The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c15: Chapter IV. Akbar, 1556–1573
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c15
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Chapter IV. Akbar, 1556–1573
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THE young emperor, who was only a few months more than thirteen years of age, was confronted with a situation scarcely less difficult than that in which his grandfather had found himself when his nobles were clamouring to be led back to Kābul, and in considering the difficulties which faced him it must be remembered that he was a precocious and masterful youth whom the jealousies of his courtiers compelled his guardian, Bairam Khān, to consult on all measures of importance. His father had returned to India and had possessed himself of Delhi and Āgra, but the recovery of these cities, immediately after his death, by his enemies reduced Akbar’s inheritance to the Punjab.
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The first difficulty with which Akbar and his guardian were called upon to deal was caused by the misconduct of Shāh Abu-’l-Ma‘ālī, a noble of his father’s court and a dangerous fanatic, whose pretensions, based on favours shown to him by Humāyūn, were obnoxious not only to the dignity of the courtiers but to the majesty of the throne. Resenting a fancied slight he at first refused to attend the young emperor’s court and when he deigned to appear thrust himself forward into a place to which he had no claim and behaved with such gross disregard of propriety that it was necessary to arrest him. Bairam Khān believed him to be actively disloyal and advocated his immediate execution, but Akbar was loth to sully his hands, on the threshold of his reign, with the blood of one of his father’s old servants, and the offender was sent to Lahore, where he was imprisoned.
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Three princes of the Sūr clan still pretended to the throne of Delhi. These were Muhammad ‘Ādil Shāh, who had occupied the throne for about a year, his cousin and brother-in-law Ibrāhīm, who had dethroned ‘Ādil in 1553, and Ibrāhīm’s cousin and brother-in-law Sikandar, who expelled Ibrāhīm in 1554 and was defeated by Humāyūn at Sirhind in 1555 and driven from Delhi and Āgra. ‘Ādil had established himself at Chunār and was killed in 1557 in a battle with Bahādur Shāh of Bengal, and Ibrāhīm had withdrawn into Bengal. Bairam Khān, correctly estimating the character of the two surviving princes, considered Sikandar, who was still in arms in the Punjab, a more imminent menace than either of the others, and remained for some time after Akbar’s enthronement at Kalānaur with the object of crushing Sikandar’s resistance. He failed, however, owing to lack of information, to make sufficient provision to meet the attack of a foe more dangerous than any of the three princes.
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This was Hīmū, “the Corn-chandler”, a Hindu of Rewārī whom ‘Ādil had made his minister, an able, energetic and ambitious soldier who was preparing to expel the Mughuls from India, nominally in the interests of ‘Ādil, but actually in his own. Hīmū secretly cherished designs of seizing for himself the imperial throne and restoring the dominion to the Hindus. Hīmū was still in the field on behalf of ‘Ādil and in his name could command the obedience of a large force of Afghāns.
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It was believed that Iskandar Khān the Uzbeg at Āgra, Tārdī Beg Khān at Delhi, and ‘Alī Qulī Khān Shaibānī at Sambhal were strong enough to repel any attacks from the south-east and to defend Hindūstān against both ‘Ādil and his minister, but Hīmū’s energy and determination were underrated. Bairam Khān, believing the situation to be secure, sent a force to Kābul to escort thence to India the ladies of Humāyūn’s harem. Sulaimān Mīrzā of Badakhshān, who was then besieging that city, was forced by it to retire to his own dominions, and the ladies were safely conducted to India.
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Hīmū now advanced from Gwalior on Āgra, and Iskandar Khān, instead of awaiting him, retired towards Delhi, losing between two and three thousand men in the course of his retreat. Hīmū followed him and encamped near Tughluqābād where Iskandar was joined by Tārdī Beg Khān, the governor of Delhi. The temporary success of the Mughul right wing hardly delayed Hīmū’s complete victory over their centre and Tārdī Beg Khān, who, without making even an effort to hold Delhi, continued his rapid retreat towards Sirhind. Iskandar Khān perforce accompanied him and the retreating army was joined on its way by ‘Alī Qulī Khān Shaibānī, who could no longer maintain himself at Sambhal after Hīmū’s occupation of Delhi.
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The news of the fall of Delhi reached Akbar and Bairam Khān at Jullundur and most of the courtiers and officers counselled an immediate retreat on Kābul, urging that it was folly to attempt to withstand Hīmū, now at the head of 100,000 men, with the 20,000 which were all that Akbar could muster. Bairam Khān decided, however, to risk all in the attempt to recover Delhi and had no difficulty in persuading the high-spirited and precocious Akbar to adopt his view. Khizr Khvāja Khān was left at Lahore to deal with Sikandar Sūr and on 13 October, 1556, the imperial army marched to Sirhind. Here it was met by the fugitives from Delhi, whose voices were added to those which clamoured for a retreat. This outburst was speedily silenced by Bairam Khān, who, having obtained from his youthful master “a sort of permission”, caused Tārdī Beg Khān to be put to death.
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The execution was a bold measure. Tārdī Beg Khān and Bairam Khān were outwardly on friendly terms, but were known to be rivals, and their rivalry was embittered by religious differences. Bairam cannot but have known that his action would be severely criticised, and his enemies, in fact, made it one of the articles in his impeachment when, a few years later, he fell from favour; but the murder was not the crime which they maintained it to be. Tārdī Beg Khān’s disgraceful conduct at Delhi merited death according to the military codes of all ages and his advocacy of an immediate retreat from Sirhind rendered his death necessary. In fact credit is due to Bairam Khān for taking so promptly, at considerable risk to himself and his reputation, a step which alone could have restored and maintained the spirit and discipline of the army.
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Hīmū was so elated by his victories and by the capture of Delhi as to believe that he had already reached the goal of his ambition. He made no pretence of restoring his master, but assumed the title of Rājā Vikramāditya and is said to have struck coin bearing his titles, though no specimen is known to exist. His Afghān officers were temporarily reconciled, by a liberal distribution of plunder, to the ascendancy of an infidel, and Hīmū sent forward his advance guard, with the greater part of his artillery, to meet that of Akbar, which, under the command of ‘Alī Qulī Khān Shaibānī, had marched on Pānīpat. ‘Alī Qulī Khān inflicted a severe defeat on Hīmū’s advance guard, and captured his artillery.
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Meanwhile the main bodies of the two armies were in motion and met, on 5 November, 1556, on the historic plain of Pānīpat. Bairam Khān detained Akbar at a safe distance from the field and entrusted the command of the centre to ‘Alī Qulī Khān. Hīmū’s army so greatly outnumbered that of Akbar that it was able almost to envelop it and threw both wings into confusion. Hīmū then attempted to decide the fate of the day by leading against the centre his 1500 elephants, on which he chiefly relied. ‘Alī Qulī Khān and his officers, taking every advantage of the inequalities of the ground, fought with the utmost valour but would certainly have been overpowered had not Hīmū’s eye been pierced by an arrow so well directed that its point projected from the back of his head. His troops at once dispersed.
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Shāh Qulī Khān Mahram, a Bahārlū Turk in Bairam Khān’s service, who afterwards attained to the command of 3500 horse, came up with Hīmū’s elephant, *Hawāī*, as the driver was endeavouring to carry his master beyond the reach of danger. He begged Shāh Qulī not to slay him and told him who the elephant’s wounded rider was. Shāh Qulī at once caused Hīmū to be led to Akbar, who had by now appeared on the field. When the wounded Hindu was placed before the young emperor Bairam Khān prayed him to earn the title of *Ghāzī* by slaying an infidel with his own sword, and the boy severed Hīmū’s head from his body,¹ or according to another version merely touched the infidel, who was slain by those in attendance.
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¹ ^1 *J.R.A.S.* 1916, p. 527.
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Immediately after the victory Iskandar Khān the Uzbeg was sent in pursuit of the flying enemy, and followed them, with great slaughter, to the gates of the capital, which he entered and secured for the emperor. Two days later Akbar entered Delhi and ‘Alī Qulī Khān and Iskandar Khān were rewarded for their services with the titles of Khān Zamān and Khān ‘Ālam respectively.
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The victory was complete. All of Hīmū’s 1500 elephants had been captured and the broken remnant of his army was dispersed, but his wife had escaped from Delhi into Mewāt, taking with her all his treasure, and Pīr Muhammad Khān was sent in pursuit. He slew many fugitives and took much plunder, but Hīmū’s wife made good her escape and much of the treasure was lost. His aged father was captured and, on refusing to accept Islam, was put to death.
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Events had progressed less favourably in the Punjab. Sikandar Sūr had attacked Khizr Khvāja Khān at Chamiārī, about 35 miles north-east of Lahore, and had driven him into that city, and Khān ‘Ālam was sent to his relief, followed, on 7 December, by the emperor and Bairam Khān, who could now safely leave imperial interests in Hindūstān in the hands of the nobles.
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During their absence in the Punjab Khān Zamān reoccupied Sambhal and established his authority throughout the country between that town and Lucknow, and Qiyā Khān Gung, after occupying Āgra, drove away Rājā Rām Sāh, who was attempting to recover from Bahbal Khān, an officer in the service of ‘Ādil, the fortress of Gwalior, which had belonged to his ancestors, and himself besieged the fortress.
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On learning that Akbar had reached Jullundur, Sikandar Sūr retired from before Lahore and fled to Mānkot, a hill fortress which Islām Shāh had built to restrain the aggression of the Gakkhars, and here he was besieged by Akbar.
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During the siege the ladies of Humāyūn’s harem arrived at the camp from Kābul, and Akbar, who was not yet fifteen years of age, married his first wife, the daughter of his uncle Hindāl.
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Sikandar Sūr had great confidence in the strength of Mānkot but relied chiefly on such diversion as could be created by his cousin ‘Ādil, who still held Chunār, but who was now attacked by his cousin Khizr Khān Sūr, styling himself Jalāl-ud-dīn Bahādur Shāh of Bengal, and was slain. The news of his death so discouraged Sikandar that he surrendered in May, 1557, after enduring a siege of some months’ duration, and by the interest of Atga Khān, the emperor’s foster-father, received Bihār as an assignment. He died two years later.
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Akbar marched in July to Lahore and in December to Delhi, halting on the way at Jullundur, where Bairam Khān married his cousin Salīma Begam, daughter of Humāyūn’s sister.
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On reaching the Sutlej Akbar learnt that Hājī Khān of Mewāt, who had fled to Nārnaul after the defeat of Hīmū, was marching on Hissār, and halted at Sirhind while Bairam Khān led the army against the rebel. Hājī Khān would not risk a conflict but fled and took refuge in Gujarāt, and three officers, one of whom was Sayyid Mahmūd Khān Bārha,¹ were sent to establish order in Ajmer and Rājputāna. Akbar reached Delhi on 14 April, 1558.
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¹ ‘“Sayyid Mahmūd was the first of the Bārha Sayyids that held office under the Tīmūrides.’ He was with Sikandar Sūr in Mānkot but, seeing that the cause of the Afghāns was hopeless he left Sikandar and went over to Akbar” (*Āīn-i-Akbarī*, I, 389). The Sayyids of Bārha, as distinguished for personal bravery as their kinsmen of Bilgrām are for their learning, derived their cognomen from twelve (*bāra*) villages which they held in the Muzaffarnagar District in the Upper Dūāb. Like the Sayyids of Bilgrām in Oudh they trace their origin to Sayyid Abu-’l-Farāh of Wāsit, who visited India in A.D. 1217. They reached the acme of their influence in the eighteenth century. See chaps. xiii and xiv of this volume, and W. Irvine, *J.A.S.B.* 1896, p. 175.
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It is necessary, in order to convey a clear understanding of the intrigues which beset Akbar in the early years of his reign, to explain the state of parties at his court. There was, first, the protector’s party consisting primarily of the greater number of the most loyal and able nobles.
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Bairam Khān was a loyal and devoted servant but his disposition was arbitrary, haughty and jealous and he could not easily tolerate the presence of possible rivals near his young master. He was a staunch Shiah and his religion rendered him unpopular at a court composed chiefly of orthodox Sunnīs. He resented the decline of his influence as Akbar grew towards manhood, and his foibles were distorted by his enemies into evidence of a desire to subvert the emperor’s authority.
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The second great faction was the harem party, whose influence, as is so often the case in the East, was almost wholly evil. The interests of this party were served, beyond the walls of the harem, by Akbar’s foster-relatives. The relationship existing between a child and the foster-mother who has suckled him is regarded by Turks, and by Muslims generally, as one of peculiar tenderness. It endures through life and extends to all the near relations of the foster-mother. The names of ten of Akbar’s nurses are preserved, and it is recorded that there were others. The most influential of these was Jījī Anaga (“foster-mother”), whose husband, Shams-ud-dīn Khān, had saved Humāyūn from drowning and was honoured, after his wife’s advancement, with the title of Atga (“foster-father”) Khān. Of his two sons, the one who survived beyond the early years of Akbar’s reign was known originally as Mīrzā ‘Azīz *Kūka* (“foster-brother”) but received the title of Khān A‘zam and rose to the highest rank. Akbar excused the leniency with which he treated Khān A‘zam’s acts of disobedience and contumacy by saying, “Between me and ‘Azīz is a river of milk which I cannot cross.” The relationship extended to Atga Khān’s elder brother, Mīr Muhammad Khān, entitled Khān Kalān (“Great”, or elder Khān), to his younger brothers, Sharīf Khān and Qutb-uddīn Khān, and to their sons. Māham Anaga had been Akbar’s chief nurse and though she never seems to have suckled him her son Adham Khān ranked as his foster-brother. These foster-relations are usually referred to by Muslim historians as *Atga Khail*, “the foster-father cohort”.
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The execution of Tārdī Beg Khān had excited much hostility against Bairam Khān, and an open breach occurred between him and “the foster-father cohort” on the march from Mānkot, when he suspected that the accidental finish of an elephant-fight near his tent was due to the machinations of Atga Khān and protested to Māham Anaga. The quarrel was patched up, but Pīr Muhammad Khān, formerly a servant of Bairam Khān, had gone over to the harem party, and his influence was ever directed towards the breeding of strife. The execution of Musāhib Beg, who had presumed on his father’s services to Humāyūn to treat the protector with discourtesy and a similar exercise of arbitrary authority at Kābul by Mun‘im Khān, which was approved by Bairam Khān, provided the enemies of the latter with further material for charges against him.
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During Akbar’s stay at Delhi the court was scandalised by a disgraceful affair between Khān Zamān and Shāham Beg, one of Humāyūn’s pages, whom he enticed from Delhi. The details of this affair are of importance only as shedding some light on the morals of the great at the courts of the Mughul emperors, of which the less said the better. Khān Zamān was ordered to send Shāham Beg back to Delhi but instead of obeying sent an emissary to allay the wrath of “the foster-father cohort”, which took the leading part in the proceedings against him. The emissary was slain by the brutal Pīr Muhammad Khān and Khān Zamān hurriedly dismissed Shāham Beg who, after leaving him, lodged with a man whose relations put him to death for attempting to seduce his host’s wife.
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After a stay of some months at Delhi the court left for Āgra, then a city of small importance, travelling by boat down the Jumna.
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At Āgra Bairam Khān’s chief anxiety was the education of his ward, who was devoted to manly exercises and field sports but, in spite of having been endowed with a vigorous intellect, could not be brought to pay any attention to what the ablest of his biographers calls “the usual apparatus of learning”. In short, he was an idle boy who would not learn to read and write and he never acquired either of these arts. His father had urged him to mend his ways but it is doubtful whether Bairam Khān received any support from the harem party or “the foster-father cohort”, whose interest lay in retarding the boy’s progress as much as possible. After reaching man’s estate Akbar atoned, as far as he could, for his boyish idleness by listening diligently to the reading of works on history, theology and philosophy, but it is unfortunate that in this respect he never rendered himself independent of the services of others, for the memory, however it may be cultivated, and Akbar's powers of memory, naturally immense, were developed by his illiteracy, can never supply the power of reference, and had he been able to use his eyes he might perhaps have been saved from the religious absurdities of his later years, which had their origin in his delight in listening to religious and philosophical discussions and found their expression in his confused recollections of these disputes.
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Abu-'l-Fazl, on whose speculations Akbar in later years firmly relied, was, perhaps, the most subtle and the most fulsome adviser and flatterer that ever monarch had. Adulation is the business of the counsellor and of the historian of an eastern ruler, but Abu-'l-Fazl surpassed other historians and encomiasts as the light of the sun surpasses that of the moon. Most Eastern courtiers are content with assuring their masters that they are the best, the wisest and the greatest of mankind, but Abu-'l-Fazl's panegyrics contain the suggestion, if not the assertion, that his master is something more than man. His boyish idleness is attributed to a divinely inspired desire to remain behind a veil, concealing his powers from all, until the time came for him to reveal to a wondering world his divine commission. Similarly the emperor's devotion, in his maturer years, to the childish and futile diversion of pigeon-flying is represented as a form of worship. This fulsome adulation, which disgusts even those accustomed by long study to the flights of oriental encomiasts, had its motive. It was not self-advancement, but it may be suspected that it was revenge. This question will be discussed later.
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The tutor whom Bairam Khān selected was Mīr 'Abdul-Latīf, the Persian, who failed, like his predecessors, to induce Akbar to learn to read, but was the first to teach him the principle of *sulh-i-kull*, or universal toleration, on which Abu-'l-Fazl so frequently descants. He came of a Sayyid family of Qazvīn, persecuted in Persia as Sunnīs, but was so moderate in his religious views as to be suspected, in India, of Shiah proclivities.
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Party spirit was now inflamed by a serious quarrel between Pīr Muhammad Khān and his former master. Pīr Muhammad fell sick, and Bairam, who courteously visited him, was refused admission. Pīr Muhammad's excuse, that his servants had not recognised him, aggravated his offence and a few days later he was compelled to surrender his standards, kettledrums and other insignia of honour, was deprived of his title of Nāsir-ul-Mulk, and was imprisoned at Bayāna, whence he was sent, after a short interval, to Gujarāt with a view to his performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, which was regarded as banishment.
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Bairam Khān's treatment of Pīr Muhammad was not his only crime in the eyes of the harem party. Almost immediately after this event he appointed Shaikh Gadāī, a Shaikh with no special qualifications, to the important post of *Sadr-us-Sudūr*, fourth in importance in the empire. The *Sadr* was the chief law officer and ecclesiastic and controlled all grants, endowments and allowances. The appointment raised a storm of protest from the orthodox, among the most prominent of whom was "the foster-father cohort", and contributed more than any other measure of Bairam Khān to his downfall.
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It was probably with the object of diverting Akbar's attention from the discontent caused by these and other measures that Bairam Khān drew his attention to Gwalior, which Qiyā Khān Gung was still besieging but could not take for lack of support. He was reinforced and the fortress surrendered early in 1559. Qiyā Khān Gung was then sent into the eastern districts of Akbar's dominions, where Khān Zamān was still sulking, but made his peace and regained his master's favour by expelling Ibrāhīm Sūr from Jaunpur and surrendering Lucknow to Qiyā Khān.
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Expeditions to Ranthambhor, held by Rāi Surjan on behalf of the Rānā of Chitor, and to Chunār, held by Jamāl Khān the Afghān, were less successful, and in each case the imperial troops were obliged to retreat without having effected their purpose. A third expedition, under Bahādur Khān Shaibānī, sent by Bairam Khān to annex Mālwa, was recalled early in 1560 from Siprī, owing to the strained relations between Akbar and his guardian.
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Akbar was now in his eighteenth year and the restraint to which he was subjected by Bairam Khān galled him. The harem party did its utmost to widen the breach and on 28 March Akbar left Āgra on a hunting expedition. When he had reached Sikandra Rāo, about 45 miles north-east of the city, Māham Anaga urged him to visit his mother, who was lying sick at Delhi and longed to see him. Akbar rode at once to Delhi, thereby openly severing himself from his guardian, who remained at Āgra, and was ceremoniously received by Shihāb-ud-dīn Ahmad Khān, governor of the capital, who was in the plot and came out to some distance from the city to receive him. Having thus succeeded in separating him from the protector the conspirators confessed that they had incurred the resentment of Bairam Khān and appealed to his pride by throwing themselves on his protection, while Shihāb-ud-dīn Ahmad Khān began to put the defences of the city into a state of repair. Atga Khān marched from the Punjab to join him and Pīr Muhammad Khān returned from Gujarāt. Some correspondence passed between the protector and the emperor and when Akbar imprisoned Bairam Khān's emissaries the breach was irreparable.
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The few adherents left to Bairam Khān urged him to attempt to recover the emperor's person by force, but he refused to turn his arms against his master, and left Āgra announcing that he proposed making a pilgrimage to Mecca. The harem party had gained its object and might well have been content with its victory, but it was certain that Bairam Khān intended to visit the Punjab to recover the private hoards which he had left at Lahore and Sirhind and his enemies assured Akbar that he intended to raise the standard of rebellion in that province. Akbar sent his tutor, Mīr ‘Abdul-Latīf, to Bairam with a decree announcing that he had decided to take the management of affairs into his own hands and that he desired Bairam Khān to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, and promising to make ample provision for his expenses. Bairam Khān promised obedience, but his movements were leisurely, and the harem party induced Akbar to send Pīr Muhammad Khān with a large force to hasten them. The selection of Pīr Muhammad for such a duty was deliberately provocative and Bairam Khān, after lodging his family at Bhatinda, turned towards Jullundur. Pīr Muhammad returned to court and reported his movements and a large force under Atga Khān which was sent against Bairam Khān defeated him at Jullundur and drove him towards the hills.
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Akbar marched in person to Sirhind, where he was joined by Mun‘im Khān and other nobles from Kābul. The grant of the protector’s title of Khān Khānān to Mun‘im Khān was a further indication, if any were needed, that Bairam Khān’s day was over. He was pursued and was besieged at Tilwāra, a hill-fortress on the banks of the Beās, whence he sent a message to Akbar expressing contrition for his rebellion and offering to submit. He was assured, in return, that he would be well received and in October he appeared before Akbar in his camp at Hājīpur. His meeting with his master and former ward was affecting, but Akbar made the situation quite clear to him. He offered him one of three alternatives, the districts of Kālpī and Chanderī, the place of companion and confidential adviser to himself, or permission to depart for Mecca. Bairam Khān chose the last and left for Mecca by way of Gujarāt, where he was hospitably received by Mūsā Khān Fulādī, governor of Pātan, but was assassinated by a gang of Afghāns led by one Mubārak Khān, whose father had been killed in 1555 at the battle of Māchīwārā, where Bairam Khān had commanded the Mughul army. The Afghāns plundered his camp, and his family reached Ahmadābād almost destitute. Akbar sent for them and afterwards married as his second wife Salīma Begam, Bairam’s widow, and charged himself with the education of his infant son, Mīrzā ‘Abdur-Rahīm, known as Mīrzā Khān, who rose to the highest rank and in 1584 received his father’s title of Khān Khānān.
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It was chiefly to Bairam Khān, ably supported by Khān Zamān, that Akbar owed his throne. It was inevitable that a young man of Akbar’s force of character should emerge from a state of tutelage, but he would have done well to wait, for he was not yet fit to assume sole charge of his empire and remained for four years more under the pernicious influence of the harem party. The means by which he escaped from Bairam’s influence was probably the best which he could have adopted, but the insults and ungenerous treatment which drove the protector into rebellion would be a blot upon his memory were it not certain that they originated with Bairam’s bitterest enemies in the harem party.
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There could be no better testimony to Bairam Khān’s worth than that recorded by the bigot Badāūnī, who could seldom see any good in a Shiah. “In wisdom, generosity, sincerity, goodness of disposition, submissiveness, and humility he surpassed all. . . . The second conquest of Hindūstān and the building up of the empire were due to his strenuous efforts, his valour, and his wide policy. . . . At last vile hypocrites poisoned the mind of His Majesty against him, until his affairs fell at length into the condition of which a brief description has been given.”¹
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¹ *Bad.* ɪɪɪ (trans. Haig), 265, 266.
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Mālwā still retained its independence under Bāz Bahādur, son of Shujā‘at Khān, and early in 1561 Akbar sent an army to annex the province. Harem influence is traceable in the extremely injudicious selection of the commander of the force, Adham Khān, and of the second in command, Pīr Muhammad Khān.
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Bāz Bahādur, a voluptuary devoted to music and to the society of dancers and singers, above all to that of his beloved mistress Rūp Matī, famed for her beauty and her devotion to her lover, now held his court at Sārangpur.² The imperial army invaded Mālwā, advancing by regular daily marches until it was within 20 miles of Sārangpur, and it was not until it had reached this point that Bāz Bahādur awoke from his dreams of love and music and bestirred himself to defend his kingdom. Marching from the city, he entrenched himself at a distance of three miles from it and awaited the attack of the imperial troops, but on 29 March he was induced, by feigned attacks from various directions, to leave his entrenched position and take the field. The battle was of short duration. His troops were outnumbered and his Afghān officers were disaffected and left the field early in the day. Bāz Bahādur saved his life by flight, but his women, his treasures and his elephants fell into the hands of the victors, and the devoted Rūp Matī took poison in order to escape the embraces of Adham Khān.
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² 23° 34′ N., 76° 29′ E.
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Pīr Muhammad Khān and Adham Khān sullied their victory by the most revolting cruelty. The historian Badāūnī, who was an eyewitness of their atrocities, describes them as follows:³
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³ *Bad.* (text), ɪɪ, 47.
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“On the day of the victory the two commanders were in their camp, and the prisoners were brought before them and were put to death by troops, so that their blood flowed in rivers.”
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Pīr Muhammad Khān cracked brutal jests on the wretched victims, and when Mihr ‘Alī Beg Sildūz, at Badāūnī’s instance, represented that whatever might be done with rebels taken in arms it was not lawful to put their wives and children to death Pīr Muhammad replied, “If we keep them for the night what will happen to them?”
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“In that night the plundering marauders stowed away their Muslim captives, the wives of holy and learned men, Sayyids, and nobles, in boxes and saddlebags, and carried them off to Ujjain and in other directions. Sayyids and holy men came forth, bearing copies of the Korān, to welcome the conquerors, and Pīr Muhammad Khān slew and burnt them all.”
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Adham Khān sent to court, with the despatches announcing his victory, only a few elephants, and kept most of the spoils and all the women for himself. Māham Anaga’s influence was powerless to restrain Akbar’s resentment of such an insult to his authority, but she wrote to her son to warn him to look to himself and Akbar left Āgra on 27 April. After receiving, on his way, tribute from Surjan Rāi of Ranthambhor and the surrender of Gāgraun he reached Sārangpur on 13 May, to the consternation of Adham Khān, whose mother’s letter had not yet reached him. The delinquent humbled himself before his sovereign, but his prayers and excuses were unavailing until his mother appeared to intercede for him. She arranged a reconciliation and attempted to conceal her son’s crimes by causing to be put to death two of Bāz Bahādur’s most beautiful concubines, whom he had ravished. The crime was discovered but as it was traced to Māham Anaga it went unpunished.
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Adham Khān was permitted to remain in Mālwa as governor, with Pīr Muhammad Khān as his principal assistant, and Akbar returned to Āgra, slaying on the way, near Narwar, with one stroke of his sword, a tigress which had five cubs. He delighted in such feats of daring and took special pride in his mastery over elephants. One day he mounted, rode and controlled the vicious elephant *Hawāī*, probably the beast of that name which had been ridden by Hīmū at Pānīpat. Not content with this feat he commanded the servants of the elephant stables to bring forth another fierce brute, *Ran Bāghā*, “the Tiger in Battle”, and continued to ride *Hawāī* while the two fought. *Hawāī* overcame *Ran Bāghā* who fled, pursued by the victor, across the bridge spanning the Jumna. The pontoons were submerged by the ponderous beasts, but both reached the further bank in safety, and there Akbar succeeded in bringing *Hawāī* to a stand.
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“In later years Akbar explained more than once to Abu-’l-Fazl that his motive in undertaking such adventures was that God might end his life if he should knowingly have taken a step displeasing to the Most High, or cherished an aspiration contrary to his will, for, he said, ‘We cannot support the burden of life under God’s displeasure.’”
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Such sentiments do little credit either to his heart or to his head. If, as is certain, he did not hold such views when he was nineteen he was lying, and the suggestion that God required his aid for the purpose of destroying him shows that in the maze of his religious speculations he had not found even the clue to the truth.
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Before Akbar started for Mälwā a very serious rebellion had broken out in the eastern provinces of the empire. Sher Khān, the son of Muhammad ‘Ādil, had assembled at Chunār an army of nearly 20,000 horse, 50,000 foot, and 500 elephants, and had marched on Jaunpur. Ibrāhīm Khān the Uzbeg, Majnūn Khān Qāqshāl, and Shāham Khān Jalāir had been ordered to support Khān Zamān, who, with his brother Bahādur and their troops, stood alone in the path of the invaders. The forces met in the neighbourhood of Jaunpur, and the Mughuls, though outnumbered, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Afghāns and dispersed their imposing array.
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Khān Zamān, by repeating Adham Khān’s offence, incurred the wrath of Akbar, who marched from Āgra by way of Kālpī and Karā towards Jaunpur. Khān Zamān and his brother Bahādur, on learning of his departure from Āgra, repented their contumacy and marched to Karā, where they offered to him all the elephants which they had taken from the Afghāns. Their timely submission disarmed his wrath and he permitted them to return to Jaunpur, and, having despatched Āsaf Khān to Chunār, which was still in the hands of the Afghāns, returned to Āgra, arriving there on 29 August. Chunār was surrendered to Āsaf Khān and became an outpost of the empire.
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In November Atga Khān was summoned from Kābul and appointed minister of the empire, though the formality of dismissing Mun‘im Khān, who had acted in that capacity ever since the fall of Bairam Khān, was not observed. The appointment was extremely distasteful, not only to Mun‘im Khān but also to Māham Anaga, “who regarded herself as the virtual lieutenant of the empire”, and she was still further annoyed by the recall of her son, Adham Khān, from Mālwā, where his sensuality and tyranny had rendered him obnoxious to all. His recall was welcome to none more than to the still less scrupulous ruffian Pīr Muhammad Khān, who desired freedom even from supervision so lax as Adham Khān’s.
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On 14 January, 1562, Akbar made his first pilgrimage to the shrine of the famous saint Mu‘īn-ud-dīn Chishtī of Ajmer, of whose merits he had heard. This pilgrimage became an annual institution and was regularly performed by him while he remained a Muslim. On his way to Ajmer Rājā Bihārī Mal of Amber, who had been the first Rājput chief to be presented at his court, obeyed a summons to wait on him, attended the camp with his whole family, and begged Akbar’s acceptance of his daughter in marriage. His offers were accepted and at Sāmbhar, on his return march, Akbar married the princess, who eventually became the mother of Jahāngīr, and received into his service Mān Singh, the nephew and adopted son of Bhagwān Dās, Bihārī Mal’s heir.
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This was the first fruits of Mīr ‘Abdul-Latīf’s teachings and the earliest indication of Akbar’s noble resolve to be a father to all his people, Hindus as well as Muslims, to be emperor of India, in short, rather than the commander of a small garrison, alien in religion, and to a great extent in blood, to the mass of the people. Shaikh Abu-’l-Fazl is sometimes wrongly credited with having directed Akbar into the path of religious toleration, on which he descants much in his own pompous and artificial style, but Akbar deliberately adopted the policy and pursued it for years before he had ever seen his famous secretary.
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Mīrzā Sharaf-ud-dīn Husain, whose assignment was in the neighbourhood of Ajmer, was sent to capture the fortress of Merta,¹ then held by Jaimal for the Rānā, Uday Singh of Chitor. The fortress was surrendered and quarter was given on the condition that it should be handed over intact, with its contents, to the imperial troops, but one Deo Dās violated this condition by setting fire to its stores and by offering a determined opposition to the troops as they entered, with the result that “he exalted several of the emperor’s soldiers to the dignity of martyrdom and himself entered eternal fire, being accompanied to hell by 200 of his famous Rājputs”,² and the fortress was occupied by Sharaf-ud-dīn Husain.
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¹ 26° 39′ N., 74° 2′ E.
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² *Bad.* (text) II, 50.
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Akbar arrived at Āgra on 13 February, 1562, having married at Sāmbhar, as already related, the princess of Amber.
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Pīr Muhammad Khān, who had remained in Mālwā as governor on the removal of Adham Khān, displayed great activity in clearing the country of the adherents of Bāz Bahādur. He besieged and captured Bījāgarh³ and put the whole garrison to the sword, and as Bāz Bahādur had taken refuge in Khāndesh and was causing some trouble on the southern frontier of Mālwā he invaded that country and penetrated as far as Burhānpur, massacring the inhabitants without distinction as he advanced, and sparing neither Sayyids nor learned and holy men. Mubārak II of Khāndesh and Bāz Bahādur appealed for aid to Tufāl Khān, the actual ruler of Berār, and on his joining them fell upon Pīr Muhammad Khān, dispersed his troops and forced him to flee towards Māndū. As he was crossing the Narbadā his horse was overturned in the river by a camel and he was drowned, and thus, as a historian says, “he went to fire by way of water, and the sighs of the orphans, of the weak, and of the captives did their work with him”.⁴
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³ 21° 41′ N., 75° 20′ E.
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⁴ *Bad.* (text) II, 51.
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The pursuit was pressed and the imperial officers could make no stand in Mālwā but were forced to flee to Āgra, and Bāz Bahādur thus regained, for a short time, possession of his kingdom, but Akbar at once sent ‘Abdullah Khān the Uzbeg of Kālpī and Ahmad Khān Farankhudī to recover the country, and Bāz Bahādur fled and took refuge with Uday Singh of Chitor while ‘Abdullāh Khān occupied Mālwa and re-established Mughul rule throughout the country.
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In the hot weather of this year Akbar, while hunting near Sakīt, now in the Etah district of the United Provinces, heard complaints of a gang of Hindu brigands who infested that neighbourhood. He at once marched against them and they fled and took refuge in the village of Paraunkh, 15 miles south-east of Sakīt. At the head of his escort of 200 horse he attacked the brigands, who are said to have numbered 4000. He was not well supported, but pressed on, receiving twelve arrows in his shield and narrowly escaping death by his elephant stumbling into a grain pit. He succeeded, however, in forcing the animal through a wall of the buildings in which the brigands had taken refuge and they were set on fire, about a thousand of the wretches perishing in the flames. Akbar was ever ready for such perilous enterprises and we shall see that at a much later period of his life he displayed similar reckless courage in Gujarāt. These exploits, performed in the interests of his empire, stand on an entirely different footing from his foolish pranks with tigers and elephants.
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A tragedy now enabled him to free himself for ever of the baleful influence of Māham Anaga and her ruffianly son. The discontent caused by the appointment of Atga Khān as minister has already been described. It was shared by Shihāb-ud-dīn Ahmad Khān as well as by those mentioned before, and the malcontents instigated the unscrupulous Adham Khān to remove the obstacle from their path. Authorities differ as to the details of the murder, but on 16 May, 1562, Adham Khān, attended by his followers, swaggered into the hall where Atga Khān was engaged either in public business or in reading the Korān and advanced towards him in a threatening manner, with his hand on his dagger. Whether he stabbed him himself is not certain, but two of his followers, at a signal from him, cut the minister down and he staggered out and fell dead in the courtyard. Adham Khān then attempted to force his way into the inner apartments where Akbar, who had been sleeping, was awakened by the tumult. His object does not appear to have been, as Dr Vincent Smith believed, “the last extremity of treason”,¹ but to make his peace. The eunuch on duty, however, barred his way, and Akbar, armed with his sword, came out by another door. As his glance fell on the dead body of Atga Khān he cried to Adham Khān, “You son of a ——,² why have you killed my foster-father?” Adham Khān seized his hands and begged him to hear him, but Akbar, maddened by the restraint, wrenched himself free and felled him with a blow of his fist. He then ordered his attendants to throw him down from the terrace, and the order was obeyed, but as Adham Khān was seen to be breathing he was taken up and thrown down a second time, so that his neck was broken and his brains spattered the pavement. Akbar then returned to the inner apartments and broke the news, as quietly as he could, to the murderer’s mother, who was ill. The sick woman said simply, “Your Majesty did well”, and forty days later died of grief for her worthless son.
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¹ *Akbar, the Great Mogul*, p. 60.
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² For doubt as to his use of an epithet see Mrs Beveridge, *Humāyūn-nāma*, p. 62, n. 1. [Ed.]
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Mun‘im Khān and Muhammad Qāsim Khān, another conspirator, fled across the Jumna and made for Rūpar and Māchīwārā, intending to escape to Kābul, where they hoped that Ghanī Khān, the former’s son, would be able to protect them, but they were captured near Sarwat in the Dūāb and handed over to Sayyid Mahmūd Bārha, who sent them back to Āgra, whence an emissary had already been despatched to convey to them an assurance that they should not be molested. On their arrival at Āgra they were not only pardoned, but Mun‘im Khān was permitted to retain his title of Khān Khānān and was reinstated as chief minister of the empire.
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It has been plausibly conjectured¹ that there was an element of contempt in this reinstatement, for the post to which Mun‘im Khān was restored was shorn of nearly all its former importance. Akbar had learnt his lesson and was resolved in future to be emperor in fact as well as in name. During Mun‘im Khān’s short absence he had discovered gross abuses in the administration of the crown lands and had appointed to the charge of those lands, under his own immediate control, the eunuch Buhlūl Malik, who had faithfully served Islām Shāh Sūr and was now entitled I‘timād Khān. The selection was a wise one and the eunuch served his new master faithfully and well.
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¹ *Akbar, the Great Mogul*, p. 63.
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So it was to be in all other departments of state. The powers of the *Sadr-us-Sudūr* had already been greatly curtailed on the appointment of Muhammad Sālih of Herāt to that post earlier in the year, and the chief minister of the empire was henceforward to register and execute his master’s decrees rather than to govern the empire.
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The completion of Akbar’s twentieth year was the turning point of his life. He had freed himself from all malign influences and was able to pursue his own high ideals. With all his faults and all his foibles, and they were many, he was a truly great ruler and was the first of the Muslim sovereigns of India to conceive the idea of dealing impartially with all his subjects, whether Hindus or Muslims. It may also be said that he was the last. Henceforward the chronicle of his reign is the story of the man, not of the influence of this or that minister or faction.
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The province of Kābul was governed nominally by Akbar’s younger brother, prince Muhammad Hakīm, but the management of its affairs was in the hands of his guardian, who at the beginning of the reign had been Mun‘im Khān. When he came to court on the occasion of Bairam Khān’s fall he left his son, Ghanī Khān, to act for him, but the young man was unequal to the task. He could manage neither the turbulent populace of Kābul nor the prince's mother, who was a power in the state, and during a temporary absence from the town the gates were shut against him by the princess, Māh Chūchak Begam, and by his own uncle, Fāzil (or Fazāil) Beg. Ghanī Khān retired to Akbar's court and Fāzil Beg took his place, but left all business in the hands of his son, Abu-'l-Fath. Abu-'l-Fath's behaviour estranged him both from the old nobles of Kābul and from Māh Chūchak Begam, and he was assassinated. Fāzil Beg attempted to escape but was captured and shared the fate of his son.
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Mun'im Khān was now reappointed to Kābul and, over-estimating his popularity, hastened thither with an inadequate force. He was attacked and defeated near Jalālābād by Māh Chūchak Begam and fled to the Gakkhar country, whence he wrote to Akbar begging that he might be permitted either to make the pilgrimage to Mecca or to hide his shame in the Punjab, but Akbar consoled him, recalled him to court, and made him governor of Āgra.
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Affairs at Kābul were now thrown into greater confusion than ever by the arrival of the stormy petrel, Shāh Abu-'l-Ma'ālī, who, having escaped from his prison at Lahore, had performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, whence he returned ready to seize any opportunity of fomenting strife and stirring up sedition. At Jālor he had found Sharaf-ud-dīn Husain, one of the conspirators who had fled from court after the murder of Atga Khān, and at his instigation had taken possession of Nārnaul and had defeated and slain Ismā'īl Qulī and Ahmad Beg, who had been sent against him by Husain Qulī Khān, then engaged in an attempt to capture Sharaf-ud-dīn Husain. Ismā'īl Qulī and Ahmad Beg had, however, before their final defeat and death, driven Abu-'l-Ma'ālī from Nārnaul and captured his brother, Khānzāda Muhammad, and as one imperial officer after another closed the gates of their fortresses against him and he heard that Akbar was marching from Āgra to Delhi he resolved to take refuge at Kābul, where he hoped to be able to obtain possession of the person of Muhammad Hakīm Mīrzā, whom he might set up as a pretender to the imperial throne in opposition to Akbar.
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He fled through the Punjab, fruitlessly pursued by the imperial troops, and was kindly received at Kābul by Māh Chūchak Begam, who gave him her daughter, Fakhr-un-Nisa Begam, in marriage. She soon had reason to repent her courtesy to the turbulent and ambitious Sayyid, who formed a party of the malcontents in the state, put to death his benefactress and her agent, Haidar Qāsim Kūhbur, and took the management of affairs into his own hands. The young prince Muhammad Hakīm now secretly appealed for aid to Mīrzā Sulaimān of Badakhshān, who marched on Kābul. Shāh Abu-'l-Ma'ālī, carrying with him the prince, went forth to meet him, but during the battle which ensued the prince found an opportunity of escaping to the enemy and the Kābulīs, seeing that he had taken refuge with Mīrzā Sulaimān, dispersed. Shāh Abu-’l-Ma‘ālī fled, but was pursued, taken and hanged on 13 May, 1564.
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Mīrzā Sulaimān then married his daughter to Muhammad Hakīm, distributed the province among his own adherents, appointed Ummīd ‘Alī guardian of the prince and returned to Badakhshān.
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The “foster-father cohort” was importunate for vengeance on those who had been concerned in the murder of Atga Khān, but Akbar, who had pardoned and reinstated two and could not lay his hand on the third of the conspirators, did not meet their demand and found it necessary to divert their attention by active employment. A plausible pretext for interfering in the affairs of the Gakkhars offered him an opportunity. Sultān Sārang, who had been confirmed by Bābur as chief of the Gakkhars, had been put to death by Islām Khān Sūr and his son Kamāl Khān was in Akbar’s service. The leadership of the tribe had been seized by Kamāl Khān’s uncle, Sultān Ādam, and Kamāl, who had rendered distinguished services against the Afghāns at Jaunpur, begged Akbar to restore him to at least half of his inheritance. Akbar accordingly called upon Sultān Ādam to surrender to his nephew half of the tribal territory and, on his refusing to comply, fitted out an expedition the command of which he gave to Khān Kalān and Qutb-ud-dīn Khān, two of Atga Khān’s three brothers. The expedition was successful. Sultān Ādam and his son Lashkarī were captured and Kamāl Khān was placed in possession of the Gakkhar country, which lay between the Indus and the frontier of Kashmīr. He put his uncle to death and threw his cousin into prison, where he shortly afterwards died.
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Akbar was hunting at Muttra when he heard of the death of Ismā‘īl Qulī and Ahmad Beg, near Nāgaur, at the hands of Shāh Abu-’l-Ma‘ālī, and on receiving the news marched to Delhi with a view to cutting off the rebel, but the report of his movement so accelerated Abu-’l-Ma‘ālī’s flight that by the time the emperor reached Delhi arrest was impossible.
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While at Muttra Akbar abolished the tax levied on Hindu pilgrims visiting the town, another instance of his clemency to his Hindu subjects.
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At Delhi one of the most discreditable episodes of his life occurred. He chanced to see and to fall in love with an extremely beautiful woman, the wife of one Shaikh ‘Abdul-Wasī, and sent a message to the Shaikh reminding him of the article in the code of Chingīz Khān to the effect that the husband of any woman whom the sovereign may desire is bound to divorce his wife and surrender her to his lord. The Shaikh was complaisant, divorced his wife and retired to Bīdar in the Deccan. The woman through whom Akbar had become acquainted with the Shaikh’s wife now suggested that he should in like manner connect himself with the leading families of Delhi and Āgra, and pandars and eunuchs were employed to inspect secretly the harems of the leading men of the city and report the discovery of any woman of special beauty. This invasion of the sanctity of the home caused much murmuring and discontent, and on 12 January, 1564, as Akbar was returning from a visit to the tomb of Shaikh Nizām-ud-dīn Auliya, a slave named Fulād shot an arrow at him which inflicted no more than a slight flesh wound. There appears to be no doubt, though another motive has been assigned for the act, that the attempt was connected with Akbar’s designs on the honour and happiness of his subjects. He, at any rate, so regarded it and caused the assassin to be put to death on the spot, without inquiring, as his advisers urged, what had been his motive and who were his instigators. He abandoned his disgraceful search, and no more is heard throughout his reign of his molesting the wives and daughters of his subjects.
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In this year he made another appointment which indicated his intention of bringing the whole of the administration of the empire under his personal control. Muzaffar ‘Alī of Turbat, who had been in Bairam Khān’s service and whose life had been spared in spite of the efforts of the harem party to procure his condemnation, had since done good service as collector of a sub-district and superintendent of the imperial stores. He was now entitled Muzaffar Khān and appointed *Dīwān*, or revenue minister, of the empire.
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