The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c15.37

v4.c15.37

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.