Akbar

Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar (जलालुद्दीन मोहम्मद अकबर), known popularly as Akbar (literally "the great") (14 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), also known as Akbar the Great was Mughal Emperor from 1556 until his death. He was the third and one of the greatest rulers of the Mughal Dynasty in India. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expand and consolidate Mughal domains in India. A strong personality and a successful general, Akbar gradually enlarged the Mughal Empire to include nearly all of the Indian Subcontinent north of the Godavari river. His power and influence, however, extended over the entire country because of Mughal military, political, cultural, and economic dominance. To unify the vast Mughal state, Akbar established a centralised system of administration throughout his empire and adopted a policy of conciliating conquered rulers through marriage and diplomacy. In order to preserve peace and order in a religiously and culturally diverse empire, he adopted policies that won him the support of his non-Muslim subjects. Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic state identity, Akbar strived to unite far-flung lands of his realm through loyalty, expressed through a Persianised culture, to himself as an emperor who had near-divine status.

Mughal India developed a strong and stable economy, leading to commercial expansion and greater patronage of culture. Akbar himself was a patron of art and culture. He was fond of literature, and created a library of over 24,000 volumes written in Sanskrit, Hindustani, Persian, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Kashmiri, staffed by many scholars, translators, artists, calligraphers, scribes, bookbinders and readers.

Akbar's courts at Delhi, Agra, and Fatehpur Sikri became centers of the arts, letters, and learning. Perso-Islamic culture began to merge and blend with indigenous Indian elements, and a distinct Indo-Persian culture emerged characterised by Mughal style arts, painting, and architecture. Disillusioned with orthodox Islam and perhaps hoping to bring about religious unity within his empire, Akbar promulgated Din-i-Ilahi, a syncretic creed derived from Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity. A simple, monotheistic cult, tolerant in outlook, it centered on Akbar as a prophet, for which he drew the ire of the ulema and orthodox Muslims.

By abolishing the sectarian tax on non-Muslims and appointing them to high civil and military posts, he was the first Mughal ruler to win the trust and loyalty of the native subjects. He had Sanskrit literature translated, participated in native festivals, realizing that a stable empire depended on the co-operation and good-will of his subjects. Thus, the foundations for a multicultural empire under Mughal rule was laid during his reign.

On 3 October 1605, Akbar fell ill with an attack of dysentery, from which he never recovered. He is believed to have died on or about 27 October 1605, after which his body was buried at a mausoleum in Sikandra, Agra.

Seventy-six years later, in 1691, a group of Jat chieftains, who had raised a rebellion against the Mughal Empire, robbed the gold, silver and fine carpets within the tomb and desecrated Akbar's mausoleum.

After his death, Akbar was succeeded as emperor by his son, Jahangir.

The burning of Akbar's bones

Reputed historian Kalika Ranjan Qanungo writes -

On 28th March 1688, Mir Ahmad, the custodian of the tomb of Akbar, reported to the Emperor (Aurangzeb) that at night a party of Rajaram's men had fallen upon the tomb and carried off its carpets, vessels, lamps and other decorations. Another report was to the effect that Rajaram had sacked eight villages assigned for the support of Shah Jahan's tomb near Agra.

The extant news-letters do not mention the burning of Akbar's bones by the Jat rebels, for which the only authority hitherto known is Manucci. But Aurangzeb's inexorable wrath towards the Jats and his repeated orders for the general massacre of the Jat people, which these letters mention again and again, lend support to the belief that the current rumour about the burning of Akbar's bones was probably based on truth.

Several letters' to Bishan Singh (Raja of Jaipur) from his Court agent Kesho Rai tell us of the Emperor's i.e. Aurangzeb's) constant anxiety at the growing menace of the Jat rising and his impatience at the delay of Bishan Singh in taking the field against them. The Raja was repeatedly told that he would be most highly rewarded if he could subdue the Jats and capture Sinsini before the arrival of Prince Bidar Bakht for the same purpose. But he delayed. At last he joined his forces with those of the prince and laid siege to Sinsini. Bidar Bakht having been soon afterwards recalled, Bishan Singh was left in supreme command of the Jat expedition. The Jaipur general Hari Singh conducted the siege of Sinsini and carried on punitive operations. In one encounter with the rebels, Hari Singh was severely wounded, and a rumour even spread that he had been killed. The Jats, probably under pressure of scarcity within the walls, secretly evacuated Sinsini and the Jaipur troops occupied it after a show of assault! This was the version of the affair that reached Aurangzeb, and naturally he refused to give any reward to Bishan Smgh. The Jaipur agent at the imperial Court tried hard to contradict this news as a malicious fabrication of his master's enemies, and at the same time wrote to Bishan Singh to placate the local waqianavis with rich bribes and induce him to magnify the heroic services of the Jaipur troops!

External Links

• Akbar's page at Wikipedia
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