The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16: Chapter V. Akbar, Mystic and Prophet
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16
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Chapter V. Akbar, Mystic and Prophet
v4.c16.2
HUSAIN QULĪ KHĀN had been obliged by the flight of the two Mīrzās into the Punjab to raise the siege of Nagarkot, but had first exacted from Bidai Chand complete submission to Akbar. Having defeated the Mīrzās he carried his prisoners, 300 in number, to Fathpur Sīkrī where the head of Ibrāhīm Husain was laid before the throne, and Mas‘ūd Husain, with his eyes sewn up, was delivered to Akbar, who, having caused the stitches to be cut, imprisoned the rebel in Gwalior. The other prisoners, clad in the skins of cows, asses, hogs and dogs, formed a grotesque pageant, after which some were released, others imprisoned, and others put to death with fantastic tortures. Husain Qulī Khān received the title of Khān Jahān.
v4.c16.3
Sulaimān Kararānī, king of Bengal, had died during Akbar’s expedition to Gujarāt, and Akbar, on his return, was preparing for the conquest of Bengal when news arrived that Gujarāt was in revolt. Muhammad Husain Mīrzā, who had fled to Daulatābād, had returned to Gujarāt and joined a confederacy which the rebellious nobles of the old dynasty had formed with the Rājā of Īdar. They besieged Khān A‘zam in Ahmadābād, and, on learning of the rebellion, Akbar left Fathpur Sīkrī on 23 August, and on 2 September arrived within four miles of Ahmadābād, having performed the march from Fathpur Sīkrī in eleven days.
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Khān A‘zam was apprised of Akbar’s arrival, and the imperial troops, numbering no more than 3000, halted on the banks of the Sābarmatī. Akbar was advised to fall on the enemy at once, but his foolish punctilio restrained him from attacking even rebels unawares, and he caused the great kettle-drums to be beaten. Muhammad Husain Mīrzā, on being informed that the sound indicated that the emperor was present in person, refused to credit the account as his spies had reported that they had seen Akbar at Fathpur Sīkrī only a fortnight before, but he sent Ikhtiyār-ul-Mulk with 5000 horse to prevent Khān A‘zam from issuing from Ahmadābād, and himself attacked Akbar’s force. Akbar in person led a charge against the rebels, and the Mīrzā was wounded. His horse fell with him as he was fleeing, and he was captured and brought before Akbar, who delivered him into the custody of Rāi Singh. A fresh force advancing towards Akbar’s troops was believed to be that commanded by Khān A‘zam, but proved to be the 5000 horse led by Ikhtiyār-ul-Mulk. This force was likewise attacked and defeated by Akbar, and Ikhtiyār-ul-Mulk was captured and shared the fate of Muhammad Husain Mīrzā, who had been put to death by order of Rāi Singh. Late in the afternoon Khān A‘zam issued from Ahmadābād and joined Akbar, who embraced him affectionately and greeted the officers with him. A column was sent to Broach and Chāmpāner in pursuit of the other rebel, Shāh Mīrzā, who had fled, but he escaped and is heard of no more.
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Thus ended the most astonishing military exploit of Akbar's reign. In eleven days he had ridden, with 3000 horse, more than 450 miles; on arriving at his destination he had fought, in one day, two battles, each against a force superior in numbers to his own, and in each he had gained a decisive victory, and had completely crushed a dangerous rebellion.
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He remained at Ahmadābād for no more than ten days after his success, but during that short period he made arrangements for the government of the province.
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The finances of Gujarāt had fallen into the utmost confusion. The administration of the state had for years been lax to the verge of anarchy, and after a long period of internecine strife it had been the scene of almost uninterrupted warfare for a year. It had been impossible to collect any revenue, and it was probably difficult to ascertain on what principle and in what proportion the land rent should be collected. Rājā Todar Mal was appointed to revise the settlement and to restore order in the financial administration.
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Akbar arrived at his capital on 5 October, and within a month Rājā Bhagwān Dās returned with the army and brought with him Umrāo Singh, son of Partāb Singh, Rānā of Chitor, sent by his father to court in order that he might enter the emperor's service.
v4.c16.9
A great measure of reform in the administration of the empire was now inaugurated by the promulgation of the "branding regulation", the conversion of all the assignments into crown lands, and the regulation of the grades of the officers of state.
v4.c16.10
The branding regulation applied to the horses which the nobles and lesser officers were obliged to maintain for their contingents, and was designed to prevent the fraudulent practice of producing at musters horses temporarily borrowed or hired. It was modelled on similar regulations issued by ‘Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī and Sher Shāh, and was bitterly opposed by those whose opportunities for peculation it curtailed, one of its most obstinate opponents being Khān A‘zam, the emperor's foster-brother.
v4.c16.11
The conversion of the whole of the imperial territories into crown lands was a root and branch measure, amounting to nothing less than the complete change of the administrative system. It was aimed against the corrupt practices of the officers of state who, while extracting the last penny of revenue from their assignments, failed to maintain at full strength or to pay at a just rate the contingents for the support of which the assignments had been made. Akbar's intention was that his territories should be administered by his own revenue officials, and that his troops should be a standing army regularly paid at uniform rates from the imperial treasury.
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The regulation of the grades of the officers of state consisted in the establishment of a graded list of the *mansabdārs*, or officers of the army, whose rank ranged from that of commander of 5000 down to that of commander of ten horse. The measure affected civil as well as military officials, for the former held relative rank and were graded as commanders of horse even though they might never command troops. Akbar's intention was that all should, as a rule, enter in the lowest rank and rise by merit.
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For the purpose of carrying out these reforms Muzaffar Khān Turbatī was appointed *vakīl*, or first minister of the empire, and Todar Mal on his return from Gujarāt was appointed his assistant, but Muzaffar Khān, who personally disapproved of the reforms, failed to enforce them and was consequently dismissed.
v4.c16.14
The reforms were, indeed, generally unpopular. Akbar succeeded in resuming the land in the more settled provinces of the empire, where the troops, from those in high command downwards, were paid from the treasury and the cavalry soldiers received branded horses from the state. Collectors of revenue were appointed, each to a tract estimated to yield a crore (*karor* = 10,000,000) of *dāms*, equivalent to Rs. 250,000, and were styled croris (*karorīs*). They were expected both to collect the revenue and to improve it by encouraging the extension of cultivation, but they proved to be both inefficient and extortionate, and many were severely punished. In 1582 Todar Mal was appointed *vakīl*, or prime minister of the empire, and was ordered to prepare a scheme for the improvement of the revenue administration.¹ The thirteen proposals which he submitted to Akbar were so elementary in their nature as to make it clear that the resumption of the land by the crown had in no way lightened the burden of the husbandman.
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¹ See also chap. xvi.
v4.c16.16
In the less settled and newly conquered provinces the old system remained undisturbed, but Akbar insisted on the enforcement of the branding regulation in all provinces. It is to the unpopularity of this measure that Abu-'l-Fazl attributes the rebellion which broke out in Bihār and Bengal in 1580, but though this may have been a contributory cause the rebellion was chiefly due to Akbar's religious innovations. In 1576, when Khān A'zam was summoned from Gujarāt to join a projected expedition to Badakhshān, it was discovered that he had made no attempt to enforce the obnoxious regulation in his province, and he so violently condemned it that he was deprived of office. Another might have lost his life, but Akbar could never cross the "river of milk".
v4.c16.17
Sulaimān Kararānī, who had been governor of Bihār under Sher Shāh, established his independence in Bengal when the power of the Sūr dynasty declined. He had placated Akbar by acknowledging his authority and occasionally sending him tribute, and had died in His elder son, Bāyazīd, who succeeded him, had been put to death, after a reign of a few months, by his turbulent Afghān nobles, who raised to the throne his younger brother Dāūd.
v4.c16.18
This prince was intoxicated by his elevation to power and by the extent of his resources. He was the master of much treasure, of 40,000 cavalry, of 140,000 infantry, of 20,000 guns of sorts, of 3300 elephants, and of an enormous fleet of river boats. He defied Akbar by refusing to acknowledge his supremacy, and invaded his dominions and destroyed the fort of Zamāniyā, near Ghāzīpur. Mun‘im Khān had been sent against him, and had compelled him to retire to Patna, where he besieged him. In the conduct of the siege he experienced considerable difficulties, less from the activity of the enemy than from the insubordination of Khān ‘Ālam, who had been sent to assist him, and his reports caused Akbar to march in person to his assistance.
v4.c16.19
Before he left Fathpur Sīkrī his famous secretary, Abu-’l-Fazl, and the historian, ‘Abdul-Qādir Badāūnī, were presented to him for the first time.
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Abu-’l-Fazl was now a young man of twenty-three. As a boy he had studied assiduously under his father, Shaikh Mubārak, and had afterwards followed his own bent in reading and meditation, until he became, as he himself confesses, a prig of the first water. He meditated and speculated on the mysteries of all religions, and was so perplexed by the differences between the formalists of every faith that he had “neither strength to remain silent nor power to cry out”. He was a mystic and a visionary, and was the worst possible adviser that one of Akbar’s tendencies could have had in spiritual matters. It was probably not he who invented the “Divine Faith”, for that seems to have been the bantling of Akbar’s own brain, but both he and his father undoubtedly had a part in encouraging Akbar’s extravagant view of his spiritual prerogative.
v4.c16.21
He was favourably received, and, though he did not at once enter the imperial service, he found, as he says, in Akbar his “true spiritual guide. His eyes were opened and he perceived the spiritual excellence of a sovereign who was the confluence of the oceans of religious and worldly duty, the dayspring of the lights of outward forms and inward graces”, and much more to the same effect.
v4.c16.22
Abu-’l-Fazl undoubtedly had for Akbar an admiration none the less genuine for its coincidence with his interest, but few will agree with the late Mr Blochmann that the charge of flattery and wilful concealment of facts damaging to the reputation of his master is absolutely unfounded, or that he praises with much more grace and dignity than any other eastern writer. In gross flattery there can be neither grace nor dignity, and Abu-’l-Fazl’s flattery is uncouth in form and style and differs from the formal and customary tribute of other panegyrists by verging on blasphemy.
v4.c16.23
Akbar left Āgra by boat on 20 June, his army marching by land, and on 4 August reached Patna, where it was decided to capture Hājīpur on the north bank of the river, the dépôt whence the garrison of Patna drew its supplies, but Akbar first made a foolish proposal to Dāūd that the differences between them should be settled by single combat. Even Dāūd had the wit to understand that great armies are not maintained merely as spectators of tournaments, and rejected the proposal.
v4.c16.24
Hājīpur was taken on 7 August, and on 9 August the Afghāns evacuated Patna by night and fled. Akbar pursued them the next day as far as Daryāpur, near Bārh, and, though he failed to come up with them, took much plunder, including 265 elephants. The next day he was joined by Mun‘im Khān who had followed him, and who was left to complete the conquest of Bengal, Akbar returning to Delhi, which he reached on 17 October. On his way he received two despatches from Mun‘im Khān, the first announcing the bloodless capture of the fortified pass of Teliyāgarhī, the gate of lower Bengal, and the second the occupation of Dāūd’s capital, Tāndā.
v4.c16.25
In 1575 the province of Gujarāt suffered severely from a pestilence, and from a famine which lasted for six months, a calamity rare in that fertile region and greatly aggravated by the wars and disorders which had devastated it.
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Meanwhile the conquest of Bengal proceeded but slowly, owing to dissensions between the officers and the sloth and insubordination of the troops. Mun‘im Khān made Tāndā his headquarters and left the direction of operations in the field chiefly to Todar Mal. Ghorāghāt,¹ Sātgāon² and Burdwān were occupied, but an imperial force was defeated in Chotā Nāgpur by Junaid Kararānī, Dāūd’s cousin, against whom Todar Mal was obliged to advance in person. He defeated him, and occupied Midnapore, but Junaid soon recovered from his defeat, and marched into Bihār, which had been invaded by another Afghān force under Tāj Khān. The imperial governor, Muzaffar Khān Turbatī, was thus obliged to deal with two rebel forces and also to recover Hājīpur, which another body of Afghāns had recaptured, but after many vicissitudes he succeeded in expelling all the rebels and in restoring order in the province.
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¹ 25° 15′ N., 89° 18′ E.
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² 22° 58′ N., 88° 23′ E.
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Todar Mal, still at Midnapore, was preparing to advance into Orissa, where Dāūd had taken refuge, but his troops insisted that their defeat of Junaid had earned them some repose and refused to embark on a fresh campaign. Mun‘im Khān sent him a reinforcement which enabled him to prevent the malcontents from retreating, but not to induce them to advance.
v4.c16.30
Dāūd, hearing of these dissensions, assembled a considerable army and marched against Todar Mal, who advanced to Chitwa, but, mistrusting the spirit and the loyalty of his officers, again appealed to Mun‘im Khān, who at length took the field in person and joined him. An attempt to turn Dāūd’s flank and to cut his line of retreat compelled him to prepare for battle.
v4.c16.31
The battle is variously known as that of Bajhaura, Mughulmārī, and Tukaroī, and the researches of the late Mr Blochmann¹ have determined its site, which was on the road from Midnapore to Jaleswar, rather more than half-way from the former to the latter, and within three miles of the eastern bank of the Subarnarekha.
v4.c16.32
¹ *Āīn-i-Akbarī*, trans., I, 375.
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The result of the battle was for some time in doubt. Mun‘im Khān was severely wounded, ‘Ālam Khān was killed, and the centre broke and fled, throwing even the left wing, under Todar Mal, into some confusion. The centre was, however, rallied and drove back the van-guard of the Afghān centre. Todar Mal then pressed forward and drove the right wing of the Afghāns from the field. Their left wing also gave way, and Dāūd fled, and took refuge in Cuttack. Todar Mal pursued him vigorously as far as Bhadrakh, and after Mun‘im Khān had joined him there envoys from Dāūd arrived, to sue for peace. Dāūd offered to appear before Mun‘im Khān and swear allegiance to Akbar, to surrender his elephants and pay tribute, and to wait personally on the emperor when approved service should have ensured him a favourable reception. The troops had long been weary of field service in the unaccustomed climate of Bengal, so Mun‘im Khān accepted these terms, and on 12 April received Dāūd on the bank of the Mahānadī. Dāūd made obeisance and delivered to Mun‘im, besides many rich gifts, his nephew Muhammad, son of Bāyazīd, to be detained at the imperial court as a hostage, and in return received as a grant the greater part of Orissa. There was much rejoicing in the army at the termination of hostilities, but Todar Mal, the real hero of the campaign, stood aloof. He strongly dis-approved of the treaty, and refused to affix his seal to it, but the news of peace was welcomed at court.
v4.c16.34
When Mun‘im Khān, after returning to Tāndā, had expelled the local Afghāns who during his absence had occupied all the territory to the east of the Ganges, Bengal, though the seeds of future trouble remained, was at length quiet, and Akbar had leisure to turn his thoughts to other matters. For his favourite amusement he built at Fathpur Sīkrī his famous ‘*Ibādat-Khāna*, or “Hall of Worship”, which would have been more accurately styled a hall of debate. Its exact design has never been ascertained, but it seems to have been cruci-form in plan, the four arms of a Greek cross forming four halls for the accommodation of four classes of disputants and their supporters: (1) Shaikhs, or those who had acquired a reputation for sanctity or for the possession of peculiar spiritual gifts, (2) Sayyids, or descen-dants of Muhammad, (3) the ‘*Ulamā*, or jurists and doctors of the sacred law of Islām, and (4) nobles of the court interested in specula-tive theology. None but Muslims were at first admitted to the discussions, for Akbar, though much attracted by the pantheistic mysticism of the Sūfīs, was still a professing Muslim, and even had he desired to admit professors of other faiths the strength of the orthodox party was then so strong that he could not have done so.
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The orthodox, or Sunnī, party was led by Mullā ‘Abdullah of Sultānpur, entitled Makhdūm-ul-Mulk, and by the *Sadr*, Shaikh ‘Abdun-Nabī. Their orthodoxy was beyond question, but even the rigid Sunnī, Badāūnī, condemns the worldliness, avarice and duplicity of Makhdūm-ul-Mulk, but adds, with approval, “owing to his exertions many heretics and schismatics had gone to the places prepared for them”. Shaikh ‘Abdun-Nabī had put to death a Brāhman convicted of the offence of abusing the prophet of Islām, and had interpreted the marriage law with an exactitude which had given great offence to Akbar.
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Shaikh Mubārak, the father of Faizī and Abu-’l-Fazl, had revelled in spiritual experiences. He had been in turn a Sunnī, a Shiah, a Sufī, a Mahdīist, and probably many other things besides. He had even professed to be the Mahdī, and for this offence had shortly before this time been obliged to go into hiding to save his life, for the jurists had decided to have him put to death for heresy. His position in the discussions was that of a free-lance. He had at first no system to offer as a substitute for orthodox Islām, and his object was purely destructive, the complete discomfiture of his enemies. His great learning fitted him for the task. He was versed in all contentious questions, and well knew how to set his persecutors by the ears, for even the orthodox had their differences. He soon had the doctors of the law cursing and reviling one another, and their vituperation and vulgar abuse at first diverted and afterwards disgusted Akbar. The introduction of Shiah disputants poured oil on the flames of strife, and the wrangles between the various sects and the intolerant violence of the orthodox gradually alienated Akbar from Islām, but he was still a professing Muslim, and in this year a party from his court, including his wife Salīma and his aunt Gulbadan, set out on the pilgrimage to Mecca.
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Eastern Bengal was still unsettled, and Mun‘im Khān transferred his headquarters from Tāndā to Gaur, further to the east. His officers knew if he did not why the old city had been abandoned, and protested, but in vain, against being compelled to inhabit so pestilential a spot. Their worst anticipations were soon realised. Fourteen officers of high rank fell victims to the climate, and the mortality among the troops was so great that the living were unable to bury the dead, and threw the corpses into the river. Mun‘im Khān remained obstinate until he was recalled to Tāndā by the renewed activity of Junaid Kararānī in Chotā Nagpur, and there he fell sick and died after a short illness in October, 1575.
v4.c16.38
The officers elected Shāham Khān Jalāīr as their leader, but could not agree among themselves, and Dāūd, profiting by their dissensions and by the broken spirit of their troops, took the field. He captured Bhadrakh and Jaleswar, and Shāham Khān, thoroughly disheartened, retired into Bihār, leaving the whole of Bengal in the hands of the Afghāns.
v4.c16.39
Earlier in the year Mīrzā Sulaimān of Badakhshān, having been expelled from his principality by his rebellious grandson, Shāh Rukh, had sought an asylum at the imperial court and Akbar had generously but thoughtlessly promised to recover his throne for him. The loss of Bengal postponed indefinitely the fulfilment of this rash promise, and Akbar attempted to console the disappointed exile with the chief command in Bengal, but the offer was rejected. In 1576 Sulaimān set out for Mecca, and the government of Bengal was bestowed upon Khān Jahān, governor of the Punjab, whose army had already been mobilised for the recovery of Badakhshān, and Todar Mal accompanied him. They found the officers of the Bengal army in an intractable mood. They trembled for the safety of the wealth which they had amassed in Bengal, they dreaded Akbar's wrath, and many, who were Sunnīs, resented their subordination to the Shiah, Khān Jahān, but he, with the assistance of Todar Mal, reduced them to obedience and established his authority. Dāūd, now re-established at Tāndā, had sent a force to occupy Teliyāgarhī, but Khān Jahān captured both the fortress and the pass and slew half of the force which garrisoned them.
v4.c16.40
Early in 1576 Akbar started on his annual pilgrimage to Ajmer, and while there opened hostilities against the Rānā, who had failed to appear at court and had fortified himself at Gogunda. Mān Singh was appointed to the command of the army sent against him, and with him were associated Ghiyās-ud-dīn, 'Alī Āsaf Khān, two of the Bārha Sayyids, and Rāi Lon Karan, a Rājput of the Kachhwāhā clan. The army marched from Māndalgarh towards Gogunda and halted in the plain of Haldīghāt, below the pass of that name. "At this pass Partāp was posted with the flower of Mewār, and glorious was the struggle for its maintenance. Clan after clan followed with desperate intrepidity, emulating the daring of their prince, who led the crimson banner into the hottest part of the field."
v4.c16.41
The battle was fought in the latter half of June, "when the air was like a furnace". A charge by Hakīm Sūr the Afghān, who was fighting for the Rānā, put Lon Karan's Rājputs to flight, and Āsaf Khān's contingent maintained a heavy fire of musketry and shot flights of arrows into the mingled mass. Badāūnī, who was present, asked Āsaf Khān how it was possible to distinguish friend from foe, and Āsaf Khān replied, "They will hear the whiz of the arrows, be they who they may, and on whichever side they fall the gain is Islām's".
v4.c16.42
For some hours the day appeared to be going in favour of the Rānā, but shortly after midday Mān Singh’s rearguard arrived on the field, and it was believed that Akbar had marched to his assistance. The Muslims raised a shout, and the Rājputs lost heart and gave way, and “the best blood of Mewār irrigated the pass of Haldīghāt. Of the nearest kin of the prince five hundred were slain: the exiled prince of Gwalior, Rām Sāh, his son Khandīrāo, with three hundred and fifty of his brave Tuar clan, paid the debt of gratitude with their lives. Since the expulsion by Bābur they had found sanctuary in Mewār, whose princes diminished their feeble revenue to maintain inviolable the rites of hospitality. Māna, the devoted Jhāla, lost one hundred and fifty of his vassals, and every house of Mewār mourned its chief support.” The loss to the imperial troops was not heavy, but they were too exhausted to pursue, and it was not until the following day that they occupied Gogunda.
v4.c16.43
The campaign in Bengal made little progress. Tāndā had been occupied, but Dāūd had retired into the fortress of Āk Mahall, now Rājmahāl, and Khān Jahān had reported that with the force at his disposal it was impossible to attack the fortress. News of the battle of Haldīghāt was sent to Bengal to encourage him, Muzaffar Khān Turbatī was ordered to march with the army of Bihār to his assistance, and he was informed that Akbar himself was about to start for Bengal.
v4.c16.44
The advent of the rainy season had made military operations almost impossible, but, after being joined by Muzaffar Khān, Khān Jahān attacked Dāūd. Progress over the flooded ground was toilsome and slow, and the advance was checked by a marshy stream, but fords were discovered and the troops crossed by degrees. Their left was checked by the enemy’s right, but when Todar Mal was able to bring his whole force into action the Afghāns fled. Their left, which had been exposed all night to the fire of the imperial artillery, was already broken and their whole army was in retreat before Khān Jahān’s centre was engaged. As he was advancing to the attack shouts of victory were heard, and two officers led Dāūd before him. His horse had stuck in the mud as he was attempting to flee, and he had been seized. He was at once executed and his head was sent to Āgra.
v4.c16.45
Akbar, perturbed by the absence of satisfactory news from Bengal, set out from Fathpur Sīkrī on 22 July, 1576. He had marched but one short stage when Sayyid ‘Abdullah Khān arrived in his camp and threw down Dāūd’s head before him. He returned to Fathpur Sīkrī and ordered public rejoicings for the victory.
v4.c16.46
The independence of Bengal was now finally extinguished. We may lament the defeat of the gallant Rānā and the misfortunes which befel his land of heroes, but no such sentiment is aroused by the extinction of Afghān dominion in Bengal, and the substitution of Akbar’s milder and more sympathetic rule. The Afghāns were illiberal tyrants, either bigots or debauchees, without a spark of feeling for those subjected to their sway.
v4.c16.47
In September Akbar set out on his pilgrimage to Ajmer, where Mān Singh, who had been summoned from the Rānā's country in disgrace, joined the camp. He was a loyal servant of Akbar, and he had no reason to love Partāb Singh, who made no secret of his opinion of those Rājputs who had given daughters or sisters in marriage to Muslims, even of the imperial house, but he could hardly be expected to incur the infamy of delivering to disgrace, if not to death, the chief of his race, and he had undoubtedly let slip opportunities of taking the Rānā. Akbar should not have imposed such a task upon a Rājput, and he now seems to have understood that he had too severely tested a faithful servant, for after the lapse of a few days Mān Singh and his officers were pardoned and were admitted to his presence.
v4.c16.48
Akbar's zeal for the religion in which he had been bred now rose in a final flicker. A large number of pilgrims was about to start for Mecca, travelling by Gogunda and Īdar, a route selected with a view to giving the strong escort accompanying them an opportunity of attacking the Rānā in his mountain fastnesses. Akbar, in an access of religious frenzy, announced his intention of personally performing the pilgrimage. He was dissuaded from the insane project, but in token of his desire to fulfil one of the obligations of a good Muslim, donned the pilgrim's garb and accompanied the caravan for a few miles on its way to Gogunda. The troops accompanying the caravan had no success against the Rānā, but the Rājā of Īdar was reduced to obedience.
v4.c16.49
Akbar now perceived that he could not count on even the most loyal of his Hindu officers to aid him in humbling the chief of their race, and perforce contented himself for the time by reducing to obedience the minor chiefs of Rājāsthān. The Rāwals Partāb of Bānswārā and Askaran of Dūngarpur were constrained to pay him homage, and the latter to give him a daughter in marriage. In 1557 Zain Khān Kūka compelled the rebellious Rājā of Būndī to submit, and in 1578 the Bundelā, Madhukar Sāh of Orchha, who had been in arms for more than a year against an imperial force, surrendered to Sādiq Muhammad Khān, and was presented at court, where he swore allegiance to the emperor.
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In the summer of 1577 Akbar sent to the Muslim state of Khāndesh an expedition which secured the submission of Rājā 'Alī Khān, who had lately succeeded his nephew as its ruler. The event is less trivial than it seems, for it was the first step in a great enterprise conceived by Akbar, but not finally accomplished until the reign of his great-grandson, Aurangzīb—the reconquest of the Deccan, which had been severed from the empire of Delhi for two hundred and thirty years. In the course of his rapid descent on Gujarāt in 1573 Akbar had learned that the small kingdom of Berār, the northernmost of the five independent states of the Deccan, which was annexed by Ahmadnagar in the following year, was in the last throes of its death struggle, that confusion and disorder reigned in Ahmadnagar, and that his movements had excited apprehension and alarm in that kingdom. This information suggested to him the reconquest of the Deccan between which and his dominions Khāndesh was the only political barrier.
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Rājā ‘Alī Khān was in a dilemma. His sympathy lay with the states of the Deccan, and he earnestly desired the maintenance of their independence, though he knew that their constant bickerings, their internecine strife, and their bitter and bloody domestic feuds, to which the continued independence of his own small kingdom was partly due, not only exposed them to the risk of imperial aggression, but deprived him of the hope of effectual assistance from any one of them should he venture to stand forth as their champion. He could not hope to withstand alone the might of Akbar, and he was thus obliged to belie his sympathies first by making formal submission to Akbar, and at a later period by aiding him with his forces against both Ahmadnagar and Bījāpur; but even when his troops were ranged in the field beside the imperial forces his influence was ever exerted to prevent the complete subjugation of Ahmadnagar.
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Many years were to pass before Akbar found an opportunity of attacking Ahmadnagar, but it was with this end in view that he secured the allegiance of the ruler of Khāndesh.
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The unfortunate province of Gujarāt, which had hardly begun to enjoy peace, was now the scene of another rebellion. The young Muzaffar Husain Mīrzā, son of Ibrāhīm Husain Mīrzā, who had been slain in 1573, had been carried off to Ahmadnagar by his mother, but was now persuaded by Mihr ‘Alī, a turbulent and ambitious adherent, to attempt to wrest Gujarāt from Akbar. He was able, owing to the treachery or cowardice of the imperial officers, to occupy Nandurbār and Barodā without striking a blow, and on 25 May 1577 the expeditionary force in Khāndesh was ordered to march against him. He defeated one force, and compelled another to seek refuge behind the walls of Ahmadābād; but Todar Mal, who had been occupied at Pātan with financial affairs, hastened to Ahmadābād and drove the rebels towards Cambay. They were obliged to retire from Cambay and were defeated on 6 June near Dholka, whence the Mīrzā fled with a few followers to Junāgarh, but, after Todar Mal’s departure, returned, plundered Cambay, defeated Vazīr Khān, the viceroy at Sarnāl, and drove him into Ahmadābād, where he besieged him. The rebels even effected an entrance into the city, and were engaged in plundering when a stray bullet killed Mihr ‘Alī, their real leader, and the youthful Mīrzā and his followers fled in dismay to Nandurbār, whither Vazīr Khān, suspecting a trap, did not venture to follow them.
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The gross inefficiency of Vazīr Khān compelled Akbar to recall him, and in September Shihāb-ud-dīn Ahmad Khān was transferred from the government of Mālwā to that of Gujarāt. Akbar was now at Ajmer, whence he marched, by Merta and Nārnaul, to the Punjab, occupied on the way by the issue of regulations for the reform of the administration of the imperial mints. At Nārnaul he lodged with the saintly Shaikh Nizām-ud-dīn, “a *Sūfī* who had attained the first stage of recognition of God, had overcome his desires, and had acquired complete hope in God’s mercy”,¹ but he was disappointed, when he attempted to lure the Shaikh into the paths of vague speculation in which he himself was wandering, to find that he was a staunch Muslim. Akbar had already assumed the character of a spiritual guide, for since leaving Ajmer he had rated Todar Mal for what Abu-’l-Fazl styles his “bigotry and prejudice”. In the hurry of departure the images before which the Hīndu was wont to perform his morning devotions had been mislaid, and he would neither eat, sleep nor work until he could perform his devotions after his rule. According to Abu-’l-Fazl Todar Mal’s “good fortune” led him to give ear to his master’s advice and he returned to his work.
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¹ *Bad.* (trans. Haig), iii, 44.
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Akbar was now meditating deeply on spiritual matters. At Shādīwāl,² which he reached on 30 January, 1578, he addressed his courtiers on his abhorrence of flesh as food, regretting that the demands which his duties made upon his strength compelled him to indulge in it, and assuring them that he proposed in future to abstain from it on Fridays. On 20 April he was at Bhera, on the bank of the Jhelum, where he organised a vast *battue* similar to the hunt of 1567 at Lahore. The barbarous sport had been in progress for four days, much game had already been killed, and the ring of beaters had almost closed in for the final slaughter when all engaged in it were surprised by a sudden order that the hunt was to cease, the beaters were to disperse, and no living creature was to be injured.
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² 32° 31′ N., 74° 6′ E.
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It is difficult to understand precisely what happened to Akbar, but he was evidently overcome by some form of religious ecstasy. He had for some time been working himself into a frame of mind susceptible of such a visitation. Badāūnī says: “A strange ecstasy and a strong sense of attraction to God came upon the emperor, and an unseemly change was exhibited in his manner, in such sort that it was impossible to explain it, and each attempted to explain it in his own way; but that which is secret is with God, and at once he ordered the hunt to be stopped.”³ Abu-’l-Fazl suggests that he was on the point of abdicating, or of dying. “He was near abandoning this state of struggle, and entirely gathering up the skirt of his genius from worldly pomp.” The same author, naturally, represents him as having been singularly favoured, and of having communed with God face to face. "A sublime joy took possession of his bodily frame. The attraction of cognition of God cast its ray." He proceeds: "About this time the primacy of the spiritual world took possession of his holy form, and gave a new aspect to his world-adorning beauty. . . . What the chiefs of purity and deliverance (i.e. *Sūfī* seers) had searched for in vain, was revealed to him." The vision was perhaps preceded or followed by an epileptic fit, for Akbar was subject to that malady.
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³ Text ii, 273, 274.
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According to Dr Vincent Smith:
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Akbar was by nature a mystic who sought earnestly, like his Sūfī friends, to attain the ineffable bliss of direct contact with the Divine Reality, and now and again believed, or fancied, that he had succeeded. His temperament was profoundly melancholic, and there seems to be some reason to suspect that at times he was not far from the danger of falling into a state of religious mania. His ambition and intense interest in all the affairs of this world saved him from that fate, and brought him back from dreams to the actualities of human life. He was not an ordinary man, and his complex nature, like that of St Paul, Muhammad, Dante, and other great men with a tendency to mysticism, presents perplexing problems.¹
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¹ *Akbar*, 160.
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On his way from Bhera to Fathpur Sīkrī Akbar sent a mission to his half-brother, Muhammad Hakīm, in Kābul urging him to make full submission to him, and another to ‘Alī Shāh of Kashmīr demanding his allegiance, but neither was successful. Muhammad Hakīm continued to regard himself as a sovereign prince, and ‘Alī Shāh, whose predecessors on the throne of Kashmīr had never owned the sovereignty of Delhi, saw no reason for acceding to an insolent demand.
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After a rapid journey to the shrine at Ajmer, which proved that his physical endurance, despite his spiritual experiences, had in no way abated since the expedition of 1573, Akbar reached Fathpur Sīkrī on 12 September, and signalised his arrival at his capital by an act of profusion which may perhaps be connected with the vision at Bhera. He filled a dry cistern with coined money, to the value of four and a quarter million rupees, which was distributed in charity and in gifts to his courtiers and to learned men. Abu-’l-Fazl was not forgotten.
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Another result of the Bhera vision was the revival of the discussions in the "Hall of Worship", and it was now that the Muslim dogmatists disgraced themselves. The orthodox party consisted of two factions, one headed by Makhdūm-ul-Mulk and the other by Shaikh ‘Abdun-Nabī, whose differences were mainly personal, though Muslim theology presents difficulties sufficient to arouse strife even between the orthodox. Their recriminations either convinced Akbar that he could find no peace in Islām or furnished him with a pretext for abjuring a faith which claimed the obedience of one who was resolved to be supreme in spiritual as in temporal matters, and it was now that he first openly admitted to the discussions Christians, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and Sabaeans. 'Abdun-Nabī was dismissed, owing to his unseemly violence in dispute, from the office of *Sadr-us-Sudūr*, and his place was filled by Sultān Khvāja, who, although he had led the pilgrims of 1576 to Mecca, was a latitudinarian in religion and a self-seeker in politics and ultimately became a convert to the "Divine Faith".
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Akbar suffered neither the death of Khān Jahān in Bengal nor the disturbances which followed it to interrupt his religious meditations and discussions. Muzaffar Khān Turbatī was appointed in 1579 to the government of the province, and peace was restored.
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The Zoroastrian theologian Māhyārjī Rānā, who had been invited to court in 1578, had taken a prominent part in the conferences in the "Hall of Worship", and his influence was observed in Akbar's acts of reverence to the sun, and in rites ordained for the evening hour, when the lamps were lit, which led many to believe that the emperor had become a convert to the ancient religion of Persia; but no system could hold him, and he was really engaged in the compilation of a bewildering code of rites culled from all religions. In the same year a Portuguese mission arrived from Bengal, led by Antonio Cabral, a priest who aroused Akbar's curiosity, but was too diffident of his own learning and abilities to assume the post of a spiritual guide, and recommended the emperor to seek the advice of Jesuit missionaries of the College of St Paul at Goa. His advice was followed and Akbar sent an envoy to Goa, to beg for the services of "two Fathers well versed in letters" who should bring to his court the Gospels and other books on their faith. The Viceroy, Dom Luis de Athaide, was averse from complying with the request, fearing lest Akbar, despite his fair words, should detain the priests as hostages, but the zeal of the Jesuits overcame his scruples, and on 17 November Father Antonio Monserrate, Father Rodolfo Acquaviva and Father Francisco Enriques, a Persian convert from Islām, left Goa by sea.
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Akbar was now, at the instigation and with the assistance of Shaikh Mubārak and his sons, Faizī and Abu-'l-Fazl, preparing to assume spiritual as well as temporal authority over his subjects. As a first step he decided personally to recite the *khutba*, following the example of Muhammad and his successors, the Caliphs. Faizī composed for him a *khutba* in verse, followed by selected texts and the opening chapter of the Korān; and on 26 June, 1579, the anniversary of Muhammad's birth, he ascended the pulpit of the principal mosque of Fathpur Sīkrī and recited Faizī's effusion and the rest of the *khutba*:
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In the name of Him who gave to us the empire,
Who endowed us with a wise heart and a strong arm,
Who guided us in the path of equity and justice,
Putting away from our heart aught but equity—
His attributes transcend man's understanding,
Exalted be His majesty! God is most great!
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The orthodox Badāūnī says that Akbar stammered and trembled, and had to be helped out by others in the recitation of the verses, and that he then descended from the pulpit and left the regular reciter of the *khutba* to complete the office; but other authors say that he acquitted himself of his task and then, descending from the pulpit, led the prayers. The innovation was generally unpopular. Many suspected that Akbar claimed to be prophet as well as king, and some even scented in the closing words (*Allahu Akbar*¹) of Faizī's verses a pretension to divinity.
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¹ This phrase can be read as "God is great" or as "Akbar is God".
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The notion of infallible human guidance is not entirely foreign to Islām. Each of the four orthodox schools of law of the Sunnīs virtually attributes infallibility to its founder, and the Shiah sect bestows the title "infallible" on its *Imāms*, ‘Alī, the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet, and his eleven successors. Since the disappearance of the twelfth *Imām* the *mujtahid*, who holds, in Shiah communities, the highest rank among divines and jurists is regarded as infallible in questions of faith and morals. But a text of the Korān and a traditional saying of Muhammad place the authority of the lawful and just ruler above that of divines and jurists, and the leading ecclesiastics of the court were so discredited by their dissensions, and by their unseemly wrangles in debates arranged by Shaikh Mubārak and his two sons in the "Hall of Worship", that their claim to religious leadership could be challenged without difficulty, and Shaikh Mubārak avenged himself on his former persecutors by preparing the famous Infallibility Decree. This was drawn up in the form of a petition beseeching the sovereign to assume the authority imposed upon him by the Korān and the Traditions, and was couched in the following terms:
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Whereas Hindūstān is now become the centre of security and peace, and the land of justice and benevolence, so that numbers of the higher and lower orders of the people, and especially learned men possessed of divine knowledge, and subtle jurists who are guides to salvation and travellers in the path of the diffusion of learning have immigrated to this land from Arabia and Persia, and have domiciled themselves here; now we, the principal *‘Ulamā*, who are not only well versed in the several departments of the law and the principles of jurisprudence, and well acquainted with the edicts based on reason and testimony, but are also known for our piety and honest intentions, have duly considered the deep meaning, first, of the verse of the Korān, "Obey God, and obey the Prophet, and those who are invested with authority among you"; and, secondly, of the genuine Tradition, "Surely the man who is dearest to God on the Day of Judgement is the just leader; whosoever obeys the *Amīr* obeys Me, and whosoever rebels against him rebels against Me"; and, thirdly, of several other proofs based on reason and testimony; and we have agreed that the rank of Just King is higher in the eyes of God than that of *Mujtahid*.
Further we declare that the King of Islām, the Asylum of Mankind, the Commander of the Faithful, Shadow of God in the world, Abu-’l-Fath Jalāl-ud-dīn Muhammad Akbar, *Pādishāh-i-Ghāzī* (whose kingdom God perpetuate!) is a most just, and wise King, with a knowledge of God.
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Should, therefore, in future, religious questions arise regarding which the opinions of the *mujtahids* are at variance, and His Majesty, in his penetrating understanding and clear wisdom, be inclined to adopt, for the benefit of the nation and in the interests of good order, any of the conflicting opinions which exist on that point, and should he issue a decree to that effect, we do hereby agree that such a decree shall be binding on all his people and all his subjects.
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Should His Majesty see fit to issue a new order in conformity with some text of the Korān, and calculated to benefit the nation, all shall be bound by it, and opposition to it will involve damnation in the next world, and loss of religious privileges and property in this.
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This document has been written with honest intentions and for the glory of God and the propagation of Islām, and has been signed by us, the principal '*Ulamā* of the Faith, and leading Theologians, in the month of Rajab, a.h. 987 (August–September, 1579).
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This document, which, when approved by Akbar, became an imperial decree, was signed by Makhdūm-ul-Mulk, Shaikh 'Abd-un-Nabī, Jalāl-ud-dīn the chief *Qāzī*, Sultān Khvāja the *Sadr*, the learned Ghāzī Khān of Badakhshān, and Shaikh Mubārak. Badāūnī says that all signed it unwillingly, without specifying the nature of the pressure brought to bear on them, except Shaikh Mubārak, who added after his signature, "This is an affair which I desired with all my heart and soul, and for the accomplishment of which I have been waiting for years".
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The decree limited Akbar to the adoption of one of the conflicting opinions delivered by the jurists of Islām, or, in case there was no dispute, to the authority of a verse of the Korān, and one of its chief objects was, ostensibly, the propagation of Islām; but these conditions were ignored by Akbar. He was now pope as well as king, and so far was he from propagating Islām that he ridiculed and persecuted it, and shortly afterwards attempted to substitute for it a religion of his own invention; but he did not venture at once to violate the conditions of the decree, and immediately after its issue set out on his last annual pilgrimage to Ajmer, earning thereby the contempt of the orthodox. "The wonder of wonders was that he should have all this faith in the saint of Ajmer while he denied the foundation of everything, the prophet from each fold of whose skirt many millions of perfected saints like him of Ajmer had sprung."
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Shaikh Mubārak was not slow to avenge himself on his persecutors, and at Ajmer Makhdūm-ul-Mulk and Shaikh 'Abdun-Nabī discovered that their complaisance in signing the decree was to avail them nothing, and that they were to be banished to Mecca. Notwithstanding their orthodoxy, neither had any taste for the pilgrimage, still less for the society of the other.
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In order to allay the resentment aroused by his innovations Akbar was obliged to descend to more hypocrisy. On his return march from Ajmer he ostentatiously recited every day the ritual prayers, and after his arrival at Fathpur Sikrī he received with an extravagant display of devotion a heavy stone brought from Mecca, which was said to bear the print of Muhammad's foot. He did not believe the relic to be genuine, and would have felt no reverence for it if he had, but he and his courtiers went out for six or seven miles to meet the stone, and bore it, in turn, to Fathpur Sīkrī. This act of hypocrisy, too gross to deceive even the simplest, was performed, according to Abu-'l-Fazl, lest the Sayyid who brought the stone should be put to shame, and in order to silence those who regarded Akbar's inquiries and discussions with suspicion. Of the latter object, at least, it failed.
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An opportunity of interference in the domestic affairs of Kashmīr now presented itself. Yūsuf, who had succeeded his father, 'Alī Shāh, on the throne of that kingdom, had been expelled by a kinsman, Lohar Chakk, who had usurped his throne, arrived at court in January, 1580, and sought Akbar's aid.¹ A few months later Akbar despatched him into the Punjab and ordered his officers in that province to restore him, but the nobles of Kashmīr, dreading the invasion of their country by an imperial army, promised Yūsuf their support if he would return alone. He defeated and captured his cousin, and on 8 November, 1580, regained his throne without Akbar's assistance. Some years were to elapse before Akbar found another pretext for intervention in Kashmīr.
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¹ Coins of the Kashmīr type, but bearing the name of Akbar, were struck in A.H. 987 = March, 1579, to February, 1580. [Ed.]
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On 18 February, 1580, the first Jesuit mission, under Father Monserrate, reached Fathpur Sīkrī and was most cordially received. The priests in their cassocks and hats, unarmed and clean shaven, were objects of great curiosity to the people as they passed through the town. They were graciously received and Akbar was favourably impressed by their refusal of a gift of 800 gold pieces, which he offered them. His reverence for the gospels and the images and pictures which they had brought with them, his eager inquiries, and his genuflexions in the chapel which he permitted them to furnish and open encouraged them to hope that they might succeed in inducing him to become the Constantine of the East, but they were grievously mistaken, and soon discovered their error.
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Akbar's attitude towards Christianity is an interesting study. He was most curious in his inquiry into its doctrines, and probably held a higher opinion of the faith than of any other single religion which he studied. He invited no fewer than three Jesuit missions to his court, he permitted the priests of each mission to propagate their faith, and even sent his sons to them to receive instruction in Christian doctrine, and he encouraged each mission to hope for his conversion, but disappointed each.
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The priests, despite the temptation to which the hope of attaining so great an object exposed them, were uncompromising in their statement of what the Church required of a convert, and two, at least, of their demands Akbar could never be persuaded to admit. The first was submission and implicit obedience, and the second was the dismissal of all his wives save one. The priests of each mission, though at first encouraged by his bitter hostility to Islām, soon perceived that his ambition was to become the prophet of a creed of his own compilation, and that submission and obedience were not to be expected of him. His refusal to dismiss his wives they attributed to his incontinence, but here, perhaps, they judged him harshly. He was a man of strong passions, but he might possibly have been persuaded to subdue these. The difficulty in complying with the demand of the priests was rather political than personal. It was with a political end in view that Akbar had married Rājput princesses, and those Rājput chiefs who had been persuaded to bestow daughters or sisters on him in marriage, though they had become closely allied to the throne, which was Akbar’s object, had violated their own social code and incurred the condemnation of their more exclusive brethren. The dismissal of their daughters and sisters from the palace as discarded concubines would have raised the whole of Rājāsthān against Akbar, his bitterest enemies would have been those whom he had doubly disgraced, and his highest political object, the fusion of the two great rival faiths and the establishment of a united empire, would have been irretrievably lost. Some of the doctrines of the Christian faith, above all the Incarnation, presented difficulties to Akbar, but the priests were probably unable to appreciate the gravity of his chief difficulty, the political effects of his acceptance of Christianity, for those of each mission accused him of having wilfully deceived them.
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