The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.109

v4.c16.109

Akbar had been occupying himself in 1583, at Fathpur Sīkrī, with administrative reforms. Departments were created for the supervision and control of (1) criminal justice and the registration of marriages and births, (2) camping grounds and halting places, (3) religious affairs, including the suppression of "bigotry", (4) grants, allowances and alms, (5) the appointment and dismissal of officials employed on the crown lands, and the extension of cultivation, (6) the administration of the army, and its allowances, (7) the regulation of the prices of supplies and merchandise, (8) arms, and roads, (9) the decision of questions of inheritance, (10) the buying and selling of jewels and minerals, (11) public buildings, and (12) civil justice. Most of these affairs needed regulating; others might have been left to regulate themselves, but this was a distinction which Akbar seldom drew. His suppression of bigotry was not entirely confined to orthodox Islām, for he saved from *satī* the widow of Jai Mal, a cousin of Bhagwān Dās, and imprisoned her son who had tried to compel her to burn herself.