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Chapter 11 – Chronicle of the Reign

The position in India, in the sixth year of Akbar’s reign, dating from the battle of Panipat, but the first of his personal rule, may thus be summarised. He held the Punjab and the North-western Provinces, as we know those provinces, including Gwalior and Ajmere to the west, Lucknow, and the remainder of Oudh, including Allahabad, as far as Jaunpur, to the east. Benares, Chanar, and the provinces of Bengal and Behar, were still held by princes of the house of Sur, or by the representatives of other Afghan families. The whole of Southern India, the greater part of Western India, were outside the territories which acknowledged his sway.

There can be little doubt that during the five years of his tutelage under Bairam, Akbar had deeply considered the question of how to govern India so as to unite the hearts of the princes and people under the protecting arm of a sovereign whom they should regard as national. The question was encumbered with difficulties. Four centuries of the rule of Muhammadan sovereigns who had made no attempt to cement into one bond of mutual interests the

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various races who inhabited the peninsula, each ruling on the principle of temporary superiority, each falling as soon as a greater power presented itself, had not only introduced a conviction of the ephemeral character of the successive dynasties, and of the actual dynasty for the time being. It had also left scattered all over the country, from Bengal to Gujarat, a number of pretenders, offshoots of families which had reigned, every one of whom regarded the Mughal as being only a temporary occupant of the supreme seat of power, to be replaced; as fortune might direct, possibly by one of themselves, possibly by a new invader. This conviction of the ephemeral character of the actual rule was increased by the recollection of the ease with which Humayun had been overthrown. Defeated at Kanauj, he had quitted India leaving not a trace of the thirteen years of Mughal sway, not a single root in the soil.

These were facts which Akbar had recognised. The problem, to his mind, was how to act so as to efface from the minds of princes and people these recollections; to conquer that he might unite; to introduce, as he conquered, principles so acceptable to all classes, to the prince as well as to the peasant, that they should combine to regard him as the protecting father, the unit necessary to ward off from them evil, the assurer to them of the exercise of their immemorial rights and privileges, the assertor of the right of the ablest, independently of his religion, or his caste, or his nationality, to exercise command under

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himself, the maintainer of equal laws, equal justice, for all classes. Such became, as his mind developed, the principles of Akbar. He has been accused, he was accused in his lifetime, by bigoted Muhammadan writers, of arrogating to himself the attributes of the Almighty. This charge is only true in the sense that, in an age and in a country in which might had been synonymous with right, he did pose as the messenger from Heaven, the representative on earth of the power of God, to introduce union, toleration, justice, mercy, equal rights, amongst the peoples of Hindustan.

His first aim was to bring on India under one sceptre, and to accomplish this task in a great measure by enlisting in its favour the several races which he desired to bring within the fold. I have thought it advisable for the fuller comprehension of his system to treat the subject in its two aspects, the physical and the moral. This chapter, then, will chronicle the successive attempts to bring under one government and one form of law the several states into which India was then divided. The chapter that follows will deal more particularly with the moral aspect of the question.

It would be tedious, in a work like this, to follow Akbar in all the details of his conquests in India. It will suffice to record that, during the first year of his own personal administration and the sixth of his actual reign, he re-attached Malwa to his dominions. Later in the season his generals repelled an attempt

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made by the Afghan ruler of Chanar and the country east of the Karamnasa to attack Jaunpur, whilst Akbar himself, marching by way of Kalpi, crossed there the Jumna, and proceeded as far as Karrah, not far from Allahabad, on the right bank of the Ganges. There he was joined by his generals who held Jaunpur, and thence he returned to Agra. The year, at its close, witnessed the siege of Merta, a town in the Jodhpur state, then of considerable importance, beyond Ajmere, and seventy-six miles to the north-east of the city of Jodhpur. This expedition was directed by Akbar from Ajmere where he was then residing, though he confided the execution of it to his generals.

The place was defended with great energy by the Rajput garrison, but, in the spring of the following year it was surrendered on condition that the garrison should march out with their horses and arms, but should leave behind all their property and effects.

In the same year in which Merta fell (1562), the generals of Akbar in Malwa, pushing westward, added the cities of Bijagarh and Burhanpur on the Tapti to his dominions. The advantage proved, however, to be the forerunner of a calamity, for the dispossessed governors of those towns, combining with the expelled Afghan ruler of Malwa, and aided by the zamindars of the country, long accustomed to their rule, made a desperate attack upon the imperial forces. These, laden with the spoils of Burhanpur, were completely defeated. For the moment Malwa was lost, but the year did not expire before the

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Mughal generals, largely reinforced, had recovered it. The Afghan noble, whilom Governor of Malwa, after some wanderings, threw himself on the mercy of Akbar, and, to use the phrase of the chronicler, ‘sought a refuge from the frowns of fortune.’ Akbar made him a commander of one thousand, and a little later promoted him to the mansab (dignity) of a commander of two thousand. He died in the service of his new sovereign. The reader will not fail to notice how the principle of winning over his enemies by assuring to them rank, position, and consideration, instead of driving them to despair, was constantly acted upon by Akbar. His design was to unite, to weld together. Hence he was always generous to the vanquished. He would bring their strength into his strength, instead of allowing it to become a strength outside his own. He would make those who would in the first instance be inclined to resist him feel that conquest by him, or submission to him, would in no way impair their dignity, but, ultimately, would increase it. We shall note the working of this principle more clearly when we come to describe his dealings with the several chiefs of Rajputana.

A tragic event came to cloud the spring of the eighth year of the reign of Akbar. I have referred already to the regard and affection he entertained for the lady who had been his nurse in his infancy, and who had watched his tender years. It was to a great extent upon her advice that he had acted in dealing with Bairam. She had a splendid provision in the

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palace, and Akbar had provided handsomely for her sons. The eldest of these, however, fired with jealousy at the elevation of men whose equal or superior he considered himself to be, and goaded probably by men of a like nature to his own, assassinated the Prime Minister as he was sitting in his public office; then, trusting to the favour which Akbar had always displayed towards his family and himself, went and stood at the door of the harem. But for such a man, and for such an act, Akbar had no mercy. The assassin was cut to pieces, and his dead body was hurled over the parapet into the moat below. Those who had incited him, dreading lest their complicity should be discovered, fled across the Jumna, but they were caught, sent back to Agra, and were ultimately pardoned. The mother of the chief culprit died forty days later from grief at her son’s conduct.

For some time previously the condition of a portion of the Punjab had been the cause of some anxiety to Akbar. The Gakkhars, a tribe always turbulent, and the chiefs of which had never heartily accepted the Mughal sovereigns, had set at defiance the orders issued for the disposal of their country by Akbar. They had refused, that is, to acknowledge the governor he had nominated. The Gakkhars inhabited, as their descendants inhabit now, that part of the Punjab which may be described as forming the north-eastern part of the existing district of Rawal Pindi. To enforce his orders Akbar sent thither an army, and this army, after some sharp fighting, succeeded in restoring order.

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The chief of the Gakkhars was taken prisoner, and died whilst still under surveillance. Akbar caused to be repressed likewise disturbances which had arisen in Kabul, and met with promptitude a conspiracy formed by the favourite of Humayun, Abul Ma’ali, whose pretensions he had more than once put down, but who was now returning, puffed up with pride, from a pilgrimage to Mekka. Concerting a plan with another discontented noble, Abul Ma’ali fell upon a detachment of the royal army near Narnul, and destroyed it. Akbar sent troops in pursuit of him, and Abul Ma’ali, terrified, fled to Kabul, and wrote thence letters full of penitence to Akbar. Ultimately, that is, early the following year, Abul Ma’ali was taken prisoner in Badakshan, and strangled.

Up to the spring of 1564 Akbar had not put into execution the designs which he cherished for establishing the Mughal power in the provinces to the east of Allahabad. – Chanar, then considered the key of those eastern territories, was held by a slave of the Adel dynasty. This slave, threatened by one of Akbar’s generals, wrote a letter to the Emperor offering to surrender it. Akbar sent two of his nobles to take over the fortress, and to them it was surrendered. The possession of Chanar offered likewise an opening into the district of Narsinghpur, governed by a Rani, who held her court in the fortress of Chauragarh. Against her marched the Mughal general, defeated her in a pitched battle, and added Narsinghpur and portions of what is now styled the district of

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Hoshangabad to the imperial dominions. In the hot weather of the same year, Akbar, under the pretext of hunting, started for the central districts, when he was surprised by the advent of the rainy season, and with some difficulty made his way across the swollen streams to Narwar, then a flourishing city boasting a circumference of twenty miles. After hunting for some days in the vicinity of that city he pushed on towards Malwa, and passing through Rawa and Sarangpur, proceeded towards the famous Mandu, twenty-six miles south-west of Mhow. The Governor of Mandu, an Uzbek noble placed there by Akbar, conscious that the Emperor had grounds for dissatisfaction with him, and placing no trust in a reassuring message sent him by his sovereign, abandoned the city as Akbar approached, and took the field with his followers. Akbar sent a force after him which pursued him to the confines of Gujarat, and took from him his horses, his elephants, and his wives.

The reception accorded to Akbar in Mandu was of the most gratifying character. The zamindars of the neighbouring districts crowded in to pay homage, and the King of distant Khandesh sent an embassy to greet him. Akbar received the ambassador with distinction. It deserves to be mentioned, as a characteristic feature of the customs of those times, that when Akbar honoured the ambassador with a farewell audience, he placed in his hand a firman addressed to his master, directing him to send to Mandu any one of his daughters whom he might consider worthy

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to attend upon the Emperor. The native historian adds: ‘when Mubarak Shah,’ the ruler of Khandesh, ‘received this gracious communication, he was greatly delighted, and he sent his daughter with a suitable retinue and paraphernalia to his Majesty, esteeming it a great favour to be allowed to do so.’ After a short stay at Mandu, Akbar returned to Agra, by way of Ujjain, Sarangpur, Sipri, Narwar, and Gwalior. During the ensuing cold weather he spent a great part of his time hunting in the Gwalior districts.

There can be but few travellers from the West to India who have not admired the fortress, built of red sandstone, which is one of the sights of Agra. At the time of the accession of Akbar there was at Agra simply a citadel built of brick, ugly in form and ruinous from decay. Akbar had for some time past resolved to build on its ruins a fortress which should be worthy of the ruler of an empire, and in the late spring of 1565 he determined on the plans, and gave the necessary orders. The work was carried on under the direction of Kasim Khan, a distinguished officer whom Akbar had made a commander of three thousand. The building of the fortress took eight years of continuous labour, and the cost was thirty-five lakhs of rupees. It is built, as I have said, of red sandstone, the stones being well joined together and fastened to each other by iron rings which pass through them. The foundation everywhere reaches water.

The year did not close without an event which afforded Akbar the opportunity of displaying his

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decision and prompt action in sudden emergencies. I have shown how, on his visit to Mandu, the Uzbek governor of that city had taken fright and rushed into rebellion; how Akbar had caused him to be pursued and punished. The treatment of the rebel, though not unduly severe, had spread in the minds of the Uzbek nobles at the court and in the army the impression that the Emperor disliked men of that race, and three or four of them combined to give him a lesson. The rebellion broke out in the autumn of the year at Jaunpur, the governor of which the Uzbeks had secured to their interests. Akbar was engaged in elephant-hunting at Narwar when the news reached him.

He immediately despatched his ablest general with the troops that were available to aid his loyal officers, whilst he should collect further troops to follow. He marched about ten days later, reached Kanauj, received there the submission of one of the rebel leaders, remained there ten days, waiting till the river, swollen by the rainfall, should subside. Learning then that the chief who was the head of the rebellion had proceeded to Lucknow, he promptly followed him thither with a small but chosen body of troops, and marching incessantly for four-and-twenty hours, came in sight of that city on the morning of the second day. As he approached, the rebels fled with such speed that the horses of the Emperor and his retinue, completely knocked up with their long march, could not follow them. The rebel chief then fell back rapidly on Jaunpur, and joining there his colleagues, quitted that place with them, and

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crossing the Gogra at the ford of Narhan; forty miles west-north-west of Chapra, remained encamped there. Thence they despatched agents into Bengal to implore the aid of the king of that country.

Meanwhile, one imperial army, led by a general anxious for a bloodless termination to the dispute, had arrived in front of them, whilst another, commanded by a fiery and resolute leader, was marching up from Rajputana. The negotiations which the peaceful general had commenced had almost concluded, when the fiery leader arrived, and, declaring the negotiations to be a fraud, insisted upon fighting. In the battle which followed the imperial forces were defeated, and fled to re-assemble the day following at Shergarh.

Before this battle had been fought Akbar had confirmed the peace negotiations with the rebels, and he was not moved from his resolution when he heard of their victory over his amity. He said: ‘their faults have been forgiven,’ and he sent instructions to his Amirs to return to court. He then marched himself to Chanar, alike to plan works for the strengthening of the fortress; to hunt elephants in the Mirzapur jungles; and to await the further action of the rebels he had pardoned with arms in their hands. The experiment was not one to be repeated, for, flushed with their success, the rebel chiefs broke out anew. Akbar, however, by a skilful disposition of his forces, compelled their submission, and received them back to favour. In the course of this year the imperial generals had

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taken the fortress of Rotas, in Behar, and ambassadors, sent on a mission to the king of Orissa, had returned laden with splendid presents.

The spring of the year 1566 found the Emperor back at Agra. The native historians record that in these times of peace his great delight was to spend the evening in the game of chaugan. Chaugan is the modern polo, which was carried to Europe from India. But Akbar, whilst playing it in the daytime in the manner in which it is now played all over the world, devised a method of playing it on the dark nights which supervene so quickly on the daylight in India. For this purpose he had balls made of palas wood – a wood which is very light and which burns for a long time, and set them on fire. He had the credit of being the keenest chaugan-player of his time.

From this pleasure Akbar was roused by the news of successful rebellions at Kabul and at Lahore. He marched with all haste towards the close of the year in the direction of the Sutlej, reached Delhi in ten days; thence marched to Sirhind; and thence joyfully to Lahore. Thence he despatched his generals to drive the rebels across the Indus. This they accomplished, and returned. The troubles at Kabul were at the same time appeased: but, as a counter-irritant, the absence of the Emperor so far in the north-west brought about rebellion at Jaunpur. It was clear that up to this time – the end of 1566 – Akbar had been unable successfully to grapple with the important question how to establish a permanent government

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in Hindustan. The eleventh year of his reign, counting from the battle of Panipat, was now closing, and he had fixed so few roots in the soil that it was certain that, should a fatal accident befall him, the succession would again be decided by the sword. The beginning of the year 1567 found him still at Lahore, engaged in hunting and similar pleasures. He was roused from these diversions by the intelligence that the Uzbek nobles whom he had pardoned, had taken advantage of his absence to break out again. Accordingly he quitted Lahore on the 22nd of March, and began his return-march to Agra. On reaching Thuneswar, in Sirhind, he was greatly entertained by a fight between two sects of Hindu devotees, the Jogis and the Suniasis, for the possession of the rich harvest of gold, jewels, and stuffs, brought to the shrine of the saint by pious pilgrims. Another sign of the instability of his rule awaited him at Delhi, for he found that a state prisoner had eluded the vigilance of the governor, and that the governor, apprehensive of the imperial displeasure, had quitted the city, and broken into rebellion.

Nor, even when he reached Agra, did more reassuring tidings await him. The country about Kanauj was in a state of rebellion, and it was clear to him that many of his nobles could not be trusted. In this emergency he marched to Bhojpur, in the Rai Bareli district, thence to Rai Bareli. There he learned that the rebels had crossed the Ganges with the object of proceeding towards Kalpi. There had been heavy

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rains and the country was flooded, but Akbar, eager for action, despatched his main forces to Karrah whilst he hastened with a body of chosen troops to Manikpur, midway between Partabgarh and Allah-Odd. There he crossed the river on an elephant, pushed on with great celerity, caught the rebels at the village of Manikpur, and completely defeated them. The principal leaders of the revolt were killed during or after the battle. From the battle-field, Akbar marched to Allahabad, then called by its ancient name of Pryaga. After a visit to Benares and to Jaunpur, in the course of which he settled the country, he returned to Agra.

Deeming his eastern territories now secure, Akbar turned his attention to Rajputana. The most ancient of all the rulers of the kingdoms in that large division of Western India was Udai Singh, Rana of Mewar, a man possessing a character in which weakness was combined with great obstinacy. His principal stronghold was the famous fortress of Chitor, a fortress which had indeed succumbed to Allah-ud-din Khilji in 1303, but which had regained the reputation of being impregnable. It stands on a high oblong hill above the river Banas, the outer wall of the fortifications adapting itself to the shape of the hill. It was defended by an army of about seven thousand Rajputs, good soldiers, and commanded by a true and loyal captain.. It was supplied with provisions and abundance of water, and was in all respects able to stand a long siege.

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Akbar himself sat down before the fortress, whilst he sent another body of troops to make conquests in the vicinity, for the Rana, despairing of success, had fled to the jungles. But if he pressed the siege vigorously, the Rajputs defended themselves with equal courage and obstinacy. Never had Akbar met such sturdy warriors. As their pertinacity increased, so likewise did his pride and resolution. At length the breach was reported practicable, and on a night in the month of March, Akbar ordered the assault. He had a stand erected for himself, whence he could watch and direct the operations. As he sat there, his gun in his hand, he observed the gallant Rajputs assembling in the breach, led by their, capable commander, prepared to give his troops a warm reception. The distance between his stand and the breach was, as the crow flies, but short, for the river alone ran between the two.

By the light of the torches, Akbar easily recognised the Rajput general, and believing him to be within distance, he fired and killed him on the spot. This fortunate shot, despatched whilst the hostile parties were approaching one another, so discouraged the Rajputs, that at the critical moment they made’ but a poor defence. They rallied indeed subsequently, but it was too late, and though they then exerted themselves to the utmost, they could not regain the lost advantage. When the day dawned, Chitor was in the possession of Akbar. In gratitude for its victory Akbar, in pursuance of a vow he had made before he began the siege, made a pilgrimage on

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foot to the mausoleum of the first Muhammadan saint of India, Ma’inu-i-din Chisti of Sijistan, on the summit of the hill of Ajmere. He had not then emancipated himself from his early training. He remained ten days at Ajmere, and returned thence to Agra by way of Mewat.

Akbar spent the spring and rainy season at Agra. He then designed the conquest of the strong fortress of Rantambhor in Jaipur, but whilst the army he had raised for this purpose was on its march, disturbances in Gujarat, followed by an invasion of Central India from that side, compelled Akbar to divert his troops to meet that danger. He then decided to march in person with another army against Rantambhor. This he did early in the following year (1569). As soon as he had compelled the surrender of the fortress, he returned to Agra, stopping on the way a week at Ajmere, to visit once again the mausoleum of the saint.

This year he founded Fatehpur-Sikri, the magnificent ruins of which compel, in the present day, the admiration of the traveller. The story is thus told by the author of the Tabakat. After stating that Akbar had had two sons, twins, neither of whom had lived, he goes on to say that Shaikh Salim Chisti, who resided at Sikri, twenty-two miles to the south-west of Agra, had promised him a son who should survive. Full of the hope of the fulfilment of this promise, Akbar, after his return from Rantambhor, had paid the saint several visits, remaining there ten to twenty days on each

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occasion; eventually he built a palace there on the summit of a rising ground; whilst the saint commenced a new monastery and a fine mosque, near the royal mansion. The nobles of the court, fired by these examples, began then to build houses for themselves.

Whilst his own palace was building one of his wives became pregnant, and Akbar conveyed her to the dwelling of the holy man. When, somewhat later, he had conquered Gujarat he gave to the favoured town the prefix ‘Fatehpur’ (City of victory). The place has since been known in history by the joint names of Fatehpur-Sikri. Towards the end of the year his wife, whom he had sent to reside at Sikri, gave birth to a son at the house of the saint, who is known in history as the Emperor Jahangir, though called after the saint by the name of Salim. His mother was a Rajput princess of Jodhpur. To commemorate this event Akbar made of Fatehpur-Sikri a permanent royal abode; built a stone fortification round it, and erected some splendid edifices. He then made another pilgrimage on foot to the mausoleum of the saint on the Ajmere hill. Having paid his devotions he proceeded to Delhi.

Early the following year Akbar marched into Rajputana and halted at Nagaur, in Jodhpur. There he received the homage of the son of the Raja of that principality, then the most powerful in Rajputana, and that of the Raja of Bikaner and his son. As a tribute of his appreciation of the loyalty of the latter, Akbar took the Raja’s daughter in marriage. He

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amused himself for some time at Nagaur in hunting the wild asses which at that time there abounded, and then proceeded to Dipalpur in the Punjab. There he held a magnificent durbar, and then, with the dawn of the new year, proceeded to Lahore. After settling the affairs of the Punjab, he returned to Fatehpur-Sikri with the intention of devoting the coming year to the conquest of Gujarat.

The province of Gujarat in Western India included, in the time of Akbar, the territories and districts of Surat, Broach, Kaira, Ahmadabad, a great part of what is now Baroda, the territories now represented by the Mahi Kantha and Rewa Kantha agencies, the Panch Mahas, Palanpur, Radhanpur, Balisna, Cambay, Khandeah, and the great peninsula of Kashthiawar. This agglomeration of territories had for a long time had no legitimate master. Parcelled out into districts, each of which was ruled by a Muhammadan noble alien to the great bulk of the population, it had been for years the scene of constant civil war, the chiefs grinding the peasantry to obtain the means wherewith to obtain the supreme mastery. Sometimes, fired by information of the weakness of an adjoining province, the chiefs would combine to make temporary raids. The result was that Gujarat had become the focus of disorder. The people were oppressed, and the petty tyrants who ruled over them were bent only on seeking advantages at the expense of others. Akbar had long felt the results of this anarchy, and he resolved now to put an end to it for ever.

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The expedition of Akbar to Gujarat is the most famous military exploit of his reign. He was resolved that there should be no mistake either in its plan or in its execution. For the first time since he had become ruler of the greater part of India he felt reasonably secure, during the probable duration of the expedition, of the conduct of his nobles and his vassals. He set out from Fatehpur-Sikri at the head of his army in September, 1.572, and marching by Sanganer, eighteen miles south of Jaipur, reached Ajmere the middle of October. There he stayed two days to visit the mausoleum of the saint, then, having sent an advanced guard of ten thousand horse to feel the way, followed with the bulk of the army, and marched on Nagaur, seventy-five miles to the north-east of Jodhpur. On reaching Nagaur a courier arrived with the information that a son, later known as Prince Danyal, had been born to him. He spent there fourteen days in arranging for the supplies of his army, then pushing on, reached Patan, on the Saraswati, in November, and Ahmadabad early in the following month. In the march between the two places he had received the submission of the chief who claimed to be supreme lord of Gujarat, but whose authority was barely nominal. At Ahmadabad, then the first city in Gujarat, Akbar was proclaimed Emperor of Western India.

There remained, however, to be dealt with many of the chieftains, all unwilling to renounce the authority they possessed. Amongst these were the rulers of Broach, of Baroda, and of Surat. No

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sooner, then, had the Emperor arranged matters at Ahmadabad for the good order of the country, than he set out for Cambay, and reached it in five days. There, we are told by the historians, he gazed for the first time on the sea. After a stay there of nearly a week, he marched, in two days, to Baroda. There he completed his arrangements for the administration of the country, appointing Ahmadabad to be the capital, and nominating a governor from amongst the nobles who had accompanied him from Agra. Thence, too, he despatched a force to secure Broach and Surat. Information having reached him that the chief of Broach had murdered the principal adherent of the Mughal cause in that city, and had then made for the interior, passing within fifteen miles of Baroda, Akbar dashed after him with what troops he had in hand, and on the second night came in sight of his camp at Sarsa, on the further side of a, little river.

Akbar had then with him but forty horsemen, and, the river being fordable, he endeavoured to conceal his men until reinforcements should arrive. These came up in the night to the number of sixty, and with his force, now increased to a total number of a hundred, Akbar forded the river to attack ten times their number. The rebel leader, instead of awaiting the attack in the town, made for the open, to give a better chance to his preponderating numbers. Akbar carried the town with a rush, and then dashed in pursuit. But the country was intersected by lanes,

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bordered on both sides by cactus hedges, and the horsemen of Akbar were driven back into a position in which but three of them could fight abreast, the enemy being on either side of the cactus hedges. The Emperor was in front of his men, having by his side the gallant Rajput prince, Raja Bhagwan Das of Jaipur, whose sister he had married, and the Raja’s nephew and destined successor, Man Singh, one of the most brilliant warriors of the day. The three were in the greatest danger, for the enemy made tremendous efforts to break in upon them. But the cactus hedges, hitherto a bar to their formation, now proved a defence which the enemy could not pass. And when Bhagwan Das had slain his most prominent adversary with his spear, and Akbar and the nephew had disposed of two others, the three took advantage of the momentary confusion of the enemy to charge forward, and aided by the desperate gallantry of their men, roused by the danger of their sovereign to extraordinary exertions, to force them to flight. The followers of the rebel chief, sensible that they were engaged in a losing cause, displayed nothing like the firmness and persistency of the soldiers of Akbar. They dropped off as they could find the opportunity, and the rebel chief himself, abandoned by his following, made his way, as best he could, past Ahmadabad and Disa to Sirohi in Rajputana.

Broach meanwhile had fallen, and there remained only Surat. Against this town, so well known to

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English traders in the days of his son and grandson, Akbar marched in person on his return from the expedition just related. Against the breaching material employed in those days Surat was strong. But the Emperor pressed the siege with vigour, and after a patient progress of a month and seventeen days, the garrison, reduced to extremities, surrendered. He remained at Surat long enough to complete the settlement of the affairs of the province of Gujarat, and then began his return march to Agra. He arrived there on the 4th of June, 1573, having been absent on the expedition about nine months.

Whilst Akbar had been besieging Surat, the rebel chief whom he had defeated at Sarsa, and who had fled to Sirohi, had been bestirring himself to make mischief. Joined by another powerful malcontent noble he advanced against Patan, met near that place the Emperor’s forces, and had almost beaten them in the field, when, his own troops dispersing to plunder, the Mughal forces rallied, pierced the enemy’s centre, and turned defeat into victory. The news of this achievement reached Akbar whilst he was still before Surat. The rebel leader, still bent on doing all the mischief in his power, made his way through Rajputana to the Punjab, encountering two or three defeats on his way, but always escaping with his life, and plundering, as he marched, Panipat, Sonpat, and Karnal. In the Punjab he was encountered by the imperial troops, was defeated, and, after some exciting adventures, was wounded by a party of

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fishermen near Multan, taken prisoner, and died from the effect of his wound. He was a good riddance, for he was a masterful man. It may here be added that during this year the Mughal troops attempted, but failed to take the strong fortress of Kangra, in the Jalandhar Duab. The besiegers had reduced the garrison to extremities when they were called off by the invasion of the adventurer whose death near Mahan I have recorded. Kangra did not fall to the Mughal till the reign of the son of Akbar.

Akbar had quitted the province of Gujarat believing that the conquest of the province was complete, and that he had won by his measures the confidence and affection of the people. But he had not counted sufficiently on the love of rule indwelling in the hearts of men who have once ruled: He had not been long at Agra, then, before the dispossessed lordlings of the province began to raise forces, and to harass the country. Determined to nip the evil in the bud, Akbar prepared a second expedition to Western India, and despatching his army in advance, set out, one Sunday morning in September, riding on a swift dromedary, to join it. Without drawing rein, he rode seventy miles to Toda, nearly midway between Jaipur and Ajmere. On the morning of the third day he reached Ajmere, paid his usual devotions at the tomb of the saint; then, mounting his horse in the evening, continued his journey, and joined his army at Pali on the road to Disa. Near Patan he was joined by some troops collected by his lieutenants,

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who had awaited the arrival of their sovereign to advance.

His force was small in comparison with that which the rebel chiefs had managed to enlist, but the men who formed it were the cream of his army. The celerity of his movements too had served him well. The rebels had not heard that he had quitted Agra when he was amongst them. They were in fact sleeping in their tents near Ahmadabad when Akbar, who had made the journey from Agra in nine days, was upon them.

That there was chivalry in those days is shown by the remark of the native historian, the author of the Tabakat-i-Akbari, ‘that the feeling ran through the royal ranks that it was unmanly to fall upon an enemy unawares, and that they would wait till he was roused.’ The trumpeters, therefore, were ordered to sound. The chief rebel leader, whose spies had informed him that fourteen days before the Emperor was at Agra, still declared his belief that the horsemen before him could not belong to the royal army as there were no elephants with them. However he prepared for battle. The Emperor, still chivalrous, waited till he was ready, then dashed into and crossed the river, formed on the opposite bank, and ‘charged the enemy like a fierce tiger.’ Another body of Mughal troops took them simultaneously in flank. The shock was irresistible. The rebels were completely defeated, their leader wounded and taken prisoner.

An hour later, another hostile body, about five

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thousand strong, appeared in sight. These too were disposed of, and their leader was killed. In the battle and in the pursuit the rebels lost about two thousand men. Akbar then advanced to Ahmadabad, rested there five days, engaged in rewarding the deserving, and in arranging for the permanent security of the province. He then marched to Mahmudabad; a town in the Kaira district, and thence to Sirohi.. From Sirohi he went direct to Ajmere, visited there the mausoleum of the famous saint, thence, marching night and day, stopped at a village about fourteen miles from Jaipur to arrange with Raja Todar Mall, whom he met there, one of the ablest of his officers, afterwards to become Diwan, or Chancellor, of the Empire, regarding the mode of levying the revenues of Gujarat. From that village the Emperor proceeded direct to Fatehpur-Sikri, where he arrived in triumph, after an absence of forty-three days.

His plan of bringing under his sceptre the whole of India had so far matured that he ruled now, at the end of the eighteenth year of his reign, over North-western, Central, and Western India, inclusive of the Punjab and Kabul. Eastward, his authority extended to the banks of the Karamnasa. Beyond that river lay Behar and Bengal, independent, and under certain circumstances threatening danger. He had fully resolved, then, that unless the unforeseen should occur, the nineteenth year of his reign should be devoted to the conquest of Bengal and the states tributary to Bengal. Before setting out on the

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expedition, however, he paid another visit to the tomb of the saint on the hill of Ajmere.

I have written much in the more recent pages of the marches of Akbar, and the progress of his armies, but up to the present I have not referred to the principle on which those movements were made. There have been warriors, even within the memory of living men, who have made war support war. Upon that principle acted the Khorasani and Afghan barbarians who invaded India when the Mughal power was tottering to its fall. But that principle was not the principle of Akbar. Averse to war, except for the purpose of completing the edifice he was building, and which, but for such completion, would, he well knew, remain unstable, liable to be overthrown by the first storm, he took care that neither the owners nor the tillers of the soil should be injuriously affected by his own movements, or by the movements of his armies. With the object of carrying out this principle, he ordered that when a particular plot of ground was decided upon as an encampment, orderlies should be posted to protect the cultivated ground in its vicinity. He further appointed assessors whose duty it should be to examine the encamping ground after the army had left it, and to place the amount of any damage done against the government claim for revenue. The historian of the Tabakat-i-Akbari adds that this practice became a rule in all his campaigns; and sometimes even bags of money were given to these

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inspectors, so that they might at once estimate and satisfy the claims of the raiyats and farmers, and obviate any interference with the revenue collectors.’ This plan, which is in all essentials the plan of the western people who virtually succeeded to the Mughal, deprived war of its horrors for the people over whose territories it was necessary to march.

Whilst Akbar is paying a visit of twelve days’ duration to the tomb of the saint at Ajmere, it is advisable that we examine for a moment the position of affairs in Behar and Bengal.

The Afghan king of Bengal and Behar, who sat upon the joint throne at the time of the Mughal re-conquest of the North-western Provinces, had after a time acknowledged upon paper the suzerainty of Akbar. But it was, and it had remained a mere paper acknowledgment. He had paid no tribute, and he had rendered no homage. During the second expedition of Akbar to Gujarat this prince had died. His son and immediate successor had been promptly murdered by his nobles, and these, constituting only a fraction, though a powerful fraction, of the court, had raised a younger brother, Daud Khan, to the throne. But Daud was a man who cared only for pleasure, and his accession was the cause of the revolt of a powerful nobleman of the Lodi family, who, raising his standard in the fort of Rohtasgarh, in the Shahabad district of Behar, declared his independence. A peace, however, was patched up between them, and Daud, taking advantage

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of this, and of the trust reposed in him by the Lodi nobleman, caused the latter to be seized and put to death. As soon as this intelligence reached the Mughal governor of Jaunpur, that nobleman, who had been directed by Akbar to keep a sharp eye on the affairs of Behar, and to act as circumstances might dictate, crossed the Karamnasa, and marched on the fortified city of Patna, into which Daud, distrustful of meeting the Mughals in the field, had thrown himself. Such was the situation very shortly after the return of Akbar from Gujarat. Desirous of directing the campaign himself, Akbar despatched orders to his lieutenant to suspend operations till he should arrive, then, making the hurried visit to Ajmere of which I have spoken, he hastened with a body of troops by water to Allahabad. Not halting there, he continued his journey, likewise by water, to Benares, stayed there three days, then, taking to boat again, reached the point where the Wilma flows into the Ganges. Thence, pending the receipt of news from his lieutenant, he resolved to ascend the Gumti to Jaunpur.

On his way thither, however, he received a despatch from his lieutenant, urging him to advance with all speed. Directing the boatmen to continue their course with the young princes and the ladies to Jaunpur, Akbar at once turned back, reached the point where he had left his troops, and directing that they should march along the banks in sight of the boats, descended to Chang, the place memorable, the reader may recollect, for the defeat of his

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father by Sher Khan. Here a despatch reached him to the effect that the enemy had made a sortie from Patna, which had caused much damage to the besiegers. Akbar pushed on therefore, still by water, and reached the besieging army on the seventh day.

The next day he called a council of war. At this he expressed his opinion that before assaulting the fort it was advisable that the besiegers should occupy Hajipur, a town at the confluence of the Gandak and the Ganges, opposite to Patna. This course was adopted, and the next day Hajipur fell. Daud was so terrified by this success, and by the evident strength of the besieging army, that he evacuated Patna the same night, and fled across the Punpun, near its junction with the Ganges at Fatwa. Akbar entered the city in triumph the next morning, but, anxious to capture Daud, remained there but four hours; then, leaving his lieutenant in command of the army, followed with a well-mounted detachment in pursuit of the enemy. Swimming the Punpun on horseback he speedily came up with Daud’s followers, and captured elephant after elephant, until on reaching Daryapur, he counted two hundred and sixty-five of those animals. Halting at Daryapur, he directed two of his trusted officers to continue the pursuit. These pressed on for fourteen miles further, then it became clear that Daud had evaded them, and they returned.

The conquest of Patna had given Behar to Akbar. He stayed then at Daryapur six days to constitute the

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government of the province, then nominating to the chief office the successful lieutenant who had planned the campaign, he left him to follow it up whilst he should return to Jaunpur. At that place he stayed thirty-three days, engaged in perfecting arrangements for the better administration of the country. With this view he brought Jaunpur, Benares, Chanar, and other mahalls in the vicinity, directly under the royal exchequer, and constituted the newly acquired territories south of the Karamnasa a separate government.

Having done this, he proceeded to Cawnpur, on his way to Agra. At Cawnpur he stayed four dap, long enough to receive information that his general in Bengal had occupied, successively, Monghyr, Bhagalpur, Garhi, and Tanda on the opposite side of the Ganges to Gaur, the ancient and famous Hindu capital of Bengal, and that he was preparing to push on further. It may be added that he carried out this resolution with vigour, and followed up Daud relentlessly, defeating him at Bajhura, and finally compelling him to surrender at Cuttack. With the surrender of this prince, the conquest of Bengal might be regarded as achieved.

Very much elated with the good news received at Cawnpur, Akbar, deeming the campaign in Bengal virtually terminated, pushed on to Delhi, devoted there a few days to hunting, and then made another journey to Ajmere, hunting as he marched. At Narnul he received visits from his governors of the Punjab and of Gujarat, and had the satisfaction of learning

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that everywhere his rule was taking root in the hearts of the people. After the exchange of ideas with these noblemen, he pushed on to Ajmere, made his pilgrimage to the tomb of the saint, caused to be repressed the rising of a petty chief in the jungles of Jodhpur, and then returned to his favourite residence at Fatehpur-Sikri.

He had noticed, on his many journeys, that a very great part of the territories he had traversed remained uncultivated. The evil was neither to be attributed to the nature of the soil, which was rich, nor to the laziness of the people. Sifting the matter to the bottom, Akbar came to the conclusion that the fault rather lay with the administration, which placed upon the land a tax which rendered cultivation prohibitive to the poor man. The evil, he thought, might be remedied if some plan could be devised for dividing the profits of the first year between the government and the cultivator. After a thorough examination of the whole question, he arranged that the several parganas, or subdivisions of the districts, should be examined, and that those subdivisions which contained so much land as, on cultivation, would yield ten million of tankas,26 should be divided off, and given in charge of an honest and intelligent officer who was

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to receive the name of Karori. The clerks and accountants of the exchequer were to make arrangements with these officers and send them to their respective districts, where, by vigilance and attention, the uncultivated land might in the course of three years be brought into a state of production, and the revenues recovered for the government. This scheme was carried out, and was found to realise all the advantages it promised.

The nineteenth year of the reign of Akbar was thus in all respects save one a glorious year for the young empire. Bengal and Behar had been added to North-western, Central, and Western India. Practically, in fact, all India north of the Vindhya range acknowledged the supremacy of the son of Humayun. The exception to the general prosperity was caused by a terrible famine and pestilence in Western India, the effects of which were most severely felt. Grain rose to a fabulous price, ‘and horses and cows had to feed upon the bark of trees.’ The famine and pestilence lasted six months.

The early part of the following year, 1575, was occupied with the pursuit of Daud and the conquest of Orissa. I have already stated how the Afghan prince was defeated at Bajhura, midway between Mughalmari and Jaleswar, and how, pursued to and invested in Cuttack, he had surrendered. The treaty concluded with him provided that he should govern the province of Orissa in the name and on behalf of the Emperor Akbar. It may be added that Daud did not keep

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the faith he plighted on this occasion. He took the first propitious occasion to rebel, and two years later was defeated in a great battle by the Mughal general. He was taken prisoner, and in punishment of his treason his head was severed from his body on the field of battle. For some time, however, Bengal and Orissa continued to require great vigilance and prompt action on the part of the Mughal administrators.

The other principal events of this year were the building by the Emperor at Fatehpur-Sikri of an Ibadat-khana, or palace for the reception of men of learning, genius, and solid acquirements. The building was divided into four halls: the western to be used by Saiyids, or descendants of the Prophet: the southern by the learned, men who had studied and acquired knowledge: the northern by those venerable for their wisdom and their subjection to inspiration. The eastern hall was devoted to the nobles and officers of state, whose tastes were in unison with those of one or other of the classes referred to. When the building was finished, the Emperor made it a practice to repair there every Friday night and on the nights of holy days, and spend the night in the society of the occupants of the halls, moving from one to the other and conversing. As a rule, the members of each hall used to present to him one of their number whom they considered most worthy of the notice and bounty of the Emperor. The visits were always made opportunities for the distribution of largesses, and scarcely one of

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the guests ever went empty away. The building was completed by the end of the year.

The following year was uneventful, but the year 1577 was marked by that rebellion in Orissa under Daud of which I have already spoken. The campaign was stirring whilst it lasted, but the death of Daud and his uncle put an end to it.

This year, likewise, there was trouble in Rajputana. Alone of all the sovereigns of the territories known by that name, the Rana of Mewar had refused the matrimonial alliance offered to his female relatives by Akbar. Descended, as he believed, from the immortal gods, he regarded such an alliance as a degradation. He refused it then, whilst he was yet struggling for existence. He refused it, though he saw the Rajput prince whom he most hated, the Raja of Jodhpur, enriched, in consequence of his compliance, by the acquisition of four districts, yielding an ample revenue. He remained obdurate, defying the power of Akbar. Rana Udai Singh had in 1568 lost his capital, and had fled to the jungles of Rajpipla, and there had died in 1572.

His son, Partap Singh, inherited all his obstinacy, and many of the noble qualities of his grandfather, the famous Sanga Rana. Without a capital, without resources, his kindred and clansmen dispirited by the reverses of his house, yet sympathising with him in his refusal to ally himself with a Muhammadan, Partap Singh had established himself at Kombalmir, in the Aravallis, and had endeavoured to organise the country for a renewed struggle. Some information

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of his plans seems to have reached the ears of Akbar whilst he was paying his annual visit to Ajmere in 1576–7, and he despatched his most trusted general, also a Rajput, the Man Singh of Jaipur, whom we have seen fighting by his side in Gujarat, with five thousand horse, to beat him up. The two opposing forces met at Huldighat, called also Gogandah, in December 1576. The battle which followed terminated in the complete defeat of the Rana, who, when the day was lost, fled to the Aravalli hills. To deprive him of all possible resources Akbar despatched a party into the hills, with instructions to lay waste the country whilst pursuing. Akbar himself entered Mewar, arranged the mode of its administration; then proceeded to Malwa, encamped on its western frontier, arranged the administration of the territories dependent upon the city of Burhanpur, and improved that of Gujarat. To these matters he devoted the years 1577–8. He then marched for the Punjab.

A circumstance, interesting to the people who now hold supreme sway in India, occurred to the Emperor on his way to the Punjab. He had reached Delhi, and had even proceeded a march beyond it, when a certain Haji27 who had visited Europe, ‘brought with him fine goods and fabrics for his Majesty’s inspection.’ The chronicler does not state more on the subject than the extract I have made, and we are left to imagine the part of Europe whence the fabrics came, and the impression they made. Akbar stayed but a short time

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in the Punjab, then returned to Delhi, paid then his annual visit to Ajmere, and stopping there but one night, rode, accompanied by but nine persons, at the rate of over a hundred miles a day to Fatehpur-Sikri, arriving there the evening of the third day.

The following year, 1580, was remarkable for the fact that the empire attained the highest degree of prosperity up to that time. Bengal was not only tranquil, but furnished moneys to the imperial exchequer. The ruler of Mewar was still being hunted by the imperial troops, but in no other part of India was the sound of arms heard.

In the course of his journeys Akbar had noticed how the imposition of inland tolls, justifiable so long as the several provinces of Hindustan were governed by rival rulers, tended only, now that so many provinces were under one head, to perpetuate differences. Early in 1581, then, he abolished the tamgha, or inland tolls, throughout his dominions. The same edict proclaimed likewise the abolition of the jizya, a capitation tax imposed by the Afghan rulers of India upon those subjects who did not follow the faith of Muhammad. It was the Emperor’s noble intention that thought should be free; that every one of his subjects should worship after his own fashion and according to his own convictions, and he carried out this principle to the end of his days. The most important political event of the year was the rebellion of a body of disaffected nobles in Bengal. Acting without much cohesion they were defeated and dispersed.

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The year following, 1582, Akbar marched at the head of an army to the Punjab to repulse an invasion made from Kabul by his own brother, Muhammad Hakim Mirza. The rebel brother had arrived close to Lahore before Akbar had reached Panipat. The news, however, of the march of Akbar produced upon him the conviction that his invasion must miscarry. He accordingly retreated from Lahore, and fell back on Kabul. Akbar followed him by way of Sirhind, Kalanaur, and Rotas; then crossed the Indus at the point where Attock now stands, giving, as he crossed the river, instructions for the erection of a ‘fortress at that place.

He advanced on to Peshawar, and pushed forward a division of his army under his son, Prince Murad, to recover Kabul. Murad was a young man, tall and thin, with a livid complexion, but much given to drink, from the effects of which he and his brother, Prince Danyal, eventually died. Marching very rapidly, he encountered the army of his uncle at Khurd-Kabul and totally defeated him. Akbar had followed him with a supporting army, and entered Kabul three days after him. There he remained three weeks, then, having pardoned his brother and re-bestowed upon him the government of Kabul, he returned by way of the Khaibar to Lahore, settled the government of the Punjab, and then marched, by way of Delhi, to Fatehpur-Sikri. ‘He now,’ writes the chronicler, ‘remained for some time at Fatehpur, administering justice, dispensing charity, and arranging public business.’

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Apparently he continued to reside there throughout the year following. Rebellion was still smouldering in Bengal, but the Emperor was represented there by capable officers who reported constantly to him, and to whom he as constantly despatched instructions. The disaffection was not very serious, but it was harassing and interfered greatly with the collection of the revenues.

The beginning of 1584 found Akbar still at Fatehpur-Sikri. The principal events of the year were, the pacification of Bengal; the outbreak and suppression of a rebellion in Gujarat; the revolt of the ruler of Asirgarh and Burhanpur; disturbances in the Deccan; and the death of the brother of Akbar, the then ruler of Kabul. The revolts were put down and a new governor was sent to Kabul. Prosperity reigned over the empire when the year closed.

Among the firmest of the protected allies of the Emperor was Bhagwan Das, Raja of Jaipur, who had not only himself rendered splendid military service to Akbar, but whose nephew, Man Singh, held a very high command in his armies. At the period at which we have arrived this Rajput prince was governor of the Punjab. From his family Akbar now selected a wife for his son, Prince Salim, afterwards the Emperor Jahangir. The marriage was celebrated at Fatehpur-Sikri, with great ceremony and amid great rejoicings. Until this reign the Rajput princes had scornfully rejected the idea of a matrimonial alliance with princes of the Muhammadan faith. But it was the

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desire of Akbar to weld: to carry into action the cardinal principle that differences of race and religion made no difference in the man. He had many prejudices to overcome, especially on the part of the Rajput princes, and to the last he could not conquer the obstinate resistance of the 11.6326, of Mewar.

The others were more complaisant. They recognised in Akbar the founder of a set of principles such as had never been heard before in India. In his eyes merit was merit, whether evinced by a Hindu prince or by an Uzbek Musalman. The race and creed of the meritorious man barred neither his employment in high positions nor his rise to honour. Hence, men like Bhagwan Das, Man Singh, Todar Mall, and others, found that they enjoyed a consideration under this Muhammadan sovereign far greater and wider-reaching than that which would have accrued to them as independent rulers of their ancestral dominions. They governed imperial provinces and commanded imperial armies. They were admitted to the closest councils of the prince whose main object was to obliterate all the dissensions and prejudices of the past, and, without diminishing the real power of the local princes who entered into his scheme, to weld together, to unite under one supreme head, without loss of dignity and self-respect to anyone, the provinces till then disunited and hostile to one another.

One of the means which Akbar employed to this end was that of marriage between himself, his family,

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and the daughters of the indigenous princes. There was, he well knew, no such equaliser as marriage. The Rajput princes could not fail to feel that their relationship to the heir to the throne, often to the throne itself, assured their position. When they reflected on the condition of Hindustan prior to his rule; how the Muhammadan conquests of the preceding five centuries had introduced strife and disorder without cohesion, and that this man, coming upon them as a boy, inexperienced and untried in the art of ruling, had introduced order and good government, toleration and justice, wherever he conquered; that he conquered only that he might introduce those principles; that he made no distinction between men on account of their diversity of race or of religious belief; they, apt to believe in the incarnation of the deity, must have recognised something more than ordinarily human, something approaching to the divine and beneficent, in the conduct of Akbar.

His toleration was so absolute, his trust, once given, so thorough, his principles so large and so generous, that, despite the prejudices of their birth, their religion, their surroundings, they yielded to the fascination. And when in return, Akbar asked them to renounce one long-standing prejudice which went counter to the great principle which they recognised as the corner-stone of the new system, the prejudice which taught them to regard other men, because they were not Hindus, as impure and unclean, they all, with one marked exception, gave way. They recognised that

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a principle such as that was not to be limited; that their practical renunciation of that portion of their narrow creed which forbade marriages with those of a different race, could not but strengthen the system which was giving peace and prosperity to their country, honour and consideration to themselves.

It was in the beginning of the thirty-first year of his reign that Akbar heard of the death of his brother at Kabul, and that the frontier province of Badakshan had been overrun by the Uzbeks, who also threatened Kabul. The situation was grave, and such as, he concluded, imperatively required his own presence. Accordingly, in the middle of November, he set out with an army for the Punjab, reached the Sutlej at the end of the following month, and marched straight to Rawal Pindi. Learning there that affairs at Kabul were likely to take a direction favourable to his interests, he marched to his new fort of Attock, despatched thence one force under Bhagwan Das to conquer Kashmir, another to chastise the Baluchis, and a third to move against Swat. Of these three expeditions, the last met with disaster. The Yusufzais not only repulsed the first attack of the Mughals, but when reinforcements, sent by Akbar under his special favourite, Raja Birbal, joined the attacking party, they too were driven back with a loss of 8,000 men, amongst whom was the Raja.28 It was the

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severest defeat the Mughal troops had ever experienced. To repair it, the Emperor despatched his best commander, Raja Todar Mall, supported by Raja, Man Singh, of Jaipur. These generals manoeuvred with great caution, supporting their advance by stockades, and ‘eventually completely defeated the tribes in the Khaibar Pass.

Meanwhile, the expedition sent against Kashmir had been but a degree more successful. The commanders of it had reached the Pass of Shuliyas, and had found it blockaded by the Musalman ruler of the country. They waited for supplies for some days, but the rain and snow came on, and before they could move there came the news of the defeat inflicted by the Yusufzais. This deprived them of what remained to them of nerve, and they hastened to make peace with the ruler of Kashmir, on the condition of his becoming a nominal tributary, and then returned to Akbar. The Emperor testified his sense of their want of enterprise by according to them a very cold reception, and forbidding them to appear at court. But the mind of Akbar could not long harbour resentment, and he soon forgave them.

Of the three expeditions, that against the Baluchis alone was immediately successful. These hardy warriors submitted without resistance to the Mughal Emperor. As soon as the efforts of Todar Mall And Man Singh had opened the Khaibar Pass, Akbar appointed the latter, the nephew and heir to the Jaipur Raja, to be Governor of Kabul, and sent

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him thither with a sufficient force, other troops being despatched to replace him in the Yusufzai country, and Peshawar being strongly occupied. Akbar had himself returned to Lahore. Thence he directed a second expedition against Kashmir. As this force approached the Passes, in the summer of 1587, a rebellion broke out against the actual ruler in Srinagar. The imperial force experienced then no difficulty in entering and conquering the country, which thus became a portion of the Mughal empire, and, in the reign of the successor of Akbar, the summer residence of the Mughal sovereigns of India. It may here be mentioned that to reach Jamrud, at the entrance of the Khaibar Pass, Man Singh had to fight and win another battle with the hill-tribes. He reached Kabul, however, and established there a stable administration. The Kabulis and the heads of the tribes, however, complained to Akbar that the rule of a Rajput prince was not agreeable to them, whereupon Akbar translated Man Singh in a similar capacity to Bengal, which just then especially required the rule of a strong hand, and replaced him at Kabul by a Musalman. He announced at the same time his intention of paying a visit to that dependency.

First of all, he secured possession of Sind (1588); then, in the spring of the following year, set out for Kashmir. On reaching Bhimbar, he left there the ladies of his harem with Prince Murad, and rode express to Srinagar. He remained there, visiting

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the neighbourhood, till the rainy season set in, when he sent his harem to Rotas. They joined him subsequently at Attock on his way to Kabul. The Passes to that capital were open, all opposition on the part of the hill-tribes having ceased, so Akbar crossed the Indus at Attock, and had an easy journey thence to Kabul. He stayed there two months, visiting the gardens and places of interest. ‘All the people, noble and simple, profited by his presence.’29 He was still at Kabul when news reached him of the death of Raja Todar Mall (November 10, 1589). The same day another trusted Hindu friend, Raja. Bhagwan Das of Jaipur, also died. Akbar made then new arrangements for the governments of Kabul, Gujarat, and Jaunpur, and returned towards Hindustan.

He had already, as I have stated, arranged for the government of Bengal. He reached Lahore on his home journey in the beginning of 1590. Whilst residing there, information reached him that his newly appointed Governor of Gujarat, the son of his favourite nurse, had engaged in hostilities with Kathiawar and Cutch. These hostilities eventuated in the addition of those two provinces to the Emperor’s dominions, and in the suicide of the prince of Afghan descent, who had fomented all the disturbances in Western India.30 The Emperor took advantage of his stay at Lahore to direct the more

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complete pacification of Shad, affairs in which province had taken a disadvantageous turn. The perfect conquest of the province proved more difficult than had been anticipated. It required large reinforcements of troops, and the display of combined firmness and caution to effect the desired result. The campaign took two years, and, during that time, Kashmir had revolted.

The Emperor during those two years had had his head-quarters at Lahore. No sooner did he hear that the success in Sind was complete, than Akbar, who, expecting the event, had sent on the bulk of his forces towards Bhimbar, remaining himself hunting on the banks of the Chenab, set out to rejoin his main body. On his way to it he learned that his advanced guard had forced one of the Passes, notwithstanding fierce opposition. This event decided the war, for the soldiers of the rebel chief, resenting his action, fell upon him during the night, killed him, and cut off his head, which they sent to Akbar. With the death of this man all opposition ceased, and Akbar, riding on to Srinagar, stayed there eight days, settling the administration, and then proceeded by way of the gorge of Baramula to Rotas, and thence to Lahore. There he received information that his lieutenant in Bengal, the Raja Man Singh, had definitively annexed the province of Orissa to the imperial dominions. He had despatched thence to Lahore a hundred and twenty elephants, captured in that province, as a present to the Emperor.

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The attempt to bring into the imperial scheme the Deccan provinces south of the Vindhyan range, followed the next year, and continued for eight years later. On the whole it was successful. The strong places, Daulatabad, Kherwa, Nasik, Asirgarh, and Ahmadnagar, opened their gates, after long sieges, to the imperial arms. And, although the territories dependent upon Ahmadnagar were not entirely subdued till 1637, the position acquired by Akbar gave him a preponderance which the Mughals retained for at least a century.

The campaign in Southern India was remarkable for three facts. The first was the dissensions of the generals sent from different parts of India to co-operate independently in the conquest, dissensions which necessitated, first, the despatch thither from Agra of the Emperor’s confidant, Abulfazl, and afterwards, the journey thither of Akbar himself; secondly, the death, from excessive drinking, of the Emperor’s son, Prince Murad, at Jalna; thirdly, the murder of Abulfazl, on his return to Agra, at the instigation of Prince Salim, the eldest surviving son of Akbar and his heir apparent.

Akbar had held his court for fourteen years at Lahore when, in 1598, the necessities of the position in Southern India forced him to march thither. He had compelled the surrender of Ahmadnagar and Asirgarh, when, nominating Prince Danyal to be governor in Khandesh and Berar, and Abulfazl to complete the conquest of the territories dependent

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upon Ahmadnagar, he marched in the spring of 1601 towards Agra.

The circumstances which required the presence of Akbar at Agra were of a very painful character. Prince Salim had from his earliest youth caused him the greatest anxiety. Nor had the anxiety been lessened as the boy approached manhood. Salim, better known to posterity as the Emperor Jahangir, was naturally cruel, and he appeared incapable of placing the smallest restraint on his passions. He hated Abulfazl, really because he was jealous of his influence with his father; avowedly because he regarded him as the leading spirit who had caused Akbar to diverge from the narrow doctrines of the bigoted Muhammadans. Akbar had hoped for a moment that the despatch of Abulfazl to Southern India would appease the resentment of his son, and when he decided to proceed thither himself he had nominated Salim as his successor, and had confided to him, with the title of Viceroy of Ajmere, the task of finishing the war with the Rana, of Dewar, which had broken out again. He had further studied his partialities by despatching the renowned Man Singh, his relation by marriage, to assist him.

The two princes were already on their march towards Mewar when information reached them that a rebellion had broken out in Bengal, of which province Man Singh was Viceroy. Man Singh was therefore compelled to march at once to repress the outbreak. Left without a counsellor, and commanding a considerable

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force, Prince Salim resolved to take advantage of the absence of his father in the south to make a bold stroke for the crown. Renouncing, then, his march on Mewar, he hurried with his force to Agra, and when the commandant of the imperial fortress, loyal to his master, shut its gates in his face, ‘ hastened to Allahabad, occupied the fort, seized the provinces of Oudh and Behar, and assumed the title of King.

It was the news of these occurrences which drew Akbar from the Deccan. Attributing the action of Salim to the violence of a temper which had ever been impatient of control, he resolved rather to guide than to compel him. Accordingly he wrote him a letter, in which, assuring him of his continued love if he would only return to his allegiance, he warned him of the consequences of continued disobedience. When this letter reached Salim, Akbar was approaching Agra at the head of an army of warriors, few in number, but the chosen of the empire. Salim, then, recognising that his position was absolutely untenable, and that if he persisted it might cost him the succession, replied in the most submissive terms. His conduct, however, did not correspond to his words. Informed, somewhat later, that the bulk of the imperial army was still in the Deccan, he marched to Itawa, levying troops as he proceeded, with the intention of waiting upon his father at the head of an imposing force. But Akbar was not deceived. He sent his son an order

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to choose one of two courses; either to come to Agra slightly attended, or to return to Allahabad.

Prince Salim chose the latter course, receiving the promise, it is believed, that he should receive the grant of Bengal and Orissa. At any rate, he did receive the grant of those provinces. We cannot say, at this time, how much Akbar was influenced in his course by the consciousness of the comparative weakness of his own position, by his dislike of having to fight his own son, or by his affection. Probably the three sentiments combined to give to the course he adopted a tinge of weakness. At any rate, he soon had reason to feel that his concessions to his rebellious son had produced no good effect. For Salim, whose memory was excellent, and whose hatred was insatiable, took the opportunity of the return of Abulfazl from the Deccan, but slightly attended, to instigate the Raja of Orchha to waylay and murder him.31

The murder of his friend was a heavy blow to Akbar. Happily he never knew the share his son had in that atrocious deed. Believing that the Raja of Orchha was the sole culprit, he despatched a force against him. The guilty Raja fled to the jungles, and succeeded in avoiding capture, until the death of Akbar rendered unnecessary his attempts to conceal himself. A reconciliation with Salim followed, and

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the Emperor once more despatched his eldest son to put down the disturbances in Mewar. These disturbances, it may be mentioned, were caused by the continued refusal of Rana Partap Singh to submit to the Mughal. After his defeat at Huldighat in 1576, that prince had fled to the jungles, closely followed by the imperial army. Fortune continued so adverse to him that after a series of reverses, unrelieved by one success, he resolved, with his family and trusting friends, to abandon Mewar, and found another kingdom on the Indus. He had already set out, when the unexampled devotion of his minister placed in his hands the means of continuing the contest, and he determined to try one more campaign. Turning upon his adversaries, rendered careless by continued success, he smote them in the hinder part, and, in 1586, had recovered all Mewar, the fortress of Chitor and Mandalgarh excepted. Cut off from Chitor, he had established a new capital at Udaipur, a place which subsequently gave its name to his principality. When he died, in 1597, he was still holding his own. He was succeeded by his son, Amra Rana, who. at the time at which we have arrived, was bidding defiance, in Mewar, to all the efforts of the imperial troops (1603).

Prince Salim had a great opportunity. The forces placed at his disposal were considerable enough, if energetically employed, to complete the conquest of Mewar, but he displayed so little taste for the task that Akbar recalled him and sent him to his semi-independent

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government of Allahabad, where he spent his time in congenial debauchery, and in worse. His disregard of all sense of duty and honour, even of the lives of his most faithful attendants, became at last so marked that Akbar set out for Allahabad, in the hope that his presence might produce some effect. He had made but two marches, however, when the news of the serious illness of his own mother compelled him to return. But the fact that he had quitted Agra for such a purpose produced a revulsion in the thought and actions of Prince Salim. As his father could not come to him, he determined to repair, slightly attended, to the court of his father. There he made his submission, but he did not mend his ways, and his disputes with his eldest son, Prince Khusru, became the scandal of the court.

The Emperor, indeed, was not happy in his children. His two eldest, twins, had died in infancy. The third, erroneously styled the first, was Prince Salim. The fate of the fourth son, Prince Murad, has been told. The fifth son, Prince Danyal, described as tall, well-built, good-looking, fond of horses and elephants, and clever in composing Hindustani poems, was addicted to the same vice as his brother Murad, and died about this time from the same cause. His death was a great blow to Akbar, who had done all in his power to wean his son from his excesses, and had even obtained a promise that he would renounce them. There were at court many grandsons of the Emperor. Of these the best-beloved was Prince Khurram, who

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subsequently succeeded Jahangir under the title of Shah Jahan.

The news of the death of Prince Danyal and its cause seem to have greatly affected the Emperor. He was ill at the time, and it soon became evident that his illness could have but one termination. The minds of those about him turned at once to the consideration of the succession. His only surviving son was Prince Salim, but his conduct at Allahabad, at Agra, and elsewhere, had turned the hearts of the majority against him, whilst in his son, Prince Khusru, the nobles recognised a prince whose reputation was untarnished. Prince Khusru, moreover, as the son of a princess of Jodhpur, was closely related to Raja Man Singh, and that capable man was a great factor in the empire. He had married, too, the daughter of the Muhammadan nobleman who held the highest rank in the army, and who was himself probably related to the royal family, for he was the son of the favourite nurse of Akbar. These two great nobles began then to take measures for the exclusion of Prince Salim, and the succession of Prince Khusru.

To effect this purpose they had the fort of Agra, in the palace in which Akbar was lying ill, guarded by their troops. Had Akbar died at this moment his death must have given rise to a civil war, for Salim would not renounce his pretensions. But, as soon as the prince recognised the combination against him, alarmed for his personal safety, he withdrew a short distance from Agra. Vexed at his absence during

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what he well knew was his last illness, Akbar, a lover above all of legality, summoned his nobles around him, declared Prince Salim to be his lawful successor, and expressed a hope that Prince Khusru might be provided for by the government of Bengal.

The influence acquired by Akbar was never more apparent than at this conjuncture. It needed but one expression of resentment against his ungrateful and undutiful son to secure his exclusion. His expressions in his favour, on the other hand, had the effect of inducing the most powerful nobles to resolve to carry out his wishes, the half-hearted and wavering to join with them. Not even the highest nobleman in the army, the father-in-law of Prince Khusru, who had already combined with Raja Man Singh to support Khusru, could resist the influence. He sent privately to Prince Salim to assure him of his support. Man Singh, the most influential of all at that particular crisis, seeing that he was isolated, yielded to the overtures made him by Salim, and promised also to uphold him. Secure now of the succession, Prince Salim repaired to the palace, where he was affectionately received by the dying Akbar. The circumstances of that interview are known only from the report of the prince.

After the first affectionate greetings Akbar desired that all the nobles might be summoned to the presence; ‘for,’ he added, ‘I cannot bear that any misunderstanding should subsist between you and those who have for so many years shared in my toils,

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and been the companions of my glory.’ When the nobles entered and had made their salutations, he said a few words to them in a body; then, looking at each of them in succession, he begged them to forgive him if he had wronged any one of them. Prince Salim then threw himself at his feet, weeping; but Akbar, signing to his attendants to gird his son with his own scimitar and to invest him with the turban and robes of State, commended to his care the ladies of the palace, urged him to be kind and considerate to his old friends and associates, then, bowing his head, he died.

Thus peacefully departed the real founder of the Mughal empire. More fortunate than his father and his grandfather, more far-sighted, more original, and, it must be added, possessing greater opportunities, he had lived long enough to convince the diverse races of Hindustan that their safety, their practical independence, their enjoyment of the religion and the customs of their forefathers, depended upon their recognition of the paramount authority which could secure to them these inestimable blessings. To them he was a man above prejudices. To all alike, whether Uzbek, or Afghan, or Hindu, or Parsi, or Christian, he offered careers, provided only that they were faithful, intelligent, true to themselves. The several races recognised that during his reign of forty-nine years India was free from foreign invasion; that he subjugated all adversaries within, some by force of arms, some by means more peaceful, and that he preferred

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the latter method. The whole length and breadth of the land,’ wrote Muhammad Amin after his death, ‘was firmly and righteously governed. All people of every description and station came to his court, and universal peace being established among all classes, men of every sect dwelt secure under his protection.’ Such was Akbar the ruler. In the next chapter I shall endeavour to describe what he was as a man.

Akbar died the 15th October, 1605, one day after he had attained the age of sixty-three.

Footnotes

26. Blochmann, in his Ain-i-Akbari (note, p. 16), states that, according to Abulfazl, the weight of one dam was five tanks. As the copper coin known as ‘dam’ was one fortieth part of a rupee (Ibid. p. 31), it follows that ten million of tankas would equal 50,000 rupees. A pargana is a division of land nearly equalling a barony. A parganadar was called ‘ lord of a barony.’

27. A Haji is a Musalman who has made the pilgrimage to Mekka.

28. Raja Birbal was a Brahman, a poet, and a skilful musician. He was noted for his liberality and his bonhomie. ‘His short verses, bon mots, and jokes,’ writes Blochmann (Ain-i-Akbari, p. 405) ‘are still in the mouths of the people of Hindustan.’

29. Elliot, vol. v. p. 453.

30. Vide Blochmann’s Ain-i-Akbari, p. 326.

31. Prince Salim justifies, in his Memoirs, the murder on the ground that Abulfazl had been the chief instigator of Akbar in his religious aberrations, as he regarded them. To the last he treated the Raja of Orchha with the greatest consideration.

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