of Jun. His words, when the
news was brought to him, deserve to be recorded. 'As soon,' wrote one
who attended him, 'as the Emperor had finished his thanksgivings to
God, the Amirs were introduced, and offered their congratulations. He
then called Jouher (the historian, author of the Tezkereh al {53}
Vakiat) and asked what he had committed to his charge. Jouher
answered: "Two hundred Shah-rukhis" (Khorasani gold coins), a silver
wristlet and a musk-bag; adding, that the two former had been
returned to their owners. On this Humayun ordered the musk-bag to be
brought, and, having broken it on a china plate, he called his
nobles, and divided it among them, as the royal present in honour of
his son's birth.... This event,' adds Jouher, 'diffused its fragrance
over the whole habitable world.'
The birth of the son brought no immediate good fortune to the father.
In July, 1543, Humayun was compelled to quit Sind, and, accompanied
by his wife and son and a small following, set out with the intention
of reaching Kandahar. He had arrived at Shal, when he learnt that his
brother, Askari, with a considerable force, was close at hand, and
that immediate flight was necessary. He and his wife were ready, but
what were they to do with the child, then only a year old, quite
unfit to make a rapid journey on horseback, in the boisterous weather
then prevailing? Reckoning, not without reason, that the uncle would
not make war against a baby, they decided to leave him, with the
whole of their camp-equipage and baggage, and the ladies who attended
him. They then set out, and riding hard, reached the Persian frontier
in safety. Scarcely had they gone when Askari Mirza arrived. Veiling
his disappointment at the escape of his brother with some {54} soft
words, he treated the young prince with affection, had him conveyed
to Kandahar, of which place he was Governor, and placed there under
the supreme charge of his own wife, the ladies who had been his
nurses still remaining in attendance.
In this careful custody the young prince remained during the whole of
the year 1544. But soon after the dawn of the following year a change
in his condition occurred. His father, with the aid of troops
supplied him by Shah Tahmasp, invaded Western Afghanistan, making
straight across the desert for Kandahar. Alarmed at this movement,
and dreading lest Humayun should recover his child, Kamran sent
peremptory orders that the boy should be transferred to Kabul. When
the confidential officers whom Kamran had instructed on this subject
reached Kandahar, the ministers of Askari Mirza held a council to
consider whether or not the demand should be complied with. Some,
believing the star of Humayun to be in the ascendant, advised that
the boy should be sent, under honourable escort, to his father.
Others maintained that Prince Askari had acted so treacherously
towards his eldest brother that no act of penitence would now avail,
and that it was better to continue to deserve the favour of Kamran.
The arguments of the latter prevailed, and though the winter was
unusually severe, the infant prince and his sister, Bakhshi Banu
Begam, were despatched with their attendants to Kabul. After some
adventures, which made the {55} escort apprehend an attempt at
rescue, the party reached Kabul in safety, and there Kamran confided
his nephew to the care of his great-aunt, Khanzada Begam, the whilom
favourite sister of the Emperor Babar. This illustrious lady
maintained in their duties the nurses and attendants who had watched
over the early days of the young prince, and during the short time of
her superintendence she bestowed upon him the tenderest care.
Unhappily that superintendence lasted only a few months. The capture
of Kandahar by Humayun in the month of September following (1545)
threw Kamran into a state of great perplexity. A suspicious and
jealous man, and regarding the possession of Akbar as a talisman he
could use against Humayun, he removed the boy from the care of his
grand-aunt, and confided him to a trusted adherent, Kuch Kilan by
name. But events marched very quickly in those days. Humayun, having
established a firm base at Kandahar, set out with an army for Kabul,
appeared before that city the first week in November, and compelled
it to surrender to him on the 15th. Kamran had escaped to Ghazni: but
the happy father had the gratification of finding the son from whom
he had been so long separated. The boy's mother, Hamida Begam, did
not arrive till the spring of the following year, but, meanwhile,
Kuch Kilan was removed, and the prince's former governor, known as
Atka Khan,[1] was restored to his post.
[Footnote 1: His real name was Shams-ud-din Muhammad of Ghazni. He
had saved the life of Humayun in 1540, at the battle of Kanauj,
fought against Sher Shah.]
{56} For the moment splendour and prosperity surrounded the boy. But
when winter came, Humayun, who meanwhile had recovered Badakshan,
resolved to pass the coldest months of the year at Kila Zafar, in
that province. But on his way thither he was seized with an illness
so dangerous that his life was despaired of. He recovered indeed
after two months' strict confinement to his bed, but, in the
interval, many of his nobles, believing his end was assured, had
repaired to the courts of his brothers, and Kamran, aided by troops
supplied by his father-in-law, had regained Kabul, and, with Kabul,
possession of the person of Akbar. One of the first acts of the
conqueror was to remove Atka Khan from the person of the prince, and
to replace him by one of his own servants.
But Humayun had no sooner regained his strength than he marched to
recover his capital. Defeating, in the suburbs, a detachment of the
best troops of Kamran, he established his head-quarters on the
Koh-Akabain which commands the town, and commenced to cannonade it.
The fire after some days became so severe and caused so much damage
that, to stop it, Kamran sent to his brother to declare that unless
the fire should cease, he would expose the young Akbar on the walls
at the point where it was hottest.[2] {57} Humayun ordered the firing
to cease. He continued the siege, however, and on the 28th of April
(1547) entered the city a conqueror. Kamran had escaped the previous
night.
[Footnote 2: Abulfazl relates in the Akbarnana that the prince
actually was exposed, and Haidar Mirza, Badauni, Ferishta, and others
follow him; but Bayazid, who was present, though he minutely
describes other atrocities in his memoirs, does not mention this;
whilst Jouher, in his private memoirs of Humayun, a translation of
which by Major Charles Stewart appeared in 1832, states the story as
I have given it in the text.]
Kamran had fled to Badakshan. Thither Humayun followed him. But, in
the winter that followed, some of his most powerful nobles revolted,
and deserted to Kamran. Humayun, after some marches and
countermarches, determined in the summer of 1548 to make a decisive
effort to settle his northern dominions. He marched, then, in June
from Kabul, taking with him Akbar and Akbar's mother. On reaching
Gulbahan he sent back to Kabul Akbar and his mother, and marching on
Talikan, forced Kamran to surrender. Having settled his northern
territories the Emperor, as he was still styled, returned to Kabul.
He quitted it again, in the late spring of 1549, to attempt Balkh, in
the western Kunduz territory. The Uzbeks, however, repulsed him, and
he returned to Kabul for the winter of 1550. Then ensued a very
curious scene. Kamran, whose failure to join Humayun in the
expedition against Balkh had been the main cause of his retreat, and
who had subsequently gone into open rebellion, had, after Humayun's
defeat, made a disastrous campaign on the Oxus, and had sent his
submission to Humayun. That prince, consigning the government of
Kabul to Akbar, then {58} eight years old, with Muhammad Kasim Khan
Birlas as his tutor, marched from the capital to gain possession of
the person of his brother. So careless, however, were his movements
that Kamran, who had planned the manoeuvre, surprised him at the
upper end of the defile of Kipchak, and forced him to take refuge in
flight. During the flight Humayun was badly wounded, but nevertheless
managed to reach the top of the Sirtan Pass in safety. There he was
in comparative security. Meanwhile Kamran had marched upon and
captured Kabul, and, for the third time, Akbar found himself a
prisoner in the hands of his uncle. Humayun did not submit tamely to
this loss. Rallying his adherents, he recrossed the mountains, and
marched on the city. Arriving at Shutargardan he saw the army of
Kamran drawn up to oppose him. After some days of fruitless
negotiation for a compromise Humayun ordered the attack. It resulted
in a complete victory and the flight of Kamran. For a moment Humayun
feared lest Kamran should have carried his son with him in his
flight. But, before he could enter the city, he was intensely
relieved by the arrival in camp of Akbar, accompanied by Hasan Akhta,
to whose care he had been entrusted. The next day he entered the
city.
This time the conquest was decisive and lasting. In the distribution
of awards which followed Humayun did not omit his son. He bestowed
upon Akbar as a jaghir the district of Chirkh, and nominated Haji
Muhammad Khan of Sistan as his minister, {59} with the care of his
education. During the year that followed the causes of the troubles
of Humayun disappeared one by one. Kamran indeed once more appeared
in arms, but only to be hunted down so vigorously that he was forced
to surrender (August, 1553). He was exiled to Mekka, where he died
four years later. Hindal Mirza, another brother, had been slain some
eighteen months before, during the pursuit of Kamran. Askari Mirza,
the other brother, in whose nature treachery seemed ingrained, had
been exiled to Mekka in 1551,[3] and though he still survived he was
harmless. Relieved thus of his brothers, Humayun contemplated the
conquest of Kashmir, but his nobles and their followers were so
averse to the expedition that he was forced, unwillingly, to renounce
it. He consoled himself by crossing the Indus. Whilst encamped in the
districts between that river and the Jehlam he ordered the repair,
tantamount to a reconstruction on an enlarged plan, of the fort at
Peshawar. He was contemplating even then the invasion of India, and
he was particularly anxious that he should possess a _point d'appui_
beyond the passes on which his army could concentrate. He pushed the
works so vigorously that the fort was ready by the end of the year
(1554). He then returned to Kabul. During the winter and early spring
that followed, there came to a head in Hindustan the crisis which
gave him the opportunity of carrying his plans into effect.
[Footnote 3: He died there in 1558.]
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