THE PRINCIPLES AND INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION OF AKBAR
'The success of the three branches of the government, and the
fulfilment of the wishes of the subject,' writes the author of the
Ain-i-Akbari, 'whether great or small, depend upon the manner in
which a king spends his time.'
Tried by this test, the cause of the success of Akbar as a man and as
a ruler can be logically traced. Not only was he methodical, but
there ran through his method a most earnest desire to think and do
what was right in itself and conducive to the great aim of his life,
the building of an edifice which, rooted in the hearts of people,
would be independent of the personality of the ruler. Before I
attempt to state in detail the means he adopted to attain this end, I
propose to say a few words on a subject which may be said to underlie
the whole question, the conformation of his mind and the manner in
which it was affected by matters relating to the spiritual condition
of mankind. Than this there cannot be any more important
investigation, for it depended entirely on the structure of his mind,
and its power to accept {147} without prejudice, and judge
impartially, views differing from those of his co-religionists,
whether the chief of the Muhammadans, few in number when compared
with the entire community, could so obtain the confidence and
sympathy of the subject race, doomed to eternal perdition in the
thought of all bigoted Musalmans, as to overcome their prejudices to
an extent which, had they been consulted previously, they would have
declared impossible. The period was undoubtedly unfavourable to the
development of what may be called a liberal policy in this matter.
The Muhammadans were not only conquerors, but conquerors who had
spread their religion by the sword. The scorn and contempt with which
the more zealous among them regarded the religion of the Hindus and
those who professed it may be traced in every page of the writings of
Badauni, one of the contemporary historians of the period. Nor was
that scorn confined solely to the Hindu religion. It extended to
every other form of worship and to every other doctrine save that
professed by the followers of Muhammad.
Akbar was born in that creed. But he was born with an inquiring mind,
a mind that took nothing for granted. During the years of his
training he enjoyed many opportunities of noting the good qualities,
the fidelity, the devotion, often the nobility of soul, of those
Hindu princes, whom his courtiers, because they were followers of
Brahma, devoted mentally to eternal torments. He noted that these
men, and men who {148} thought like them, constituted the vast
majority of his subjects. He noted, further, of many of them, and
those the most trustworthy, that though they had apparently much to
gain in a worldly point of view by embracing the religion of the
court, they held fast to their own. His reflective mind, therefore,
was unwilling from the outset to accept the theory that because he,
the conqueror, the ruler, happened to be born a Muhammadan, therefore
Muhammadanism was true for all mankind. Gradually his thoughts found
words in the utterance: 'Why should I claim to guide men before I
myself am guided;' and, as he listened to other doctrines and other
creeds, his honest doubts became confirmed, and, noting daily the
bitter narrowness of sectarianism, no matter of what form of
religion, he became more and more wedded to the principle of
toleration for all.
The change did not come all at once. The historian, Badauni, a
bigoted Musalman, who deplored what he considered the backsliding of
the great sovereign, wrote: 'From his earliest childhood to his
manhood, and from his manhood to old age, his Majesty has passed
through the most various phases, and through all sorts of religious
practices and sectarian beliefs, and has collected everything which
people can find in books, with a talent of selection peculiar to him
and a spirit of inquiry opposed to every (Islamite) principle. Thus a
faith based on some elementary principles traced itself on the mirror
of his heart, and as the result of all the influences which were
brought to {149} bear on his Majesty, there grew, gradually as the
outline on a stone, the conviction on his heart that there were
sensible men in all religions, and abstemious thinkers, and men
endowed with miraculous powers, among all nations. If some true
knowledge were thus everywhere to be found, why should truth be
confined to one religion, or to a creed like Islam, which was
comparatively new, and scarcely a thousand years old; why should one
sect assert what another denies, and why should one claim a
preference without having superiority conferred upon itself?'
Badauni goes on to state that Akbar conferred with Brahmans and
Sumanis, and under their influence accepted the doctrine of the
transmigration of souls. There can be no doubt, however, but that the
two brothers, Faizi and Abulfazl, like himself born and brought up in
the faith of Islam, greatly influenced the direction of his studies
on religion. It is necessary to say something regarding two men so
illustrious and so influential. They were the sons of a Shaikh of
Arab descent, Shaikh Mubarak, whose ancestors settled at Nagar, in
Rajputana. Shaikh Mubarak, a man who had studied the religion of his
ancestors to the acquiring of a complete knowledge of every phase of
it, who possessed an inquiring mind and a comprehensive genius, and
who had progressed in thought as he acquired knowledge, gave his
children an education which, grafted on minds apt to receive and to
retain knowledge, qualified them to shine in any society. The elder
son, {150} Shaikh Faizi, was born near Agra to the vicinity of which
the father had migrated in 1547. He was thus five years younger than
Akbar. Shortly after that prince had reconquered the North-western
Provinces, Shaikh Faizi, then about twenty, began his quiet,
unostentatious life of literature and medicine. He soon made a name
as a poet. His native generosity, backed by the earnings of his
profession as physician, prompted him to many acts of charity, and it
became a practice with him to treat the poor for nothing.
In religious matters he, following his father's example, displayed a
tendency towards the unfashionable doctrines of the Shiahs. It is
related that, on one occasion, when he applied to the Kadr[1] for the
grant of a small tract of land, that officer, who was a Sunni, not
only refused him but, solely because he was a Shiah, drove him from
the hall with contumely and insult. Meanwhile, moved by the report of
his great ability, Akbar had summoned Faizi to his camp before
Chitor, which place he was besieging. Faizi's enemies, and he had
many, especially among the orthodox or Sunni Muhammadans, interpreted
this order as a summons to be judged, and they warned the Governor of
Agra to see that Faizi did not escape. But Faizi had no thought of
escape. He was nevertheless taken to the camp of Akbar as a prisoner.
The great prince received him with courtesy, and entranced by his
varied talent, {151} shortly afterwards attached him to his court, as
teacher in the higher branches of knowledge to the princes, his sons.
He was occasionally also employed as ambassador.
[Footnote 1: Kadr: an officer appointed to examine petitions, and
selected on account of his presumed impartiality. Vide Blochmann's
_Ain-i-Akbari_, p. 268.]
His abundant leisure Faizi devoted to poetry. In his thirty-third
year he was nominated to an office equivalent to that of Poet
Laureate. Seven years later he died, never having lost the favour of
Akbar, who delighted in his society and revelled in his conversation.
It is said that he composed a hundred and one books. His fine
library, consisting of four thousand three hundred choice
manuscripts, was embodied in the imperial library.
But if Shaikh Faizi stood high in the favour of Akbar, his brother,
Shaikh Abulfazl, the author of the Ain-i-Akbari, stood still higher.
Abulfazl was born near Agra the 14th January, 1551. He too, equally
with his brother, profited from the broad and comprehensive teaching
of the father. Nor did he fail to notice, and in his mind to resent,
the ostracism and more than ostracism, to which his father was
subjected on account of the opinions to which the free workings of a
capacious mind forced him to incline. The effect on the boy's mind
was to inculcate the value of toleration for all beliefs, whilst the
pressure of circumstances stimulated him to unusual exertions in his
studies. At the age of fifteen he had read works on all branches of
those sciences that are based on reason and traditional testimony,
and before he was twenty had begun his career as a teacher.
{152} 'An incident,' writes the lamented Professor Blochmann, 'is
related to shew how extensive even at that time his reading was. A
manuscript of the rare work of Icfahani happened to fall into his
hands. Unfortunately, however, one half of each page, vertically
downwards from top to bottom, was rendered illegible, or was
altogether destroyed, by fire. Abulfazl, determined to restore so
rare a book, cut away the burnt portions, pasted new paper to each
page, and then commenced to restore the missing halves of each line,
in which attempt, after many thoughtful perusals, he succeeded. Some
time afterwards, a complete copy of the same work turned up, and on
comparison it was found that in many places there were indeed
different words, and in a few passages new proofs even had been
adduced: but on the whole the restored portion presented so many
points of extraordinary coincidence, that his friends were not a
little astonished at the thoroughness with which Abulfazl had worked
himself into the style and mode of thinking of a difficult author.'
A student by nature, Abulfazl for some time gave no favourable
response to the invitation sent to him by Akbar to attend the
imperial court. But the friendship which, in the manner already
described, had grown between his elder brother, Faizi, and the
Emperor, prepared the way for the intimacy which Akbar longed for,
and when, in the beginning of 1574, Abulfazl was presented as the
brother of Faizi, Akbar accorded to him a reception so favourable
that {153} he was induced to reconsider his resolve to lead a life
'of proud retirement.' He was then only twenty-three, but he had
exhausted the sources of knowledge available in his own country. To
use his own words: 'My mind had no rest, and my heart felt itself
drawn to the sages of Mongolia or to the hermits on Lebanon; I longed
for interviews with the Llamas of Tibet or with the padris of
Portugal, and I would gladly sit with the priests of the Parsis and
the learned of the Zend-avesta. I was sick of the learned of my own
land.'
From this period he was attached to the court, and there arose
between himself and Akbar one of those pure friendships founded on
mutual esteem and mutual sympathy, which form the delight of
existence. In the Emperor Abulfazl found the aptest of pupils. Amid
the joys of the chase, the cares of governing, the fatigues of war,
Akbar had no recreation to be compared to the pleasure of listening
to the discussions between his much regarded friend and the bigoted
Muhammadan doctors of law and religion who strove to confute him.
These discourses constituted a great event in his reign. It is
impossible to understand the character of Akbar without referring to
them somewhat minutely. Akbar did not suddenly imbibe those
principles of toleration and of equal government for all, the
enforcement of which marks an important era in the history of India.
For the first twenty years of his reign he had to conquer to maintain
his power. With the representatives of dispossessed dynasties in
Bengal, in Behar, in Orissa, in {154} Western India, including
Gujarat and Khandesh, ready to seize an opportunity, to sit still was
to invite attack. He was forced to go forward. The experience of the
past, and the events daily coming under his notice, alike proved that
there must be but one paramount authority in India, if India was to
enjoy the blessings of internal peace.
During those twenty years he had had many intervals of leisure which
he had employed in discussing with those about him the problem of
founding a system of government which should retain by the sympathy
of the people all that was being conquered. He had convinced his own
mind that the old methods were obsolete; that to hold India by
maintaining standing armies in the several provinces, and to take no
account of the feelings, the traditions, the longings, the
aspirations, of the children of the soil,--of all the races in the
world the most inclined to poetry and sentiment, and attached by the
strongest ties that can appeal to mankind to the traditions of their
fathers--would be impossible.
That system, tried for more than four centuries, had invariably
broken down, if not in the hands of the promulgator of it, certainly
in those of a near successor. Yet none of those who had gone before
him had attempted any other. His illustrious grandfather, who had
some glimmering of the necessity, had not been allotted the necessary
time, for he too had had to conquer to remain. His father had more
than almost any of the Afghan sovereigns {155} who preceded him
failed to read the riddle. He fell before a better general, and his
rootless system died at once, leaving not a trace behind it.
Penetrated, then, with the necessity of founding a system that should
endure, and recognising very gradually, that such a system must be
based on mutual respect, on mutual toleration regarding differences
of race, of religion, of tradition; on the union of interests; on the
making it absolutely clear that the fall of the keystone to the arch
meant the fall of each stone which went to build up the arch; he
sought, as I have said, during the first twenty years of his reign,
discussions with his courtiers and the learned regarding the system
which would best appeal to those sentiments in the conquered race
which would convey to them confidence and conviction.
Before Akbar knew Abulfazl he had almost withdrawn from the task in
despair. Instead of wise counsel he encountered only precepts tending
to bigotry and intolerance. From his earlier counsellors there was
absolutely no help to be hoped for. Akbar became wearied of the
squabbles of these men; of their leanings to persecution for the
cause of religious differences, even amongst Muhammadans. Before even
he had recognised the broad charity of the teachings of Abulfazl he
had come to the conclusion that before founding a system of
government it would be necessary to wage war against the bigoted
professors who formed a power in his own empire. 'Impressed,' writes
Professor Blochmann, 'with a favourable idea {156} of the value of
his Hindu subjects, he had resolved when pensively sitting in the
evenings on the solitary stone at Fatehpur-Sikri, to rule with an
even hand all men in his dominions; but as the extreme views of the
learned and the lawyers continually urged him to persecute instead of
to heal, he instituted discussions, because, believing himself to be
in error, he thought it his duty as ruler to "inquire."' These
discussions took place every Thursday night in the Ibadat-Khana, a
building at Fatehpur-Sikri, erected for the purpose.
For a time Abulfazl took but a subordinate part in the discussions,
simply spurring the various Muhammadan sectaries to reply to and
demolish each other's arguments. The bigotry, the narrowness, evinced
by the leaders of these sectaries, who agreeing that it was right to
persecute Hindus and other unbelievers, hurled charges of infidelity
against each other, quite disgusted Akbar. Instead of 'unity' in the
creed of Islam he found a multiplicity of divisions. He was further
disgusted with the rudeness towards each other displayed by the
several sectaries, some of them holding high office in the State, and
he was compelled on one occasion to warn them that any one of them
who should so offend in the future would have to quit the hall. At
last, one memorable Thursday evening, Abulfazl brought matters to a
crisis. Foreseeing the opposition it would evoke, he proposed as a
subject for discussion that a king should be regarded not only as the
temporal, but as the spiritual guide of his subjects.
{157} This doctrine struck at the fundamental principle of Islam,
according to which the Kuran stands above every human ordinance. The
point of Abulfazl's proposition lay in the fact that in preceding
discussions the Muhammadan learned had differed not only regarding
the interpretation of various passages of the Kuran, but regarding
the moral character of Muhammad himself. The storm raised by
Abulfazl's motion was, therefore, terrible. There was not a doctor or
lawyer present who did not recognise that the motion attacked the
vital principle of Islam, whilst the more clear-sighted and
dispassionate recognised that the assertions made in their previous
discussions had broken through 'the strong embankments of the
clearest law and the most excellent faith.'
But how were they to resist a motion which affected the authority of
Akbar? In this difficulty they came to a decision, which, though they
called it a compromise, gave away in fact the whole question. They
drew up a document[2] in which the Emperor was certified to be a just
ruler, and as such was assigned the rank of a 'Mujtahid,' that is, an
infallible authority in all matters relating to Islam. This admission
really conceded the object aimed at by Abulfazl, for, under its
provisions, the 'intellect of the just king became the sole source of
legislation, {158} and the whole body of doctors and lawyers bound
themselves to abide by Akbar's decrees in religious matters.'
[Footnote 2: Blochmann (_Ain-i-Akbari_, p. xiv) calls it 'a document
which I believe stands unique in the whole Church history of Islam.'
He gives a copy of it at p. 186 of the same remarkable book.]
'The document,' writes Abulfazl in the Akbarnamah, 'brought about
excellent results: (1) the Court became a gathering-place of the
sages and learned of all creeds; the good doctrines of all religious
systems were recognised, and their defects were not allowed to
obscure their good features; (2) perfect toleration, or peace with
all, was established; and (3) the perverse and evil-minded were
covered with shame on seeing the disinterested motives of his
Majesty, and thus stood in the pillory of disgrace.' It has to be
admitted that two of the Muhammadan sectaries who had been the
leaders of the party which inclined to persecution, signed the
document most unwillingly, but sign they did. Abulfazl's father, on
the other hand, who had exhausted all the intricacies of the creed of
Islam, and the dogmas of its several sects, signed it willingly,
adding to his signature that he had for years been anxiously looking
forward to the realisation of the progressive movement.
The signature of this document was a turning-point in the life and
reign of Akbar. For the first time he was free. He could give
currency and force to his ideas of toleration and of respect for
conscience. He could now bring the Hindu, the Parsi, the Christian,
into his councils. He could attempt to put into execution the design
he had long meditated of making the interests of the indigenous
princes the {159} interests of the central authority at Agra. The
document is, in fact, the Magna Charta of his reign.
The reader will, I am sure, pardon me if I have dwelt at some length
on the manner in which it was obtained, for it is the keystone to the
subsequent legislation and action of the monarch, by it placed above
the narrow restrictions of Islam. It made the fortune of Abulfazl. It
gained for him, that is to say, the lasting friendship of Akbar. On
the other hand it drew upon him the concentrated hatred of the
bigots, and ultimately, in the manner related in the last chapter,
caused his assassination.
One of the first uses made by Akbar of the power thus obtained was to
clear the magisterial and judicial bench. His chief-justice, a
bigoted Sunni, who had used his power to persecute Shiahs and all
so-called heretics, including Faizi the brother of Abulfazl, was
exiled, with all outward honour, to Mekka. Another high functionary,
equally bigoted, received a similar mission, and the rule was
inculcated upon all that in the eye of the law religious differences
were to be disregarded, and that men, whether Sunnis, or Shiahs,
Muhammadans or Hindus, were to be treated alike: in a word, that the
religious element was not to enter into the question before the judge
or magistrate.
From this time forth the two brothers, Faizi and Abulfazl, were the
chief confidants of the Emperor in his schemes for the regeneration
and consolidation of the empire. He caused them both to enter the
military service, as the service which best secured their {160}
position at court. They generally accompanied him in his various
expeditions, and whilst they suggested reforms in the land and
revenue systems, they were at hand always to give advice and support
to the views of the sovereign.
Meanwhile Akbar was preparing, in accordance with the genius of the
age, and with the sentiments of the people over whom he ruled, to
draw up and promulgate a religious code such as, he thought, would
commend itself to the bulk of his people. The chief feature of this
code, which he called Din-i-Ilahi, or 'the Divine faith,' consisted
in the acknowledgment of one God, and of Akbar as his Khalifah, or
vicegerent on earth. The Islamite prayers were abolished as being too
narrow and wanting in comprehension, and in their place were
substituted prayers of a more general character, based on those of
the Parsis, whilst the ceremonial was borrowed from the Hindus. The
new era or date, which was introduced in all the government records,
and also in the feasts observed by the Emperor, was exclusively
Parsi. These observances excited little open opposition from the
Muhammadans, but the bigoted and hot-headed amongst them did not the
less feel hatred towards the man whom they considered the principal
adviser of the sovereign. They displayed great jealousy, moreover,
regarding the admission of Hindu princes and nobles to high commands
in the army and influential places at court. It was little to them
that these men, men like {161} Bhagwan Das, Man Singh, Todar Mall,
Birbal, were men of exceptional ability. They were Hindus, and, on
that account and on that alone, the Muhammadan historians could not
bring themselves to mention their names without sneering at their
religion, and at the fate reserved for them in another world.
The inquiring nature of the mind of Akbar was displayed by the desire
he expressed to learn something tangible regarding the religion of
the Portuguese, then settled at Goa. He directed Faizi to have
translated into Persian a correct version of the New Testament, and
he persuaded a Jesuit priest, Padre Rodolpho Aquaviva, a missionary
from Goa, to visit Agra.
It was on the occasion of the visit of this Father that a famous
discussion on religion took place in the Ibadat-Khana, at which the
most learned Muhammadan lawyers and doctors, Brahmans, Jains,
Buddhists, Hindu materialists, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians or
Parsis, each in turn spoke. The story is thus told by Abulfazl. 'Each
one fearlessly brought forward his assertions and arguments, and the
disputations and contentions were long and heated. Every sect, in its
vanity and conceit, attacked and endeavoured to refute the statements
of their antagonists. One night the Ibadat-Khana was brightened by
the presence of Padre Rodolpho, who for intelligence and wisdom was
unrivalled among Christian doctors. Several carping and bigoted men
attacked him, and this afforded an opportunity for the display of the
calm judgment and justice of the {162} assembly. These men brought
forward the old received assertions, and did not attempt to arrive at
truth by reasoning. Their statements were torn to pieces, and they
were nearly put to shame, when they began to attack the
contradictions of the Gospel, but they could not prove their
assertions. With perfect calmness and earnest conviction of the truth
the Padre replied to their arguments, and then he went on to say:
'"If these men have such an opinion of our Book, and if they believe
the Kuran to be the true word of God, then let a furnace be lighted,
and let me with the Gospel in my hand, and the 'Ulama (learned
doctors) with their holy book in their hands, walk into that
testing-place of truth, and the right will be manifest." The
black-hearted mean-spirited disputants shrank from this proposal, and
answered only with angry words. This prejudice and violence greatly
annoyed the impartial mind of the Emperor, and, with great
discrimination and enlightenment, he said:
'"Man's outward profession and the mere letter of Muhammadanism,
without a heartfelt conviction, can avail nothing. I have forced many
Brahmans, by fear of my power, to adopt the religion of my ancestors;
but now that my mind has been enlightened with the beams of truth, I
have become convinced that the dark clouds of conceit and the mist of
self-opinion have gathered round you, and that not a step can be made
in advance without the torch of proof. That course only can be
beneficial which we select with clear judgment. To repeat the words
of {163} the creed, to perform circumcision, or to be prostrate on
the ground from the dread of kingly power, can avail nothing in the
sight of God:
Obedience is not in prostration on the earth:
Practice sincerity, for righteousness is not borne upon the brow!"'
Whatever we may think of this discussion, of the test of fire
proposed by the Christian priest, we may at least welcome it as
showing the complete toleration of discussion permitted at the
Ibadat-Khana, and, above all, as indicating the tendency of the mind
of Akbar. He had, in fact, reasoned himself out of belief in all
dogmas and in all accepted creeds. Instead of those dogmas and those
creeds he simply recognised the Almighty Maker of the world, and
himself, the chiefest in authority in his world as the representative
in it of God, to carry out his beneficent decrees of toleration,
equal justice, and perfect liberty of conscience, so far as such
liberty of conscience did not endanger the lives of others. He was
very severe with the Muhammadans, because he recognised that the
professors of the faith of the dominant party are always inclined to
persecution. But he listened to all, and recognising in all the same
pernicious feature, viz., the broad, generous, far-reaching,
universal qualities attributed to the Almighty distorted in each case
by an interested priesthood, he prostrated himself before the God of
all, discarding the priesthood of all.
He has been called a Zoroastrian, because he recognised in the sun
the sign of the presence of the Almighty. And there can be no doubt
but that the {164} simplicity of the system of the Parsis had a great
attraction for him. In his own scheme there was no priesthood.
Regarding himself as the representative in his world of the Almighty,
he culled from each religion its best part, so as to make religion
itself a helpful agency for all rather than an agency for the
persecution of others. The broad spirit of his scheme was as much
raised above the general comprehension of the people of his age, as
were his broad political ideas. To bring round the world to his views
it was necessary that 'an Amurath should succeed an Amurath.' That
was and ever will be impossible. The result was that his political
system gradually drifted after his death into the old narrow groove
whence he had emancipated it, whilst his religious system perished
with him. After the reigns of two successors, Muhammadan but
indifferent, persecution once again asserted her sway to undo all the
good the great and wise Akbar had effected, and to prepare, by the
decadence of the vital principle of the dynasty, for the rule of a
nation which should revive his immortal principle of justice to all
and toleration for all.
In the foregoing remarks I have alluded to the fact that Akbar
allowed liberty of conscience in so far as that liberty did not
endanger the lives of others. He gave a marked example of this in his
dealing with the Hindu rite of Sati. It is not necessary to explain
that the English equivalent for the word 'Sati' is 'chaste or
virtuous,' and that a Sati is a woman who burns herself on her
husband's funeral pile. The custom {165} had been so long prevalent
among Hindu ladies of rank, that not to comply with it had come to be
regarded as a self-inflicted imputation on the chaste life of the
widow. Still, the love of life is strong, and the widow, conscious of
her own virtue, and unwilling to sacrifice herself to an idea, had
occasionally shown a marked disinclination to consent to mount the
pile. It had often happened then that the priests had applied to her
a persuasion, either by threats of the terrors of the hereafter or
the application of moral stimulants, to bring her to the proper pitch
of willingness.
Such deeds were abhorrent to the merciful mind of Akbar, and he
discouraged the practice by all the means in his power. His position
towards the princes of Rajputana, by whom the rite was held in the
highest honour, would not allow him so far to contravene their
time-honoured customs, which had attained all the force of a
religious ordinance, to prohibit the self-sacrifice when the widow
earnestly desired it. Before such a prohibition could be issued time
must be allowed, he felt, for the permeation to the recesses of the
palace of the liberal principles he was inaugurating. But he issued
an order that, in the case of a widow showing the smallest
disinclination to immolate herself, the sacrifice was not to be
permitted.
Nor did he content himself with words only. Once, when in Ajmere,
whilst his confidential agent, Jai Mall, nephew of Raja Bihari Mall
of Ambar, was on a mission to the grandees of Bengal, news reached
{166} him that Jai Mall had died at Chausa. Jai Mall had been a great
favourite with Akbar, for of all the Rajputana nobles he had been the
first to pay his respects to him, and had ever rendered him true and
loyal service. He had married a daughter of Raja Udai Singh of
Jodhpur, a princess possessing great strength of will. When the news
of her husband's death reached Ambar she positively refused to become
a Sati. Under the orders of the Emperor she had an absolute right to
use her discretion. But when she did use it to refuse, the outcry
against her, headed by Udai Singh, her son, became so uncontrollable,
that it was resolved to force her to the stake. Information of this
reached Akbar, and he determined to prevent the outrage. He was just
in time, for the pile was already lighted when his agents, one of
them the uncle of the deceased, reached the ground, seized Udai
Singh, dispersed the assembly, and saved the princess.
Attached as Akbar was to his learned and liberal-minded friends,
Faizi and Abulfazl, he encouraged all who displayed a real love for
learning, and a true desire to acquire knowledge. He hated pretence
and hypocrisy. He soon recognised that these two qualities underlay
the professions of the 'Ulamas (Muhammadan doctors of learning) at
his court. When he had found them out, he was disgusted with them,
and resolved to spare no means of showing up their pretensions.
'He never pardoned,' writes Professor Blochmann, 'pride and conceit
in a man, and of all kinds of {167} conceit, the conceit of learning
was most hateful to him.' Hence the cry of the class affected by his
action that he discouraged learning and learned men. He did nothing
of the sort. There never has flourished in India a more generous
encourager of the real thing. In this respect the present rulers of
India might profit by his example. One of the men whose knowledge of
history was the most extensive in that age, and who possessed great
talents and a searching mind, was Khan-i-Azam Mirza, son of his
favourite nurse. For a long time this man held fast to the orthodox
profession of faith, ridiculing the 'new religion' of Akbar, and
especially ridiculing Faizi and Abulfazl, to whom he applied
nicknames expressing his sense of their pretensions. But at a later
period he had occasion to make the pilgrimage to Mekka, and there he
was so fleeced by the priests that his attachment to Islam insensibly
cooled down. On his return to Agra, he became a member of the Divine
Faith. He wrote poetry well, and was remarkable for the ease of his
address and his intelligence. One of his many aphorisms has descended
to posterity. It runs as follows: 'A man should marry four wives--a
Persian woman to have somebody to talk to; a Khorasani woman for his
housework; a Hindu woman, for nursing his children; and a woman from
Marawannahr (Turkistan), to have some one to whip as a warning to the
other three.'
One of the ablest warriors and most generous of men in the service of
Akbar was Mirza Abdurrahim, {168} son of his old Atalik or preceptor,
Bairam Khan. For many years he exercised the office of Khan Khanan,
literally 'lord of lords,' tantamount to commander-in-chief. But he
was as learned as he was able in the field. He translated the memoirs
of Babar, well described by Abulfazl as 'a code of practical wisdom,'
written in Turkish, into the Persian language then prevalent at the
court of Akbar, to whom he presented the copy. Amongst other writers,
the historians, Nizam-u-din Ahmad, author of the Tabakat-i-Akbari, or
records of the reign of Akbar; the authors of the Tarikhi-i-Alfi, or
the history of Muhammadanism for a thousand years; and, above all,
the orthodox historian, Abul Kadir Badauni, author of the
Tarikh-i-Badauni, or Annals of Badauni, and editor and reviser of a
history of Kashmir, stand conspicuous.
Badauni was a very remarkable man. Two years older than Akbar, he had
studied from his early youth various sciences under the most renowned
and pious men of his age, and had come to excel in music, history,
and astronomy. His sweet voice procured for him the appointment of
Court Iman for Fridays. For forty years Badauni lived at court in
company with Shaikh Mubarik and his sons Faizi and Abulfazl, but
there was no real friendship between them, as Badauni, an orthodox
Musalman, always regarded them as heretics. Under instructions from
Akbar he translated the Ramayana from its original Sanscrit into
Persian, as well as part of the _Mahabharata_. His {169} historical
work above referred to as the Tarikh-i-Badauni, and which is perhaps
better known under its alternative title _Muntakhabat-ul-Tawarikh_,
or _Selections from the Annals_, is especially valuable for the views
it gives of the religious opinions of Akbar, and its sketches of the
famous men of his reign.
Badauni died about eleven years before the Emperor, and his great
work, the existence of which he had carefully concealed, did not
appear until some time during the reign of Jahangir. It is a very
favourite book with the bigoted Muhammadans who disliked the
innovations of Akbar, and it continued to be more and more prized as
those innovations gradually gave way to the revival of persecution
for thought's sake.
It is perhaps unnecessary to give a record of the other learned men
who contributed by their abilities, their industry, and their
learning to the literary glory of the reign of Akbar. The immortal
Ain contains a complete list of them, great and small. But, as
concerning the encouragement given to arts and letters by the
sovereign himself, it is fitting to add a few words. It would seem
that Akbar paid great attention to the storing in his library of
works obtained from outside his dominions, as well as of those Hindu
originals and their translations which he was always either
collecting or having rendered into Persian. Of this library the
author of the Ain relates that it was divided into several parts.
'Some of the books are kept within, some without the Harem. {170}
Each part of the library is subdivided, according to the value of the
books and the estimation in which the sciences are held of which the
books treat. Prose books, poetical works, Hindi, Persian, Greek,
Kashmirian, Arabic, are all separately placed. In this order they are
also inspected. Experienced people bring them daily, and read them
before his Majesty, who hears every book from the beginning to the
end. At whatever page the readers daily stop, his Majesty makes with
his own pen a mark, according to the number of the pages; and rewards
the readers with presents of cash, either in gold or silver,
according to the number of leaves read out by them. Among books of
renown there are few which are not read in his Majesty's assembly
hall; and there are no historical facts of past ages, or curiosities
of science, or interesting points of philosophy, with which his
Majesty, a leader of impartial sages, is unacquainted.' Then follows
a long list of books specially affected by the sovereign, some of
which have been referred to in preceding pages.
I have, I think, stated enough to show the influence exercised by
literary men and literature on the history of this reign. The
influence, especially of the two learned brothers, Faizi and
Abulfazl, dominated as long as they lived. That of Abulfazl survived
him, for the lessons he had taught only served to confirm the natural
disposition of his master. The principles which the brothers loved
were the principles congenial to the disposition of Akbar. They were
the {171} principles of the widest toleration of opinion; of justice
to all, independently of caste and creed; of alleviating the burdens
resting on the children of the soil; of the welding together of the
interests of all classes of the community, of the Rajput prince,
proud of his ancient descent and inclined to regard the Muhammadan
invader as an outcast and a stranger; of the Uzbek and Mughal noble,
too apt to regard the country as his own by right of conquest, and
its peoples as fit only to be his slaves; of the settlers of Afghan
origin, who during four centuries had mingled with, and become a
recognised part of the children of the soil; of the indigenous
inhabitants, always ready to be moved by kindness and good treatment.
There was one class it was impossible to conciliate: the Muhammadan
princes whose families had ruled in India, and who aspired to rule in
their turn; who, in Bengal, in Orissa, in Behar, and in many parts of
Western India, still exercised authority and maintained large armies.
These men, regarding their title as superior to that of Akbar, and
not recognising the fact that whilst their predecessors had lived on
the surface, Akbar was sending roots down deep into the soil,
resisted his pretensions and defied his power. How he tried
conciliation with these men, and how their own conduct compelled him
to insist on their expulsion, has been told in the last chapter.
I propose now to relate how the broad principles natural to Akbar and
confirmed by his association {172} with Faizi and Abulfazl, affected
the system of administration introduced by the reforming sovereign.
In a previous page of this chapter I have quoted an expression of his
own, to the effect that he had, at one time of his reign, forced
Brahmans to embrace Muhammadanism. This must have happened because
Akbar states it, but of the forced conversions I have found no
record. They must have taken place whilst he was still a minor, and
whilst the chief authority was wielded by Bairam. From the moment of
his assumption of power, that is, from the day on which he gave the
till then all-powerful Bairam Khan permission to proceed to Mekka, he
announced his intention, from which he never swerved, to employ
Hindus and Muhammadans alike without distinction. In the seventh year
of his reign, he being then in the twenty-first year of his life,
Akbar abolished the practice, heretofore prevailing, by which the
troops of the conqueror were permitted to forcibly sell or keep in
slavery the wives, children, and dependants of the conquered.
Whatever might be the delinquencies of an enemy, his children and the
people belonging to him were, according to the proclamation of the
sovereign, to be free to go as they pleased to their own houses, or
to the houses of their relatives. No one, great or small, was to be
made a slave. 'If the husband pursue an evil course,' argued the
liberal-minded prince, 'what fault is it of the wife? And if the
father rebel, how can the children be blamed?'
The same generous and far-seeing policy was {173} pursued with
unabated vigour in the reform of other abuses. The very next year,
the eighth of his reign, the Emperor determined to abolish a tax,
which, though extremely productive, inflicted, as he considered, a
wrong on the consciences of his Hindu subjects. There are no people
in the world more given to pilgrimages than are the Hindus. Their
sacred shrines, each with its peculiar saint and its specific virtue,
abound in every province of Hindustan. The journeys the pilgrims have
to make are often long and tedious, their length being often
proportioned to the value of the boon to be acquired. In these
pilgrimages the Afghan predecessors of the Mughal had recognised a
large and permanent source of revenue, and they had imposed,
therefore, a tax on all pilgrims according to the ascertained or
reputed means of each.
Abulfazl tells us that this tax was extremely prolific, amounting to
millions of rupees annually. But it was felt as a great grievance. In
the eyes of the Hindu a pilgrimage was often an inculcated duty,
imposed upon him by his religion, or its interpreter, the Brahman
priest. Why, he argued, because he submitted his body to the greatest
inconvenience, measuring his own length along the ground, possibly
for hundreds of miles, should he be despoiled by the State? The
feelings of his Hindu subjects on this subject soon reached the ears
of Akbar. It was submitted to him by those who saw in the tax only an
easy source of revenue that the making of pilgrimages was a vain
superstition which the Hindus would not forego, and {174} therefore
the payment being certain and continuous, it would be bad financial
policy to abolish the tax. Akbar, admitting that it was a tax on the
superstitions of the multitude, and that a Hindu might escape paying
it by staying at home, yet argued that as the making of pilgrimages
constituted a part of the Hindu religion, and was, in a sense, a
Hindu form of rendering homage to the Almighty, it would be wrong to
throw the smallest stumbling-block in the way of this manifestation
of their submission to that which they regarded as a divine
ordinance. He accordingly remitted the tax.
Similarly regarding the jizya, or capitation tax imposed by
Muhammadan sovereigns on those of another faith. This tax had been
imposed in the early days of the Muhammadan conquest by the Afghan
rulers of India. There was no tax which caused so much bitterness of
feeling on the part of those who had to pay it: not one which gave so
much opportunity to the display and exercise of human tyranny. The
reason why the sovereigns before Akbar failed entirely to gain the
sympathies of the children of the soil might be gathered from the
history of the proceedings connected with this tax alone. 'When the
collector of the Diwan,' writes the author of the Tarikh-i-Firuz
Shahi, 'asks the Hindus to pay the tax, they should pay it with all
humility and submission. And if the collector wishes to spit into
their mouths, they should open their mouths without the slightest
fear of contamination, so that the collector may do so.... The object
of such humiliation {175} and spitting into their mouths is to prove
the obedience of infidel subjects under protection, and to promote
the glory of the Islam, the true religion, and to show contempt for
false religions.' That the officials who acted in the manner here
described contravened the true spirit of Islam, I need not stop to
argue. There is not a religion which has not suffered from the
intemperate zeal of its bigoted supporters; and Muhammadanism has
suffered at least as much as the others. But the extract proves the
extent to which it was possible for the agents of an unusually
enlightened prince to tyrannise over and to insult the conquered race
in the name of a religion, whose true tenets they perverted by so
acting.
Akbar recognised not only the inherent liability to this abuse in the
collection of such a tax, but also the vicious character of the tax
itself. The very word 'infidel' was hateful to him. 'Who is certain
that he is right,' was his constant exclamation. Recognising good in
all religions, he would impose no tax on the conscientious faith of
any man. Early then, in the ninth year of his reign, and in the
twenty-third of his life, three years, be it borne in mind, before he
had come under the influence of either of the two illustrious
brothers, Faizi and Abulfazl, he, prompted by his own sense of the
eternal fitness of things, issued an edict abolishing the jizya.
Thenceforth all were equal in matters of faith before the one
Eternal.
The dealings of Akbar with the Hindus were not confined to the
abolition of taxes which pressed hardly {176} on their religious
opinions. He endeavoured, with as little show of authority as was
possible, to remove restrictions which interfered with the well-being
and happiness of the people. What he did regarding Sati I have
already related. The kindred question of the re-marriage of a widow
met with the greatest encouragement from him. He even went further,
and issued an edict rendering such re-marriage lawful. In the same
spirit he forbade marriages before the age of puberty, a custom
deeply rooted amongst the Hindus, and carried on even at the present
day, though theoretically condemned by the wisest among them. He
prohibited likewise the slaughter of animals for sacrifice, and
trials by ordeal. Nor was he less stringent with those of the faith
in which he was born. His method with them took the form rather of
example, of persuasion, of remonstrance, than a direct order.
He discouraged the excessive practice of prayers, of fasts, of alms,
of pilgrimages, but he did not forbid them. These were matters for
individual taste, but Akbar knew well that in the majority of
instances open professions were merely cloaks for hypocrisy; that
there were many ways in which a man's life could be utilised other
than by putting on an austere appearance, and making long prayers.
The rite of circumcision could not, indeed, be forbidden to the
Muhammadans, but Akbar directed that the ceremony should not be
performed until the lad had attained the age of twelve. To humour the
{177} prejudices of the Hindus, he discouraged the slaughter of kine.
On the other hand, he pronounced the killing and partaking of the
flesh of swine to be lawful. Dogs had been looked upon by Muhammadans
as unclean animals, and the strict Muhammadan of the present day
still regards them as such. Akbar declared them to be clean. Wine is
prohibited to the Muslim. Akbar encouraged a moderate use of it.
In the later years of his reign (1592) he introduced, to the great
annoyance of the bigoted party at his court, the practice of shaving
the beard. In a hot country such as India the advantages arising from
the use of the razor are too obvious to need discussion. But,
although the order was not obligatory, the compliance or
non-compliance with the custom became a distinguishing mark at the
imperial court. Few things are more repugnant to a devout Musalman
than the shaving of his beard. It was so then, and it is so now. The
example set in this respect by the sovereign caused then many murmurs
and much secret discontent.
Amongst others of the natural characteristics of Akbar may be
mentioned his attachment to his relatives. Of one of these, a
foster-brother, who persistently offended him, he said, whilst
inflicting upon him the lightest of punishments: 'Between me and Aziz
is a river of milk, which I cannot cross.' The spirit of these words
animated him in all his actions towards those connected with him.
Unless they were irreclaimable, or had steeped their hands in the
blood {178} of others, he ever sought to win them back by his
gentleness and liberality. He loved forgiving, reinstating, trusting,
and though the exercise of these noble qualities led sometimes to his
being imposed upon, they told in the long run. He was a good son, a
loving husband, and perhaps too affectionate a father.
His sons suffered from the misfortune of having been born in the
purple. One of them, Prince Danyal, was a prince of the highest
promise, but the temptations by which he was surrounded, unchecked by
his tutors, brought him to an early grave. Similarly with Prince
Murad. As to his successor, Jahangir, he was, in most respects, the
very opposite of his father. Towards the close of the reign he set an
example which became a rule of the Mughal dynasty, that of trying to
establish himself in the lifetime of his father, whose dearest
friend, Abulfazl, he had caused to be assassinated. Nothing could
exceed the exemplary patience and forbearance with which Akbar
treated his unworthy son. Again, Akbar abhorred cruelty: he regarded
the performance of his duty as equivalent to an act of worship to the
Creator.
In this respect he made no difference between great and small
matters. He was not content to direct that such and such an ordinance
should be issued. He watched its working; developed it more fully, if
it were successful; and marked the details of its action on the
several races who constituted his subjects. He had much confidence in
his own judgment of men. He was admittedly {179} a good
physiognomist. Abulfazl wrote of him that 'he sees through some men
at a glance,' whilst even Badauni admits the claim, though with his
usual inclination to sneering at all matters bearing on the Hindus,
he declares that Akbar obtained the gift of insight from the Jogis
(Hindu ascetics or magicians).
With all his liberality and breadth of view Akbar himself was not
free from superstition. He believed in lucky days. Mr. Blochmann
states that he imbibed this belief from his study of the religion of
Zoroaster, of which it forms a feature. His courtiers, especially
those who were secretly opposed to his religious innovations,
attributed his undoubted success to luck. Thus Badauni writes of 'his
Majesty's usual good luck overcoming all enemies,' whereas it was his
remarkable attention to the carrying out of the details of laws and
regulations which he and his councillors had thoroughly considered
which ensured his success.
He was very fond of field sports, especially of hunting, but after
the birth of the son who succeeded him he did not hunt on Fridays. If
we can accept the authority of the Emperor Jahangir, Akbar had made a
vow that he would for ever abstain from hunting on the sacred day if
the mother of Jahangir should have a safe deliverance, and he kept it
to the end of his life. There is abundant evidence to prove that
Akbar was not only fond of music, but was very musical himself. He
delighted in the old tunes of Khwarizm, and, according to Abulfazl,
himself composed more than two hundred of these, 'which are the {180}
delight of young and old.' The same authority states that 'his
Majesty had such a knowledge of the science of music as trained
musicians do not possess.' Every day the court was treated to an
abundance of music, the sounds of which have in all times been
especially agreeable to Eastern monarchs. He also was gifted, to a
considerable extent, with the genius of invention. The Ain records
how he invented a carriage, a wheel for cleaning guns, and elephant
gear; how, further, he made improvements in the clothing of his
troops and in his artillery.
In his diet Akbar was simple, taking but one regular meal a day. He
disliked meat, and abstained from it often for months at a time. He
was specially fond of fruits, and made a study of their cultivation.
Abulfazl records that he regarded fruits 'as one of the greatest
gifts of the Creator,' and that the Emperor brought horticulturists
of Iran and Turan to settle at Agra and Fatehpur-Sikri. 'Melons and
grapes have become very plentiful and excellent; and water-melons,
peaches, almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, etc., are everywhere to
be found.' He adds that fruits were largely imported from Kabul,
Kandahar, Kashmir, Badakshan, and even from Samarkand. The Ain
contains a long list of these, which the reader who knows India will
read with pleasure. It is interesting to find that, even in those
days, the first place among the sweet fruits of Hindustan is given to
the mango. This fruit is described as 'unrivalled in colour, smell,
and taste; and some of the gourmands {181} of Turan and Iran place it
above musk-melon and grapes.'
One word as to the daily habits of Akbar and to the manner in which
he was accustomed to pass an ordinary day at Agra or Fatehpur-Sikri.
It would seem that he kept late hours, spending the evenings far into
the early morning in conversation and discussion. In such matters he
occupied himself, according to the record of Abulfazl, till 'about a
watch before daybreak,' when musicians were introduced. At daybreak
the sovereign retired into his private apartments, made his
ablutions, dressed, and about an hour later presented himself to
receive the homage of his courtiers. Then began the business of the
day. Probably this was concluded often long before midday, when the
one meal which Akbar allowed himself was usually served, though there
was no fixed hour for it. The afternoon was the recognised hour of
sleep. Sometimes Akbar devoted the early morning to field sports, and
sometimes the late evenings to the game of chaugan, or polo, for
which purpose balls made of the palas wood were used. The hottest
hours of the day were the hours of rest and recuperation.
Akbar had not reigned long ere he recognised the importance of
attaching to his throne the Hindu princes of Rajputana by a tie
closer even than that of mere friendship. It is interesting to note
how he managed to overcome the inborn prejudices of the high caste
princes of Rajast'han to consent to a union which, in their hearts,
the bulk of them regarded as {182} a degradation. It would seem that
his father, Humayun, had to a certain extent prepared the way. In his
erudite and fascinating work,[3] Colonel Tod relates how Humayun, in
the earlier part of his reign, became the knight of the princess
Kurnavati of Chitor, and pledged himself to her service. That service
he loyally performed. He addressed her always as 'dear and virtuous
sister.' He also won the regard of Raja Bihari Mall of Amber, father
of the Bhagwan Das, so often mentioned in these pages.
[Footnote 3: _Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han_, by
Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod, second (Madras) edition, pp. 262,
282-3.]
Akbar subsequently married his daughter, and becoming thus connected
with the House of Amber (Jaipur), could count upon Bhagwan Das and
his nephew and adopted son, Man Singh, one of the greatest of all his
commanders, as his firmest friends. Writing in another page of
Bhagwan Das, Colonel Tod describes him as 'the friend of Akbar, who
saw the value of attaching such men to his throne.' He adds, and few
men have ever enjoyed better opportunities of ascertaining the real
feelings of the princes of Rajputana, 'but the name of Bhagwan Das is
execrated as the first who sullied Rajput purity by matrimonial
alliance with the Islamite.' Prejudice is always strong, and, like
the dog, it returns to its vomit.
Rajputana never produced greater or larger-minded princes than
Bhagwan Das and his nephew. Their intimate union with Akbar
contributed more than any other circumstance to reconcile the Rajputs
to {183} the predominance of the Mughal. The union was further
cemented by the marriage, already referred to, between Prince Salim
and a daughter of Bhagwan Das. What the real influence of Akbar's
administration was upon that chivalrous race may be gathered from the
short summary which Colonel Tod, himself, more Rajput in his
sympathies than the Rajputs themselves, devotes to his career.
'Akbar,' writes that author, 'was the real founder of the empire of
the Mughals, the first successful conqueror of Rajput independence.
To this end his virtues were powerful auxiliaries, as by his skill in
the analysis of the mind and its readiest stimulant to action, he was
enabled to gild the chains with which he bound them. To these they
became familiarised by habit, especially when the throne exerted its
power in acts gratifying to national vanity, or even in ministering
to the more ignoble passions.' Unable, apparently, to comprehend the
principle which underlay the whole policy of Akbar, that of
conquering that he might produce union, and regarding him as he
rightly regarded his Afghan and Pathan predecessors, Colonel Tod
attacks him for his conquests. Yet even Colonel Tod is forced to add:
'He finally succeeded in healing the wounds his ambition had
inflicted, and received from millions that meed of praise which no
other of his race ever obtained.' I need not add that if to render
happiness to millions is one of the first objects of kingship, and if
to obtain that end union has to be cemented by conquest, the means
sanction {184} the end. Akbar did not conquer in Rajputana to rule in
Rajputana. He conquered that all the Rajput princes, each in his own
dominions, might enjoy that peace and prosperity which his
predominance, never felt aggressively, secured for the whole empire.
From the Raja of Jodhpur, Udai Singh, at the time the most powerful
of the Rajput princes, Akbar obtained the hand of his daughter for
his son Salim. The princess became the mother of a son who succeeded
his father as the Emperor Shah Jahan. In him the Rajput blood
acquired a position theretofore unknown in India. Of this marriage,
so happy in its results, Colonel Tod writes that Akbar obtained it by
a bribe, the gift of four provinces which doubled the fisc of Marwar
(Jodhpur). He adds: 'With such examples as Amber and Marwar, and with
less power to resist temptation, the minor chiefs of Rajast'han, with
a brave and numerous vassalage, were transformed into satraps of
Delhi, and the importance of most of them was increased by the
change.' Truly did the Mughal historian designate them as 'at once
the props and ornaments of the throne.'
There surely could not be a greater justification of the policy of
Akbar with respect to Rajputana and its princes than is contained in
the testimony of this writer, all of whose sympathies were strongly
with the Rajputs.
Whilst on the subject of the imperial marriages, I may mention that
Akbar had many wives, but of these eight only are authoritatively
mentioned. His {185} first wife was his cousin, a daughter of his
uncle, Hindal Mirza. She bore him no children, and survived him,
living to the age of eighty-four. His second wife was also a cousin,
being the daughter of a daughter of Babar, who had married Mirza
Nuruddin Muhammad. She was a poetess, and wrote under the _nom de
plume_, Makhfi (the concealed). His third wife was the daughter of
Raja Bihari Mall and sister of Raja Bhagwan Das. He married her in
1560. The fourth wife was famed for her beauty: she had been
previously married to Abul Wasi. The fifth wife, mother of Jahangir,
was a Jodhpur princess, Jodh Baei. As mother of the heir apparent,
she held the first place in the harem. The sixth, seventh, and eighth
wives were Muhammadans.
In the matter of domestic legislation Akbar paid considerable
attention to the mode of collecting revenue. He found existing a
system devised by Sher Shah, the prince who had defeated and expelled
his father. The principles upon which this system was based were (1)
the correct measurement of the land; (2) the ascertaining the average
production of a block of land per bigha;[4] (3) the settlement of the
proportion of that amount to be paid to the Government by each; (4)
the fixing of the equivalent in money for the settled amount in kind.
Akbar proposed rather to develop this principle than to interfere
with it. {186} With this object he established a uniform standard to
supersede the differing standards theretofore employed.
[Footnote 4: A bigha is a portion of land measuring in the North-west
Provinces nearly five-eighths of an acre. In Bengal, it is not quite
one-third of an acre.]
'This laudable regulation,' we are told in the Ain, 'removed the rust
of uncertainty from the minds of collectors, and relieved the subject
from a variety of oppressions, whilst the income became larger, and
the State flourished.' Akbar likewise caused to be adopted improved
instruments of mensuration, and with these he made a new settlement
of the lands capable of cultivation within the empire. We are told in
the Ain that he was in the habit of taking from each bigha of land
ten sers (about twenty pounds) of grain as a royalty. This was at a
later period commuted into a money payment. In each district he had
store-houses erected to supply animals, the property of the State,
with food; to furnish cultivators with grain for sowing purposes; to
have at hand a provision in case of famine; and to feed the poor.
These store-houses were placed in charge of men specially selected
for their trustworthy qualities.
The land was in the earlier part of the reign divided into three
classes according to its fertility, and the assessment was fixed on
the average production of three bighas, one from each division. The
cultivator might, however, if dissatisfied with the average, insist
on the valuation of his own crop. Five classifications of land were
likewise made to ensure equality of payment in proportion to the
quality of the land and its immunity from accidents, such as
inundation. Other regulations were {187} carefully formed to
discriminate between the several varieties of soil, all having for
their object the fixing of a system fair alike to the cultivator and
the Government.
Gradually, as I have above indicated, as the Government became
settled, a better principle was introduced to fix the amount payable
to the State. For this purpose statements of prices for the nineteen
years preceding the survey were called for from the village heads.
From these an average was struck, and the produce was valued at the
current rates. At first these settlements were annual, but as fresh
annual rates were found vexatious, the settlement was made for ten
years, on the basis of the average of the preceding ten.
To complete this agricultural system, Akbar made at the same time a
new division of the country for revenue purposes. Under this scheme
the country was marked out in parcels, each yielding a karor (ten
millions) of _dams_, equal to twenty-five thousand rupees. The
collector of each of these parcels was called a karori. Whenever a
karori had collected the sum of two lakhs of _dams_,[5] he was
required to send it to the Treasurer-General at head-quarters. It was
found, however, after a time, that the arbitrary division based
simply upon a mathematical theory produced {188} confusion and
disturbed ancient ways, of all others most congenial to the Hindus.
After a trial, then, the artificial division was abandoned in favour
of the ancient system of the people, under which the lands were
parcelled out in conformity with the natural features of the country
and the village system prevailing therein.
[Footnote 5: Two hundred thousand _dams_, equivalent to five thousand
rupees. A _dam_ is a copper coin, the fortieth part of a rupee. The
coin known as the _damri_, used at the present day for the purposes
of calculation, is the eighth part of a _dam_.]
Against the farming of the revenue, as a certain mode of oppression,
Akbar was very strong. He particularly enjoined upon his collectors
to deal directly, as far as was possible, with the cultivator
himself, rather than with the village headman. This was an innovation
which, though based upon the best intentions, did not always answer.
Custom counts for much in India, and custom pronounced in favour of
the recognition of the influence of the chief man of the village, and
it became necessary practically to deal, at least conjointly, with
him.
When the Emperor took into consideration the circumstances attending
the holding of lands, he found not only that grants had been made by
his predecessors to unworthy objects, but that his own administrators
had been guilty of bribery and corruption of various degrees. It was
shortly after Faizi joined him in camp, and had acquired great
influence with him, that his eyes were opened to these enormities. He
found to his horror that the chief perpetrators of them were men who
made the largest professions of sanctity. Then followed, almost
immediately, the sarcastic exile of these men to Mekka: {189} then, a
thorough inquiry into the department. There were four classes to whom
it had been considered desirable that the sovereign should be able to
render State assistance. The first class comprised the men who
devoted themselves to literature and learning, and who had no means
of their own. It had seemed desirable that such men should not be
harassed by the need of having to care for their daily bread. The
second class included those who 'toil and practise self-denial, and
while engaged in the struggle with the selfish passions of human
nature, have renounced the society of men.' The third, the weak and
poor, who had no strength for toil. The fourth, honourable men of
gentle birth, who, from want of knowledge, are unable to provide for
themselves by taking up a trade.
To inquire into the circumstances of petitioners of these classes an
experienced officer of presumably correct intentions had been
appointed. He was entitled Sadr, or chief, and ranked above the Kazi
and the judges. When, in consequence of the inquiries set on foot at
the instance of Faizi, it was discovered that the whole of this
department was a hotbed of corruption, Akbar made a clean sweep of
the officials, from the Sadr down to the smallest Kazi, and nominated
men drawn from a different class, fencing their functions with strict
regulations.
But, as sovereign who had to reward great services rendered to the
crown, Akbar required to dispose of large grants of land to men
devoted to his service. Thus, he paid the Mansabdars, or officers
entrusted {190} with high command, by temporary grants of land in
lieu of a money allowance. He found that the most powerful of his
immediate predecessors, the Sher Shah who had expelled his father,
Humayun, had been more than lavish in his grants of land to his
immediate followers, men mostly of Afghan descent. Akbar inquired
into the circumstances under which these grants had been made, and in
many instances he resumed them to bestow them upon his own adherents.
In acting in this way he only followed the precedent set him by
previous sovereigns. But he had even more reason than that which
precedent would sanction. He found that the land specified in the
_firman_ granted to the holder but rarely corresponded in extent to
the land which he actually held. Sometimes it happened that the
language of the _firman_ was so ambiguously worded as to allow the
holder to take all that he could get by bribing the Kazis and the
provincial Sadr. Hence, in the interests of justice and the interests
of the crown and the people, he had a perfect right to resume
whatever, after due inquiry, he found to be superfluous. He
discovered, moreover, that the 'Ulama, or learned doctors, a class
more resembling the pharisees of the New Testament than any class of
which history makes record, and whom he cordially detested, had been
very free in helping themselves during the period of his minority,
and before the representations of Faizi had induced him to make
inquiries. He therefore made the strictest {191} investigation into
their titles. When these were found faulty, or he had reason to
believe that they had been dishonestly obtained, he resumed the
grants, and exiled the ex-holders to Bukkur in Sind, or to Bengal,
the climate of which had, in those days, a very sinister reputation.
At the period of his reform, moreover, he greatly reduced the
authority of the Sadr, transferring to his own hands the bulk of the
power which had devolved upon them.
Regarding the general tendency and result of the reforms instituted
by Akbar in the territorial system of the country, a distinguished
writer[6] has recorded his judgment that, much as they 'promoted the
happiness of the existing generation, they contained no principle of
progressive improvement, and held out no hopes to the rural
population by opening paths by which it might spread into other
occupations, or rise by individual exertion within his own.' I
venture, with some diffidence and with the greatest respect, to
differ from this criticism. Akbar, admittedly, promoted the happiness
of the generation amongst whom he lived. To have proceeded on the
lines suggested by Mr. Elphinstone, he would have destroyed a
principle which was then vital to the existence of Hindu society as
it was constituted. Akbar went dangerously near to that point when he
attempted to negotiate directly with the cultivators instead of
through the headman of the village. He recognised in sufficient time
that he must deal very charily and {192} cautiously with customs
which had all the force of law, and he withdrew his order.
[Footnote 6: _The History of India_, by the Hon. Mountstuart
Elphinstone.]
The chief adviser of Akbar in matters of revenue, finance, and
currency was the Raja Todar Mall, of whom I have spoken in the last
chapter. He was a man of great ability and of tried integrity. Though
attached to the court of a Muhammadan sovereign, he was an earnest
Hindu, and performed faithfully all the ceremonies of his religion.
On one occasion when accompanying Akbar to the Punjab, in the hurry
of departure he forgot his idols. As he transacted no business before
his daily worship he remained for several days without food or drink,
and was at last with difficulty consoled by the Emperor.
Of the army the principal component force was cavalry. Elephants too
constituted an important feature in the array of battle. As a rule,
the presence of elephants was supposed to indicate the presence of
the Emperor, or rather, it was believed that the sovereign could not
be present unless elephants were there. In the last chapter I have
given an example of the happy mistake committed by a formidable
antagonist of the Emperor in consequence of this prevailing
impression.
The empire north of the Vindhyan range was portioned by the Emperor
into twelve subahs or provinces. These were each governed by a
viceroy, subordinate only to the sovereign. He held office during
good behaviour, and was bound in all things to carry out the
instructions of his master. Under {193} him were local military
officers called _faujdars_, who united in their own persons the
duties devolving upon a chief of police and a military commander. To
them was consigned the maintenance of peace in their several
districts; the superintendence of military establishments within the
same; the command of the regular troops there located; and,
generally, the repression of disturbances.
The lines upon which justice was administered by the officers of
Akbar were the same as those introduced by his Afghan predecessors.
The Kuran was the basis upon which the law rested. But precedents
often modified the strict interpretation. Where, moreover, the law
leaned to severity it was again modified by the instructions drafted
by the Emperor or his advisers. The leading features of these
instructions were to temper justice with mercy. The high officers
were enjoined to be sparing in capital punishments. In one rescript
addressed to the Governor of distant Gujarat, that functionary was
directed in no case, except in that of dangerous sedition, to inflict
capital punishment until his proceedings had received the
confirmation of the Emperor.
South of the Vindhyan range, in the division known as the Deccan, or
South, the imperial possessions were originally divided into three
subahs or commands. Subsequently, when new provinces and districts
had been acquired, they were increased to six. After the death of
Akbar these were all placed under one head, called the Subahdar, the
precursor of {194} the Nizam. With him, but subordinate to him, was
associated an administrative financial officer called the Diwan, or
Chancellor.
Akbar was a very magnificent sovereign. Though simple in his habits,
he recognised, as the greatest of British Viceroys recognised after
him, that show is a main element in the governing of an Eastern
people. It is necessary to strike the eye, to let the subjects see
the very majesty of power, the 'pomp and circumstance' attending the
being whose nod indicates authority, who is to them the personified
concentration on earth of the attributes of the Almighty. This is no
mere idea. The very expressions used by the natives of India at the
present day show how this thought runs through their imaginations. To
them the man in authority, the supreme wielder of power, sits in the
place of God. His _fiat_ means to them weal or woe, happiness or
misery. On days of ceremony, then, they expect that this all-powerful
being shall display the ensigns of royalty, shall surround himself
with the pomp and glitter which betoken state. Akbar thoroughly
understood this and acted accordingly.
We are not left to the descriptions of the author of the Ain to
realise the imposing grandeur of his ceremonies. The native
historians speak of his five thousand elephants, his twelve thousand
riding-horses, his camp-equipage containing splendid tents,
comprising halls for public receptions, apartments for feasting,
galleries for exercise, chambers for retirement, all of splendid
material and rich and varied {195} colours. They describe the Emperor
himself on the days of special ceremonial seated in a rich tent, the
awnings of which were thrown open, in the centre of carpeting of the
softest material, covering at least two acres of ground, receiving
the homage of his nobles. These occupied tents inferior only in
degree to that of the sovereign. Then ensued, in the sight of the
people, the ceremony of weighing the sovereign against various
articles, to be distributed to those who needed them. According to
the number of years the sovereign had lived there was given away an
equal number of sheep, goats, and fowls to the breeders of those
animals. A number of the smaller animals were likewise set at
liberty. The Emperor himself distributed with his own hand almonds
and fruits of the lighter sort among his courtiers.
On the great day of the festival Akbar seated himself on his throne,
sparkling with diamonds, and surrounded by his chiefest nobles, all
magnificently attired. Then there passed before him, in review, the
elephants with their head and breast-plates adorned with rubies and
other stones, the horses splendidly caparisoned, the rhinoceroses,
the lions, the tigers, the panthers, the hunting-leopards, the
hounds, the hawks, the procession concluding with the splendidly
attired cavalry. This is no fancy picture. The like of it was
witnessed by Hawkins, by Roe, and by Terry, in the time of the son
and successor of Akbar, and those eminent travellers have painted in
gorgeous colours the magnificence of the spectacle.
{196} These scenes were witnessed only on days of high ceremony. At
ordinary times Akbar was the simple, unaffected, earnest man, ever
striving after truth, such as the work he accomplished gives evidence
of. That work was the consolidation of an empire, torn by Muhammadan
conquerors for more than four centuries, and at the end of that
period still unsettled, still unconsolidated. During those four
centuries the principles of the Kuran, read in a bigoted and
unnatural sense by the Afghan conquerors, had been distorted to rob
and plunder the Hindu population. The most enlightened of his earlier
predecessors, Sultan Firuz Shah, described by an English writer as
possessing 'a humane and generous spirit,' confesses how he
persecuted those who had not accepted the faith of Islam. Those
principles of persecution for conscience sake, in full swing at the
time of the accession of Akbar, Akbar himself abolished.
Akbar's great idea was the union of all India under one head. A union
of beliefs he recognised at a very early stage as impossible. The
union therefore must be a union of interests. To accomplish such a
union it was necessary, first, to conquer; secondly, to respect all
consciences and all methods of worshipping the Almighty. To carry out
this plan he availed himself to a modified extent only of the
Muhammadan ritual. Instead of the formula under which so many
persecutions had been organised, 'there is but one God, and Muhammad
is his Prophet,' he adopted the revised version: 'there is but one
God, and Akbar is his {197} vicegerent on earth.' The prophet, he
argued, came to preach the oneness, the unity, of God to an
idolatrous people. To that people Muhammad was the messenger to
proclaim the good tidings. But the precepts that messenger had laid
down and had embodied in the Kuran had been interpreted to teach the
propagation of the doctrine of the oneness of God by the sword.
The consequences of acting upon that mis-reading, as Akbar considered
it, had been failure, at least in India. To that failure he had
before him the witness of upwards of four centuries. He had but just
entered his twenty-first year when he recognised that government
carried on on such a principle must inevitably alienate. His object,
I cannot too often repeat, was to bring together, to conciliate, to
cement, to introduce a principle which should produce a community of
interests among all his subjects. The germ of that principle he found
in the alteration of the Musalman profession of faith above stated.
The writings of Muhammad, misinterpreted and misapplied, could only
produce disunion. He, then, for his age and for his reign, would take
the place of the Prophet. He would be the interpreter of the generous
and merciful decrees of the one All-powerful.
The dominant religion should not be, as long as he was its
interpreter, the religion of the sword. It should carry, on the
contrary, a healing influence throughout India; should wipe away
reminiscences of persecution, and proclaiming liberty of conscience,
should practise the most perfect toleration. When this change had
been generally recognised Akbar would then appeal {198} to the
princes and peoples of India to acknowledge the suzerainty of the one
prince who would protect and yet not persecute. He would appeal to
them to aid in the regeneration he was preparing, not in his
individual interest, but in the interests of the millions who, for
four centuries, had been harassed by invasions, by civil wars, by
persecutions following both.
Akbar did not appeal to an unreflecting or an obstinate people. With
one exception, that of Chitor (now known as Udaipur), the Rajput
princes and people of the most influential part of India came into
his scheme. The most powerful amongst them, Jaipur and Jodhpur,
helped him with the counsels of the men who, Hindus, were his most
trusted captains, and with their splendid soldiers. The principal
opposition he encountered was from the bigots of his own court, and
from the descendants of the Afghan invaders settled in Bengal, in
Orissa, and in Western India. For the sake of his beneficent scheme
it was necessary to bring these into the fold. He tried at first to
induce them to accept their authority from him. They accepted it
only, on the first occasion, to seize an opportunity to rebel. There
was then no choice but conquest. So he conquered. Toleration, good
and equal laws, justice for all, invariably followed.
Thus it was that he, first of the Muhammadan invaders of India,
welded together the conquered provinces, and made them, to the extent
to which he conquered, for a portion of Southern India remained
unsubdued, one united Empire. These are his titles {199} to the
admiration of posterity. We, who have watched his work, and have
penetrated his motives, recognise the purity of his intentions. He
did not wish, as the bigots of his Court declared that he wished, to
have himself obeyed and worshipped as a God. No: he declared himself
to be the interpreter of the religion of which the Prophet had been
the messenger in the sense of teaching its higher truths, the truths
of beneficence, of toleration, of equal justice irrespective of the
belief of the conscience. His code was the grandest of codes for a
ruler, for the founder of an empire.
'There is good in every creed; let us adopt what is good, and discard
the remainder.' Such was his motto. He recognised this feature in the
mild and benevolent working of Hinduism, in the care for the family
inculcated by it, in the absence of the spirit of proselytism. He
recognised it in the simple creed of the followers of Zoroaster. He
recognised it in Christianity. There was good in all. He believed,
likewise, that there was good in all men. Hence his great
forbearance, his unwillingness to punish so long as there was hope of
reform, his love of pardoning. 'Go and sin no more' was a precept
that constituted the very essence of his conduct.
Such was Akbar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty. Such were the
principles which enabled him to found it. They were principles which,
if adhered to, would have maintained it. They were the principles by
accepting which his Western successors maintain it at the present
day.
{200} In the foregoing pages I have spoken of Akbar and his
achievements as though I were comparing him with the princes of our
own day. Handicapped though he is by the two centuries which have
since elapsed, Akbar can bear that comparison. Certainly, though his
European contemporaries were the most eminent of their respective
countries, though, whilst he was settling India, Queen Elizabeth
ruled England, and Henry IV reigned in France, he need not shrink
from comparison even with these. His reputation is built upon deeds
which lived after him. No one can suppose that his successor,
Jahangir, had he followed Humayun, could have conciliated and welded
together the divided territories he would have inherited or
conquered. His passionate and bigoted character would have rendered
the task impossible. But the foundations dug by Akbar were so deep
that his son, although so unlike him, was able to maintain the empire
which the principles of his father had welded together. When we
reflect what he did, the age in which he did it, the method he
introduced to accomplish it, we are bound to recognise in Akbar one
of those illustrious men whom Providence sends, in the hour of a
nation's trouble, to reconduct it into those paths of peace and
toleration which alone can assure the happiness of millions.
{201}
INDEX
ABUL MA'ALI, favourite of Humayun, is sent to occupy Dipalpur, 62:
rebellion, and death of, 97.
ABULFAZL, becomes the friend of Akbar, 151:
character, studies, and influence of, 152-3, 170:
murder of, 139.
AGRA, the building of the fort of, 99.
AGRICULTURE, measures taken by Akbar to benefit those addicted to,
121.
AKBAR, birth of, 52:
is abandoned at Shal, 53:
is taken to Kandahar, and tended by his aunt, 54:
is removed to Kabul, 54, 55:
where his father rejoins him, 55:
perils of, at Kabul, 55-9:
joins his father in the invasion of India, and is present at the
battle of Sirhind, 62:
is sent by his father to the Punjab, 63:
is there proclaimed Emperor, 63:
choice of courses before, 65:
turns to contest the empire with Hemu, 66:
moves on Panipat, 68:
wins the battle of Panipat, 70:
refuses to slay the captured Hemu, 71:
the problem he had to solve in India, 78-80:
personal appearance of, 81:
character and predispositions of, 82-4:
secures the Punjab, 84, 85:
feels the preponderating influence of Bairam, 85-7:
assumes the administration and exiles Bairam to Mekka, 88:
suppresses the rebellion of Bairam, 89:
personal rule of, begins, 91:
the aims of, 92, 93:
begins to carry out his plan of bringing all India into his system,
93:
design of, of welding together, 94:
deals with the Gakkhars, 96, 97:
reception of, in Mandu, 98:
deals with the revolt of the Uzbek nobles, 100:
conquers Behar, 101, 102:
suppresses rebellions in the Punjab and Kabul, 102:
besieges Chitor, 105:
founds Fatehpur-Sikri, 106:
after securing Rajputana, marches on Gujarat, 108:
incidents of the conquest of Gujarat by, 109-13:
extent of the authority of, 115:
reverses the principle of making war support war, 116:
orders the invasion of Bengal, 118:
and invades it himself, 118:
captures Patna, 119:
returns to Delhi, 120:
and Fatehpur-Sikri, 121:
takes measures to benefit the agriculturists, 121:
completes conquest of Bengal, 122:
builds the Ibadat-khana at Fatehpur-Sikri, 123:
abolishes inland tolls and the _jizya_, 126:
proceeds to Kabul, 127:
reasons of, for matrimonial alliances with Rajput families, 129-31:
proceedings of, in the Punjab, 131-6:
revisits Kabul, 134:
proceeds to the Deccan, but returns to repress the rebellion of
Prince Salim, 136-8:
family of, 141:
illness of, 142:
dying words of, 144:
character of, 144, 145:
disposition, principles, and training of, 146:
influence of Faizi over, 151:
influence of Abulfazl over, 153-5:
creed promulgated by, 157:
uses made by, of his power, 159:
religious code of, 160:
culls from many religions, 161:
his own conception of his position, 163:
discourages Sati, 164:
discourages professors, but encourages men of real learning, 166:
his affection for Faizi and Abulfazl, 170:
how the principles of, affected his administration, 171:
making difference of religion no distinction, 172:
abolishing the tax on pilgrimages, 172:
the _jizya_, 174:
how they affected his dealings with the Hindus, 175:
attachment of, to his relatives, 177:
likings and peculiarities of, 179:
fondness for field sports of, 179:
daily habits of, 180:
reasons of, for marriage with Rajput princesses, 181-4:
wives of, 184:
revenue system of, 185:
rewards granted by, to the deserving, 189:
wise caution displayed by, in disturbing ancient customs, 191:
army of, 192:
divisions of the empire of, 192:
magnificence of, 194:
a true seeker after truth, 197:
character of the people he appealed to, 198:
comparison of, with his European contemporaries, 200.
ALI KULI KHAN-I-SHAIBANI, brilliantly captures Hemu's artillery, 68.
ARGUMENT, the, of the work, 5.
ATTOCK, on the Indus, built by Akbar, 127-31.
BABAR, family from which, was descended, 12:
age of, at time of father's death, 13:
loses Ferghana, 14:
surprises Samarkand, 15:
is defeated by the Uzbeks, 15:
and flees to the deserts, 16:
crosses the Oxus, and conquers Kabul, 18:
impressions on the mind of, by first glance at the Punjab, 18:
resolves to conquer Kandahar, 19:
visits Herat, 19:
terrible march of, from Herat to Kabul, 20:
marches for Kandahar, 21:
defeats his enemy and takes it, 22:
vicissitudes of the fortunes of, against the Uzbeks, 23:
is proclaimed ruler of Sind, 24:
first, second, and third invasions of India by, 31:
fourth invasion of India by, 32:
fifth invasion of India by, 33:
reaches Panipat, 33:
fights and wins the battle of Panipat, 34:
the position of, in India, 35:
difficulties of, with his army, 37:
generous and noble nature of, 39:
methods of, to conquer the country, 39:
defeats Sanga Rana, 41:
conquers large portions of Central India and of Oudh, 42:
invades Behar, 43:
health of, declines, 45:
devotion of, to Humayun, 46:
dies, 46:
character of, 47, 48:
last words of, 48.
BAIRAM KHAN, the best general of Humayun, invades Jalandhar, 62:
defeats the generals of Sikandar Shah on the Sutlej, and marches to
Sirhind, 62:
is joined by Humayun and Akbar, and helps to defeat Sikandar Shah,
62:
goes with Akbar to the Punjab as his Atalik, 63:
murders Tardi Beg, 67, 68:
urges Akbar to slay the captured Hemu, 70, 71:
virtually rules the new conquest, 85:
is exiled to Mekka by order of Akbar, 88:
rebels, is defeated, and assassinated, 89, 90.
BENGAL, king of, in the time of Akbar, 117:
is invaded by Akbar, 118:
submits to Akbar, 122:
Man Singh appointed Governor of, 133.
BHAGWAN DAS, of Jaipur, Raja, connection of, with Akbar, 111:
gallantry of, 111:
is governor of the Punjab, 128:
death of, 134.
BIRBAL, Raja, is killed by the Yusufzais, 131, and note.
DANYAL, Prince, the one failing of, causes death of, 141, 142.
DAUD KHAN, king of Bengal, _vide_ BENGAL.
DECCAN, the, campaigns in, and partial conquest of, 136.
FAIZI, Shaikh, story of, 150:
how he influenced the actions of Akbar, 151, 170.
FATEHPUR-SIKRI, founded by Akbar, 106, 107:
discussions in the Ibadat-khana at, 123:
memorable scenes at, 156, 157, 161.
FERGHANA, kingdom of, 13, 14.
GAKKHARS, the, are subdued by Akbar, 96, 97.
GUJARAT, story of the conquest of, by Akbar, 108-15.
HEMU, rise to power of, 61:
wins two victories and threatens Delhi, 62, 63:
defeats Tardi Beg and occupies Delhi, 66:
moves towards Panipat, 68:
is attacked, and defeated by Akbar, 70:
is slain, 71.
HERAT, position of, in the time of Babar, 17:
route between, and Kabul, 20:
is conquered by the Uzbeks, 21.
HUMAYUN, eldest son of Babar and father of Akbar, assists his father
in the conquest of India, 40:
is sent for at the time of his father's illness, 45:
sickness, and recovery of, 46:
succeeds Babar, 50:
character of, 50:
after a reign of eight years is driven from India by Sher Shah, 50,
51:
spends two and a half years in Sind, 51:
wooes, wins, and marries Hamida Begam, 52, 53:
flight of, to Amarkot, 52:
action of, on learning of the birth of Akbar, 53:
sets out for Kandahar, 53:
is forced to abandon Akbar at Shal, 53:
conquers Kandahar and Kabul, 55:
vicissitudes of fortune between, and Kamran, at Kabul, 55-9:
resolves to recover India, 59:
invades India, 61:
defeats Sikandar Shah at Sirhind, 62:
death of, 63, 64.
INDIA, sketch of history of, before the Mughal invasion, 26:
character of the rule of dynasties prior to that of the Mughal, 27,
30;
Babar's position in, after Panipat, 35:
internal condition of, at the time, 36:
position of, at the time of the death of Babar, 48:
general condition of, in the middle of the 16th century, 72-80.
KABUL, kingdom of, in the time of Babar, 17:
Akbar is removed to, 54, 55:
vicissitudes of fortune between Humayun and Kamran at, 55-9:
Akbar appeases troubles at, 102:
Akbar restores order at, 127.
KAMRAN, Mirza, vicissitudes of fortune in contest of with Humayun,
54-9:
finally succumbs, 59.
KANDAHAR, important position of, recognised by Babar, 19:
taken by Babar, 22:
is captured by the Uzbeks, 23:
is secured by Babar, 31:
Akbar is taken to, 53, 54:
is conquered by Humayun, 55.
KASHMIR, conquest of, by Akbar, 131-5.
KHUSRU, Prince, chances of, to succeed Akbar, 141-3.
LEARNED MEN, who flourished in the time of Akbar, notice of some of
the, 166-9.
LIBRARY, the, of Akbar, 169.
MAN SINGH, of Jaipur, gallantry of, in Gujarat, 111:
appointed Governor of Kabul, 132:
on the remonstrance of the Kabulis is transferred to Bengal, 133:
conduct of, during Akbar's illness, 143.
MEWAR, Rana of, refuses to come into Akbar's system, 124:
is defeated at Huldighat, 125:
still fights for his own hand, 140.
MURAD, Prince, son of Akbar, death of, 136.
ORCHHA, the Raja of, is prompted by Prince Salim to murder Abulfazl,
139, and note.
ORISSA, conquest of, by Akbar, 118-22.
PANIPAT, the first battle of, 33, 34:
second battle of, 68-71.
PATNA, taken by Akbar, 119.
PUNJAB, the, Babar's first impressions of, 18:
renews his acquaintance with, 32:
again, 33:
Akbar enters, and pursues his enemy into the Siwaliks, 63-6:
sojourn of Akbar in, 131-6.
RAJPUTANA, matrimonial alliances of Akbar with the royal families of,
128, 181:
dealings with the several princes of, 91-143.
SALIM, Prince (afterwards the Emperor Jahangir), character of, 137:
rebels, 138:
causes the murder of Abulfazl, 139:
vicious conduct of, 140-42:
apparent repentance of, 144:
is girt with his dying father's sword, 144.
SAMARKAND, city of, surprised by Babar, 15:
taken by the Uzbeks, 15:
is reconquered by, and captured from, Babar, 23.
SANGA, Rana, position of, in Rajputana, 40:
is defeated by Babar, 41.
SHAIBANI KHAN, _vide_ UZBEKS.
SHER KHAN, afterwards Sher Shah, revolts from Babar, 43:
drives Humayun from India, 50, 51:
reign of, 60:
defects of rule of, and predecessors of, 73-8.
SIKANDAR SHAH, claims the rule over Muhammadan India, 61:
is defeated by Humayun at Sirhind, and flees to the Siwaliks, 62:
again shows signs of life, 63:
retreats into Mankot, 65:
pursued by Akbar, surrenders on terms, 84, 85.
SIND, Babar is proclaimed ruler of, 24:
completion of the conquest of, under Akbar, 134, 135.
TARDI BEG, prudent conduct of, on the death of Humayun, 64:
is defeated by Hemu, 66:
joins Akbar at Sirhind, 67:
where he is murdered by Bairam, 68.
TODAR MALL, Raja, is sent by Akbar to repair the defeat of his troops
by the Yusufzais, 132:
death of, 134:
influence of, with Akbar, 192.
UMERSHAIKH, father of Babar, 13.
UZBEKS, the, defeat Babar before Samarkand 15:
conquer Herat, 21:
take Kandahar, 23:
contests of, with Babar, 23:
the, nobles, revolt against Akbar, 100:
are forgiven, 101.
YUSUFZAIS, the, repulse the troops of Akbar, 131:
are defeated by Todar Mall, 132.
THE END.
Works by Colonel Malleson.
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN MUTINY, 1857-58.
IN SIX VOLS., 6_s_. EACH.
London: W. H. Allen & Co., 13 Waterloo Place.
'Colonel Malleson wields his pen with so much skill that while giving
a realistic account of all important operations, passing over no
really noteworthy act of heroism, and acutely criticizing everything
which demands criticism, he abstains from overlaying his narrative
with details which would have increased the bulk of the book beyond
all reason.'--_Athenaeum_.
'A brilliant narrative, in which a great number of threads of history
are taken up and combined with singular skill. We have never read a
volume in which this merit is more conspicuously displayed; and a
history which, in unskilful hands, might have become confused to the
last degree is made remarkably clear and intelligible.'--_Spectator_.
THE DECISIVE BATTLES OF INDIA,
FROM 1746 TO 1849, INCLUSIVE.
NEW EDITION, 7_s_. 6_d_.
London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1888.
'We know of no book so well calculated as is the one we are noticing
for giving the student a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the
successive steps taken in conquering for ourselves the Empire of
Hindustan. It is not simply the story of so many decisive battles.
The causes which led to each one are set forth, and the connection
between each successive war is clearly shewn. The author has
consulted as far as possible original documents, or the writings,
published and unpublished, of contemporaries; and to judge by the
list he has given, the labour of composing this excellent work must
have been considerable.'--_Saturday Review_.
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH IN INDIA.
London: Longmans, 1868.
'Colonel Malleson has produced a volume alike attractive to the
general reader, and valuable for its new matter to the special
student.'--_Edinburgh Review_.
LIFE OF LORD CLIVE.
Price 20_s_.
London: Allen & Co., 1885.
'It would not be possible to find in any other work a more faithful
or vivid word-picture of the work accomplished by this great soldier
and statesman, or of the manner in which he performed
it.'--_Scotsman_.
THE BATTLE-FIELDS OF GERMANY.
London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1884.
'A thoroughly good book.'--_The Guardian_.
End of Project Gutenberg's Rulers of India: Akbar, by George Bruce Malleson