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EDITED BY
SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER, K.C.S.L
CLE.: M.A. (Oxford): LL.D. (Cambridge)
AKBAR
Bonbon
HENRY FROWDE
Oxford University Press Warehouse
Amen Corner, E.C.
Qtew 2)orft
MACMILLAN & CO., 66 FIFTH AVENUE
RULERS OF INDIA
Hfcbar
AND THE RISE OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE
By COLONEL G. B. MALLESON, C.S.I.
FIFTH THOUSAND
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS: 1896
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CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGES
I. The Argument 5 -11
II. The Family and Early Days of Babar . . 12-16
III. Babar conquers Kabul 17-25
IV. Babar's Invasions of India . . . . 26-34
V. The Position of Babar in Hindustan . . 35~49
VI. HUMAYUN AND THE EARLY DAYS Of AKBAR . 50 59
VII. HUMAYUN INVADES INDIA. HlS DEATH . . 60-64
VIII. Akbar's Fight for his Father's Throne . . 65-71
IX. General Condition of India in the Middle of
the Sixteenth Century .... 72-80
X. The Tutelage under Bairam Khan. . . 81-90
XL Chronicle of the Reign 91-145
XII. The Principles and Internal Administration
of Akbar ....... 146-200
Index •• ....... 201-204
NOTE
The orthography of pripej* nam£s»/ollo'pfe:tfie«system adopted by
the Indian Government t for tfoe Imperial Qazetteer tf India. That
system, while adheri^JU^h^popiriaTlsfelUn^f vpry well-known
places, such as Punjab, Lucknow, etc., employs in all other cases
the vowels with the following uniform sounds : —
a, as in woman : a, as in land : i, as in poh'ce : i, as in intrigue :
o, as in cold : w, as in bull : w, as in sure : e, as in grey.
F?Y MORSE STE^HBNfS
THE EMP&ROR A REAR*
CHAPTER I
The Argument
I crave the indulgence of the reader whilst I
explain as briefly as possible the plan upon which
I have written this short life of the great sovereign
who firmly established the Mughal dynasty in India l .
The original conception of such an empire was not
Akbar's own. His grandfather, B&bar, had conquered a
great portion of India, but during the five years which
elapsed between the conquest and his death, Babar en-
joyed but few opportunities of donning the robe of the
administrator. By the rivals whom he had over-
thrown and by the children of the soil, Babar was alike
regarded as a conqueror, and as nothing more. A
man of remarkable ability, who had spent all his life
in arms, he was really an adventurer, though a brilliant
adventurer, who, soaring above his contemporaries in
genius, taught in the rough school of adversity, had
beheld from his eyrie at Kabul the distracted condition
1 For the purposes of this sketch I have referred to the following
authorities: Memoirs of Babar, written by himself, and translated by
Leyden and Erskine ; Erskine's Babar and Humdyun ; The Ain-i-Akbari
(Blochmann's translation) ; The History of India, as told by its own
Historians, edited from the posthumous papers of Sir H. M. Elliot,
JLC.B., by Professor Dowson ; Dow's Ferishta; Elphinstone's History
of India; Tod's Annals o/Rajast'han, and various other works.
511484
6 TflE EMREROR AKBAR
of fertile! llindastdn, iarid had dashed down upon her
plains with a force that was irresistible. Such was
Babar, a man greatly in advance of his age, generous,
affectionate, lofty in his views, yet, in his connection
with Hindustan, but little more than a conqueror. He
had no time to think of any other system of admini-
stration than the system with which he had been
familiar all his life, and which had been the system
introduced by his Afghan predecessors into India, the
system of governing by means of large camps, each
commanded by a general devoted to himself, and each
occupying a central position in a province. It is
a question whether the central idea of Babar' s policy
was not the creation of an empire in Central Asia
rather than of an empire in India.
Into this system the welfare of the children of the
soil did not enter. Possibly, if Babar had lived, and
had lived in the enjoyment of his great abilities, he
might have come to see, as his grandson saw, that such
a system was practically unsound ; that it was wanting
in the great principle of cohesion, of uniting the in-
terests of the conquering and the conquered ; that it
secured no attachment, and conciliated no prejudices;
that it remained, without roots, exposed to all the storms
of fortune. We, who know Babar by his memoirs,
in which he unfolds the secrets of his heart, confesses
all his faults, and details all his ambitions, may think
that he might have done this if he had had the oppor-
tunity. But the opportunity was denied to him. The
time between the first battle of Panipat, which gave him
THE ARGUMENT 7
the north-western provinces of India, and his death,
was too short to allow him to think of much more
than the securing of his conquests, and the adding to
them of additional provinces. He entered India a
conqueror. He remained a conqueror, and nothing
more, during the five years he ruled at Agra.
His son, Humayun, was not qualified by nature to
perform the task which Babar had been obliged to
neglect. His character, flighty and unstable, and
his abilities, wanting in the constructive faculty, alike
unfitted him for the duty. He ruled eight years in
India without contributing a single stone to the
foundation of an empire that was to remain. When,
at the end of that period, his empire fell, as had fallen
the kingdoms of his Afghan predecessors, and from
the same cause, the absence of any roots in the soil,
the result of a single defeat in the field, he lost at one
blow all that Babar had gained south of the Indus.
India disappeared, apparently for ever, from the grasp
of the Mughal.
The son of B&bar had succumbed to an abler
general, and that abler general had at once completely
supplanted him. Fortunately for the Mughal, more
fortunately still for the people of India, that abler
general, though a man of great ability, had inherited
views not differing in any one degree from those
of the Afghan chiefs who had preceded him in the
art of establishing a dynasty. The conciliation of
the millions of Hindustan did not enter into his
system. He, too, was content to govern by camps
8 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
located in the districts he had conquered. The con-
sequence was that when he died other men rose to
compete for the empire. The confusion rose in the
course of a few years to such a height, that in i554>
just fourteen years after he had fled from the field of
Kanauj, Humayun recrossed the Indus, and recovered
Northern India. He was still young, but still as incap-
able of founding a stable empire as when he succeeded
his father.
He left behind him writings which prove that, had
his life been spared, he would still have tried to
govern on the old plan which had broken in the
hands of so many conquerors who had gone before
him, and in his own. Just before his death he drew
up a system for the administration of India. It was
the old system of separate camps in a fixed centre,
each independent of the other, but all supervised by
the Emperor. It was an excellent plan, doubtless,
for securing conquered provinces, but it was abso-
lutely deficient in any scheme for welding the several
provinces and their people into one harmonious
whole.
The accident which deprived Hum&yun of his life
before the second battle of P&nipat had bestowed
upon the young Akbar, then a boy of fourteen, the
succession to the empire of B&bar, was, then, in every
sense, fortunate for Hindustan. Humayun, during
his long absence, his many years of striving with
fortune, had learnt nothing and had forgotten nothing.
The boy who succeeded him, and who, although of
THE ARGUMENT 9
tender years, had already had as many adventures,
had seen as many vicissitudes of fortune, as would
fill the life of an ordinary man, was untried. He
had indeed by his side a man who was esteemed the
greatest general of that period, but whose mode of
governing had been formed in the rough school of the
father of his pupil. This boy, however, possessed,
amid other great talents, the genius of construction.
During the few years that he allowed his famous
general to govern in his name, he pondered deeply
over the causes which had rendered evanescent all the
preceding dynasties, which had prevented them from
taking root in the soil. When he had matured his
plans, he took the government into his own hands,
and founded a dynasty which flourished so long as it
adhered to his system, and which began to decay only
when it departed from one of its main principles, the
principle of toleration and conciliation.
I trust that in the preceding summary I have made
it clear to the reader that whilst, in a certain sense,
Babar was the founder of the Mughal dynasty in
India, he transmitted to his successor only the idea
of the mere conqueror. Certainly Humdyun in-
herited only that idea, and associating it with no
other, lost what his father had won. It is true that
he ultimately regained a portion of it, but still as a
mere conqueror. It was the grandson who struck
into the soil the roots which took a firm hold of it,
sprung up, and bore rich and abundant fruit in the
happiness and contentment of the conquered races.
10 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
This is the argument to the development of which
I have devoted the following pages. The book seems
to me naturally to divide itself into three parts. To
Babar, as the developer of the idea of the invasion
and conquest of India, I have devoted the first part.
He was a remarkable man, and he would have been
remarkable in any age. When he died, at the early
age of forty-eight., he left behind him a record which
may be read with interest and profit even at the close
of this nineteenth century. It has seemed to me the
more necessary to devote a considerable space to him
inasmuch as the reader will not fail to discern, in the
actions of the grandson, the spirit and energy and
innate nobility of character of the grandfather. Of
Humayun, whose life properly belongs to the first
part, I have written as much only as seemed to me
necessary to illustrate the cause of his fall, and to
describe the early days of the hero of the book, who
was born in Sind, during the father's flight from
India.
The remaining two-thirds of the book have been
given to Akbar. But, here again, I have subdi-
vided the subject. In the first of the two-thirds, I
have narrated, from the pages and on the authority
of contemporary Muhammadan historians, the poli-
tical events of the reign. In the last chapter I have
endeavoured to paint the man. From the basis of
the records of the Ain-i-Akbari and other works I
have tried to show what he was as an administrator,
as an organiser, as the promulgator of a system which
THE ARGUMENT II
we English have to a great extent inherited, as a
conciliator of differences which had lasted through
five hundred years, of prejudices which had lived for
all time. I have described him as a husband, as a
father, as a man, who, despite of a religious education
abounding in the inculcation of hostility to all who
differed from him, gave his intellect the freest course,
and based his conduct on the teachings of his intellect.
This chapter, I am free to confess, constitutes the
most interesting portion of the book. For the sake
of it, I must ask the reader to pardon me for inflicting
upon him that which precedes it.
CHAPTER n
The Family and Early Days of BAbar
On the 9th of April, 1336, there was born to the
chief of the Birb&s, a tribe of the purest Mughal
origin, at Shehr-Sebz, thirty miles to the north of
Samarkand, a son, the eldest of his family. This
boy, who was called Taimur, and who was descended
in the female line from Chengiz Khan, was gifted by
nature with the qualities which enable a man to
control his fellow men. Fortune gave him the chance
to employ those qualities to the best advantage. The
successors of Chengiz Khan in the male line had
gradually sunk into feebleness and sloth, and, in
1370, the family in that line had died out. Taimur,
then thirty-four, seized the vacated seat, gained, after
many vicissitudes of fortune, the complete upper hand,
and established himself at Samarkand the undisputed
ruler of all the country between the Oxus and the
Jaxartes. Then he entered upon that career of con-
quest which terminated only with his life. He
established his authority in Mughalistan, or the
country between the Tibet mountains, the Indus
and Mekran, to the south, and Siberia to the north ;
in Kipchak, the country lying north of the lower
THE FAMILY OF BABAR 13
course of the Jaxartes, the sea of Aral, and the
Caspian, including the rich lands on the Don and
Wolga, and part of those on the Euxine ; he con-
quered India, and forced the people of territories
between the Dardanelles and Delhi to acknowledge
his supremacy. When he died, on the 1 8th February,
1405, he left behind him one of the greatest empires
the world has ever seen.
After his death his empire rapidly broke up, and
although it was partly reconstituted by his great-
grandson, Abusaid, the death of this prince in 1469,
when surprised in the defiles of the mountains near
Ardebil, and the defeat of his army, precipitated a
fresh division among his sons. To the third of these,
Umershaikh Mirzd, was assigned the province of
Ferghana, known also, from the name of its capital,
as Khokand.
Umershaikh was the father of Babar. He was an
ambitious man, bent on increasing his dominions.
But the other members of his family were actuated
by a like ambition, and when he died from the effects
of an accident, in 1494, he was actually besieged
in Akhsi, a fortress-castle which he had made his
capital.
His eldest son, Babar, then just twelve years old,
was at the time at Andijan, thirty-six miles from
Akhsi. The enemy was advancing on Andijan.
Babar, the day following his father's death (June 9),
seized the citadel, and opened negotiations with the
invader. His efforts would have availed him little,
14 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
if there had not existed jealousies and divisions in
the hostile camp. These worked for him so as to
secure to him all that remained of Ferghana. But he
had lost the important towns of Khojend, Marghinan,
and Uratiupe\
For two years after the retirement of the invader,
the boy rested, consolidating his resources, and
watching his opportunity. Then, troubles having
arisen in Samarkand, he made a dash at that city,
then the most important in Central Asia. He forced
its surrender (November, 1497), Du ^ as ne would not
allow his troops to pillage, these deserted him by
thousands. He held on, however, until the news that
Ferghana was invaded compelled him to quit his hold.
On the eve of his departure he was prostrated by a
severe illness, and when at length he reached Ferghana
it was to hear that his capital had surrendered to his
enemies. He was, in fact, a king without a kingdom.
' To save Andijan,' he wrote, * I had given up Samar-
kand : and now I found that I had lost the one without
preserving the other.'
He persevered, however, recovered Ferghana, though
a Ferghand somewhat shorn of its proportions, and
once more made a dash at Samarkand. The Uzbeks,
however, forced him to raise the siege, and, his own
dominions having in the interval been overrun and
conquered, he fell back in the direction of Kesh, his
birthplace. After many adventures and strivings
with fortune, he resolved with the aid of the very
few adherents who remained to him, to return and
THE FAMILY OF BABAR 15
attempt the surprise of Samarkand. It was a very
daring venture, for his entire following numbered but
two hundred and forty men. He made the attempt,
was foiled ; renewed it, and succeeded. He was but
just in time. For the last of the garrison had but
just yielded, when the chief of the Uzbeks was seen
riding hard for the place, at the head of the vanguard
of his army. He had to retire, baffled.
But Babar could not keep his conquest. The fol-
lowing spring the Uzbeks returned in force. To foil
them Babar took up a very strong position outside
the city, on the Bokhara road, his right flank covered
by the river Kohik. Had he been content to await
his enemy in this position, he would probably have
compelled him to retire, for it was too strong to be
forced. But he was induced by the astrologers,
against his own judgment, to advance beyond it to
attack the Uzbek army. In the battle which fol-
lowed, and which he almost won, he was eventually
beaten, and retreated within the walls of the city.
Here he maintained himself for five months, but had
then to succumb to famine. He was allowed to quit
the city with his following, and made his way, first to
Uratiupe', ultimately to Dehkat, a village assigned to
him by the reigning Khan of the former place. For
three years that followed he lived the life of an
adventurer : now an exile in the desert ; now march-
ing and gaining a throne ; always joyous ; always
buoyed up by hope of ultimate success; always
acting with energy and vigour. He attempted to win
1 6 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
back, and had been forced to abandon, Ferghana:
then he resolved, with a motley band of two to three
hundred men, to march on Khorasan. It seemed
madness, but the madness had a method. How he
marched, and what was the result of his march, will
be told in the next chapter.
CHAPTER III
Babar conquers Kabul
At this period the kingdom of Kabul comprehended
solely the provinces of Kabul and Ghazni, the ter-
ritory which we should call Eastern Afghanistan.
Her&t was the capital of an independent empire, at
this time the greatest in Central Asia ; and Kandahar,
Bajaur, Swat, and Peshawar, were ruled by chiefs
who had no connection with Kabul. The tribes of
the plains and outlying valleys alone acknowledged
the authority of the King of that country. The clans
of the mountains were as independent and refractory
as their descendants were up to a recent period.
Kabul at this time was in a state bordering upon
anarchy. The late King, Abdul-rizak, a grandson of
the Abusaid referred to in the preceding chapter, had
been surprised in, and driven from, the city, by
Muhammad Mokim, a son of the ruler of Kandahar,
and that prince, taking no thought of the morrow, was
reigning as though all the world were at peace, and he
at least were free from danger.
Babar, I have said, tired of his wandering life, had
resolved to march on Khorasan. He crossed the
Oxus, therefore, and joined by Baki, the son of Sultan
B
18 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Khusrou, ruler of the country, marched on Ajer,
remained there a few days; then, hearing that the
Mughals in Khusrou's service had revolted, he marched
towards Talikan, so as to be able to take advantage
of the situation. Between the two places he was
joined by the Mughals in question, and learnt that
Sultan Khusrou, with the remainder of his troops,
was on his way to Kabul. The two armies were so
close to one another, that an interview took place
between the leaders, which resulted in the complete
submission of Khusrou, whose troops came over in
crowds to Babar. Thus strengthened, Babar marched
upon Kabul, besieged it, and took it (October, 1504).
By this sudden change of fortune, he found himself all
at once King of Kabul and Ghazni, a kingdom far
more powerful than the Ferghana which he had
inherited and lost.
Babar had but just begjin to feel his seat in his new
kingdom when he received an invitation to invade
a district called Bhera, south of the river Jehlam, and
therefore within the borders of India. The invitation
was too agreeable to his wishes to be refused, and he
accordingly set out for Jalal&b&d. The time was
January, 1505. The Sultan— for so he was styled —
records in his journals the impression produced upon
him by the first sight of that favoured part of Asia,
an impression shared, doubtless, by his successors in
the path of invasion, and which may well account for
their determination to push on. ' I had never before,'
he wrote, 'seen warm countries nor the country of
BABAR CONQUERS KABUL 19
Hindustan. On reaching them, I all at once saw a
new world ; the vegetables, the plants, the trees, the
wild animals, all were different. I was struck with
astonishment, and indeed there was room for wonder.'
He then proceeded by the Khaibar Pass to Peshawar,
and, not crossing the Indus, marched by Koh&t,
Bangash, Banu, and Desht Daman, to Multan. Thence
he followed the course of the Indus for a few days,
then turned westward, and returned to Kabul by way
of Chotiali and Ghazni. The expedition has been
called Ba bar's first invasion of India, but as he only
touched the fringes of the country, it took rather the
character of a reconnoitring movement. Such as it
was, it filled him with an earnest desire to take an
early opportunity to see more.
But, like every other conqueror who has been
attracted by India, he deemed it of vital importance to
secure himself in the first place of Kandahar. Internal
troubles for a time delayed the expedition. Then,
when these had been appeased, external events came
to demand his attention. His old enemy, Shaibani,
was once more ruling at Samarkand, and, after some
lesser conquests, had come to lay siege to Balkh.
Sultan Husen Mirza of Herat, alarmed at his progress,
sent at once a messenger to Babar to aid him in an
attack on the invader. Babar at once responded,
and setting out from Kabul in June, 1506, reached
Kahmerd, and halted there to collect and store sup-
plies. He was engaged in this work when the
information was brought him by a messenger that
B 2
20 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Sultan Husen Mirza was dead. He at once pushed
on, and after a march of eight hundred miles joined
the sons of the late Sultan and their army on the river
Murghab.
Two of the sons of the Sultan had succeeded him
as joint-rulers. Babar found them elegant, accom-
plished, and intelligent, but effeminate, devoted to
pleasure, and utterly incapable of making head against
the hardy Shaibani. Whilst they were pleasuring
in camp, the latter had taken Balkh. After some
discussion, the two kings decided to break up their
army and recommence in the spring. Winter was
now coming on, and Babar was persuaded, against his
better judgment, to visit his two hosts at Herat. His
description of that royal city takes up pages of his
autobiography 1 . For twenty days he visited every
day fresh places; nor was it till the 24th of December
that he decided to march homewards.
Our countrymen who served in Afghanistan during
the war of 1879-81 can realise what that march must
have been ; how trying, how difficult, how all but
impossible. The distance was twenty days' journey in
summer. The road across the mountains, though not
very difficult in summer, was especially trying in the
depth of winter, and it was at that season, the snow
falling around him, that Babar undertook it. He
himself showed the way, and with incredible exertion
led the army, exhausted and reckless, to the foot of
1 Memoirs of Babar, translated by Leyden and Erskine, pp. 203-
208.
BABAR CONQUERS KABUL 21
the Zirin Pass. There the situation seemed hopeless.
The storm was violent ; the snow was deep ; and the
Pass was so narrow that but one person could pass
at a time. Still Babar pushed on, and at nightfall
reached a cave large enough to admit a few persons.
With the generosity which was a marked feature of
his character he made his men enter it, whilst, shovel
in hand, he dug for himself a hole in the snow, near its
mouth. Meanwhile those within the cave had dis-
covered that its proportions increased as they went
further in, and that it could give shelter to fifty or
sixty persons. On this Babar entered, and shared
with his men their scanty store of provisions. Next
morning, the snow and tempest ceased, and the army
pushed on. At length, towards the end of February,
he approached Kabul, only, however, to learn that a
revolt had taken place in the city, and that although
his garrison was faithful, the situation was critical.
Babar was equal to the occasion. Opening com-
munication with his partisans, by a well-executed
surprise he regained the place. His treatment of the
rebels was merciful in the extreme.
During the spring of that year, 1507, Shaibani Khan,
the Uzbek chief, who had formerly driven Babar from
Samarkand, had attacked and taken Balkh; then
invaded Khorasan and occupied Herat. Kandahar,
which had been to a certain extent a dependency of
the rulers of Herat, had been seized by the sons of
Mir Zulnun Beg, who had been its Governor under
Sultan Husen Mirza, and these had invoked the
22 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
assistance of Babar against Shaibani. Babar, accord-
ingly, marched for Kandahar. On his way thither, he
was joined by many of the flying adherents of the
expelled House of Sultan Husen. But, before he
could reach Kandahar, Shaibani Khan had put pres-
sure on the sons of Zulnun, and these had accepted
his sovereignty. They notified this act to Babar in a
manner not to be mistaken. The latter, therefore,
prepared to make good his claims by force of arms.
His army was not numerous, but he had confidence
in it and in himself. From Kilat-i-Ghilzai, where
he first scented the change of front at Kandahar, he
had marched to the ford across the Tarnak. Thence,
confirmed in his ideas, he moved in order of battle,
along the course of the stream, to Baba Wall, iive or
six miles to the north of Kandahar, and had occupied
the hill of Kalishad. Here he intended to rest, and
sent out his foragers to collect supplies. But, soon
after these had quitted the camp, he beheld the enemy's
army, to the number of five thousand, move from the
city towards him. He had but a thousand men under
arms, the remainder being engaged in foraging, but he
saw it was not a time to hesitate. Rauging his men
in defensive order, he awaited the attack. That
attack was led in person by the sons of Zulnun with
great gallantry ; but Babar not only repulsed it, and
forced the assailants to flee, but, in his pursuit, he cut
them off from the city, which surrendered to him with
all its treasures. The spoils of the place were mag-
nificently rich. Babar did not, however, remain in
BABAR CONQUERS KABUL 23
Kandahar. Leaving his brother, Nasir Mirza, to
defend it, he returned to Kabul, and arrived there
at the end of July (1507), as he writes, 'with much
plunder and great reputation.'
Hardly had he arrived when he learned that
Shaibani Khan had arrived before Kandahar and
was besieging his brother there. He was puzzled
how to act, for he was not strong enough to meet
Shaibani in the field. A strategist by nature, he
recognised at the moment that the most effective
mode open to him would be to make an offensive
demonstration. He doubted only whether such a
demonstration should be directed against Badakshan,
whence he could threaten Samarkand, or against
India. Finally he decided in favour of the latter
course, and, as prompt in action as he was quick in
decision, he set out for the Indus, marching down the
Kabul river. When, however, he had been a few
days at Jalalabad, he heard that Kandahar had
surrendered to Shaibani. Upon this, the object
of the expedition having vanished, he returned to
Kabul.
I must pass lightly over the proceedings of the next
seven years, eventful though they were. In those
years, from 1507 to 15 14, Babar marching northwards,
recovered Ferghana, defeated the Uzbeks, and took
Bokhara and Samarkand. But the Uzbeks, returning,
defeated B&bar at Kulmalik, and forced him to
abandon those two cities. Attempting to recover
them, he was defeated again at Ghajdewan and driven
24 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
back to Hisar 1 . Finding, after a time, his chances
there desperate, he returned to Kabul. This happened
in the early months of 15 14.
Again there was an interval of eight years, also to
be passed lightly over. During that period Babar
chastised the Afghans of the mountains, took Swat,
and finally acquired Kandahar by right of treaty
(1522). He took possession of, and incorporated in
his dominions, that city and its dependencies, in-
cluding parts of the lowlands lying chiefly along the
lower course of the Helmand.
Meanwhile Shah Beg, the eldest son of the Zulnun,
who had formerly ruled in Kandah&r, had marched
upon and had conquered Sind, and had made Bukkur
the capital. He died in June, 1524. As soon as this
intelligence reached the Governor of Narsapur, Shah
Hasan, that nobleman, a devoted adherent of the
family of Taimur, proclaimed Babar ruler of the
country, and caused the Khatba, or prayer for the
sovereign, to be read in his name throughout Sind.
There was considerable opposition, but Shah Hasan
conquered the whole province, and governed it, ac-
knowledging Babar as his suzerain. At length, in
1525, he was invited to Multan. He marched against
the fortress, and, after a protracted siege, took it by
storm (August or September, 1526). Meanwhile, great
1 There are two other Hisars famous in Eastern history : the one
in India about a hundred miles north of Delhi : the other in the
province of Azarbijan, in Persia, thirty-two miles from the Takht-i-
Sulaiman. The Hisar referred to in the text is a city on an affluent
of the Oxus, a hundred and thirty miles north-east of Balkh.
bAbar conquers kAbul 25
events had happened in India. On the 29th of April,
of the same year, the battle of Panipat had delivered
India into the hands of B&bar. Before proceeding to
narrate his invasion of that country it is necessary
that I should describe, very briefly, the condition of
its actual rulers at the time.
. CHAPTER IV
Babar's Invasions of India
Into the first period of Indian history, that ex-
tending from the earliest times to the invasion of
Mahmtid of Ghazni, in the beginning of the eleventh
century, I do not propose to enter. The world, indeed.
possesses little detailed knowledge of that period. It
is koown that from the Indus to Cape Comorin the
country was peopled by several distinct races, speak-
ing a variety of languages ; that the prevailing re-
ligions were those of the Brahman, the Buddhist, and
the Jain; and that the wars periodically occurring
between the several kings of the several provinces or
divisions were mostly religious wars.
The invasion of Mahmtid of Ghazni came first, in
the year iooi, to disturb the existing system. But
although Mahmtid, and his successors of the Ghazni
dynasty, penetrated to Delhi, to Bajput&na, and to the
furthest extremities of Gujarat, they did not practically
extend their permanent rule beyond the Punjab. The
territories to the south-east of the Sutlej still remained
subject to Hindu sovereigns. But in 1186, the dy-
nasty of the Ghazni vis was destroyed by the dynasty
of Ghor or Ghur, founded by an Afghan of Ghur, a
BABAtiS INVASIONS OF INDIA 27
district in Western Afghanistan, a hundred and twenty
miles to the south-east of the city of Herat, on the
road to Kabul. The Ghuri dynasty was, in its turn,
supplanted, in 1288, by that of the Khilji or Ghilji.
The princes of this House, after reigning with great
renown for thirty-three years over Delhi and a por-
tion of the territories now known as the North-west
Provinces, and, pushing their conquests beyond the
Narbadd, and the Deccan, made way, in 1321, for the
Tughlak dynasty, descended from Turki slaves. The
Tughlaks did not possess the art of consolidation.
During the ninety-one years of their rule the provinces
ruled by their predecessors gradually separated from
the central authority at Delhi. The invasion of
Taimur (1388-9) dealt a fatal blow to an authority
already crumbling. The chief authority lingered
indeed for twelve* years in the hands of the then
representative, Sultan M&hmud. It then passed for a
time into the hands of a family which did not claim
the royal title. This family, known in history as the
Saiyid dynasty, ruled nominally in Northern India for
about thirty-three years, but the rule had no coher-
ence, and a powerful Afghan of the Lodi family took
the opportunity to endeavour to concentrate power in
his own hands.
The Muhammadan rule in India had indeed become
by this time the rule of several disjointed chiefs over
several disjointed provinces, subject in point of fact
to no common head. Thus, in 1450, Delhi, with a
small territory around it, was held by the representa-
28 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
tive of the Saiyid family. Within fourteen miles of
the capital, Ahmad Khan ruled independently in
Mewat. Sambhal, or the province now known as
Rohilkhand, extending to the very walls of Delhi,
was occupied by Darya Khan Lodi. Jalesar, now the
Itah district, by Isa Khan Turk: the district now
known as Farukhabdd by Baja" Partab Singh :
Biana by Daud Khan Lodi : and Lahore, Dipalptir, and
Sirhind, as far south as Panipat, by Behlul Lodi.
Multan, Jaunpur, Bengal, Malwa, and Gujarat, each
had its separate king.
Over most of these districts, and as far eastward
as the country immediately to the north of Western
Bihar, iBehlul Lodi, known as Sultan Behlul, succeeded
on the disappearance of the Saiyids in asserting his
sole authority, 1450-88. His son and successor,
Sultan Sikandar Lodi, subdued Behar, invaded Ben-
gal, which, however, he subsequently agreed to yield
to Allah-u-din, its sovereign, and not to invade it
again ; and overran a great portion of Central India.
On his death, in 151 8, he had concentrated under his
own rule the territories now known as the Punjab ;
the North-western Provinces, including Jaunpur; a
great part of Central India ; and Western Bihar. But,
in point of fact, the concentration was little more than
nominal. The Afghan nobles, to whom from neces-
sity the Lodi Sultan committed the charge of the
several districts, were indeed bound to their sove-
reign by a kind of feudal tenure, but within the circle
of his own charge each of them made his own will
BABAR'S INVASIONS OF INDIA 29
absolute, and insisted on obedience to his decrees
alone.
The result of this arrangement was that when
Sultan Sikandar died the several important nobles,
impatient even of nominal obedience, resolved, acting
in concert, to assign to his son, Ibrahim, the kingdom
of Delhi only, and to divide the rest of the deceased
Sultan's dominions amongst themselves, Jaunpur alone
excepted. This province was to be assigned to the
younger brother of Ibrahim, as a separate kingdom, in
subordination to Delhi. It would appear that when
the proposal was first made to him, Ibrahim, probably
seeing no remedy, assented. Upon the remonstrances
of his kinsmen, Khan Jahan Lodi, however, he with-
drew his assent and recalled his brother, who had
already set out for Jaunpur. The brother refused to
return. A civil war ensued in which Ibrahim was
victorious. On the death of his brother, in 151 8,
Ibrahim endeavoured to assert his authority over his
ambitious nobles. They rebelled. He quelled the
rebellion. But the cruel use he made of his victory,
far from quenching the discontent, caused fresh revolts.
The nobles of Behar, of Oudh, of Jaunpur, flew to
arms: the Punjab followed the example. The civil
war was conducted with great fury and with varying
fortunes on both sides. It was when the crisis was
extreme that Allah-u-din, uncle of Sultan Ibrahim,
fled to the camp of Babar, then engaged in the pacifi-
cation of the Kandahar districts, and implored him to
place him on the throne of Delhi. Almost simultane-
30 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
ously there came to the King of Kabul a still more
tempting offer from DaoMt Khan, Governor of Lahore,
and who was hard pressed by Ibrahim's general,
begging for assistance, and offering in return to ac-
knowledge him as his sovereign. Babar agreed, and
marched at once in the direction of Lahore.
The foregoing sketch of the internal condition of
India during the five centuries which had elapsed
since the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni will explain,
I hope sufficiently clearly, how it was that none of the
successive dynasties had taken root in the soil.
Whether that dynasty were Ghaznivi, or Ghuri, or
Tughlak, or Saiyid, or Lodi, the representative had
fought merely for his own hand and his own advan-
tage. The nobles of the ruling sovereign had in this
respect followed the example of their master. Hin-
dustan had thus been overrun and partly occupied by
the feudal followers of chiefs, who in turn owed feudal
allegiance which they would or would not render, ac-
cording to the power and capacity of the supreme lord.
There had been no welding of the interest of the con-
querors and the conquered such as took place in Eng-
land after the Conquest. The Muhammadans sat as
despotic rulers of an alien people, who obeyed them
because they could not resist. There was no thought
of attaching that people to the ruling dynasty either
by sympathy or by closer union. The conquerors
had come as aliens, and as aliens they remained.
Their hold on the country was thus superficial : it had
BABAR y S INVASIONS OF INDIA 31
no root in the affections of the people, and it could be
maintained only by the sword. It was in this respect
that it differed so widely from the Mughal dynasty, as
represented by Akbar, that was to succeed it.
The first invasion of India by Babar, not reckoning
the hasty visit spoken of on page 18, occurred in 1519.
Some historians assert that there was a second in-
vasion the same year. But Ferishta* is probably correct
when he says that this so-called invasion amounted
simply to an expedition against the Yusufzais, in the
course of which B&bar advanced as far as Peshawar,
but did not cross the Indus. There is no doubt, how-
ever, that he made an expedition, called the third, in
1520. On this occasion he crossed the Indus, marched
into the part known now as the Eawal Pindi division,
crossed the Jehlam, reached Sialk6t, which he spared,
and then marched on Saiyidpur, which he plundered.
He was called from this place to Kabul to meet a
threatened attack upon that capital.
The abortive result of this third expedition more
than ever convinced Babar that no invasion of Hin-
dustan could with certainty succeed unless he could
secure his base at Kandahar. He spent, therefore, the
next two or three years in securing that stronghold
and the territory between Ghazni and Khorasan. He
had just succeeded in settling these districts on an
efficient basis when he received the messages from
Allah-u-din Lodi and Daolat Khan of Lahore, the latter
of which decided him to undertake his fourth expedi-
tion to India. Once more did he cross the Indus, the
32 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Jehlam, and the Chenab, and advanced within ten miles
of Lahore. There he was met by, and there he defeated,
the army of the adherents of the House of Lodi.
Lahore fell a prize to his troops. But he halted there
but four days ; then pushing on, reached and stormed
Dipalptir *. Here he was joined by Daolat Kh&n and
his sons. These, however, dissatisfied with the rewards
meted out to them, began to intrigue against their new
master. Babar was approaching Sirhind, on his way
to Delhi, when he discovered their machinations. ! He
determined, then, to renounce for the moment his
forward movement, and to return to Kabul. This he
did after having parcelled out the Punjab among
chiefs upon whom he hoped he could depend.
Scarcely had he crossed the Indus when the Punjab
became the scene of a renewed struggle. Allah-u-din
Lodi, to whom the district of Dipalptir had been con-
signed, fled in despair to Kabul, hoping that Babar
would himself undertake the invasion of India. At
the moment B&bar could not comply, for the Uzbeks
were laying siege to Balkh. However he supplied
Allah-u-din with troops and ordered his generals in the
Punjab to support him. But again did the expedition
of this prince fail, and he fled from Delhi in confusion
to the Punjab. At the time that he entered it, a
fugitive, Babar was preparing for his fifth and last
invasion of India.
1 Dipalpur is a town in the Montgomery district to the south-
west of Lahore and forty miles from it. In Babar' s time it was a
place of great importance.
BABAR' S INVASIONS OF INDIA 33
Of that invasion I must be content to give the barest
outline. Accompanied by his son, Humayun, Babar
descended the Khaibar Pass to Peshawar, halted there
two days, crossed the Indus the 1 6th of December, and
pushed on rapidly to Sialkot. On his arrival there,
December 29th, he heard of the defeat and flight of
Allah-u-din l . Undismayed, he marched the following
morning to Parsaror, midway between Sialkot and
Kalanaur on the Ravi ; thence to Kalanaur, where he
crossed the R&vi ; thence to the Bias, which he
crossed, and thence to the strong fortress of Milwat,
in which his former adherent Daolat Khan, had taken
refuge. Milwat soon fell. Babar then marched
through the Jalandhar Duab to the Sutlej, placing, as
he writes, ' his foot in the stirrup of resolution, and
his hand on the reins of confidence-in-God/ crossed it
near Rupar, then by way of Ambala, to the Jumna,
opposite Sirsawa 2 . Thence he held down the river
for two marches. Two more brought him to Panfpat,
fifty-three miles to the north-west of Delhi. There he
halted and fortified his camp. The date was April 1 2,
1526.
Nine days later Ibrahim Lodi, at the head of an
army computed by Babar to have been a hundred
thousand strong, attacked the invader in his in-
trenched camp. 'The sun had mounted spear-high/
1 Of this march there is a detailed and most interesting account
given by Babar in his Memoirs, page 290, and the pages following.
2 Sirsawa lies on the south bank of the Jumna, ten miles west-
north-west of Saharanpur.
34 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
writes Babar, ' when the onset of the battle began,
and the combat lasted till midday, when the enemy
were completely broken and routed.' The victory was
in all respects decisive. Ibrahim Lodi was killed,
bravely fighting, and Hindustan lay at the feet of the
victor. That very day Babar despatched troops to
occupy Delhi and Agra. These results were accom-
plished on the 24th of April and 4th of May
respectively K
1 In his Memoirs, Babar, after recounting how, from comparatively
small beginnings, he had become conqueror ' of the noble country
of Hindustan/ adds : ' This success I do not ascribe to my own
strength, nor did this good fortune flow from my own efforts, but
from the fountain of the favour and mercy of God.'
CHAPTER V
The Position of Babar in Hindustan
Master of the two great centres of power in the
north-west, Babar, with the foresight of a statesman,
* took stock ' of the actual situation of Hindustan.
He realised at once that he was master of Northern
India, and that was all. The important provinces of
Oudh, Jaunpur, and Western Behar, had revolted
against Ibrahim, and though that prince had sent an
army against the revolters, it seemed but too certain
that the two parties would make common cause against
the new invader. Then, Bengal, under its King, Nasrat
Shah ; Gujarat, under Sikandar Shah ; and Malwa,
under Sultan Mahmud, were three powerful and in-
dependent kingdoms. A portion of Malwa, indeed,
that represented by the fortresses, Ranthambor, at the
angle formed by the confluence of the Chambal and the
Banas ; Sarangpur, on the Kali Sind ; Bhilsa, on the
Betwa ; Chanderi ; and Chitor, very famous in those
days, had been re-conquered by the renowned Hindu
prince, Rana Sanga. In the south of India, too, the
Bahmanis had established a kingdom, and the Raja of
Vijayanagar exercised independent authority. There
were, moreover, he found, a considerable number of
C 2
$6 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Rais and Kajas who had never submitted to Muham-
madan kings.
But the independence of these several princes did
not, he soon recognised, constitute his greatest difficulty.
That difficulty arose from the fact that the Hindu
population, never conciliated by the families which
had preceded his own, were hostile to the invader.
' The north of India/ writes Erskine, ' still retained
much of its Hindu organisation ; its system of village
and district administration and government ; its divi-
sion into numerous little chieftainships, or petty local
governments ; and, in political revolutions, the people
looked much more to their own immediate rulers than
to the prince who governed in the capital/ In a word,
never having realised the working of a well-ordered
system, emanating from one all-powerful centre, they
regarded the latest conqueror as an intruder whom it
might be their interest to oppose.
The dread thus engendered by the arrival of a new
invader, whose character and whose dispositions were
alike unknown, was increased by the machinations of
the Muhammadan adherents of the old families. These
men argued that the success of the Mughal invader
meant ruin to them. They spared no pains, then, to
impress upon the Hindu population that neither their
temples nor their wives and daughters would be safe
from the rapine and lust of the barbarians of Central
Asia. Under the influence of a terror produced by
these warnings the Hindus fled from before the mer-
ciful and generous invader as he approached Agra,
POSITION OF BABAR IN HINDUSTAN 37
preferring the misery of the jungle to the apparent
certainty of outrage.
To add to Babar's troubles, there arose at this period
discontent in his army. The men composing it were
to a great extent mountaineers from the lofty ranges
in Eastern Afghanistan. These men had followed their
King with delight so long as there was a prospect of
fighting. But Panipat had given them Northern
India. The march from Delhi to Agra was a march
through a deserted country, at a season always hot,
but the intense heat of which, in 1526, exceeded the heat
of normal years. Like the Highlanders of our own
Prince Charlie in '45, these highlanders murmured.
They, too, longed to return to their mountain homes.
The disaffection was not confined to the men. Even
the chiefs complained ; and their complaints became
so loud that they at last reached the ears of Babar.
Babar had been greatly pleased with his conquest.
Neither the heat nor the disaffection of the inhabitants
had been able to conceal from him the fact that he had
conquered the finest, the most fertile, the most valuable
part of Asia. In his wonderful memoirs * he devotes
more than twenty large printed pages to describe it.
' It is a remarkably fine country,' he begins. ' It is
quite a different world compared with our countries/
He saw almost at a glance that all his work was cut
out to complete the conquest in the sense he attributed
to that word. Henceforth the title of King of Kabul
1 Babar's Memoirs, pp. 312 to 335.
38 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
was to be subjected to the higher title of Emperor of
Hindustan. For him there was no turning back.
He had noted all the difficulties, and he had resolved
how to meet them. A thoroughly practical man, he
proceeded first to take up that which he rightly re-
garded as the greatest — the discontent in the army.
Assembling a council of his nobles, he laid before them
the actual position : told them how, after many toilsome
marches and bloody fights, they had won numerous
rich and extensive provinces. To abandon these and
to return to Kabul would be shame indeed. 'Let not
anyone who calls himself my friend/ he concluded,
1 henceforward make such a proposal. But if there is
any among you who cannot bring himself to stay, or
to give up his purpose of returning back, let him depart.'
The address produced the desired effect, and when the
words were followed by action, by new encounters and
by new successes, enthusiasm succeeded discontent K
The firmness of the conqueror was soon rewarded
in a different manner. No sooner did the inhabitants,
Muhammadan settlers and Hindu landowners and
traders, recognise that Babar intended his occupancy to
1 To one of his friends, who found the heat un supportable, and
whom he therefore made Governor of Ghazni, Babar, when he was
firm in the saddle, sent the distich, of which the following is the
translation :
'Keturn a hundred thanks, Babar, for the bounty of the
merciful God
Has given you Sind, Hind, and numerous kingdoms ;
If, unable to stand the heat, you long for cold,
You have only to recollect the frost and cold of Ghazni.'
POSITION OF BABAR IN HINDUSTAN 39
be permanent, than their fears subsided. Many proofs,
meanwhile, of his generous and noble nature had
affected public opinion regarding him. Every day then
brought accessions to his standard. Villagers and shop-
keepers returned to their homes, and abundance soon
reigned in camp. A little later, and the army which had
been employed by Ibr&him Lodi to put down rebellion
in Jaunpur and Oudh, acknowledged Babar as their
sovereign. In the interval, judiciously employing
his troops, he conquered a great part of Rohilkhand ;
occupied the important post of Raberi, on the Jumna ;
and laid siege to Itawa and Dholpur. But troubles
were preparing for him in Central India, from a
quarter which it would not do for him to neglect.
These troubles were caused by Ran a Sanga, Rana
of Chitor. I have related already how this great prince
— for great in every sense of the term he was — had
won back from the earlier Muhammadan invaders a
great portion of his hereditary dominions. He had
even done more. He had defeated Ibrahim Lodi in two
pitched battles, those of Bakraul and Chataulf, and had
gained from other generals sixteen in addition. Before
the arrival in India of Babar he had taken the then
famous fort of Ranthambor. But he had continued,
and was continuing, his career of conquest, and the
news which troubled Babar was to the effect that the
great Rajput chief had just taken the strong hill-fort
of Kandar, a few miles to the eastward of Ranthambor.
Towards the end of the rainy season Babar held
a council to meet these and other difficulties. At this
40 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
council it was arranged that, whilst his eldest son,
Humayun 1 , then eighteen years old, should march
eastward, to complete the subjection of the Duab,
Oudh, and Juanpur, Babar should remain at Agra
to superintend there the general direction of affairs.
As for Eana Sanga, it was resolved to march against
him only when the enemy nearer home should have
been subdued.
The expedition of Huimiyun was completely suc-
cessful. He conquered the country as far as the
frontiers of Bihar. On his return, January 6th, 1527,
Babar subdued Biana and Dholpur, took by stratagem
the fortress of Gwalior, received information of the
surrender of Multan. Then, master of the country
from the Indus to the frontiers of Western Bih&r, and
from Kalpi and Gwalior to the Himalayas, he turned
his attention to the famous Rana of Chitor, Eana
Sanga. On February 11 he marched from Agra
to encounter the army of this prince, who, joined
by Muhammadan auxiliaries of the Lodi party, had
advanced too, and had encamped at Bisawar, some
1 In the famous Memoirs, pp. 302-3, is to be found the following
note, inserted by Humayun : 'At this same station,' the station of
Shahabad, on the left bank of the Sarsuti, reached on the march to
Panipat, ■ and this same day,' March 6, 1526, ' the razor or scissors
were first applied to Humayun's beard. As my honoured father
mentioned in these commentaries the time of his first using the razor,
in humble emulation of him I have commemorated the same circum-
stance regarding myself. I was then eighteen years of age. Now
that I am forty-six, I, Muhammad Humayun, am transcribing a
copy of these Memoirs from the copy in his late Majesty's own hand-
writing/
POSITION OF BABAR IN HINDUSTAN 41
twelve miles from Biana and some sixty- two, by that
place, from Agra. Babar advanced to Sikri, now
Fatehpur-Sikri, and halted. In some skirmishes
which followed the Rajputs had all the advantage,
and a great discouragement fell on the soldiers of
Babar. He contented himself for the moment with
making his camp as defensible as possible, and by
sending a party to ravage Mewat.
Cooped up in camp, discouraged by the aspect of
affairs, Babar, uneasy at the forced inaction, passed in
review the events of his life, and recognised with
humility and penitence that throughout it he had
habitually violated one of the strictest injunction?
of the Kuran, that which forbids the drinking of
wine. He resolved at once to amend. Sending then
for his golden wine-cups and his silver goblets he had
them destroyed in his presence, and gave the proceeds
of the sale of the precious metal to the poor. All the
wine in the camp was rendered undrinkable or poured
on the ground. Three hundred of his nobles followed
his example.
Sensible at length that the situation could not be
prolonged, Babar, on March 1 2th, advanced two miles
towards the enemy, halted, and again advanced the
day following to a position he had selected as favour-
able to an engagement. Here he ranged his troops in
order of battle. On the 16th the Rajputs and their
allies advanced, and the battle joined. Of it Babar
has written in his memoirs a picturesque and, doubt-
less, a faithful account. It must suffice here to say
42 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
that he gained a victory so decisive 1 , that on the
morrow of it Rajptitana lay at his feet. He at once
pushed on to Biana, thence into Mewat, and reduced
the entire province to obedience. But the effects of
his victory were not limited to conquests achieved by
himself. Towns in the Duab which had revolted,
returned to their allegiance or were recovered. When
the Duab had been completely pacified Babar turned
his arms, first, against the Hindu chiefs of Central
India, the leader of whom was at the time the Raja
of Chanderi. He had reached the town and fortress
of that name when information came to him that his
generals in the east had been unfortunate, and had
been compelled to fall back from Lucknow upon
Kanauj. Unshaken by this intelligence, the im-
portance of which he admitted, he persevered in
the siege of Chanderi, and in a few days stormed
the fortress. Having secured the submission of the
country he marched rapidly eastward, joined his
defeated generals near Kanauj, threw a bridge across
the Ganges near that place, drove the enemy — the
remnant of the Lodi party — before him, re -occupied
Lucknow, crossed the Gtimti and the Gogra, and forced
the dispirited foe to disperse. He then returned to
Agra to resume the threads of the administration he
was arranging.
But he was not allowed time to remain quiet. The
1 Hand Sanga was severely wounded, and the choicest chieftains
of his army were slain. The Rana died the same year at Baswa on
the frontiers of Mewat.
POSITION OF BABAR IN HINDUSTAN 43
old Muhammadan party in Jaunpur had never been
effectively subdued. The rich kingdom of Behar,
adjoining that of Jaunpur, had, up to this time, been
unassailed. And now the Muhammadan nobles of
both districts combined to place in the hands of a
prince of the house of Lodi — the same who had aided
Sanga R&na against B&bar — the chief authority in the
united kingdom. The conspiracy had been conducted
with so much secrecy that the result of it only reached
Babar on the 1st of February, 1529. He was then at
Dholpur, a place which he greatly affected, engaged
with his nobles in laying out gardens, and otherwise
improving and beautifying the place. That very day
he returned to Agra, and taking with him such troops
as he had at hand, marched the day following to join
his son Askari's army, then at Dakdaki, a village
near Karra 1 , on the right bank of the Ganges. He
reached that place on the 27th, and found Askari's
army on the opposite bank of the river. He at once
directed that prince to conform his movements on the
left bank to those of his own on the right.
The news which reached B&bar here was not of a
nature to console. The enemy, to the number of a
hundred thousand, had rallied round the standard
of M&hmud Lodi; whilst one of his own generals,
Sher Khan, whom he had distinguished by marks
of his favour, had joined the insurgents and had
1 Karra is now in ruins. It is in the tahsil or district of the same
name in the Allahabad division. In the times of Babar and Akbar
it was very prosperous.
44 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
occupied Benares with his division. Mdhmud Lodi
was besieging Chanar, twenty-six miles from the
sacred city.
Babar immediately advanced, compelled Mdhmud
Lodi to raise the siege of Chanar, forced Sher Khan
to evacuate Benares and re-cross the Ganges, and,
crossing the Karamnasa, encamped beyond Chausa,
at the confluence of that river and the Ganges, and
Baksar. Marching thence, he drove his enemy before
him until he reached Arrah. There he assumed the
sovereignty of Behar, and there he learned that Mah-
mud Lodi, attended by but a few followers, had taken
refuge with the King of Bengal.
Nasrat Shah, King of Bengal, had married a niece
of Mahmud Lodi. He had entered into a kind of
convention with Babar that neither prince was to
invade the territories of the other, but, despite this
convention, he had occupied the province of Saran or
Chapra, and had taken up with his army a position
near the junction of the Gogra with the Ganges, very
strong for defensive purposes. Babar resolved to com-
pel the Bengal army to abandon that position. There
was, he soon found, but one way to accomplish that
end, and that was by the use of force. Banging then
his army in six divisions, he directed that four, under
his son Askari, then on the left bank of the Ganges,
should cross the Gogra, march upon the enemy, and
attempt to draw them from their camp, and follow
them up the Gogra ; whilst the two others, under his
own personal direction, should cross the Ganges, then
POSITION OF BABAR IN HINDUSTAN 45
the Gogra, and attack the enemy's camp, cutting him
off from his base. The combination, carried out on
the 6th of May, entirely succeeded. The Bengal army
was completely defeated, and the victory was, in every
sense of the word, decisive. Peace was concluded with
Bengal on the conditions that the province, now known
as Western Behar, should be ceded to Babar ; that
neither prince should support the enemies of the other,
and that neither should molest the dominions of the
other.
Thus far I have been guided mainly by the memoirs
of the illustrious man whose achievements I have
briefly recorded. There is but little more to tell.
Shortly after his return from his victorious campaign
in Behar his health began to decline. The fact could
not be concealed, and an account of it reached his
eldest son, Humayun, then Governor of Badakshan.
That prince, making over his government to his
brother, Hindal, hastened to Agra. He arrived there
early in 1530, was most affectionately received, and
by his sprightly wit and genial manners, made many
friends. He had been there but six months when he
was attacked by a serious illness. When the illness
was at its height, and the life of the young prince
was despaired of, an incident occurred which shows,
in a manner not to be mistaken, the unselfishness and
affection of Babar. It is thus related in the supple-
mental chapter to the Memoirs l .
1 This chapter was added by the translators. The same circum-
stance is related also by Mr. Erskine in his Babar and Humayun.
46 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
'When all hopes from medicine were over, and
whilst several men of skill were talking to the Emperor
of the melancholy situation of his son, Abul Baka, a
personage highly venerated for his knowledge and
piety, remarked to Babar that in such a case the Al-
mighty had sometimes vouchsafed to receive the most
valuable thing possessed by one friend, as an offering
in exchange for the life of another. Babar exclaimed
that, of all things, his life was dearest to Hum&yun,
as Humayun's was to him; that his life, therefore,
he most cheerfully devoted as a sacrifice for that of
his son,; and prayed the Most High to vouchsafe to
accept it.' Vainly did his courtiers remonstrate. He
persisted, we are told, in his resolution ; walked thrice
round the dying prince, a solemnity similar to that
used by the Muhammadans in sacrifices, and, retiring,
prayed earnestly. After a time he was heard to ex-
claim : ' I have borne it away ! I have borne it away ! '
The Musalman historians relate that almost from that
moment Humayun began to recover and the strength
of Babar began proportionately to decay. He lingered
on to the end of the year 1530. On the 26th
December he restored his soul to his Maker, in his
palace of the Charbagh, near Agra, in the forty-ninth
year of his age. His remains were, in accordance
with his dying request, conveyed to Kabul, where
they were interred in a lovely spot, about a mile from
the city.
Amongst the famous conquerors of the world B&bar
will always occupy a very high place. His character
POSITION OF BABAR IN HINDUSTAN 47
created his career. Inheriting but the shadow of a
small kingdom in Central Asia, he died master of the
territories lying between the Karamnasa* and the Oxus,
and those between the Narbadd, and the Himalayas.
His nature was a joyous nature. Generous, confiding,
always hopeful, he managed to attract the affection of
all with whom he came in contact. He was keenly
sensitive to all that was beautiful in nature ; had
cultivated his own remarkable talents to a degree
quite unusual in the age in which he lived ; and was
gifted with strong affections and a very vivid imagina-
tion. He loved war and glory, but he did not neglect
the arts of peace. He made it a duty to inquire into
the condition of the races whom he subdued and to
devise for them ameliorating measures. He was fond
of gardening, of architecture, of music, and he was no
mean poet. But the greatest glory of his character
was that attributed to him by one who knew him
well, and who thus recorded his opinion in Tarikhi
Reshidi. * Of all his qualities,' wrote Haidar Mirza,
' his generosity and humanity took the lead.' Though
he lived long enough only to conquer and not long
enough to consolidate, the task of conquering could
hardly have been committed to hands more pure.
Babar left four sons : Muhammad Humaytin Mirza,
who succeeded him, born April 5, 1508 : K&mran Mirza,
Hindal Mirza, and Askari Mirza. Before his death
he had introduced Humaytin to a specially convened
council of ministers as his successor, and had given
him his dying injunctions. The points upon which he
48 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
had specially laid stress were : the conscientious dis-
charge of duties to God and man ; the honest and
assiduous administration of justice ; the seasoning of
punishment to the guilty with the extension of tender-
ness and mercy to the ignorant and penitent, with
protection to the poor and defenceless ; he besought
Humayun, moreover, to deal kindly and affectionately
towards his brothers.
Thus died, in the flower of his manhood, the illustrious
chief who introduced the Mughal dynasty into India ;
who, conquering the provinces of the North-west and
some districts in the centre of the peninsula, acquired
for that dynasty the prescriptive right to claim them
as its own. He had many great qualities. But, in
Hindustan, he had had neither the time nor the op-
portunity to introduce into the provinces he had
conquered such a system of administration as would
weld the parts theretofore separate into one homo-
geneous whole. It may be doubted whether, great as
he was, he possessed to a high degree the genius of
constructive legislation. Nowhere had he given any
signs of it. In Kabul and in Hindustan alike, he had
pursued the policy of the conquerors who had preceded
him, that of bestowing conquered provinces and dis-
tricts on adherents, to be governed by them in direct
responsibility to himself, each according to his own
plan. Thus it happened that when he died the
provinces in India which acknowledged him as master
were bound together by that tie alone. Agra had
nothing in common with Lucknow ; Delhi with Jaun-
POSITION OF BABAR IN HINDUSTAN 49
pur. Heavy tolls marked the divisions of territories,
inhabited by raees of different origin, who were only
bound together by the sovereignty of Babar over all.
He bequeathed to his son, Humayun, then, a congeries
of territories uncemented by any bond of union or of
common interest, except that which had been em-
bodied in his life. In a word, when he died, the
Mughal dynasty, like the Muhammadan dynasties
which had preceded it, had shot down no roots into
the soil of Hindustan.
CHAPTER VI
HlJMAYUN AND THE EARLY DAYS OF AKBAR
Brave, genial, witty, a charming companion,
highly educated, generous, and merciful, Humaytin
was even less qualified than his father to found a
dynasty on principles which should endure. Allied
to his many virtues were many compromising defects.
He was volatile, thoughtless, and unsteady. He was
swayed by no strong sense of duty. His generosity
was apt to degenerate into prodigality; his attach-
ments into weakness. He was unable to concentrate
his energies for a time in any serious direction, whilst
for comprehensive legislation he had neither the
genius nor the inclination. He was thus eminently
unfitted to consolidate the conquest his father had
bequeathed to him.
It is unnecessary to relate in detail a history of the
eight years which followed his accession. So unskilful
was his management, and so little did he acquire the
confidence and esteem of the races under his sway,
that when, in April, 1540, he was defeated at Kanauj,
by Sher Khan Sur, a nobleman who had submitted to
Babar, but who had risen against his son — whom
he succeeded under the title of Sher Shah — the
hum Ay On and akbar 51
entire edifice crumbled in hia hand. After some
adventures, Humayun found himself, January, 1541, a
fugitive with a mere handful of followers, at Rohri
opposite the island of Bukkur on the Indus, in
Sind. He had lost the inheritance bequeathed him
by his father.
Humayun spent altogether two and a half years in
Sind, engaged in a vain attempt to establish himself
in that province. The most memorable event of his
sojourn there was the birth, on the 1,5th of October,
1542, of a son, called by him Jalal-ud-din Muhammad
Akbar. I propose to relate now the incidents which
led to a result so important in the history of India.
In 1541, Humayun, whose troops were engaged in
besieging Bukkur, distrusting the designs of his
brother Hindal, whom he had commissioned to attack
and occupy the rich province of Sehwan, appointed a
meeting with the latter at the town of Patar, some
twenty miles to the west of the Indus. There he
found Hindal, surrounded by his nobles, prepared to
receive him right royally. During the festivities
which followed, the mother of Hindal — who, it may
be remarked, was not the mother of Humayun — gave
a grand entertainment, to which she invited all the
ladies of the court. Amongst these Humayun es-
pecially noted a girl called Hamida, the daughter
of a nobleman who had been preceptor to Hindal.
So struck was he that he inquired on the spot
whether the girl were betrothed. He was told in
reply that, although she had been promised, no cere-
D 1
52 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
mony of betrothal had as yet taken place. ' In that
case,' said Humayun, 'I will marry her.' Hindal
protested against the suddenly formed resolution, and
threatened, if it were persisted in, to quit his brother's
service. A quarrel, which had almost ended in a
rupture, then ensued between the brothers. But
the pleadings of Hindal' s mother, who favoured the
match, brought Hindal to acquiescence, and, the next
day, Hamida, who had just completed her fourteenth
year, was married to Humayun. A few days later,
the happy pair repaired to the camp before Bukkur.
The times, however, were unfavourable to the
schemes of Humayun. All his plans miscarried,
and, in the spring of 1542, he and his young wife
had to flee for safety to the barren deserts of Marwar.
In August they reached Jaisalmer, but, repulsed by
its Raja, they had to cross the great desert, suffering
terribly during the journey from want of water.
Struggling bravely, however, they reached, on August
22nd, the fort of Amarkot, on the edge of the desert.
The Rana of the fort received them hospitably, and
there, on Sunday October the 15th, Hamida Begam
gave birth to Akbar. Humayun had quitted Amar-
kot four days previously, to invade the district of
Jun. His words, when the news was brought to
him, deserve to be recorded. ' As soon/ wrote one
who attended him, 'as the Emperor had finished his
thanksgivings to God, the Amirs were introduced,
and offered their congratulations. He then called
Jouher (the historian, author of the Tezkereh al
humAy&n and akbar 53
Vakiat) and asked what he had committed to his
charge. Jouher answered : " Two hundred Shah-
rukhis " (Khorasani gold coins), a silver wristlet and
a musk-bag ; adding, that the two former had been
returned to their owners. On this Humayun or-
dered the musk-bag to be brought, and, having
broken it on a china plate, he called his nobles, and
divided it among them, as the royal present in honour
of his son's birth.' . . . ' This event,' adds Jouher,
* diffused its fragrance over the whole habitable
world.'
The birth of the son brought no immediate good
fortune to the father. In July, 1543, Humayun was
compelled to quit Sind, and, accompanied by his
wife and son and a small following, set out with the
intention of reaching Kandahar. He had arrived at
Shal, when he learnt that his brother, Askari, with a
considerable force, was close at hand, and that im-
mediate flight was necessary. He and his wife were
ready, but what were they to do with the child, then
only a year old, quite unfit to make a rapid journey
on horseback, in the boisterous weather then pre-
vailing? Reckoning, not without reason, that the
uncle would not make war against a baby, they
decided to leave him, with the whole of their camp-
equipage and baggage, and the ladies who attended
him. They then set out, and riding hard, reached
the Persian frontier in safety. Scarcely had they
gone when Askari Mirza arrived. Veiling his dis-
appointment at the escape of his brother with some
54 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
soft words, he treated the young prince with affection,
had him conveyed to Kandahar, of which place he
was Governor, and placed there under the supreme
charge of his own wife, the ladies who had been his
nurses still remaining in attendance.
In this careful custody the young prince remained
during the whole of the year 1544. But soon after
the dawn of the following year a change in his
condition occurred. His father, with the aid of
troops supplied him by Shah Tahm&sp, invaded
Western Afghanistan, making straight across the
desert for Kandahar. Alarmed at this movement,
and dreading lest Humaytin should recover his
child, Kamran sent peremptory orders that the boy
should be transferred to Kabul. When the con-
fidential officers whom Kamran had instructed on
this subject reached Kandahar, the ministers of
Askari Mirza held a council to consider whether or
not the demand should be complied with. Some,
believing the star of Humaytin to be in the as-
cendant, advised that the boy should be sent, under
honourable escort, to his father. Others maintained
that Prince Askari had acted so treacherously towards
his eldest brother that no act of penitence would now
avail, and that it was better to continue to deserve
the favour of Kamran. The arguments of the latter
prevailed, and though the winter was unusually
severe, the infant prince and his sister, Bakhshi
Banu Begam, were despatched with their attendants
to Kabul. After some adventures, which made the
humAyi)n and akbar 55
escort apprehend an attempt at rescue, the party
reached Kabul in safety, and there Kamran confided
his nephew to the care of his great-aunt, Khanzada
Begam, the whilom favourite sister of the Emperor
Babar. This illustrious lady maintained in their
duties the nurses and attendants who had watched
over the early days of the young prince, and during
the short time of her superintendence she bestowed
upon him the tenderest care. Unhappily that super-
intendence lasted only a few months. The capture of
KandaMr by Humayun in the month of September
following (1545) threw Kamran into a state of great
perplexity. A suspicious and jealous man, and re-
garding the possession of Akbar as a talisman he
could use against Humayun, he removed the boy
from the care of his grand-aunt, and confided him
to. a trusted adherent, Kuch Kilan by name. But
events marched very quickly in those days. Huma-
yun, having established a firm base at Kandahar, set
out with an army for Kabul, appeared before that
city the first week in November, and compelled it to
surrender to him on the 15th. Kamran had escaped
to Ghaznl : but the happy father had the gratification
of finding the son from whom he had been so long
separated. The boy's mother, Hamida Begam, did
not arrive till the spring of the following year, but,
meanwhile, Kuch Kilan was removed, and the prince's
former governor, known as Atka Khan *, was restored
to his post.
1 His real name was Shams-ud-din Muhammad of Ghazni. He
$6 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
For the moment splendour and prosperity sur-
rounded the boy. But when winter came, Humayun,
who meanwhile had recovered Badakshan, resolved to
pass the coldest months of the year at Kila Zafar, in
that province. But on his way thither he was seized
with an illness so dangerous that his life was de-
spaired of. He recovered indeed after two months'
strict confinement to his bed, but, in the interval,
many of his nobles, believing his end was assured,
had repaired to the courts of his brothers, and Kam-
ran, aided by troops supplied by his father-in-law, had
regained Kabul, and, with Kabul, possession of the
person of Akbar. One of the first acts of the con-
queror was to remove Atka Khan from the person of the
prince, and to replace him by one of his own servants.
But Humayun had no sooner regained his strength
than he marched to recover his capital. Defeating, in
the suburbs, a detachment of the best troops of Kam-
ran, he established his head-quarters on the Koh-
Akabain which commands the town, and commenced
to cannonade it. The fire after some days became so
severe and caused so much damage that, to stop it,
Kamran sent to his brother to declare that unless the
fire should cease, he would expose the young Akbar
on the walls at the point where it was hottest l ,
had saved the life of Humayun in 1540, at the battle of Kanauj,
fought against Sher Shah.
1 Abulfazl relates in the Akbarnana that the prince actually was
exposed, and Haidar Mirza, Badauni, Ferishta, and others follow
him ; but Bayazid, who was present, though he minutely describes
other atrocities in his memoirs, does not mention this ; whilst Jouher,
humAyCn and akbar 57
Hum&yun ordered the firing to cease. He continued
the siege, however, and on the 28th of April (1547)
entered the city a conqueror. Kamr&n had escaped
the previous night.
K£mr&n had fled to Badakshdn. Thither Huma-
yun followed him. But, in the winter that followed,
some of his most powerful nobles revolted, and de-
serted to K&mr&n. Hum&yun, after some marches
and countermarches, determined in the summer of
1548 to make a decisive effort to settle his northern
dominions. He marched, then, in June from Kabul,
taking with him Akbar and Akbar's mother. On
reaching Gulbahan he sent back to Kdbul Akbar and
his mother, and marching on Talik&n, forced K&mr&n
to surrender. Having settled his northern territories
the Emperor, as he was still styled, returned to K&bul.
He quitted it again, in the late spring of 1549, to
attempt Balkh, in the western Kunduz territory.
The Uzbeks, however, repulsed him, and he returned
to Kabul for the winter of 1550. Then ensued a very
curious scene. Kamr&n, whose failure to join Humd-
yun in the expedition against Balkh had been the
main cause of his retreat, and who had subsequently
gone into open rebellion, had, after Humayun's
defeat, made a disastrous campaign on the Oxus, and
had sent his submission to Humayun. That prince,
consigning the government of Kabul to Akbar, then
in his private memoirs of Humayun, a translation of which by
Major Charles Stewart appeared in 1832, states the story as I have
given it in the text.
j8 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
eight years old, with Muhammad Kasim Khan Birlas
as his tutor, marched from the capital to gain posses-
sion of the person of his brother. So careless, how-
ever, were his movements that Kamr&n, who had
planned the manoeuvre, surprised him at the upper
end of the defile of Kipchak, and forced him to take
refuge in flight. During the flight Humayun was
badly wounded, but nevertheless managed to reach
the top of the Sirtan Pass in safety. There he was
in comparative security. Meanwhile Kamran had
marched upon and captured Kabul, and, for the third
time, Akbar found himself a prisoner in the hands of
his uncle. Humayun did not submit tamely to this
loss. Rallying his adherents, he recrossed the moun-
tains, and marched on the city. Arriving at Shutar-
gardan he saw the army of Kamran drawn up to
oppose him. After some days of fruitless negotiation
for a compromise Humayun ordered the attack. It
resulted in a complete victory and the flight of Kam-
ran. For a moment Humayun feared lest Kamran
should have carried his son with him in his flight.
Eut, before he could enter the city, he was intensely
relieved by the arrival in camp of Akbar, accompanied
by Hasan Akhta, to whose care he had been en-
trusted. The next day he entered the city.
This time the conquest was decisive and lasting.
In the distribution of awards which followed Humd,-
ytin did not omit his son. He bestowed upon Akbar
as a jaghir the district of Chirkh, and nominated
Haji Muhammad Khan of Sistan as his minister.
hum Ay On invades india 59
with the care of his education. During the year that
followed the causes of the troubles of Humayun
disappeared one by one. Kainran indeed once more
appeared in arms, but only to be hunted down so
vigorously that he was forced to surrender (August,
1553). He was exiled to Mekka, where he died four
years later. Hindal Mirza, another brother, had been
slain some eighteen months before, during the pursuit
of Kamran. Askari Mirza, the other brother, in
whose nature treachery seemed ingrained, had been
exiled to Mekka in 1551 \ and though he still sur-
vived he was harmless. Relieved thus of his brothers,
Humayun contemplated the conquest of Kashmir,
but his nobles and their followers were so averse to
the expedition that he was forced, unwillingly, to
renounce it. He consoled himself by crossing the
Indus. Whilst encamped in the districts between
that river and the Jehlam he ordered the repair,
tantamount to a reconstruction on an enlarged plan,
of the fort at Peshawar. He was contemplating even
then the invasion of India, and he was particularly
anxious that he should possess a 'point oVappui
beyond the passes on which his army could concen-
trate. He pushed the works so vigorously that the
fort was ready by the end of the year (1554). He
then returned to Kabul. During the winter and
early spring that followed, there came to a head in
Hindustan the crisis which gave him the opportunity
of carrying his plans into effect.
1 He died there in 1558,
CHAPTER VII
HtJMAYUN INVADES INDIA. HlS DEATH
Shek Khan Sue, who had defeated Humayun at
Kanauj in 1540, had used his victory to possess him-
self of the territories which Babar had conquered, and
to add somewhat to them. He was an able man, but
neither did he, more than the prince whom he sup-
planted, possess the genius of consolidation and union.
He governed on the system of detached camps, each
province and district being separately administered.
He died in 1545 from injuries received at the siege
of Kalinjar, just as that strong fort surrendered to his
arms.
His second son, Salim Shah Sur, known also as
Sultan Islam, succeeded him, and reigned for between
seven and eight years. He must have been dimly
conscious of the weakness of the system he had
inherited, for the greater part of his reign was spent
in combating the intrigues of the noblemen who held
the several provinces under him. On his death,
leaving a child of tender years to succeed him, the
nobles took the upper hand. The immediate result
was the murder of the young prince, after a nominal
rule of three days, and the seizure of the throne by
HUMAYON INVADES INDIA 6l
his maternal uncle, who proclaimed himself as Sultan
under the title of Muhammad Shah Adel. He was
ignorant, cruel, unprincipled, and a sensualist of a
very pronounced type. He had, however, the good
fortune to attach to his throne a Hindu, named Hemu,
who, originally a shopkeeper of Eewari, a town of
Mewat, showed talents so considerable, that he was
eventually allowed to concentrate in his own hands
all the power of the State. The abilities of Hemu did
not, however, prevent the break-up of the territories
which Sher Shah had bequeathed to his son. Ibrahim
Kh&n revolted at Bi&nd, and occupying Agra and
Delhi, proclaimed himself Sult&n. Ahmad Khan,
Governor of the country north-west of the Sutlej,
seized the Punjab, and proclaimed himself king under
the title of Sikandar Shah. Shujd Khan seized the
kingdom of Malwa, whilst two rival claimants dis-
puted the eastern provinces. In the contests which
followed Sikandar Shah for the moment obtained the
upper hand. He defeated Ibrahim Khan at Farah,
twenty miles from Agra, then marched on and oc-
cupied Delhi. He was preparing to head an expedition
to recover Jaunpur and Behar, when he heard of danger
threatening him from Kabul.
The events that followed were important only in
their results. Humayun marched from Kabul for
the Indus in November, 1554, at the head of a small
army, which, however, gathered strength as he ad-
vanced. Akbar accompanied him. Crossing the
Indus the 2nd of January, 1555, Humayun made for
62 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Rawal Pindf, then pushed on for Kalanaur, on the
further side of the Ravi. There he divided his forces,
sending his best general, Bairam Khan, into Jalandhar,
whilst he marched on Lahore, and despatched thence
his special favourite, Abdul Ma'ali, to occupy Dipal-
pur, then an important centre, commanding the country
between the capital and Multan.
Events developed themselves very rapidly. Bairam
Khan defeated the generals of Sikandar Shah at
Machhiwara on the Sutlej, and then marched on the
town of Sirhind. Sikandar, hoping to crush him
there, hurried to that place with af* vastly superior
force. Bairam intrenched himself, and wrote to
Humayun for aid. Humayun despatched the young
Akbar, and followed a few days later. Before they
could come, Sikandar had arrived but had hesitated
to attack. The hesitation lost him. As soon as
Humayun arrived, he precipitated a general engage-
ment. The victory was decisive. Sikandar Shah
fled to the Siwaliks, and Humayun, with his victorious
army, marched on Delhi. Occupying it the 23rd of
July, he despatched one division of it to overrun
Rohilkhand, another to occupy Agra. He had pre-
viously sent Abdul Ma'ali to secure the Punjab.
But his troubles were not yet over. Hemu, the
general and chief minister of Muhammad Shah Ad el,
had defeated the pretender to the throne of Bengal,
who had invaded the North-west Provinces, near Kalpi
on the Jumna, and that capable leader was preparing
to march on Delhi. Sikandar Shah, too, who had
hum Ay On /a fades india 63
been defeated at Sirhind, was beginning to show signs
of life in the Punjab. In the face of these difficulties
Humayun decided to remain at Delhi himself, whilst
he despatched Akbar with Bairam Khan as his
' Atalik,' or adviser, to settle matters in the Punjab.
We must first follow Akbar. That prince reached
Sirhind early in January, 1556. Joined there by many
of the nobles whom Abdul Ma' all, the favourite of his
father, had disgusted by his haughtiness, he crossed
the Sutlej at Phillaur, marched on Sultanpur in the
Kangra district, and thence, in pursuit of Sikandar
Shah, to Hariana. The morning of his arrival there,
information reached him of a serious accident which
had happened to Humayun. He at once suspended the
forward movement, and marched on Kalanaur, there
to await further intelligence. As he approached that
place, a despatch was placed in his hands, drafted by
order of Humayun, giving hopes of speedy recovery.
But, a little later, another courier arrived, bearing
the news of the Emperor's death. Akbar was at once
proclaimed.
The situation was a trying one for a boy who
had lived but thirteen years and four months. He
occupied, indeed, the Punjab. His servants held Sir-
hind, Delhi, and possibly Agra. But he was aware
that Hemu, flushed with two victories, for he had
obtained a second over another pretender, was march-
ing towards the last-named city with an army of fifty
thousand men and five hundred elephants, with the
avowed intention of restoring the rule of Muhammad
64 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Shah Adel. To add to his difficulties he heard a few
days later that the viceroy placed by his father at
Kabul had revolted.
Humayun had met his death by a fall from the top
of the staircase leading to the terraced roof of his
library in the palace of Delhi. He lingered four days,
the greater part of the time in a state of insensibility,
and expired the evening of the 24th of January, in the
forty-eighth year of his age. Tardi'Beg Khan, the
most eminent of all the nobles at the capital, and
actually Governor of the city, assumed on the spot the
general direction of affairs. His first care was to con-
ceal the incident from the public until he could arrange
to make the succession secure for the young Akbar, to
whom he sent expresses conveying details. By an
ingenious stratagem he managed to conceal the death
of the Emperor for seventeen days. Then, on the 1 oth
of February, he repaired with the nobles to the great
Mosque, and caused the prayer for the Emperor to be
recited in the name of Akbar. His next act was to
despatch the insignia of the empire with the Crown
jewels, accompanied by the officers of the household,
the Imperial Guards, and a possible rival to the throne
in the person of a son of Humayun's brother, Kamran,
to the head-quarters of the new Emperor in the Punjab.
He then proceeded to take measures to secure the
capital against the threatened attack of Hemu.
CHAPTER VIII
Akbar's Fight for his Father's Throne
The news of his father's death, I have said, reached
Akbar as he was entering the town of Kalanaur at the
head of his army. At the moment he had not heard
of the revolt at Kabul, nor had his adviser, Bairdm
Khan, dwelt in his mind on the probability of a move-
ment by Hemu against Delhi. In the first few days,
then, it seemed as though there were but one enemy
in the field, and that enemy the Sikandar Shah, to
suppress whom his father had sent him to the Punjab.
That prince was still in arms, slowly retreating in the
direction of Kashmir. It appeared, then, to the young
Emperor and his adviser that their first business should
be to secure the Punjab ; that to effect that object they
must follow up Sikandar Shah. The army accord-
ingly broke up from Kalanaur, pushed after Sikandar,
and drove him to take refuge in the fort of Mankot, in
the lower ranges of the Siwaliks. As Mankot was
very strong, and tidings of untoward events alike in
Hindustan and Kabul reached them, the leaders con-
e
66 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
tented themselves with leaving a force to blockade
that fortress, and returned to Jalandhar.
It was time indeed. Not only had Kabul revolted,
but Hemu, his army increasing with every step, had
taken Agra without striking a blow, and was pursuing
the retreating garrison towards Delhi. A day later
came the information that he had defeated the Mughal
army close to Delhi, and had occupied that capital.
Tardi Beg, with the remnants of the defeated force,
had fled towards Sirhind.
In the multitude of counsellors there is not always
wisdom. When Akbar heard of the success of Hemu,
he assembled his warrior-nobles and asked their advice.
With one exception they all urged him to fall back on
Kabul. That he could recover his mountain-capital
they felt certain, and there he could remain until
events should be propitious for a fresh invasion of
India. Against this recommendation Bairam Khan
raised his powerful voice. He urged a prompt march
across the Sutlej, a junction with Tardi Beg in Sirhind,
and an immediate attempt thence against Hemu.
Delhi, he said, twice gained and twice lost, must at
all hazards be won back. Delhi was the decisive
point, not Kabul. Master of the former, one could
easily recover the latter. The instincts of Akbar
coincided with the advice of his Atalik, and an im-
mediate march across the Sutlej was directed.
Akbar and Bairam saw in fact that their choice lay
between empire in Hindustan and a small kingdom
in Kabul. For they knew from their adherents in
AK BAR'S FIGHT FOR THE THRONE 67
India that Hemu was preparing to supplement the
occupation of Delhi by the conquest of the Punjab.
To be beforehand with him, to transfer the initiative
to themselves, always a great matter with Asiatics,
was almost a necessity to secure success. Akbar
marched then from Jalandhar in October, and cross-
ing the Sutlej. gained the town of Sirhind. There he
was joined by Tardi Beg and the nobles who had been
defeated by Hemu under the walls of Delhi. The
circumstances which followed their arrival sowed
in the heart of Akbar the first seeds of revolt
against the licence of power assumed by his Atalik.
Tardi Beg was a Turki nobleman, who, in the contest
between Humayun and his brothers, had more than
once shifted his allegiance, but he had finally enrolled
himself as a partisan of the father of Akbar. When
Humayun died, it was Tardi Beg who by his tact
and loyalty succeeded in arranging for the bloodless
succession of Akbar, though a son of Kamran was in
Delhi at the time. After his defeat by Hemu, he had,
it is true, in the opinion of some of the other nobles,
too hastily evacuated Delhi ; but an error in tactics is
not a crime, and he had at least brought a powerful
reinforcement to Akbar in Sirhind. But there had
ever been jealousy between Bairam Khan and Tardi
Beg. This jealousy was increased in the heart of
Bairam by religious differences, for Bairam belonged
to the Shi'ah division of the Muhammadan creed, and
Tardi Beg was a Sunni. On the arrival of the latter
at Sirhind, then, Bairam summoned him to his tent
E 2
68 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
and had him assassinated K Akbar was greatly dis-
pleased at this act of violence, and Bairam did not
succeed in justifying himself. It may be inferred
that he excused himself on the ground that such an
act was necessary, in the interests of discipline, to
secure the proper subordination of the nobles.
Meanwhile Hemu remained at Delhi, amusing him-
self with the new title of Eaja which he had assumed,
and engaged in collecting troops. When, however, he
heard that Akbar had reached Sirhind, he despatched
his artillery to Panipat, fifty-three miles to the north
of Delhi, intending to follow himself with the infantry
and cavalry. But, on his side, Akbar was moving
from Sirhind towards the same place. More than
that, he had taken the precaution to despatch in
advance a force of ten thousand horsemen, under
the command of All Kuli Khan-i-Shaibani, the
general who had fought with Tardi Beg against
Hemu at Delhi, and who had condemned his too
hasty retirement 2 . All Kuli rode as far as Panipat,
and noting there the guns of Hemu's army, unsup-
ported, he dashed upon them and captured them all.
1 Vide Dowson's Sir Henry Elliot's History of India as told byitsotcn
Historians, vol. v. page 251 and note. The only historian who
states that Akbar gave a ■ kind of permission* to this atrocious deed
is Badauni. He is practically contradicted by Abulfazl and Fer-
ishta. In Blochmann's admirable edition of the Ain-i-Akbari, p. 315,
the story is repeated as told by Badauni, but the translator adds
the words : * Akbar was displeased. Bairam's hasty act was one of
the chief causes of the distrust with which the Chagatai nobles
looked upon him/
8 Blochmann's Ain-i-Akbari, p. 319.
AKBAR'S FIGHT FOR THE THRONE 69
For this brilliant feat of arms he was created a Khan
Zaman, by which he is henceforth known in history.
This misfortune greatly depressed Hemu, for, it is re-
corded, the guns had been obtained from Turkey, and
were regarded with great reverence. However, with-
out further delay, he pressed on to Panipat.
Akbar and Bairam were marching on to the plains
of Panipat on the morning of the 5th of November,
1556, when they sighted the army of Hemu moving
towards them. The thought must, I should think,
have been present in the mind of the young prince
that just thirty years before his grandfather, Bdbar,
had, on the same plain, struck down the house of Lodi,
and won the empire of Hindustan. He was confronted
now by the army of the usurper, connected by mar-
riage with that House of Sur which had expelled his
own father. The battle, he knew, would be the
decisive battle of the century. But, prescient as he
was, he could not foresee that it would prove the
starting-point for the establishment in India of a
dynasty which would last for more than two hundred
years, and would then require another invasion from
the north, and another battle of Panipat to strike it
down ; the advent of another race of foreigners from
an island in the Atlantic to efface it.
Hemu had divided his army into three divisions.
In front marched the five hundred elephants, each be-
stridden by an officer of rank, and led by Hemu, on
his own favourite animal, in person. He dashed first
against the ad van dug left wing of the Mughals and
70 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
threw it into disorder, but as his lieutenants failed
to support the attack with infantry, he drew off, and
threw himself on the centre, commanded by Bairam
in person. That astute general had directed his
archers, in anticipation of such an attack, to direct
their arrows at the faces of the riders. One of these
arrows pierced the eye of Hemu, who fell back in his
howdah, for the moment insensible. The fall of their
leader spread consternation among the followers. The
attack slackened, then ceased. The soldiers of Bairam
soon converted the cessation into a rout. The elephant
on which Hemu rode, without a driver — for the driver
had been killed x — made off instinctively towards the
jungle. A nobleman, a follower and distant relative
of Bairam, Shah Kuli Mahram-i-Baharlu, followed
the elephant, not knowing who it was who rode it.
Coming up with it and catching hold of the rope on
its neck, he discovered that it was the wounded Hemu
who had become his captive 2 . He led him to Bairam.
Bairam took him to the youthful prince, who through-
out the day had shown courage and conduct, but who
had left the ordering of the battle to his Atalik. The
scene that followed is thus told by contemporary writers.
Bairam said to his master, as he presented to him the
wounded general: * This is your first war : prove your
sword on this infidel, for it will be a meritorious deed/
1 This is the generally received story, though Abulfazl states
that the driver, to save his own life, betrayed his master. Elliot,
vol. v. p. 253, note. «
2 Compare Elliot, vol. v. p. 253, and Blochmann's Ain-i-Akbari,
P. 359-
AKBAR" S FIGHT FOR THE THRONE J I
Akbar replied : ' He is now no better than a dead man ;
how can I strike him ? If he had sense and strength
I would try my sword (that is I would fight him)/
On Akbar 's refusal, Bairam himself cut down the
prisoner.
Bairam sent his cavalry to pursue the enemy to
Delhi, giving them no respite, and the next day,
marching the fifty-three miles without a halt, the
Mughal army entered the city. Thenceforward Akbar
.was without a formidable rival in India. He occu-
pied the position his grandfather had occupied thirty
years before. It remained to be seen whether the boy
would use the opportunity which his father and
grandfather had alike failed to grasp. To show the
exact nature of the task awaiting him, I propose
to devote the next chapter to a brief survey of the
condition of India at the time of his accession, and in
that following to inquire how the boy of fourteen was
likely to benefit by the tutelage of Bairam Kh£n.
CHAPTEK IX
General Condition of India in the Middle of
the Sixteenth Century
The empire conquered south of the Sutlej by the
Afghan predecessors of the Mughal had no claim to be
regarded as the empire of Hindustan. It was rather
the empire of Delhi, that is, of the provinces called up
to the year 1857 the North-western Provinces, in-
cluding that part of the Bengal Presidency which
we know as Western Behar, and some districts in the
Central Provinces and Bajputana. It included, like-
wise, the Punjab. For a moment, indeed, the princes
of the House of Tughlak could claim supremacy over
Eengal and almost the whole of Southern India, but
the first invasion from the north gave the opportunity
which the Hindu princes of the south seized to shake off
the uncongenial yoke, and it had not been re-imposed.
The important kingdom of Orissa, extending from the
mouth of the Ganges to that of the Godavari, had
always maintained its independence. Western India,
too, had for some time ceased to acknowledge the
sway of the foreign invader, and its several states had
become kingdoms.
INDIA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY J$
Thus, at the accession of Akbar, the westernmost
portion of India, the kingdom of Gujarat, ruled over
by a Muhammadan prince of Afghan blood, was
independent. It had been overrun, indeed, by Hu-
m&yun, but on his flight from India it had re-asserted
itself, and had not since been molested. Indeed it
had carried on a not unsuccessful war with its
nearest neighbour, Malwa. That state, embracing
the greater part of what we know as Central India,
was thus independent at the accession of Akbar. So
likewise was Khandesh : so also were the states of
Rajputana. These latter deserve a more detailed
notice.
The exploits of the great Sanga Rana have been
incidentally referred to in the first chapter. The
defeat of that prince by Babar had greatly affected the
power of Mewar, and when Sher Shah drove Humayun
from India its chiefs had been compelled eventually
to acknowledge the overlordship of the conqueror.
But, during the disturbances which followed the death
of Sher Shah, they had recovered their independence,
and at the accession of Akbar they still held their
high place among the states of Rajputana. Of the
other states it may briefly be stated that the rulers of
Jaipur had paid homage to the Mughal in the time of
Babar. The then Raja, Baharma, had assisted that
prince with his forces, and had received from Hu-
mayun, prior to his defeat by Sher Shah, a high
imperial title as ruler of Ambar. The son of Baharma,
Ehagwan Das, occupied the throne when Akbar won
74 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Panipat. Jodhpur, in those days, occupied a far
higher position than did Jaipur. Its Raja, Maldeo
Singh, had given to the great Sher Shah more trouble
in the field than had any of his opponents. He had,
however, refused an asylum to Humayun when
Humayun was a fugitive. He was alive, independent,
and the most powerful of all the princes of Rajputana
when Akbar ascended the throne of Delhi. Jaisalmer,
Bikaner, and the states on the borders of the desert
were also independent. So likewise were the minor
states of Rajputana ; so also was Sind ; so also
Multan. Mewat and Baghelkhand owned no foreign
master ; but Gwalior, Orchha, Chanderi, Narw&r,
and Pannao suffered from their vicinity to Agra, and
were more or less tributary, according to the leisure
accruing to the conqueror to assert his authority.
But even in the provinces which owned the rule of
the Muhammadan conqueror there was no cohesion.
The king, sultan, or emperor, as he was variously
called, was simply the lord of the nobles to whom the
several provinces had been assigned. In his own
court he ruled absolutely. He commanded the army
in the field. But with the internal administration of
the provinces he did not interfere. Each of these pro-
vinces was really, though not nominally, independent
under its own viceroy.
According to all concurrent testimony the condition
of the Hindu population, who constituted seven-eighths
of the entire population of the provinces subject to
Muhammadan rule, was one of contentment. They
INDIA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 75
were allowed the free exercise of their religion, though
they were liable to the jizyia, or capitation tax, imposed
by Muhammadans on subject races of other faiths. But
in all the departments of the Government the Hindu
element was very strong. In most provinces the
higher classes of this faith maintained a hereditary
jurisdiction subordinate to the governor ; and in time
of war they supplied their quota of troops for service
in the field.
Each province had thus a local army, ready to be
placed at the disposal of the governor whenever he
should deem it necessary. But, besides, and uncon-
nected with this local army, he had almost always in
the province a certain number of imperial troops, that
is, of troops paid by the Sultan, and the command of
which was vested in an officer nominated by the
Sultan. This officer was, to a great extent, inde-
pendent of the local governor, being directly responsible
to the sovereign.
Theoretically, the administration of justice was
perfect, for it was dispensed according to the Muham-
madan principle that the state was dependent on the
law. That law was administered by the Kazis or
judges in conformity with a code which was the
result of accumulated decisions based on the Kuran,
but modified by the customs of the country. The
Kazi decided all matters of a civil character ; all
questions, in fact, which did not affect the safety of
the state. But criminal cases were reserved to the
jurisdiction of a body of men whose mode of procedure
?6 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
was practically undefined, and who, nominated and
supported by the Crown, sometimes trenched on the
authority of the Kazi. The general contentment of
the people would seem, however, to authorise the con-
clusion that, on the whole, the administration of
justice was performed in a satisfactory manner. Time
had welded together the interests of the families of
the earlier Muhammadan immigrant and those of the
Hindu inhabitant, and they both looked alike to the
law to afford them such protection as was possible.
In spite of the many wars, the general condition of
the country was undoubtedly, if the native records
may be trusted, very flourishing.
It is important to note, in considering the admini-
stration upon which we are now entering, that neither
Babar nor Humayun had changed, to any material
extent, the system of their Afghan predecessors in
India. Babar, indeed, had been accustomed to a
system even more autocratic. Whether in Ferghana,
in Samarkand, or in Kabul, he had not only been
the supreme lord in the capital, but also the feudal
lord of the governors of provinces appointed by
himself. Those governors, those chiefs of districts or
of jaghirs, did indeed exercise an authority almost
absolute within their respective domains. But they
were always removable at the pleasure of the sovereign,
and it became an object with them to administer on
a plan which would secure substantial justice, or to
maintain at the court agents who should watch over
their interests with the ruling prince.
INDIA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 77
Similarly the army was composed of the personal
retainers of the sovereign, swollen by the personal
retainers of his chiefs and vassals and by the native
tribes of the provinces occupied.
With Babar, too, as with his son, the form of
government had been a pure despotism. Free in-
stitutions were unknown. The laws passed by one
sovereign might be annulled by his successor. The
personal element, in fact, predominated everywhere.
The only possible check on the will of the sovereign
lay in successful rebellion. But if the sovereign were
capable, successful rebellion was almost an impossi-
bility. If he were just as well as capable, he dis-
cerned that the enforcement of justice constituted his
surest safeguard against any rebellion.
Babar, then, had found in the provinces of India
which he had conquered a system prevailing not at
all dissimilar in principle to that to which he had
been accustomed in the more northern regions. Had
he been disposed to change it, he had not the time.
Nor had his successor either the time or the inclina-
tion. The system he had pondered over just prior to
his death shows no radical advance in principle on that
which had existed in Hindustan. He would have
parcelled out the empire into six great divisions, of
which Delhi, Agra, Kanauj, Jaunpur, Mandu, and
Lahore should be the centres or capitals. Each of
these would have been likewise great military com-
mands, under a trusted general, whose army-corps
should be so strong as to render him independent of
78 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
outside aid : whilst the Emperor should give unity to
the whole by visiting each division in turn with an
army of twelve thousand horse, inspecting the local
forces and examining the general condition of the
province. The project was full of defects. It would
have been a bad mode of administration even had the
sovereign been always more capable than his generals.
It could not have lasted a year had he been less so.
The sudden death of Humayun came to interfere
with, to prevent the execution of, this plan. Then
followed the military events culminating in the
triumph of Panipat. That battle placed the young
Akbar in a position his grandfather Babar had
occupied exactly thirty years before. Then, it had
given Babar the opportunity, of which he availed him-
self, to conquer North-western India, Behar, and part
of Central India. A similar opportunity was given by
the second battle of Panipat to Akbar. On that field
he had conquered the only enemy capable of coping
with him seriously. As far as conquest then was
concerned, his task was easy. But to make that
conquest enduring, to consolidate the different pro-
vinces and the diverse nationalities, to devise and
introduce a system so centralising as to make the in-
fluence of the Emperor permeate through every town
and every province, and yet not sufficiently central-
ising to kill local traditions, local customs, local habits
of thought, — that was a task his grandfather had
never attempted; which, to his father, would have
seemed an impossibility, even if it had occurred or
INDIA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 79
had been presented to him. Yet, in their schemes,
the absence of such a programme had left the empire
conquered on the morrow of the Panipat of 1526, an
empire without root in the soil, dependent absolutely
on continued military success ; liable to be overthrown
by the first strong gust ; not one whit more stable
than the empires of the Ghaznivides, the Ghors, the
Khiljis, the Tughlaks, the Saiyids, the Lodis, which
had preceded it. That it was not more stable was
proved by the ease with which the empire founded by
Babar succumbed, in the succeeding reign, to the
attacks of Sher Shall. It may be admitted that if
Babar had been immortal he might possibly have
beaten back Sher Shah. But that admission serves
to prove my argument. Bdbar was a very able
general. So likewise was Sher Khan. Humaytin
was flighty, versatile, and unpractical ; as a general
of but small account. It is possible that the Sher
Khan who triumphed over Humaytin might have
been beaten by Babar. But that only proves that
the system introduced by Babar was the system to
which he had been accustomed all his life — the system
which had alternately lost and won for him Ferghana
and Samarkand ; which had given him Kabul, and,
a few years later, India ; the system of the rule of the
strongest. Nowhere, neither in Ferghana, nor in
Samarkand, nor in Kabul, nor in the Punjab, nor in
India, had it shot down any roots. It was in fact
impossible it could do so, for it possessed no ger-
minating power,
8o THE EMPEROR AKBAR
And now, at the close of 15565 the empire won and
lost and won again was in the hands of a boy, reared
in the school of adversity and trial, one month over
fourteen years K Panipat had given him India.
Young as he was, he had seen much of affairs. He
had been constantly consulted by his father : he had
undergone a practical military education under Bairam,
the first commander of the day : he had governed the
Punjab for over six months. But it was as an ad-
ministrator as well as a conqueror that he was now
about to be tried. In that respect neither the ex-
ample of his father, nor the precepts of Bairam, could
influence him for good. So far as can be known, he
had already displayed the germs of a judgment
prompt to meet difficulties, a disposition inclined
to mercy. He had refused to slay Hemu. But other
qualities were required for the task now opening before
him. Let us examine by the light of subsequent
transactions what were his qualifications for the task.
1 Akbar was born the 15th October, 1542. The second battle of
Panipat was fought the 5th November, 1556.
CHAPTER X.
The Tutelage under Bairam Khan
First, as to his outward appearance. 'Akbar,'
wrote his son, the Emperor Jahangir \ ■ was of mid-
dling stature, but with a tendency to be tall ; he had a
wheat-colour complexion, rather inclining to be dark
than fair, black eyes and eyebrows, stout body, open
forehead and chest, long arms and hands. There was
a fleshy wart, about the size of a small pea, on the
left side of his nose, which appeared exceedingly
beautiful, and which was considered very auspicious
by physiognomists, who said that it was a sign of
immense riches and increasing prosperity. He had a
very loud voice, and a very elegant and pleasant way
of speech. His manners and habits were quite dif-
ferent from those of other persons, and his visage was
full of godly dignity.' Other accounts confirm, in its
essentials, this description. Elpbinstone writes of him
as { a strongly built and handsome man, with an agree-
able expression of countenance, and very captivating
manners,' and as having been endowed with great
personal strength. He was capable of enduring great
fatigue ; was fond of riding, of walking, of shooting, of
1 Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, as told by its own Historians, vol.
vi. p. 290.
P
82 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
hunting, and of all exercises requiring strength and
skill. His courage was that cairn, cool courage
which is never thrown off its balance, but rather
shines with its greatest lustre under difficulty and
danger. Though ready to carry on war, especially
for objects which he deemed essential to the welfare
of the empire or for the common weal, he did not
rejoice in it. Indeed, he infinitely preferred applying
himself to the development of those administrative
measures which he regarded as the true foundation of
his authority. War, then, to him was nothing more
than a necessary evil. We shall find throughout his
career that he did not wage a single war which he
did not consider to be necessary to the completion
and safety of his civil system. He had an affectionate
disposition, was true to his friends, very capable of
inspiring affection in others, disliked bloodshed, was
always anxious to temper justice with mercy, pre-
ferred forgiveness to revenge, though, if the necessities
of the case required it, he could be stern and could
steel his heart against its generous promptings. Like
all large-hearted men he was fond of contributicg to
the pleasures of others. Generosity was thus a part
of his nature, and, even when the recipient of his
bounties proved unworthy, he was more anxious to
reform him than regretful of his liberality. For civil
administration he had a natural inclination, much
preferring the planning of a system which might
render the edifice his arms were erecting suitable to
the yearnings of the people to the planning of a
TUTELAGE UNDER BAIRAM KHAN 83
campaign. On all the questions which have affected
mankind in all ages, and which affect them still, the
questions of religion, of civil polity, of the admini-
stration of justice, he had an open mind, absolutely
free from prejudice, eager to receive impressions.
Born and bred a Muhammadan, he nevertheless con-
sorted freely and on equal terms with the followers of
Buddha, of Br&hma, of Zoroaster, and of Jesus. It
has been charged against him that in his later years
he disliked learned men, and even drove them from
his court. It would be more correct to say that
he disliked the prejudice, the superstition, and the
obstinate adherence to the beliefs in which they had
been educated, of the professors who frequented his
court. He disliked, that is, the weaknesses and the
foibles of the learned, and when these were carried
to excess, he dispensed with their attendance at his
court. What he was in other respects will be dis-
covered by the reader for himself in the last chapter
of this book. Sufficient, I hope, has been stated to
give him some idea of the characteristics of the latent
capacity of the young prince, who, fourteen years old,
had under the tutelage of Bairam Khan won the
battle of Panipat, and had marched from the field
directly, without a halt, upon Delhi. Few, if any, of
those about him knew then the strength of his cha-
racter or the resources of his intellect. Certainly, his
Atalik, Bairam, did not understand him, or he would
neither have assassinated Tardi Beg in his tent at
Sirhind, nor have suggested to the young prince to
F 2
84 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
plunge his sword into the body of the captured Hemu.
But both Bairam and the other nobles of the court and
army were not long kept in ignorance of the fact that
in the son of Humayun they had, not a boy who might
be managed, but a master who would be obeyed.
Akbar remained one month at Delhi. He sent
thence a force into Mewat to pursue the broken army
of Hemu and to gain the large amount of treasure it
was conveying. In this short campaign his general,
Pir Muhammad Khan of Sherwan, at the time a fol-
lower of Bairam but afterwards persecuted by him 1 ,
was eminently successful. Akbar then marched upon
and recovered Agra.
But his conquests south of the Sutlej were not safe
so long as the Punjab was not secure. And, as we
have seen, he had been forced to leave at Mankot,
driven back but not overcome, a determined enemy of
his House in the person of Sikandar Sur. In March
of the following year (1557) he received information
that the advanced guard of the troops he had left in
the Punjab had been defeated by that prince some
forty miles from Lahore. Noblemen who came from
the Punjab told him that the business was very
serious, as Sikandar had made sure of a very strong
base at Mankot, whence he might emerge to annoy
even though he were defeated in the field, and that
his victory had encouraged his partisans. Akbar
recognised all the force of the argument, and resolved
to put in force a maxim which constituted the great
1 Ain-i-Akbari (Blochmann's Edition), pp. 324-5.
TUTELAGE UNDER BAIrAm KHAN 85
strength of his reign, that if a thing were to be done
at all, it should be done thoroughly. He accordingly
marched straight on Lahore, and, finding Lahore safe,
from that capital into Jalandhar, where his enemy
was maintaining his ground. On the approach of
Akbar, Sikandar retreated towards the Siwaliks, and
threw himself into Mank6t. There Akbar besieged
him.
The siege lasted six months. Then, pressed by
famine and weakened by desertions, Sikandar sent
some of his nobles to ask for terms. Akbar acceded
to his request that his enemy might be allowed to
retire to Eengal, leaving his son as a hostage that he
would not again war against the Emperor. The fort
then surrendered, and Akbar returned to Lahore;
spent four months and fourteen days there to arrange
the province, and then marched on Delhi. As he
halted at Jalandhar, there took place the marriage
of Bairam Khan with a cousin of the late emperor,
Humayun. This marriage had been arranged by
Humayun, and to the young prince his father's
wishes on such subjects were a law. Akbar re-
entered Delhi on the 15th of March, 1558. Bairam
Khan was still, in actual management of affairs, the
Atalik, the tutor, of the sovereign, and he continued
to be so during the two years that followed, 1558 and
T 559» ft was not easy for a young boy to shake off
all at once the influence of a great general under whom
he had been placed to learn his trade, and possibly
Akbar, though he did not approve many of the acts
86 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
authorised in his name by his Atalik, did not feel
himself strong enough to throw off the yoke. But
the removal by the strong hand of men whom Akbar
liked, but who had incurred without reason the
enmity of Bairam, gradually estranged the heart of
the sovereign from his too autocratic minister. The
estrangement, once begun, rapidly increased. Bairam
did not recognise the fact that every year was de-
veloping the strong points in the character of his
master; that he was adding experience and know-
ledge of affairs to the great natural gifts with which
he had been endowed. He still continued to see in
him the boy of whom he had been the tutor, whose
armies he had led to victory, and whose dominions
he was administering. The exercise of power without
a check had made the exercise of such power necessary
to him, and he continued to wield it with all the self-
sufficiency of a singularly determined nature.
Round every young ruler there will be men who
will never fail to regard the exercise by another of
authority rightly pertaining to him as a grievous
wrong to the ruler and to themselves. It is not
necessary to inquire into the motives of such men.
For one reason or another, often doubtless of a selfish,
rarely of a pure and disinterested nature, they desire
the young and rightful master of the State to be the
dispenser of power and patronage. That there was a
cluster of such men about Akbar, of men who disliked
Bairam, who had been injured by him, who expected
from the prince favours which they could not hope to
TUTELAGE UNDER BAIRAM KHAN 87
obtain from the minister, is certain. Female in-
fluence was also brought to bear on the mind of the
sovereign. His nurse, who had attended on him from
his cradle until after his accession, and who subse-
quently became the chief of his harem, urged upon
him that the time had arrived when he should take
the administration into his own hands. Akbar was
not unwilling. He was in his eighteenth year. The
four years he had lived since Panipat had restored to
him part of the inheritance of his father, had been
utilised by him in a manner calculated to develop
and strengthen his natural qualities. But, though he
saw and disliked the tendency to cruelty and arbitrary
conduct often displayed by his chief minister, he had
that regard for Bairam which a generous heart in-
stinctively feels for the man who has been his tutor
from his childhood. Experience, too, had given him
so thorough an insight into the character of Bairam
that he could not but be sensible that any breach
with him must be a complete breach ; that he must
rid himself of him in a manner which would render
it impossible for him to aspire to the exercise of any
power whatever. Bairam, he knew, would have the
whole authority, or it would be unsafe to entrust him
with any.
Various circumstances occurred in the beginning of
1560 which determined Akbar to take into his own
hands the reins of government. He went therefore
from Agra to Delhi resolved to announce this determin-
ation to his minister. Bairam himself had more than
88 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
once given an example of the mode in which he rid
himself of a rival or a noble whom he hated. His
methods were the dagger or the sword. But such a
remedy was abhorrent to the pure mind of the young
Emperor. Nor— so far as can be gathered from the
records of the period — had anyone dared to whisper
to him a proposal of that character. The course which
his mother and his nurse had alike suggested was to
propose to the minister in a manner which would make
the proposition have all the effect of a command, an
honourable exile to Mekka. Bairam had often publicly
declared that he was longing for the opportunity when
he could safely resign his political burden into the
hands of others and make the pilgrimage which would
ensure salvation. Akbar then, anxious to prevent
any armed resistance, on arriving at Delhi, issued a
proclamation in which he declared that he had assumed
the administration of affairs, and forbade obedience to
any orders but to those issued by himself. He sent a
message to this effect to his minister, and suggested in
it the desirability of his making a pilgrimage to Mekka 1 .
Bairain had heard of Akbar's determination before the
message reached him, and had quitted Agra on his way
1 The message ran : • As I was fully assured of your honesty and
fidelity I left all important affairs of State to your charge, and
thought only of my own pleasures. I have now determined to
take the reins of government into my own hands, and it is desirable
that you should now make the pilgrimage to Mekka, upon which
you have been so long intent. A suitable jagir out of the parganas
of Hindustan shall be assigned to your maintenance, the revenues
of which shall be transmitted to you by your agents/ Elliot, vol. v.
p. 264.
TUTELAGE UNDER BAIrAm KHAn 89
to the western coast. He was evidently very angry,
and bent on mischief, for, on reaching Biana, he set
free some turbulent nobles who had been there con-
fined. He received there Akbar's message, and con-
tinued thence his journey to Nagaur in Kajputana,
accompanied only by nobles who were related to him,
and by their respective escorts. From Nagaur, by the
hand of one of these, he despatched to the Emperor,
as a token of submission to his will, his banner, his
kettle-drums, and all other marks of nobility. Akbar,
who had been assured that Bairam would most cer-
tainly attempt to rouse the Punjab against him, had
marched with an army towards that province, and
was at Jhajhar, in the Rohtak district, when the in-
signia reached him. He conferred them upon a former
adherent of Bairam's, but who in more recent times
had lived under the displeasure of that nobleman, and
commissioned him to follow his late master and see
that he embarked for Mekka. Bairam was greatly
irritated at this proceeding, and turning short to
Bikaner, placed his family under the care of his
adopted son and broke out into rebellion. But he
had to learn the wide difference of the situation of
a rebel against the Mughal, and the trusted chief
officer of the Mughal. On reaching Dipalpur, the
news overtook him that his adopted son had proved
false to his trust and had turned against him. Re-
solved, however, to rouse the Jalandhar Duab, he
pushed on for that well-known locality, only to
encounter on its borders the army of the Governor of
90 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
the Punjab, Atjah Khan. In the battle that followed
Bairam was defeated, and fled to Tilwara on the
Sutlej, thirty miles to the west of Ludhiana. Akbar,
who had been on his track when his lieutenant en-
countered and defeated him, followed his late Atalikj
and reduced him to such straits that Bairam threw
himself on his mercy. Then Akbar, remembering the
great services he had rendered, pardoned him, and,
furnishing him with a large sum of money, despatched
him on the road to Mekka. Bairam reached Gujarat
in safety, was well received there by the Governor, and
was engaged in making his preparations to quit India,
when he was assassinated l by a Lohani Afghan whose
father had been killed at the battle of Machciwara.
Akbar, meanwhile, had returned to Delhi (November
9, 1560). He rested there a few days and then pushed
on to Agra, there to execute the projects he had formed
for the conquest, the union, the consolidation of the
provinces he was resolved to weld into an empire. His
reign, indeed, in the sense of ruling alone without a
minister who assumed the airs of a master, commenced
really from this date. The Atalik, who had monopo-
lised the power of the State, was gone, and the future
of the country depended now entirely upon the genius
of the sovereign.
1 The motive attributed to the assassin was simply revenge.
Bairam was stabbed in the back so that the point of the long
dagger came out at his breast. j With an Allahu Akbar * (God is
great) ' on his lips he died,' writes Blochmann in his Ain-i-Akbari.
His son was provided for by Akbar.
CHAPTER XI
Chronicle of the Reign
The position in India, in the sixth year of Akbar s
reign, dating from the battle of Panipat, but the first
of his personal rule, may thus be summarised. He
held the Punjab and the North-western Provinces,
as we know those provinces, including Gwalior and
Ajmere to the west, Lucknow, and the remainder of
Oudh, including Allahabad, as far as Jaunpur, to the
east. Benares, Chanar, and the provinces of Bengal
and Behar, were still held by princes of the house of
Sur, or by the representatives of other Afghan families.
The whole of Southern India, the greater part of
Western India, were outside the territories which
acknowledged his sway.
There can be little doubt that, during the five years
of his tutelage under Bairam, Akbar had deeply con-
sidered the question of how to govern India so as to
unite the hearts of the princes and people under the
protecting arm of a sovereign whom they should
regard as national. The question was encumbered
with difficulties. Four centuries of the rule of
Muhammadan sovereigns who had made no attempt
to cement into one bond of mutual interests the
gi THE EMPEROR AKBAR
various races who inhabited the peninsula, each
ruling on the principle of temporary superiority,
each falling as soon as a greater power presented itself,
had not only introduced a conviction of the ephemeral
character of the successive dynasties, and of the
actual dynasty for the time being. It had also left
scattered all over the country, from Bengal to Gujarat,
a number of pretenders, offshoots of families which
had reigned, every one of whom regarded the Mughal
as being only a temporary occupant of the supreme
seat of power, to be replaced, as fortune might direct,
possibly by one of themselves, possibly by a new
invader. This conviction of the ephemeral character
of the actual rule was increased by the recollection
of the ease with which Humayun had been over-
thrown. Defeated at Kanauj, he had quitted India
leaving not a trace of the thirteen years of Mughal
sway, not a single root in the soil.
These were facts which Akbar had recognised.
The problem, to his mind, was how to act so as to
efface from the minds of princes and people these
recollections ; to conquer that he might unite ; to
introduce, as he conquered, principles so acceptable
to all classes, to the prince as well as to the peasant,
that they should combine to regard him as the
protecting father, the unit necessary to ward off from
them evil, the assurer to them of the exercise of their
immemorial rights and privileges, the assertor of the
right of the ablest, independently of his religion, or his
caste, or his nationality, to exercise command under
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 93
himself, the maintainer of equal laws, equal justice,
for all classes. Such became, as his mind developed,
the principles of Akbar. He has been accused, he
was accused in his life-time, by bigoted Muhammadan
writers, of arrogating to himself the attributes of the
Almighty. This charge is only true in the sense
that, in an age and in a country in which might had
been synonymous with right, he did pose as the
messenger from Heaven, the representative on earth
of the power of God, to introduce union, toleration,
justice, mercy, equal rights, amongst the peoples of
Hindustan.
His first J *j m was f,r> faring all TnrKn nndmi nnn
sceptre, a nd to accomplish this task in a great jneasu re
by enlisting in its favour the several races which he
desired to bring within the fold. I have thought
it advisable for the fuller comprehension of his
system to treat the subject in its two aspects,
the physical and the moral. This chapter, then, will
chronicle the successive attempts to bring under one
government and one form of law the several states
into which India was then divided. The chapter that
follows will deal more particularly with the moral
aspect of the question.
It would be tedious, in a work like this, to follow
Akbar in all the details of his conquests in India. It
will suffice to record that, during the first year of his
own personal administration and the sixth of his
actual reign, he re-attached Malwa to his dominions.
Later in the season his generals repelled an attempt
94 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
made by the Afghan ruler of Chanar and the country
east of the Karamnasa to attack Jaunpur, whilst
Akbar himself, marching by way of Kalpi, crossed
there the Jumna, and proceeded as far as Karrah,
not far from Allahabad, on the right bank of the
Ganges. There he was joined by his generals who
held Jaunpur, and thence he returned to Agra. The
year, at its close, witnessed the siege of Merta, a town
in the Jodhpur state, then of considerable importance,
beyond Ajmere, and seventy-six miles to the north-east
of the city of Jodhpur. This expedition was directed
by Akbar from Ajmere where he was then residing,
though he confided the execution of it to his generals.
The place was defended with great energy by the
.Rajput garrison, but, in the spring of the following
year it was surrendered on condition that the garrison
should march out with their horses and arms, but
should leave behind all their property and effects.
In the same year in which Merta fell (1562), the
generals of Akbar in Malwa, pushing westward, added
the cities of Bijagarh and Burhanpur on the Tapti to
his dominions. The advantage proved, however, to
be the forerunner of a calamity, for the dispossessed
governors of those towns, combining with the ex-
pelled Afghan ruler of Malwa, and aided by the
zamindars of the country, long accustomed to their
rule, made a desperate attack upon the imperial
forces. These, laden with the spoils of Burhanpur,
were completely defeated. For the moment Malwa
was lost, but the year did not expire before the
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 95
Mughal generals, largely reinforced, had recovered it.
The Afghan noble, whilom Governor of Malwa, after
some wanderings, threw himself on the mercy of
Akbar, and, to use the phrase of the chronicler,
' sought a refuge from the frowns of fortune.' Akbar
made him a commander of one thousand, and a little
later promoted him to the mansab (dignity) of a
commander of two thousand. He died in the service
of his new sovereign. The reader will not fail to
notice how the principle of winning over his enemies
by assuring to them rank, position, and consideration,
instead of driving them to despair, was constantly
acted upon by Akbar. His design was to unite, to
weld together. Hence he was always generous to the
vanquished. He would bring their strength into his
strength, instead of allowing it to become a strength
outside his own. He would make those who would
in the first instance be inclined to resist him feel that
conquest by him, or submission to him, would in no
way impair their dignity, but, ultimately, would
increase it. We shall note the working of this
principle more clearly when we come to describe his
dealings with the several chiefs of Eajputana.
A tragic event came to cloud the spring of the
eighth year of the reign of Akbar. I have referred
already to the regard and affection he entertained for
the lady who had been his nurse in his infancy, and
who had watched his tender years. It was to a great
extent upon her advice that he had acted in dealing
with Bairam. She had a splendid provision in the
$6 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
palace, and Akbar had provided handsomely for her
sons. The eldest of these, however, fired with jealousy
at the elevation of men whose equal or superior he con-
sidered himself to be, and goaded probably by men of a
like nature to his own, assassinated the Prime Minister
as he was sitting in his public office ; then, trusting to
the favour which Akbar had always displayed towards
his family and himself, went and stood at the door of the
harem. But for such a man, and for such an act, Akbar
had no mercy. The assassin was cut to pieces, and his
dead body was hurled over the parapet into the moat
below. Those who had incited him, dreading lest their
complicity should be discovered, fled across the Jumna,
but they were caught, sent back to Agra, and were
ultimately pardoned. The mother of the chief culprit
died forty days later from grief at her son's conduct.
For some time previously the condition of a portion
of the Punjab had been the cause of some anxiety to
Akbar. The Gakkhars, a tribe always turbulent, and
the chiefs of which had never heartily accepted the
Mughal sovereigns, had set at defiance the orders
issued for the disposal of their country by Akbar.
They had refused, that is, to acknowledge the governor
he had nominated. The Gakkhars inhabited, as their
descendants inhabit now, that part of the Punjab
which may be described as forming the north-eastern
part of the existing district of Rawal Pindi. To en-
force his orders Akbar sent thither an army, and this
army, after some sharp fighting, succeeded in restoring
order.
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 97
The chief of the Gakkhars was taken prisoner,
and died whilst still under surveillance. Akbar
caused to be repressed likewise disturbances which
had arisen in Kabul, and met with promptitude a
conspiracy formed by the favourite of Humayun,
Abul Ma'ali, whose pretensions he had more than
once put down, but who was now returning, puffed up
with pride, from a pilgrimage to Mekka. Concerting
a plan with another discontented noble, Abul M&'ali
fell upon a detachment of the royal army near Nar-
nul, and destroyed it. Akbar sent troops in pursuit
of him, and Abul Ma'ali, terrified, fled to K&bul, and
wrote thence letters full of penitence to Akbar. Ulti-
mately, that is, early the following year, Abul M&'all
was taken prisoner in Badakshan, and strangled.
Up to the spring of 1564 Akbar had not put into
execution the designs which he cherished for estab-
lishing the Mughal power in the provinces to the east
of Allahabad. Chanar, then considered the key of
those eastern territories, was held by a slave of the
Adel dynasty. This slave, threatened by one of
Akbar s generals, wrote a letter to the Emperor offer-
ing to surrender it. Akbar sent two of his nobles
to take over the fortress, and to them it was sur-
rendered. The possession of Chanar offered likewise
an opening into the district of Narsinghpur, governed
by a Hani, who held her court in the fortress of
Chauragarh. Against her marched the Mughal general,
defeated her in a pitched battle, and added Narsinghpur
and portions of what is now styled the district of
a
98 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Hoshangabad to the imperial dominions. In the hot
weather of the same year, Akbar, under the pretext of
hunting, started for the central districts, when he was
surprised by the advent of the rainy season, and with
some difficulty made his way across the swollen
streams to Narwar, then a flourishing city boasting
a circumference of twenty miles. After hunting
for some days in the vicinity of that city he pushed
on towards Malwa, and passing through, Rawa and
Sarangpur, proceeded towards the famous Mandu,
twenty-six miles south-west of Mhow. The Governor
of Mandu, an Uzbek noble placed there by Akbar,
conscious that the Emperor had grounds for dissatis-
faction with him, and placing no trust in a reassuring
message sent him by his sovereign, abandoned the
city as Akbar approached, and took the field with his
followers. Akbar sent a force after him which pursued
him to the confines of Gujarat, and took from him his
horses, his elephants, and his wives.
The reception accorded to Akbar in Mandu was of
the most gratifying character. The zamindars of the
neighbouring districts crowded in to pay homage, and
the King of distant Khandesh sent an embassy to
greet him. Akbar received the ambassador with
distinction. It deserves to be mentioned, as a cha-
racteristic feature of the customs of those times, that
when Akbar honoured the ambassador with a farewell
audience, he placed in his hand a firman addressed
to his master, directing him to send to Mandu any
one of his daughters whom he might consider worthy
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 99
to attend upon the Emperor. The native historian
adds : * when Mubarak Shah/ the ruler of Khandesh,
deceived this gracious communication, he was greatly
delighted, and he sent his daughter with a suitable
retinue and paraphernalia to his Majesty, esteeming
it a great favour to be allowed to do so.' After a
short stay at Mandu, Akbar returned to Agra, by way
of Ujjain, Sarangpur, Sipri, Narwar, and Gwalior.
During the ensuing cold weather he spent a great
part of his time hunting in the Gwalior districts.
There can be but few travellers from the West to
India who have not admired the fortress, built of red
sandstone, which is one of the sights of Agra. At
the time of the accession of Akbar there was at Agra
simply a citadel built of brick, ugly in form and
ruinous from decay. Akbar had for some time past
resolved to build on its ruins a fortress which should
be worthy of the ruler of an empire, and in the late
spring of 1565 he determined on the plans, and gave
the necessary orders. The work was carried on
under the direction of Kasim Khan, a distinguished
officer whom Akbar had made a commander of three
thousand. The building of the fortress took eight
years of continuous labour, and the cost was thirty-
five lakhs of rupees. It is built, as I have said, of red
sandstone, the stones being well joined together and
fastened to each other by iron rings which pass through
them. The foundation everywhere reaches water.
The year did not close without an event which
afforded Akbar the opportunity of displaying his
G 2
loo THE EMPEROR AKBAR
decision and prompt action in sudden emergencies.
I have shown how, on his visit to Mandu, the Uzbek
governor of that city had taken fright and rushed into
rebellion ; how Akbar had caused him to be pursued
and punished. The treatment of the rebel, though
not unduly severe, had spread in the minds of the
Uzbek nobles at the court and in the army the im-
pression that the Emperor disliked men of that race,
and three or four of them combined to give him a
lesson. The rebellion broke out in the autumn of the
year at Jaunpur, the governor of which the Uzbeks had
secured to their interests. Akbar was engaged in ele-
phant-hunting at Narwar when the news reached him.
He immediately despatched his ablest general with
the troops that were available to aid his loyal officers,
whilst he should collect further troops to follow.
He marched about ten days later, reached Kanauj, re-
ceived there the submission of one of the rebel leaders,
remained there ten days, waiting till the river, swollen
by the rainfall, should subside. Learning then that the
chief who was the head of the rebellion had proceeded
to Lucknow,he promptly followed him thither with a
small but chosen body of troops, and marching in-
cessantly for four-and-twenty hours, came in sight of
that city on the morning of the second day. As he ap-
proached, the rebels fled with such speed that the horses
of the Emperor and his retinue, completely knocked up
with their long march, could not follow them. The rebel
chief then fell back rapidly on Jaunpur, and joining
there his colleagues, quitted that place with them, and
CHRONICLE OF 'CHE REIGN Xoi
crossiog the Gogra at the ford of Narhan, forty miles
west-north-west of Chapra, remained encamped there.
Thence they despatched agents into Bengal to implore
the aid of the king of that country.
Meanwhile, one imperial army, led by a general
anxious for a bloodless termination to the dispute,
had arrived in front of them, whilst another, com-
manded by a fiery and resolute leader, was marching
up from Kajputana. The negotiations which the peace-
ful general had commenced had almost concluded,
when the fiery leader arrived, and, declaring the nego-
tiations to be a fraud, insisted upon fighting. In the
battle which followed the imperial forces were de-
feated, and fled to re-assemble the day following at
Shergarh.
Before this battle had been fought Akbar had con-
firmed the peace negotiations with the rebels, and he
was not moved from his resolution when he heard of
their victory over his army. He said : \ their faults have
been forgiven,' and he sent instructions to his Amirs to
return to court. He then marched himself to Chanar,
alike to plan works for the strengthening of the fortress ;
to hunt elephants in the Mirzapur jungles ; and to
await the further action of the rebels he had pardoned
with arms in their hands. The experiment was not
one to be repeated, for, flushed with their success, the
rebel chiefs broke out anew. Akbar, however, by
a skilful disposition of his forces, compelled their
submission, and received them back to favour. In
the course of this year the imperial generals had
laz r//l: eMperor akbar
taken the fortress of Kotas, in Behar, and ambassa-
dors, sent on a mission to the king of Orissa, had re-
turned laden with splendid presents.
; The spring of the year 1566 found the Emperor
back at Agra. The native historians record that
in these times of peace his great delight was to
spend the evening in the game of chaugan. Chaugan
is the modern polo, which was carried to Europe from
India. But Akbar, whilst playing it in the daytime
in the manner in which it is now played all over the
world, devised a method of playing it on the dark
nights which supervene so quickly on the daylight in
India. For this purpose he had balls made of palas
wood — a wood which is very light and which burns
for a long time, and set them on fire. He had the
credit of being the keenest ehaugan-player of his time.
From this pleasure Akbar was roused by the news
of successful rebellions at Kabul and at Lahore. He
marched with all haste towards the close of the year
in the direction of the Sutlej, reached Delhi in ten
days ; thence marched to Sirhind ; and thence joy-
fully to Lahore. Thence he despatched his generals to
drive the rebels across the Indus. This they accom-
plished, and returned. The troubles at K&bul were
at the same time appeased : but, as a counter-irritant,
the absence of the Emperor so far in the north-west
brought about rebellion at Jaunpur. It was clear
that up to this time — the end of 1566 — Akbar had
been unable successfully to grapple with the impor-
tant question how to establish a permanent govern-
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 1 03
ment in Hindustan. The eleventh year of his reign,
counting from the battle of Panipat, was now closing,
and he had fixed so few roots in the soil that it was
certain that, should a fatal accident befall him, the suc-
cession would again be decided by the sword. The
beginning of the year 1567 found him still at Lahore,
engaged in hunting and similar pleasures. He was
roused from these diversions by the intelligence that
the Uzbek nobles whom he had pardoned, had taken
advantage of his absence to break out again. Ac-
cordingly he quitted Lahore on the 22nd of March,
and began his return-march to Agra. On reaching
Thuneswar, in Sirhind, he was greatly entertained by a
fight between two sects of Hindu devotees, the Jogis
and the Sunidsis, for the possession of the rich harvest
of gold, jewels, and stuffs, brought to the shrine of the
saint by pious pilgrims. Another sign of the instabi-
lity of his rule awaited him at Delhi, for he found
that a state prisoner had eluded the vigilance of the
governor, and that the governor, apprehensive of the
imperial displeasure, had quitted the city, and broken
into rebellion.
Nor, even when he reached Agra, did more re-
assuring tidings await him. The country about
Kanauj was in a state of rebellion, and it was clear to
him that many of his nobles could not be trusted.
In this emergency he marched to Bhojpur, in the Rai
Bareli district, thence to K&i Bareli. There he learned
that the rebels had crossed the Ganges with the object
of proceeding towards K&lpi. There had been heavy
104 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
rains and the country was flooded, but Akbar, eager
for action, despatched his main forces to Karrah
whilst he hastened with a body of chosen troops to
Manikpur, midway between Partabgarh and Allah-
abad. There he crossed the river on an elephant,
pushed on with great celerity, caught the rebels
at the village of Manikpur, and completely defeated
them. The principal leaders of the revolt were killed
during or after the battle. From the battle-field,
Akbar marched to Allah&b&d, then called by its
ancient name of Pryaga. After a visit to Benares
and to Jaunpur, in the course of which he settled the
country, he returned to Agra.
Deeming his eastern territories now secure, Akbar
turned his attention to Rajputana. The most ancient
of all the rulers of the kingdoms in that large division
of Western India was Udai Singh, Rana of Mew&r, a
man possessing a character in which weakness was
combined with great obstinacy. His principal strong-
hold was the famous fortress of Chitor, a fortress
which had indeed succumbed to Allah- ud-din Khilji
in 1303, but which had regained the reputation of
being impregnable. It stands on a high oblong hill
above the river Banas, the outer wall of the fortifi-
cations adapting itself to the shape of the hill. It
was defended by an army of about seven thousand
Rajputs, good soldiers, and commanded by a true and
loyal captain. It was supplied with provisions and
abundance of water, and was in all respects able to
stand a long siege.
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 105
Akbar himself sat down before the fortress, whilst
he sent another body of troops to make conquests in
the vicinity, for the Rana, despairing of success, had
fled to the jungles. But if he pressed the siege vigo-
rously, the Rajputs defended themselves with equal
courage and obstinacy. Never had Akbar met such
sturdy warriors. As their pertinacity increased, so
likewise did his pride and resolution. At length the
breach was reported practicable, and on a night in the
month of March, Akbar ordered the assault. He had
a stand erected for himself, wheuce he could watch
and direct the operations. As he sat there, his gun in
his hand, he observed the gallant Rajputs assembling
in the breach, led by their capable commander, prepared
to give his troops a warm reception. The distance be-
tween his stand and the breach was, as the crow flies,
but short, for the river alone ran between the two.
By the light of the torches, Akbar easily re-
cognised the Rajput general, and believing him to
be within distance, he fired and killed him on the
spot. This fortunate shot, despatched whilst the
hostile parties were approaching one another, so
discouraged the Rajputs, that at the critical moment
they made but a poor defence. They rallied indeed
subsequently, but it was too late, and though they
then exerted themselves to the utmost, they could not
regain the lost advantage. When the day dawned,
Chitor was in the possession of Akbar. In gratitude
for its victory Akbar, in pursuance of a vow he had
made before he began the siege, made a pilgrimage on
106 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
foot to the mausoleum of the first Muhammadan saint
of India, Ma'inu-i-din Chisti of Sijistan, on the
summit of the hill of Ajmere. He had not then eman-
cipated himself from his early training. He remained
ten days at Ajmere, and returned thence to Agra by
way of Mewat.
Akbar spent the spring and rainy season at Agra.
He then designed the conquest of the strong fortress
of Rantambhor in Jaipur, but whilst the army he had
raised for this purpose was on its march, disturbances
in Gujarat, followed by an invasion of Central India
from that side, compelled Akbar to divert his troops
to meet that danger. He then decided to march in
person with another army against Kantambhor. This
he did early in the following year (1569). As soon as
he had compelled the surrender of the fortress, he
returned to Agra, stopping on the way a week at
Ajmere, to visit once again the mausoleum of the
saint.
This year he founded Fatehpur-Sikri, the magnificent
ruins of which compel, in the present day, the admira-
tion of the traveller. The story is thus told by the
author of the Tabakat. After stating that Akbar had
had two sons, twins, neither of whom had lived, he
goes on to say that Shaikh Salim Chisti, who resided at
Sikri, twenty-two miles to the south-west of Agra, had
promised him a son who should survive. Full of the
hope of the fulfilment of this promise, Akbar, after his
return from Rantambhor, had paid the saint several
visits, remaining there ten to twenty days on each
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 107
occasion; eventually he built a palace there on the
summit of a rising ground ; whilst the saint com-
menced a new monastery and a fine mosque, near the
royal mansion. The nobles of the court, fired by these
examples, began then to build houses for themselves.
Whilst his own palace was building one of his
wives became pregnant, and Akbar conveyed her to
the dwelling of the holy man. When, somewhat later,
he had conquered Gujarat he gave to the favoured town
the prefix ' Fatehpur ' (City of victory). The place has
since been known in history by the joint names of
Fatehpur-Sikri. Towards the end of the year his wife,
whom he had sent to reside at Sikri, gave birth to a
son at the house of the saint, who is known in history
as the Emperor Jahangir, though called after the saint
by the name of Salim. His mother was a Rajput
princess of Jodhpur. To commemorate this event Ak-
bar made of Fatehpur-Sikri a permanent royal abode ;
built a stone fortification round it, and erected some
splendid edifices. He then made another pilgrimage
on foot to the mausoleum of the saint on the Ajmere
hill. Having paid his devotions he proceeded to
Delhi.
Early the following year Akbar marched into Raj-
putana and halted at Nagaur, in Jodhpur. There he
received the homage of the son of the Raja of that
principality, then the most powerful in Rajputana,
and that of the Raja of Bikaner and his son. As a
tribute of his appreciation of the loyalty of the latter,
Akbar took the Raja's daughter in marriage. He
108 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
amused himself for some time at Nagaur in hunting
the wild asses which at that time there abounded, and
then proceeded to Dipalpur in the Punjab. There he
held a magnificent durbar, and then, with the dawn
of the new year, proceeded to Lahore. After settling
the affairs of the Punjab, he returned to Fatehpur-
Sikri with the intention of devoting the coming year
to the conquest of Gujarat.
The province of Gujarat in Western India included,
in the time of Akbar, the territories and districts of
Surat, Broach, Kaira, Ahmadabad, a great part of
what is now Baroda, the territories now represented
by the Mahi Kantha and Rewa Kantha agencies,
the Panch Mahas, Palanpur, Radhanpur, Balisna,
Cambay, Khandeah, and the great peninsula of Ka-
thiawar. This agglomeration of territories had for
a long time had no legitimate master. Parcelled out
into districts, each of which was ruled by a Muham-
madan noble alien to the great bulk of the population,
it had been for years the scene of constant civil war,
the chiefs grinding the peasantry to obtain the means
wherewith to obtain the supreme mastery. Some-
times, fired by information of the weakness of an
adjoining province, the chiefs would combine to make
temporary raids. The result was that Gujarat had
become the focus of disorder. The people were op-
pressed, and the petty tyrants who ruled over them
were bent only on seeking advantages at the expense of
others. Akbar had long felt the results of this anarchy,
and he resolved now to put an end to it for ever.
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 1 09
The expedition of Akbar to Gujarat is the most
famous military exploit of his reign. He was resolved
that there should be no mistake either in its plan or
in its execution. For the first time since he had become
ruler of the greater part of India he felt reasonably
secure, during the probable duration of the expe-
dition, of the conduct of his nobles and his vassals.
He set out from Fatehpur-Sikri at the head of his army
in September, 1572, and marching by Sanganer,
eighteen miles south of Jaipur, reached Ajmere the
middle of October. There he stayed two days to
visit the mausoleum of the saint, then, having sent an
advanced guard of ten thousand horse to feel the way,
followed with the bulk of the army, and marched on
Nagaur, seventy-five miles to the north-east of Jodhpur.
On reaching Nagaur a courier arrived with the infor-
mation that a son, later known as Prince Danyal, had
been bom to him. He spent there fourteen days in
arranging for the supplies of his army, then pushing
on, reached Patan, on the Saraswati, in November,
and Ahmaddbad early in the following month. In the
march between the two places he had received the
submission of the chief who claimed to be supreme
lord of Gujarat, but whose authority was barely nominal.
At Ahmadabad, then the first city in Gujarat, Akbar
was proclaimed Emperor of Western India.
There remained, however, to be dealt with many
of the chieftains, all unwilling to renounce the
authority they possessed. Amongst these were the
rulers of Broach, of Baroda, and of Surat. No
HO . THE EMPEROR AKBAR
sooner, then, had the Emperor arranged matters at
Ahmadabad for the good order of the country, than
he set out for Cambay, and reached it in five days.
There, we are told by the historians, he gazed for the
first time on the sea. After a stay there of nearly a
week, he marched, in two days, to Baroda. There he
completed his arrangements for the administration of
the country, appointing Ahmadabad to be the capital,
and nominating a governor from amongst the nobles
who had accompanied him from Agra. Thence, too,
he despatched a force to secure Broach and Surat.
Information having reached him that the chief of
Broach had murdered the principal adherent of the
Mughal cause in that city, and had then made
for the interior, passing within fifteen miles of Baroda,
Akbar dashed after him with what troops he had
in hand, and on the second night came in sight of
his camp at Sarsa, on the further side of a little
river.
Akbar had then with him but forty horsemen,
and, the river being fordable, he endeavoured to
conceal his men until reinforcements should arrive.
These came up in the night to the number of sixty,
and with his force, now increased to a total number of
a hundred, Akbar forded the river to attack ten times
their number. The rebel leader, instead of awaiting
the attack in the town, made for the open, to give a
better chance to his preponderating numbers. Akbar
carried the town with a rush, and then dashed in
pursuit. But the country was intersected by lanes,
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN ill
bordered on both sides by cactus hedges, and the
horsemen of Akbar were driven back into a position
in which but three of them could fight abreast, the
enemy being on either side of the cactus hedges. The
Emperor was in front of his men, having by his side
the gallant Rajput prince, Raja Bhagwan Das of
Jaipur, whose sister he had married, and the Raja's
nephew and destined successor, Man Singh, one of
the most brilliant warriors of the day. The three
were in the greatest danger, for the enemy made
tremendous efforts to break in upon them. But the
cactus hedges, hitherto a bar to their formation, now
proved a defence which the enemy could not pass.
And when Bhagwan Das had slain his most pro-
minent adversary with his spear, and Akbar and the
nephew had disposed of two others, the three took
advantage of the momentary confusion of the enemy
to charge forward, and aided by the desperate gal-
lantry of their men, roused by the danger of their
sovereign to extraordinary exertions, to force them
to flight. The followers of the rebel chief, sensible
that they were engaged in a losing cause, displayed
nothing like the firmness and persistency of the
soldiers of Akbar. They dropped off as they could
find the opportunity, and the rebel chief himself,
abandoned by his following, made his way, as best
he could, past Ahmadabad and Disa to Sirohi in
Raj pu tana.
Broach meanwhile had fallen, and there remained
only Surat. Against this town, so well known to
113 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
English traders in the days of his son and grandson,
Akbar marched in person on his return from the
expedition just related. Against the breaching ma-
terial employed in those days Surat was strong. But
the Emperor pressed the siege with vigour, and after
a patient progress of a month and seventeen days, the
garrison, reduced to extremities, surrendered. He
remained at Surat long enough to complete the
settlement of the affairs of the province of Gujarat,
and then began his return-march to Agra. He
arrived there on the 4th of June, 1573, having been
absent on the expedition about nine months.
Whilst Akbar had been besieging Surat, the rebel
chief whom he had defeated at Sarsa, and who had
fled to Sirohf, had been bestirring himself to make
mischief. Joined by another powerful malcontent
noble he advanced against Patan, met near that place
the Emperor's forces, and had almost beaten them in
the field, when, his own troops dispersing to plunder,
the Mughal forces rallied, pierced the enemy's centre,
and turned defeat into victory. The news of this
achievement reached Akbar whilst he was still before
Surat. The rebel leader, still bent on doing all the
mischief in his power, made his way through Raj-
ptitana to the Punjab, encountering two or three
defeats on his way, but always escaping with his
life, and plundering, as he marched, Panipat, Sonpat,
and Karnal. In the Punjab he was encountered by
the imperial troops, was defeated, and, after some
exciting adventures, was wounded by a party of
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 113
fishermen near Multan, taken prisoner, and died from
the effect of his wound. He was a good riddance, for
he was a masterful man. It may here be added that
during this year the Mughal troops attempted, but
failed to take the strong fortress of Kangra, in the
Jalandhar Duab. The besiegers had reduced the
garrison to extremities when they were called off
by the invasion of the adventurer whose death near
Multan I have recorded. Kangra did not fall to the
Mughal till the reign of the son of Akbar.
Akbar had quitted the province of Gujarat believing
that the conquest of the province was complete, and
that he had won by his measures the confidence and
affection of the people. But he had not counted
sufficiently on the love of rule indwelling in the
hearts of men who have once ruled: He had not
been long at Agra, then, before the dispossessed
lordlings of the province began to raise forces, and to
harass the country. Determined to nip the evil in
the bud, Akbar prepared a second expedition to
Western India, and despatching his army in advance,
set out, one Sunday morning in September, riding on
a swift dromedary, to join it. Without drawing rein,
he rode seventy miles to Toda, nearly midway be-
tween Jaipur and Ajmere. On the morning of the
third day he reached Ajmere, paid his usual devotions
at the tomb of the saint ; then, mounting his horse in
the evening, continued his journey, and joined his
army at Pali on the road to Disa. Near Patan he
was joined by some troops collected by his lieutenants,
H
114 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
who had awaited the arrival of their sovereign to
advance.
His force was small in comparison with that which
the rebel chiefs had managed to enlist, but the men
who formed it were the cream of his army. The
celerity of his movements too had served him well.
The rebels had not heard that he had quitted Agra
when he was amongst them. They were in fact
sleeping in their tents near Ahmadabad when Akbar,
who had made the journey from Agra in nine days,
was upon them.
That there was chivalry in those days is shown by
the remark of the native historian, the author of the
Tabakat-i-Akbari, 'that the feeling ran through the
royal ranks that it was unmanly to fall upon an
enemy unawares, and that they would wait till he
was roused.' The trumpeters, therefore, were ordered
to sound. The chief rebel leader, whose spies had
informed him that fourteen days before the Emperor
was at Agra, still declared his belief that the horsemen
before him could not belong to the royal army as
there were no elephants with them. However he
prepared for battle. The Emperor, still chivalrous,
waited till he was ready, then dashed into and crossed
the river, formed on the opposite bank, and ' charged
the enemy like a fierce tiger.' Another body of Mu-
ghal troops took them simultaneously in flank. The
shock was irresistible. The rebels were completely
defeated, their leader wounded and taken prisoner.
An hour later, another hostile body, about five
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN J 1 5
thousand strong, appeared in sight. These too were
disposed of, and their leader was killed. In the
battle and in the pursuit the rebels lost about two
thousand men. Akbar then advanced to Ahmadabad,
rested there five days, engaged in rewarding the
deserving, and in arranging for the permanent security
of the province. He then marched to Mahmud£Md,»
a town in the Kaira district, and thence to Sirohi.
From Sirohi he went direct to Ajmere, visited there
the mausoleum of the famous saint, thence, marching
night and day, stopped at a village about fourteen
miles from Jaipur to arrange with Kaja Todar Mall,
whom he met there, one of the ablest of his officers,
afterwards to become Diw&n, or Chancellor, of the
Empire, regarding the mode of levying the revenues
of Gujarat. From that village the Emperor proceeded
direct to Fatehpur-Sikri, where he arrived in triumph,
after an absence of forty-three days.
His plan of bringing under his sceptre the whole of
India had so far matured that he ruled now, at the
end of the eighteenth year of his reign, over North-
western, Central, and Western India, inclusive of the
Punjab and Kabul. Eastward, his authority extended
to the banks of the Karamnasd. Beyond that river
lay Behar and Bengal, independent, and under certain
circumstances threatening danger. He had fully
resolved, then, that unless the unforeseen should
occur, the nineteenth year of his reign should be
devoted to the conquest of Bengal and the states
tributary to Bengal. Before setting out on the
H 2
Il6 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
expedition, however, he paid another visit to the
tomb of the saint on the hill of Ajmere.
I have written much in the more recent pages of
the marches of Akbar, and the progress of his armies,
but up to the present I have not referred to the
principle on which those movements were made.
There have been warriors, even within the memory
of living men, who have made war support war.
Upon that principle acted the Khorasani and Afghan
barbarians who invaded India when the Mughal
power was tottering to its fall. But that principle
was not the principle of Akbar. Averse to war,
except for the purpose of completing the edifice he
was building, and which, but for such completion,
would, he well knew, remain unstable, liable to be
overthrown by the first storm, he took care that
neither the owners nor the tillers of the soil should
be injuriously affected by his own movements, or by
the movements of his armies. With the object of
carrying out this principle, he ordered that when a
particular plot of ground was decided upon as an
encampment, orderlies should be posted to protect
the cultivated ground in its vicinity. He further
appointed assessors whose duty it should be to
examine the encamping ground after the army had
left it, and to place the amount of any damage
done against the government claim for revenue.
The historian of the Tabakat-i-Akbari adds that this
practice became a rule in all his campaigns ; ' and
sometimes even bags of money were given to these
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 117
inspectors, so that they might at once estimate and
satisfy the claims of the raiyats and farmers, and
obviate any interference with the revenue collectors. '
This plan, which is in all essentials the plan of
the western people who virtually succeeded to the
Mughal, deprived war of its horrors for the people
over whose territories it was necessary to march.
Whilst Akbar is paying a visit of twelve days'
duration to the tomb of the saint at Ajmere, it is
advisable that we examine for a moment the position
of affairs in Behar and Bengal.
The Afghan king of Bengal and Behar, who sat
upon the joint throne at the time of the Mughal
re-conquest of the North-western Provinces, had
after a time acknowledged upon paper the suze-
rainty of Akbar. But it was, and it had remained
a mere paper acknowledgment. He had paid no
tribute, and he had rendered no homage. During the
second expedition of Akbar to Gujar&t this prince
had died. His son and immediate successor had been
promptly murdered by his nobles, and these, con-
stituting only a fraction, though a powerful fraction,
of the court, had raised a younger brother, Datid Khan,
to the throne. But Datid was a man who cared
only for pleasure, and his accession was the cause
of the revolt of a powerful nobleman of the Lodi
family, who, raising his standard in the fort of
Bohtasgarh, in the Shahdbad district of Behar, de-
clared his independence. A peace, however, was
patched up between them, and Datid, taking ad-
Ii8 THE EMPEROR AKB4R
vantage of this, and of the trust reposed in him
by the Lodi nobleman, caused the latter to be seized
and put to death. As soon as this intelligence
reached the Mughal governor of Jaunpur, that
nobleman, who had been directed by Akbar to keep
a sharp eye on the affairs of Behar, and to act as cir-
cumstances might dictate, crossed the Karamnasa, and
marched on the fortified city of Patna, into which Datid,
distrustful of meeting the Mughals in the field, had
thrown himself. Such was the situation very shortly
after the return of Akbar from Gujarat. Desirous
of directing the campaign himself, Akbar despatched
orders to his lieutenant to suspend operations till he
should arrive, then, making the hurried visit to Ajmere
of which I have spoken, he hastened with a body of
troops by water to Allahabad. Not halting there, he
continued his journey, likewise by water, to Benares,
stayed there three days, then, taking to boat again,
reached the point where the Gumti flows into the
Ganges. Thence, pending the receipt of news from his
lieutenant, he resolved to ascend the Gumti to Jaunpur.
On his way thither, however, he received a de-
spatch from his lieutenant, urging him to advance
with all speed. Directing the boatmen to continue
their course with the young princes and the ladies
to Jaunpur, Akbar at once turned back, reached
the point where he had left his troops, and directing
that they should march along the banks in sight
of the boats, descended to Chausa, the place memor-
able, the reader may recollect, for the defeat of his
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 119
father by Sher Khan. Here a despatch reached
him to the effect that the enemy had made a sortie
from Patnd, which had caused much damage to the
besiegers. Akbar pushed on therefore, still by water,
and reached the besieging army on the seventh day.
The next day he called a council of war. At this he
expressed his opinion that before assaulting the fort
it was advisable that the besiegers should occupy
Hajipur, a town at the confluence of the Gandak and
the Ganges, opposite to Patna. This course was
adopted, and the next day Hajipur fell. Daud was
so terrified by this success, and by the evident
strength of the besieging army, that he evacuated
Patna the same night, and fled across the Punpun,
near its junction with the Ganges at Fatwa. Akbar
entered the city in triumph the next morning, but,
anxious to capture Daud, remained there but four
hours ; then, leaving his lieutenant in command of
the army, followed with a well-mounted detachment
in pursuit of the enemy. Swimming the Punpun
on horseback he speedily came up with Daud's
followers, and captured elephant after elephant, until
on reaching Daryapur, he counted two hundred and
sixty-five of those animals. Halting at Daryapur,
he directed two of his trusted officers to continue
the pursuit. These pressed on for fourteen miles
further, then it became clear that Daud had evaded
them, and they returned.
The conquest of Patna had given Behar to Akbar.
He stayed then at Daryapur six days to constitute the
120 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
government of the province, then nominating to the
chief office the successful lieutenant who had planned
the campaign, he left him to follow it up whilst he
should return to Jaunpur. At that place he stayed
thirty-three days, engaged in perfecting arrangements
for the better administration of the country. With
this view he brought Jaunpur, Benares, Chanar, and
other mahalls in the vicinity, directly under the royal
exchequer, and constituted the newly acquired terri-
tories south of the Karamnasa a separate government.
Having done this, he proceeded to Cawnpur, on
his way to Agra. At Cawnpur he stayed four days,
long enough to receive information that his general
in Bengal had occupied, successively, Monghyr, Bhagal-
pur, Garhi, and Tanda on the opposite side of the
Ganges to Gaur, the ancient and famous Hindu
capital of Bengal, and that he was preparing to
push on further. It may be added that he carried
out this resolution with vigour, and followed up Daud
relentlessly, defeating him at Bajhura, and finally
compelling him to surrender at Cuttack. With the
surrender of this prince, the conquest of Bengal might
be regarded as achieved.
Very much elated with the good news received at
Cawnpur, Akbar. deeming the campaign in Bengal
virtually terminated, pushed on to Delhi, devoted
there a few days to hunting, and then made another
journey to Ajmere, hunting as he marched. At Narnul
he received visits from his governors of the Punjab
and of Gujarat, and had the satisfaction of learning
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 121
that everywhere his rule was taking root in the hearts
of the people. After the exchange of ideas with these
noblemen, he pushed on to Ajmere, made his pilgrimage
to the tomb of the saint, caused to be repressed the
rising of a petty chief in the jungles of Jodhpur, and
then returned to his favourite residence at Fatehpur-
Sikri.
He had noticed, on his many journeys, that a very
great part of the territories he had traversed remained
uncultivated. The evil was neither to be attributed
to the nature of the soil, which was rich, nor to the
laziness of the people. Sifting the matter to the
bottom, Akbar came to the conclusion that the fault
rather lay with the administration, which placed upon
the land a tax which rendered cultivation prohibitive
to the poor man. The evil, he thought, might be
remedied if some plan could be devised for dividing
the profits of the first year between the government
and the cultivator. After a thorough examination of
the whole question, he arranged that the several par-
ganas, or subdivisions of the districts, should be ex-
amined, and that those subdivisions which contained
so much land as, on cultivation, would yield ten
million of tankas \ should be divided off, and given
in charge of an honest and intelligent officer who was
1 Blochmann, in his Ain-i-Akbari (note, p 16), states that, ac-
cording to Abulfazl, the weight of one dam was five tanks. As the
copper coin known as ' dam ' was one fortieth part of a rupee (Ibid,
p. 31), it follows that ten million of tankas would equal 50,000
rupees. A pargana is a division of land nearly equalling a barony.
A parganadar was called • lord of a barony/
122 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
to receive the name of Karon. The clerks and ac-
countants of the exchequer were to make arrange-
ments with these officers and send them to their
respective districts, where, by vigilance and atten-
tion, the uncultivated land might in the course of
three years be brought into a state of production,
and the revenues recovered for the government. This
scheme was carried out, and was found to realise all
the advantages it promised.
The nineteenth year of the reign of Akbar was thus
in all respects save one a glorious year for the young
empire. Bengal and Eehar had been added to North-
western. Central, and Western India. Practically, in
fact, all India north of the Vindhya range acknow-
ledged the supremacy of the son of Hum avian. The
exception to the general prosperity was caused by
a terrible famine and pestilence in Western India, the
effects of which were most severely felt. Grain rose
to a fabulous price, ' and horses and cows had to feed
upon the bark of trees/ The famine and pestilence
lasted six months.
The early part of the following year, 1575, was
occupied with the pursuit of Daud and the conquest of
Orissa. I have already stated how the Afghan prince
was defeated at Bajhura, midway between Mughal-
mari and Jaleswar, and how, pursued to and invested
in Cuttack, he had surrendered. The treaty concluded
with him provided that he should govern the province
of Orissa in the name and on behalf of the Emperor
Akbar. It may be added that Daud did not keep
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 123
the faith he plighted on this occasion. He took
the first propitious occasion to rebel, and two years
later was defeated in a great battle by the Mughal
general. He was taken prisoner, and in punishment
of his treason his head was severed from his body
on the field of battle. For some time, however,
Bengal and Orissa continued to require great vigil-
ance and prompt action on the part of the Mughal
administrators.
The other principal events of this year were the
building by the Emperor at Fatehpur-Sikri of an
Ibadat-khand, or palace for the reception of men of
learning, genius, and solid acquirements. The build-
ing was divided into four halls : the western to be
used by Saiyids, or descendants of the Prophet : the
southern by the learned, men who had studied and
acquired knowledge : the northern by those venerable
for their wisdom and their subjection to inspiration.
The eastern hall was devoted to the nobles and officers
of state, whose tastes were in unison with those of one
or other of the classes referred to. When the building
was finished, the Emperor made it a practice to repair
there every Friday night and on the nights of holy
days, and spend the night in the society of the occu-
pants of the halls, moving from one to the other and
conversing. As a rule, the members of each hall used
to present to him one of their number whom they con-
sidered most worthy of the notice and bounty of the
Emperor. The visits were always made opportunities
for the distribution of largesses, and scarcely one of
124 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
the guests ever went empty away. The building was
completed by the end of the year.
The following year was uneventful, but the year
j 57 7 was marked by that rebellion in Orissa under
Daud of which I have already spoken. The campaign
was stirring whilst it lasted, but the death of Daud
and his uncle put an end to it.
This year, likewise, there was trouble in Rajputana.
Alone of all the sovereigns of the territories known by
that name, the Rana of Mewar had refused the matri-
monial alliance offered to his female relatives by
Akbar. Descended, as he believed, from the immortal
gods, he regarded such an alliance as a degradation. He
refused it then, whilst he was yet struggling for exist-
ence. He refused it, though he saw the Rajput prince
whom he most hated, the Raja of Jodhpur, enriched,
in consequence of his compliance, by the acquisition of
four districts, yielding an ample revenue. He remained
obdurate, defying the power of Akbar. Rana Udai
Singh had in 1568 lost his capital, and had fled to
the jungles of Rajpipla, and there had died in 1572,
His son, Partap Singh, inherited all his obstinacy,
and many of the noble qualities of his grandfather,
the famous Sanga Rana. Without a capital, with-
out resources, his kindred and clansmen dispirited by
the reverses of his house, yet sympathising with him
in his refusal to ally himself with a Muhammadan,
Partap Singh had established himself at Kombalmir,
in the Aravallis, and had endeavoured to organise
the country for a renewed struggle. Some infor-
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 125
mation of his plans seems to have reached the ears
of Akbar whilst he was paying his annual visit to
Ajmere in 1576-7, and he despatched his most trusted
general, also a Rajput, the Man Singh of Jaipur, whom
we have seen fighting by his side in Gujarat, with five
thousand horse, to beat him up. The two opposing
forces met at Huldighdt, called also Gogandah, in
December 1576. The battle which followed terminated
in the complete defeat of the Rand, who, when the day
was lost, fled to the Aravalli hills. To deprive him of all
possible resources Akbar despatched a party into the
hills, with instructions to lay waste the country whilst
pursuing. Akbar himself entered Mewar, arranged
the mode of its administration ; then proceeded to
Malwd, encamped on its western frontier, arranged the
administration of the territories dependent upon the
city of Burhanpur, and improved that of Gujarat. To
these matters he devoted the years 1577-8. He then
marched for the Punjab.
A circumstance, interesting to the people who now
hold supreme sway in India, occurred to the Emperor
on his way to the Punjab. He had reached Delhi, and
had even proceeded a march beyond it, when a certain
Haji * who had visited Europe, ' brought with him fine
goods and fabrics for his Majesty's inspection.' The
chronicler does not state more on the subject than the
extract I have made, and we are left to imagine the
part of Europe whence the fabrics came, and the im-
pression they made. Akbar stayed but a short time
1 A Haji is a Musalman who has made the pilgrimage to Mekka.
126 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
in the Punjab, then returned to Delhi, paid then his
annual visit to Ajmere, and stopping there but one
night, rode, accompanied by but nine persons, at the
rate of over a hundred miles a day to Fatehpur-Sikri,
arriving there the evening of the third day.
The following year, 1580, was remarkable for the
fact that the empire attained the highest degree of
prosperity up to that time. Bengal was not only
tranquil, but furnished moneys to the imperial exche-
quer. The ruler of Mewar was still being hunted by
the imperial troops, but in no other part of India was
the sound of arms heard.
In the course of his journeys Akbar had noticed how
the imposition of inland tolls, justifiable so long as the
several provinces of Hindustan were governed by
rival rulers, tended only, now that so many provinces
were under one head, to perpetuate differences. Early
in 158 1, then, he abolished the tamgha, or inland tolls,
throughout his dominions. The same edict proclaimed
likewise the abolition of the jizya, a capitation tax
imposed by the Afghan rulers of India upon those
subjects who did not follow the faith of Muhammad.
It was the Emperor's noble intention that thought
should be free ; that every one of his subjects should
worship after his own fashion and according to his
own convictions, and he carried out this principle to
the end of his days. The most important political
event of the year was the rebellion of a body of
disaffected nobles in Bengal. Acting without much
cohesion they were defeated and dispersed.
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN izy
The year following, 1582, Akbar marched at the
head of an army to the Punjab to repulse an invasion
made from Kabul by his own brother, Muhammad
Hakim Mirza. The rebel brother had arrived close
to Lahore before Akbar had reached Panipat. The
news, however, of the march of Akbar produced upon
him the conviction that his invasion must miscarry.
He accordingly retreated from Lahore, and fell back on
Kabul. Akbar followed him by way of Sirhind, Ka-
lanaur, and Rotas ; then crossed the Indus at the point
where Attock now stands, giving, as he crossed the river,
instructions for the erection of a fortress at that place.
He advanced on to Peshawar, and pushed forward a
division of his army under his son, Prince Murad, to
recover Kabul. Murad was a young man, tall and
thin, with a livid complexion, but much given to
drink, from the effects of which he and his brother,
Prince Danyal, eventually died. Marching very
rapidly, he encountered the army of his uncle at
Khurd-Kabul and totally defeated him. Akbar had
followed him with a supporting army, and entered
Kabul three days after him. There he remained three
weeks, then, having pardoned his brother and re-
bestowed upon him the government of Kabul, he
returned by way of the Khaibar to Lahore, settled the
government of the Punjab, and then marched, by way
of Delhi, to Fatehpur-Sikri. ■ He now,' writes the
chronicler, ' remained for some time at Fatehpur, ad-
ministering justice, dispensing charity, and arranging
public business.'
128 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Apparently he continued to reside there throughout
the year following. Rebellion was still smouldering
in Bengal, but the Emperor was represented there by
capable officers who reported constantly to him, and
to whom he as constantly despatched instructions.
The disaffection was not very serious, but it was
harassing and interfered greatly with the collection
of the revenues.
The beginning of 1584 found Akbar still at Fateh-
pur-Sikri. The principal events of the year were, the
pacification of Bengal ; the outbreak and suppression
of a rebellion in Gujarat ; the revolt of the ruler of
Asirgarh and Burhanpur ; disturbances in the Deccan ;
and the death of the brother of Akbar, the then ruler
of Kabul. The revolts were put down and a new
governor was sent to Kabul. Prosperity reigned over
the empire when the year closed.
Among the firmest of the protected allies of the
Emperor was Bhagwan Das, Raja of Jaipur, who had
not only himself renQered splendid military service to
Akbar, but whose nephew, Man Singh, held a very
high command in his armies. At the period at which
we have arrived this Rajput prince was governor of
the Punjab. From his family Akbar now selected a
wife for his son, Prince Salim, afterwards the Emperor
Jahangir. The marriage was celebrated at Fatehpur-
Sikri, with great ceremony and amid great rejoicings.
Until this reign the Rajput princes had scornfully
rejected the idea of a matrimonial alliance with
princes of the Muhammadan faith. But it was the
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 129
desire of Akbar to weld : to carry into action the
cardinal principle that differences of race and religion
made no difference in the man. He had many preju-
dices to overcome, especially on the part of the Rajput
princes, and to the last he could not conquer the
obstinate resistance of the Rana of Mewar.
The others were more complaisant. They recognised
in Akbar the founder of a set of principles such as
had never been heard before in India. In his
eyes merit was merit, whether evinced by a Hindu
prince or by an Uzbek Musalman. The race and
creed of the meritorious man barre d neither his em-
ployment in high positions nor his rise to honour.
Hence, men like Bhagwan Das, Man Singh, Todar
Mall, and others, found that they enjoyed a considera-
tion under this Muhammadan sovereign far greater
and wider-reaching than that which would have
accrued to them as independent rulers of their ances-
tral dominions. They governed impeiiaL^royi nee s
and commanded imperial armies. They were ad-
mitted to the closest councils of the prince whose
main object was to obliterate all the dissensions and
prejudices of the past, and, without diminishing the
real power of the local princes who entered into his
scheme, to weld together, to unite under one supreme
head, without loss of dignity and self-respect to any-
one, the provinces till then disunited and hostile to
one another. ^ - "
One of the means which Akbar employed to this
end was that of marriage between himself, his family.
1
130 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
and the daughters of the indigenous princes. There
was, he well knew, no such equaliser as marriage.
The Kajput princes could not fail to feel that their
relationship to the heir to the throne, often to the
throne itself, assured their position. When they re-
flected on the condition of Hindustan prior to his
rule ; how the Muhammadan conquests of the pre-
ceding five centuries had introduced strife and dis-
order without cohesion, and that this man, coming
upon them as a boy, inexperienced and untried in the
art of ruling, had introduced order and good govern-
ment, toleration and justice, wherever he conquered ;
that he conquered only that he might introduce those
principles ; that he made no distinction between men
on account of their diversity of race or of religious
belief; they, apt to believe in the incarnation of the
deity, must have recognised something more than
ordinarily human, something approaching to the
divine and beneficent, in the conduct of Akbar.
His toleration was so absolute, his trust, once given,
so thorough, his principles so large and so generous,
that, despite the prejudices of their birth, their religion,
their surroundings, they yielded to the fascination.
And when, in return, Akbar asked them to renounce
one long-standing prejudice which went counter to
the great principle which they recognised as the
corner-stone of the new system, the prejudice which
taught them to regard other men, because they were
not Hindus, as impure and unclean, they all, with one
marked exception, gave way. They recognised that
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 131
a principle such as that was not to be limited ; that
their practical renunciation of that portion of their
narrow creed which forbade marriages with those of
a different race, could not but strengthen the system
which was giving peace and prosperity to their
country, honour and consideration to themselves.
It was in the beginning of the thirty -first year of
his reign that Akbar heard of the death of his brother
at Kabul, and that the frontier province of Badakshan
had been overrun by the Uzbeks, who also threatened
Kabul. The situation was grave, and such as, he
concluded, imperatively required his own presence.
Accordingly, in the middle of November, he set out
with an army for the Punjab, reached the Sutlej at
the end of the following month, and marched straight
to Rawal Pindi. Learning there that affairs at Kabul
were likely to take a direction favourable to his
interests, he marched to his new fort of Attock, de-
spatched thence one force under Bhagwan Das to
conquer Kashmir, another to chastise the Baluchis,
and a third to move against Swat. Of these three
expeditions, the last met with disaster. The Yusuf-
zais not only repulsed the first attack of the Mughals,
but when reinforcements, sent by Akbar under his
special favourite, Raja Birbal, joined the attacking
party, they too were driven back with a loss of 8,000
men, amongst whom was the Raja 1 . It was the
1 Raja" Birbal was a Brahman, a poet, and a skilful musician.
He was noted for his liberality and his bonhomie. ■ His short verses,
bon mots, and jokes/ writes Blochmann (Ain~i-Akbari, p. 405) ' are
still in the mouths of the people of Hindustan.*
I 2
132 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
severest defeat the Mughal troops had ever ex-
perienced. To repair it, the Emperor despatched
his best commander, Raja Todar Mall, supported
by Raja Man Singh, of Jaipur. These generals
manoeuvred with great caution, supporting their
advance by stockades, and eventually completely
defeated the tribes in the Khaibar Pass.
Meanwhile, the expedition sent against Kashmir
had been but a degree more successful. The com-
manders of it had reached the Pass of Shuliyas, and
had found it blockaded by the Musalman ruler of the
country. They waited for supplies for some days,
but the rain and snow came on, and before they
could move there came the news of the defeat in-
flicted by the Yusufzais. This deprived them of
what remained to them of nerve, and they hastened
to make peace with the ruler of Kashmir, on the
condition of his becoming a nominal tributary, and
then returned to Akbar. The Emperor testified his
sense of their want of enterprise by according to
them a very cold reception, and forbidding them to
appear at court. But the mind of Akbar could not
long harbour resentment, and he soon forgave them.
Of the three expeditions, that against the Baluchis
alone was immediately successful. These hardy
warriors submitted without resistance to the Mughal
Emperor. As soon as the efforts of Todar Mall and
Man Singh had opened the Khaibar Pass, Akbar
appointed the latter, the nephew and heir to the
Jaipur Eaja, to be Governor of Kabul, and sent
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 133
him thither with a sufficient force, other troops
being despatched to replace him in the Yusufzai
•country, and Peshawar being strongly occupied.
Akbar had himself returned to Lahore. Thence he
directed a second expedition against Kashmir. As
this force approached the Passes, in the summer of
15875 a rebellion broke out against the actual ruler
in Srinagar. The imperial force experienced then
no difficulty in entering and conquering the country,
which thus became a portion of the Mughal empire,
and, in the reign of the successor of Akbar, the sum-
mer residence of the Mughal sovereigns of India. It
may here be mentioned that to reach Jamrud, at the
entrance of the Khaibar Pass, Man Singh had to fight
and win another battle with the hill-tribes. He
reached Kabul, however, and established there a
stable administration. The Kabulis and the heads
of the tribes, however, complained to Akbar that
the rule of a Eajput prince was not agreeable to them,
whereupon Akbar translated Man Singh in a similar
capacity to Bengal, which just then especially re-
quired the rule of a strong hand, and replaced him
at Kabul by a Musalman. He announced at the
same time his intention of paving a visit to that
dependency.
First of all, he secured possession of Sind (1588) ;
then, in the spring of the following year, set out for
Kashmir. On reaching Bhimbar, he left there the
ladies of his harem with Prince Murad, and rode
express to Srinagar. He remained there, visiting
134 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
the neighbourhood, till the rainy season set in, when
he sent his harem to Rotas. They joined him sub-
sequently at Attock on his way to Kabul. The Passes
to that capital were open, all opposition on the part
of the hill -tribes having ceased, so Akbar crossed the
Indus at Attock, and had an easy journey thence to
Kabul. He stayed there two months, visiting the
gardens and places of interest. 'All the people,
noble and simple, profited by his presence 1 / He
was still at Kabul when news reached him of the
death of Raja Todar Mall (November 10, 1589).
The same day another trusted Hindu friend, Raja
Bhagwan Das of Jaipur, also died. Akbar made
then new arrangements for the governments of
Kabul, Gujarat, and Jaunpur, and returned towards
Hindustan.
He had already, as I have stated, arranged for the
government of Bengal. He reached Lahore on his
home journey in the beginning of 1590. Whilst
residing there, information reached him that his
newly appointed Governor of Gujarat, the son of his
favourite nurse, had engaged in hostilities with
Kathiawar and Cutch. These hostilities eventuated
in the addition of those two provinces to the Em-
peror's dominions, and in the suicide of the prince
of Afghan descent, who had fomented all the dis-
turbances in Western India 2 . The Emperor took
advantage of his stay at Lahore to direct the more
1 Elliot, vol. v. p. 458.
* Vide Blochmann's Ain-i-Akbari, p. 326.
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 135
complete pacification of Siiid, affairs in which
province had taken a disadvantageous turn. The
perfect conquest of the province proved more diffi-
cult than had been anticipated. It required large
reinforcements of troops, and the display of combined
firmness and caution to effect the desired result. The
campaign took two years, and, during that time,
Kashmir had revolted.
The Emperor during those two years had had his
head-quarters at Lahore. No sooner did he hear that
the success in Sind was complete, than Akbar, who,
expecting the event, had sent on the bulk of his forces
towards Bhimbar, remaining himself hunting on the
banks of the Chenab, set out to rejoin his main body.
On his way to it he learned that his advanced guard
had forced one of the Pass3S, notwithstanding fierce
opposition. This event decided the war, for the
soldiers of the rebel chief, resenting his action, fell
upon him during the night, killed him, and cut off
his head, which they sent to Akbar. "With the death
of this man all opposition ceased, and Akbar, riding
on to Srinagar, stayed there eight days, settling the
administration, and then proceeded by way of the
gorge of Baramula to Rotas, and thence to Lahore.
There he received information that his lieutenant in
Bengal, the Raja Man Singh, had definitively annexed
the province of Orissa to the imperial dominions. He
had despatched thence to Lahore a hundred and
twenty elephants, captured in chat province, as a
present to the Emperor.
136 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
The attempt to bring into the imperial scheme the
Deccan provinces south of the Vindhyan range,
followed the next year, and continued for eight
years later. On the whole it was successful. The
strong places, Daulatabad, Kherwa, Nasik, Asirgarh,
and Ahmadnagar, opened their gates, after long sieges,
to the imperial arms. And, although the territories
dependent upon Ahmadnagar were not entirely sub-
dued till 1637, the position acquired by Akbar gave
him a preponderance which the Mughals retained
for at least a century.
The campaign in Southern India was remarkable
for three facts. The first was the dissensions of
the generals sent from different parts of India to
co-operate independently in the conquest, dissensions
which necessitated, first, the despatch thither from
Agra of the Emperor's confidant, Abulfazl, and after-
wards, the journey thither of Akbar himself ; secondly,
the death, from excessive drinking, of the Emperors
son, Prince Murad, at Jalna ; thirdly, the murder
of Abulfazl, on his return to Agra, at the instigation
of Prince Salim, the eldest surviving son of Akbar
and his heir apparent.
Akbar had held his court for fourteen years at
Lahore when, in 1598, the necessities of the position
in Southern India forced him to march thither.
He had compelled the surrender of Ahmadnagar and
Asirgarh, when, nominating Prince Danyal to be
governor in Khandesh and Perar, and Abulfazl to
complete the conquest of the territories dependent
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 137
upon Ahmadnagar, he marched in the spring of 160 1
towards Agra.
The circumstances which required the presence of
Akbar at Agra were of a very painful character.
Prince Salim had from his earliest youth caused
him the greatest anxiety. Nor had the anxiety
been lessened as the boy approached manhood.
Salim, better known to posterity as the Emperor
Jahangir, was naturally cruel, and he appeared
incapable of placing the smallest restraint on his
passions. He hated Abulfazl, really because he was
jealous of his influence with his father ; avowedly
because he regarded him as the leading spirit who
had caused Akbar to diverge from the narrow doc-
trines of the bigoted Muhammadans. Akbar had
hoped for a moment that the despatch of Abulfazl
to Southern India would appease the resentment of
his son, and when he decided to proceed thither
himself he had nominated Salim as his successor, and
had confided to him, with the title of Viceroy of
Ajmere, the task of finishing the war with the Rand of
Mewar, which had broken out again. He had further
studied his partialities by despatching the renowned
Man Singh, his relation by marriage, to assist him.
The two princes were already on their march towards
Mewar when information reached them that a re-
bellion had broken out in Bengal, of which province
Man Singh was Viceroy. Man Singh was therefore
compelled to march at once to repress the outbreak.
Left without a counsellor, and commanding a con-
138 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
siderable force, Prince Salim resolved to take ad-
vantage of the absence of his father in the south
to make a bold stroke for the crown. Renouncing,
then, his march on Mewar, he hurried with his force
to Agra, and when the commandant of the imperial
fortress, loyal to his master, shut its gates in his face,
hastened to Allahabad, occupied the fort, seized the
provinces of Oudh and Behar, and assumed the title
of King.
It was the news of these occurrences which drew
Akbar from the Deccan. Attributing the action
of Salim to the violence of a temper which had
ever been impatient of control, he resolved rather
to guide than to compel him. Accordingly he wrote
him a letter, in which, assuring him of his continued
love if he would only return to his allegiance, he
warned him of the consequences of continued dis-
obedience. When this letter reached Salim, Akbar
was approaching Agra at the head of an army of
warriors, few in number, but the chosen of the empire.
Salim, then, recognising that his position was ab-
solutely untenable, and that if he persisted it might
cost him the succession, replied in the most sub-
missive terms. His conduct, however, did not
correspond to his words. Informed, somewhat later,
that the bulk of the imperial army was still in
the Deccan, he marched to Itawa, levying troops
as he proceeded, with the intention of waiting upon
his father at the head of an imposing force. But
Akbar was not deceived. He sent his son an order
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 1 39
to choose one of two courses; either to come to
Agra slightly attended, or to return to Allahabad.
Prince Salim chose the latter course, receiving
the promise, it is believed, that he should receive
the grant of Bengal and Orissa. At any rate, he did
receive the grant of those provinces. We cannot say,
at this time, how much Akbar was influenced in
his course by the consciousness of the comparative
weakness of his own position, by his dislike of having
to fight his own son, or by his affection. Probably
the three sentiments combined to give to the course
he adopted a tinge of weakness. At any rate, he soon
had reason to feel that his concessions to his rebellious
son had produced no good effect. For Salim, whose
memory was excellent, and whose hatred was in-
satiable, took the opportunity of the return of Abulfazl
from the Deccan, but slightly attended, to instigate
the Raja of Orchha to waylay and murder him l .
The murder of his friend was a heavy blow to
Akbar. Happily he never knew the share his son
had in that atrocious deed. Believing that the Raja
of Orchha was the sole culprit, he despatched a force
against him. The guilty Raja fled to the jungles,
and succeeded in avoiding capture, until the death of
Akbar rendered unnecessary his attempts to conceal
himself. A reconciliation with Salim followed, and
1 Prince Salim justifies, in his Memoirs, the murder on the ground
that Abulfazl had been the chief instigator of Akbar in his religious
aberrations, as he regarded them. To the last he treated the Raja
of Orchha with the greatest consideration.
140 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
the Emperor once more despatched his eldest son to
put down the disturbances in Mewar. These dis-
turbances, it may be mentioned, were caused by the
continued refusal of Rana Partap Singh to submit to
the Mughal. After his defeat at Huldighat in 1576,
that prince had fled to the jungles, closely followed
by the imperial army. Fortune continued so adverse
to him that after a series of reverses, unrelieved by
one success, he resolved, with his family and trusting
friends, to abandon Mewar, and found another king-
dom on the Indus. He had already set out, when
the unexampled devotion of his minister placed in
his hands the means of continuing the contest, and he
determined to try one more campaign. Turning upon
his adversaries, rendered careless by continued success,
he smote them in the hinder part, and, in 1586, had
recovered all Mewar, the fortress of Chitor and
Mandalgarh excepted. Cut off from Chitor, he had
established a new capital at Udaipur, a place which
subsequently gave its name to his principality.
When he died, in 1597, he was still holding his own.
He was succeeded by his son, Amra Rana, who. at
the time at which we have arrived, was bidding
defiance, in Mewar, to all the efforts of the imperial
troops (1603).
Prince Salim had a great opportunity. The forces
placed at his disposal were considerable enough, if
energetically employed, to complete the conquest of
Mewar, but he displayed so little taste for the task
that Akbar recalled him and sent him to his semi-
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 141
independent government of Allahabad, where he spent
his time in congenial debauchery, and in worse. His
disregard of all sense of duty and honour, even of the
lives of his most faithful attendants, became at last so
marked that Akbar set out for Allahabad, in the hope
that his presence might produce some effect. He had
made but two marches, however, when the news of
the serious illness of his own mother compelled him
to return. But the fact that he had quitted Agra for
such a purpose produced a revulsion in the thought
and actions of Prince Salim. As his father could not
come to him, he determined to repair, slightly
attended, to the court of his father. There he made
his submission, but he did not mend his ways, and
his disputes with his eldest son, Prince Khusru,
became the scandal of the court.
The Emperor, indeed, was not happy in his children.
His two eldest, twins, had died in infancy. The third,
erroneously styled the first, was Prince Salim. The
fate of the fourth son, Prince Murad, has been told.
The fifth son, Prince Danyal, described as tall, well-
built, good-looking, fond of horses and elephants, and
clever in composing Hindustani poems, was addicted
to the same vice as his brother Murad, and died
about this time from the same cause. His death was
a great blow to Akbar, who had done all in his power
to wean his son from his excesses, and had even
obtained a promise that he would renounce them.
There were at court many grandsons of the Emperor.
Of these the best-beloved was Prince Khurram, who
142 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
subsequently succeeded Jahangir under the title of
Shah Jahan.
The news of the death of Prince Danyal and its
cause seem to have greatly affected the Emperor.
He was ill at the time,, and it soon became evident
that his illness could have but one termination. The
minds of those about him turned at once to the
consideration of the succession. His only surviving
son was Prince Salim, but his conduct at Allahabad,
at Agra, and elsewhere, had turned the hearts of the
majority against him, whilst in his son, Prince Khusrti,
the nobles recognised a prince whose reputation was
untarnished. Prince Khusrti, moreover, as the son of
a princess of Jodhpur, was closely related to Raja
Man Singh, and that capable man was a great factor
in the empire. He had married, too, the daughter of
the Muhammadan nobleman who held the highest
rank in the army, and who was himself probably
related to the royal family, for he was the son of the
favourite nurse of Akbar. These two great nobles
began then to take measures for the exclusion of
Prince Salim, and the succession of Prince Khusrti.
To effect this purpose they had the fort of Agra, in
the palace in which Akbar was lying ill, guarded by
their troops. Had Akbar died at this moment his
death must have given rise to a civil war, for Salim
would not renounce his pretensions. But, as soon as
the prince recognised the combination against him,
alarmed for his personal safety, he withdrew a short
distance from Agra. Vexed at his absence during
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 143
what he well knew was his last illness, Akbar, a
lover above all of legality, summoned his nobles
around him, declared Prince Salim to be his lawful
successor, and expressed a hope that Prince Khusru
might be provided for by the government of Bengal.
The influence acquired by Akbar was never more
apparent than at this conjuncture. It needed but one
expression of resentment against his ungrateful and
undutiful son to secure his exclusion. His expressions
in his favour, on the other hand, had the effect of
inducing the most powerful nobles to resolve to carry
out his wishes, the half-hearted and wavering to join
with them. Not even the highest nobleman in the
army, the father-in-law of Prince Khusru, who had
already combined with Raj& Man Singh to sup-
port Khusru, could resist the influence. He sent
privately to Prince Salim to assure him of his
support. Man Singh, the most influential of all at
that particular crisis, seeing that he was isolated,
yielded to the overtures made him by Salim, and
promised also to uphold him. Secure now of the
succession, Prince Salim repaired to the palace, where
he was affectionately received by the d} r ing Akbar.
The circumstances of that interview are known only
from the report of the prince.
After the first affectionate greetings Akbar desired
that all the nobles might be summoned to the
presence ; ' for/ he added, ■ I cannot bear that any
misunderstanding should subsist between you and
those who have for so many years shared in my toils,
144 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
and been the companions of my glory.' When the
nobles entered and had made their salutations, he
said a few words to them in a body ; then, looking at
each of them in succession, he begged them to forgive
him if he had wronged any one of them. Prince
Salim then threw himself at his feet, weeping ; but
Akbar, signing to his attendants to gird his son with
his own scimitar and to invest him with the turban
and robes of State, commended to his care the ladies
of the palace, urged him to be kind and considerate
to his old friends and associates, then, bowing his
head, he died.
Thus peacefully departed the real founder of the
Mughal empire. More fortunate than his father and
his grandfather, more far-sighted, more original, and,
it must be added, possessing greater opportunities, he
had lived long enough to convince the diverse races
of Hindustan that their safety, their practical inde-
pendence, their enjoyment of the religion and the
customs of their forefathers, depended upon their re-
cognition of the paramount authority which could
secure to them these inestimable blessings. To them
he was a man above prejudices. To all alike, whether
Uzbek, or Afghan, or Hindu, or Parsi, or Christian,
he offered careers, provided only that they were faith-
ful, intelligent, true to themselves. The several races
recognised that during his reign of forty-nine years
India was free from foreign invasion ; that he sub-
jugated all adversaries within, some by force of arms,
some by means more peaceful, and that he preferred
CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN 145
the latter method. 'The whole length and breadth
of the land,' wrote Muhammad Amin after his death.
1 was firmly and righteously governed. All people of
every description and station came to his court, and
universal peace being established among all classes,
men of every sect dwelt secure under his protection.'
Such was Akbar the ruler. In the next chapter
I shall endeavour to describe what he was as a
man.
Akbar died the 15th October, 1605, one day after
he had attained the age of sixty-three.
CHAPTER XII
The Principles and Internal Administration
of Akbar
* The success of the three branches of the government,
and the fulfilment of the wishes of the subject/ writes
the author of the Ain-i-Akbari, ' whether great or small,
depend upon the manner in which a king spends his
time.'
Tried by this test, the cause of the success of
Akbar as a man and as a ruler can be logically traced.
Not only was he methodical, but there ran through
his method a most earnest desire to think and do
what was right in itself and conducive to the great
aim of his life, the building of an edifice which,
rooted in the people's hearts, would be independent
of the personality of the ruler. Before I attempt to
state in detail the means he adopted to attain this
end, I propose to say a few words on a subject which
may be said to underlie the whole question, the con-
formation of his mind and the manner in which it
was affected by matters relating to the spiritual con-
dition of mankind. Than this there cannot be any
more important investigation, for it depended entirely
on the structure of his mind, and its power to accept
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 1 47
without prejudice, and judge impartially, views differ-
ing from those of his co-religionists, whether the chief
of the Muhammadans, few in number when compared
with the entire community, could so obtain the con-
fidence and sympathy of the subject race, doomed to
eternal perdition in the thought of all bigoted Musal-
mans, as to overcome their prejudices to an extent
which, had they been consulted previously, they
would have declared impossible. The period was
undoubtedly unfavourable to the development of
what may be called a liberal policy in this matter.
The Muhammadans were not only conquerors, but
conquerors who had spread their religion by the
sword. The scorn and contempt with which the
more zealous among them regarded the religion of
the Hindus and those who professed it may be
traced in every page of the writings of Badauni,
one of the contemporary historians of the period.
Nor was that scorn confined solely to the Hindu
religion. It extended to every other form of worship
and to every other doctrine save that professed by
the followers of Muhammad.
Akbar was born in that creed. But he was born
with an inquiring mind, a mind that took nothing for
granted. During the years of his training he enjoyed
many opportunities of noting the good qualities, the
fidelity, the devotion, often the nobility of soul, of
those Hindu princes, whom his courtiers, because they
were followers of Brahma, devoted mentally to eternal
torments. He noted that these men, and men who
k 2
148 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
thought like them, constituted the vast majority of
his subjects. He noted, further, of many of them,
and those the most trustworthy, that though they had
apparently much to gain from a worldly point of view
by embracing the religion of the court, they held fast
to their own. His reflective mind, therefore, was un-
willing from the outset to accept the theory that be-
cause he, the conqueror, the ruler, happened to be born
a Muhammadan, therefore Muhammadanism was true
for all mankind. Gradually his thoughts found words
in the utterance : ' Why should I claim to guide men
before I myself am guided ; ' and, as he listened to other
doctrines and other creeds, his honest doubts became
confirmed, and, noting daily the bitter narrowness of
sectarianism, no matter of what form of religion, he
became more and more wedded to the principle of
toleration for all.
The change did not come all at once. The historian,
Badauni, a bigoted Musalman, who deplored what he
considered the backsliding of the great sovereign,
wrote : ' From his earliest childhood to his manhood,
and from his manhood to old age, his Majesty has
passed through the most various phases, and through
all sorts of religious practices and sectarian beliefs,
and has collected everything which people can find in
books, with a talent of selection peculiar to him and
a spirit of inquiry opposed to every (Islamite) prin-
ciple. Thus a faith based on some elementary prin-
ciples traced itself on the mirror of his heart, and as
the result of all the influences which were brought to
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 149
bear on his Majesty, there grew, gradually as the out-
line on a stone, the conviction on his heart that there
were sensible men in all religions, and abstemious
thinkers, and men endowed with miraculous powers,
among all nations. If some true knowledge were
thus everywhere to be found, why should truth be
confined to one religion, or to a creed like Islam, which
was comparatively new, and scarcely a thousand years
old ; why should one sect assert what another denies,
and why should one claim a preference without having
superiority conferred upon itself?'
Badauni goes on to state that Akbar conferred with
Brahmans and Sumanis, and under their influence
accepted the doctrine of the transmigration of souls.
There can be no doubt, however, but that the two
brothers, Faizi and Abulfazl, like himself born and
brought up in the faith of Islam, greatly influenced
the direction of his studies on religion. It is ne-
cessary to say something regarding two men so
illustrious and so influential. They were the sons of
a Shaikh of Arab descent, Shaikh Mubarak, whose
ancestors settled at Nagar, in Rajputana. Shaikh
Mubarak, a man who had studied the religion
of his ancestors to the acquiring of a complete
knowledge of every phase of it, who possessed
an inquiring mind and a comprehensive genius, and
who had progressed in thought as he acquired know-
ledge, gave his children an education which, grafted
on minds apt to receive and to retain knowledge,
qualified them to shine in any society. The elder son,
1 50 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Shaikh Faizf, was born near Agra to the vicinity of
which the father had migrated in 1547. He was
thus five years younger than Akbar. Shortly after
that prince had reconquered the North-western Pro-
vinces, Shaikh Faizi, then about twenty, began his
quiet, unostentatious life of literature and medicine.
He soon made a name as a poet. His native generosity,
backed by the earnings of his profession as physician,
prompted him to many acts of charity, and it became
a practice with him to treat the poor for nothing.
In religious matters he, following his fathers example,
displayed a tendency towards the unfashionable doc-
trines of the Shiahs. It is related that, on one occasion,
when he applied to the Kadr 1 for the grant of a small
tract of land, that officer, who was a Sunni, not only
refused him but solely because he was a Shiah, drove
him from the hall with contumely and insult. Mean-
while, moved by the report of his great ability, Akbar
had summoned Faizi to his camp before Chitor, which
place he was besieging. Faizi's enemies, and he had
many, especially among the orthodox or Sunni Muham-
madans, interpreted this order as a summons to be
judged, and they warned the Governor of Agra to see
that Faizi did not escape. But Faizi had no thought
of escape. He was nevertheless taken to the camp of
Akbar as a prisoner. The great prince received him
with courtesy, and entranced by his varied talent,
1 Kadr: an officer appointed to examine petitions, and selected
on account of his presumed impartiality. Vide Blochmann's «4m-f-
Akbari, p. 268.
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 151
shortly afterwards attached him to his court, as teacher
in the higher branches of knowledge to the princes,
his sons. He was occasionally also employed as am-
bassador.
His abundant leisure Faizi devoted to poetry.
In his thirty-third year he was nominated to an office
equivalent to that of Poet Laureate. Seven years
later he died, never having lost the favour of Akbar,
who delighted in his society and revelled in his con-
versation. It is said that he composed a hundred and
one books. His fine library, consisting of four thou-
sand three hundred choice manuscripts, was embodied
in the imperial library.
But if Shaikh Faizi stood high in the favour of
Akbar, his brother, Shaikh Abulfazl, the author of the
Ain-i-Akbari, stood still higher. Abulfazl was born
near Agra the 14th January, 1551. He too, equally
with his brother, profited from the broad and compre-
hensive teaching of the father. Nor did he fail to
notice, and in his mind to resent, the ostracism and
more than ostracism, to which his father was subjected
on account of the opinions to which the free workings
of a capacious mind forced him to incline. The effect
on the boy's mind was to inculcate the value of toler-
ation for all beliefs, whilst the pressure of circumstances
stimulated him to unusual exertions in his studies. At
the age of fifteen he had read works on all branches of
those sciences that are based on reason and traditional
testimony, and before he was twenty had begun his
career as a teacher.
1$<Z THE EMPEROR AKBAR
'An incident,' writes the lamented Professor
Blochmann, ■ is related to shew how extensive even at
that time his reading was. A manuscript of the rare
work of Icfahani happened to fall into his hands.
Unfortunately, however, one half of each page, verti-
cally downwards from top to bottom, was rendered
illegible, or was altogether destroyed, by fire. Abulfazl,
determined to restore so rare a book, cut away the
burnt portions, pasted new paper to each page, and
then commenced to restore the missing halves of each
line, in which attempt, after many thoughtful perusals,
he succeeded. Some time afterwards, a complete copy
of the same work turned up, and on comparison it was
found that in many places there were indeed different
words, and in a few passages new proofs even had been
adduced : but on the whole the restored portion pre-
sented so many points of extraordinary coincidence,
that his friends were not a little astonished at the
thoroughness with which Abulfazl had worked him-
self into the style and mode of thinking of a difficult
author/
A student by nature, Abulfazl for some time gave no
favourable response to the invitation sent to him by
Akbar to attend the imperial court. But the friend-
ship which, in the manner already described, had
grown between his elder brother, Faizi, and the
Emperor, prepared the way for the intimacy which
Akbar longed for, and when, in the beginning of
1574, Abulfazl was presented as the brother of Faizi,
Akbar accorded to him a reception so favourable that
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 153
he was induced to reconsider his resolve to lead a life
* of proud retirement/ He was then only twenty-
three, but he had exhausted the sources of knowledge
available in his own country. To use his own words :
' My mind had no rest, and my heart felt itself drawn
to the sages of Mongolia or to the hermits on Lebanon 5
I longed for interviews with the Llamas of Tibet or
with the padris of Portugal, and I would gladly sit with
the priests of the Parsis and the learned of the Zend-
avesta. I was sick of the learned of my own land.'
From this period he was attached to the court,
and there arose between himself and Akbar one of
those pure friendships founded on mutual esteem and
mutual sympathy, which form the delight of existence.
In the Emperor Abulfazl found the aptest of pupils.
Amid the joys of the chase, the cares of governing,
the fatigues of war, Akbar had no recreation to
be compared to the pleasure of listening to the
discussions between his much regarded friend and
the bigoted Muhammadan doctors of law and religion
who strove to confute him. These discourses con-
stituted a great event in his reign. It is impossible
to understand the character of Akbar without re-
ferring to them somewhat minutely. Akbar did not
suddenly imbibe those principles of toleration and of
equal government for all, the enforcement of which
marks an important era in the history of India. For
the first twenty years of his reign he had to conquer
to maintain his power. With the representatives of
dispossessed dynasties in Beugal, in Behar, in Orissa, in
154 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Western India, including Gujarat and Khandesh, ready-
to seize an opportunity, to sit still was to invite attack.
He was forced to go forward. The experience of the
past, and the events daily coming under his notice,
alike proved that there must be but one paramount
authority in India, if India was to enjoy the blessings
of internal peace.
During those twenty years he had had many
intervals of leisure which he had employed in dis-
cussing with those about him the problem of founding
a system of government which should retain by the
sympathy of the people all that was being conquered.
He had convinced his own mind that the old methods
were obsolete ; that to hold India by maintaining
standing armies in the several provinces, and to take
no account of the feelings, the traditions, the longings,
the aspirations, of the children of the soil, — of all the
races in the world the most inclined to poetry and
sentiment, and attached by the strongest ties that can
appeal to mankind to the traditions of their fathers —
would be impossible.
That system, tried for more than four centuries,
had invariably broken down, if not in the hands
of the promulgator of it, certainly in those of a near
successor. Yet none of those who had gone before
him had attempted any other. His illustrious
grandfather, who had some glimmering of the ne-
cessity, had not been allotted the necessary time,
for he too had had to conquer to remain. His father
had more than almost any of the Afghan sovereigns
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 155
who preceded him failed to read the riddle. He fell
before a better general, and his rootless system died at
once, leaving not a trace behind it. Penetrated, then,
with the necessity of founding a system that should
endure, and recognising very gradually, that such a
system must be based on mutual respect, on mutual
toleration regarding differences of race, of religion, of
tradition ; on the union of interests ; on the making
it absolutely clear that the fall of the keystone to the
arch meant the fall of each stone which went to build
up the arch; he sought, as I have said, during the
first twenty years of his reign, discussions with his
courtiers and the learned regarding the system which
would best appeal to those sentiments in the conquered
race which would convey to them confidence and con-
viction.
Before Akbar knew Abulfazl he had almost
withdrawn from the task in despair. Instead of wise
counsel he encountered only precepts tending to
bigotry and intolerance. From his earlier counsellors
there was absolutely no help to be hoped for. Akbar
became wearied of the squabbles of these men; of
their leanings to persecution for the cause of religious
differences, even amongst Muhammadans. Before
even he had recognised the broad charity of the
teachings of Abulfazl he had come to the conclusion
that before founding a system of government it would
be necessary to wage war against the bigoted professors
who formed a power in his own empire. ' Impressed/
writes Professor Blochmann, ' with a favourable idea
156 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
of the value of his Hindu subjects, he had resolved
when pensively sitting in the evenings on the solitary
stone at Fatehpur-Sikri, to rule with an even hand all
men in his dominions ; but as the extreme views of
the learned and the lawyers continually urged him to
persecute instead of to heal, he instituted discussions,
because, believing himself to be in error, he thought
it his duty as ruler to " inquire." ' These discussions
took place every Thursday night in the Ibadat-Khana,
a building at Fatehpur-Sikri, erected for the purpose.
For a time Abulfazl took but a subordinate part
in the discussions, simply spurring the various Muham-
madan sectaries to reply to and demolish each other's
arguments. The bigotry, the narrowness, evinced by
the leaders of these sectaries, who agreeing that it was
right to persecute Hindus and other unbelievers,
hurled charges of infidelity against each other, quite
disgusted Akbar. Instead of 4 unity ' in the creed of
Islam he found a multiplicity of divisions. He was
further disgusted with the rudeness towards each other
displayed by the several sectaries, some of them hold-
ing high office in the State, and he was compelled on
one occasion to warn them that any one of them who
should so offend in the future would have to quit the
hall. At last, one memorable Thursday evening,
Abulfazl brought matters to a crisis. Foreseeing the
opposition it would evoke, he proposed as a subject
for discussion that a king should be regarded not only
as the temporal, but as the spiritual guide of his
subjects.
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 157
This doctrine struck at the fundamental prin-
ciple of Islam, according to which the Kuran
stands above every human ordinance. The point
of Abulfazl's proposition lay in the fact that in
preceding discussions the Muhammadan learned had
differed not only regarding the interpretation of
various passages of the Kuran, but regarding the
moral character of Muhammad himself. The storm
raised by Abulfazl's motion was, therefore, terrible.
There was not a doctor or lawyer present who did not
recognise that the motion attacked the vital principle
of Islam, whilst the more clear-sighted and dispassion-
ate recognised that the assertions made in their
previous discussions had broken through ' the strong
embankments of the clearest law and the most excel-
lent faith/
But how were they to resist a motion which
affected the authority of Akbar? In this diffi-
culty they came to a decision, which, though they
called it a compromise, gave away in fact the whole
question. They drew up a document 1 in which the
Emperor was certified to be a just ruler, and as such
was assigned the rank of a ' Mujtahid,' that is, an
infallible authority in all matters relating to Islam.
This admission really conceded the object aimed at by
Abulfazl, for, under its provisions, the 'intellect of
the just king became the sole source of legislation,
1 Blochmann (Ain-i-Akbari, p. xiv) calls it l a document which I
believe stands unique in the whole Church history of Islam.' He
gives a copy of it at p. 186 of the same remarkable book.
158 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
and the whole body of doctors and lawyers bound
themselves to abide by Akbars decrees in religious
matters.'
' The document,' writes Abulfazl in the Akbarnamah,
'brought about excellent results: (1) the Court
became a gathering-place of the sages and learned of
all creeds ; the good doctrines of all religious systems
were recognised, and their defects were not allowed
to obscure their good features ; (2) perfect toleration,
or peace with all, was established; and (3) the
perverse and evil-minded were covered with shame
on seeing the disinterested motives of his Majesty,
and thus stood in the pillory of disgrace.' It has to
be admitted that two of the Muhammadan sectaries
who had been the leaders of the party which inclined
to persecution, signed the document most unwillingly,
but sign they did. Abulfazl's father, on the other
hand, who had exhausted all the intricacies of the
creed of Islam, and the dogmas of its several sects,
signed it willingly, adding to his signature that he
had for years been anxiously looking forward to the
realisation of the progressive movement.
The signature of this document was a turning-point
in the life and reign of Akbar. For the first time he
was free. He could give currency and force to his
ideas of toleration and of respect for conscience. He
could now bring the Hindu, the Parsi, the Christian,
into his councils. He could attempt to put into
execution the design he had long meditated of
making the interests of the indigenous princes the
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 159
interests of the central authority at Agra. The
document is, in fact, the Magna Charta of his reign.
The reader will, I am sure, pardon me if I have dwelt
at some length on the manner in which it was obtained,
for it is the keystone to the subsequent legislation and
action of the monarch, by it placed above the narrow
restrictions of Islam. It made the fortune of Abulfazl.
It gained for him, that is to say, the lasting friend-
ship of Akbar. On the other hand it drew upon him
the concentrated hatred of the bigots, and ultimately,
in the manner related in the last chapter, caused his
assassination.
One of the first uses made by Akbar of the power
thus obtained was to clear the magisterial and judicial
bench. His chief-justice, a bigoted Sunni, who had
used his power to persecute Shiahs and all so-called
heretics, including Faizi the brother of Abulfazl, was
exiled, with all outward honour, to Mekka. Another
high functionary, equally bigoted, received a similar
mission, and the rule was inculcated upon all that in
the eye of the law religious differences were to be
disregarded, and that men, whether Sunnis, or Shiahs,
Muhammadans or Hindus, were to be treated alike :
in a word, that the religious element was not to enter
into the question before the judge or magistrate.
From this time forth the two brothers, Faizi and
Abulfazl, were the chief confidants of the Emperor in
his schemes for the regeneration and consolidation of
the empire. He caused them both to enter the mili-
tary service, as the service which best secured their
160 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
position at court. They generally accompanied him
in his various expeditions, and whilst they suggested
reforms in the land and revenue systems, they were
at hand always to give advice and support to the
views of the sovereign.
Meanwhile Akbar was preparing, in accordance
with the genius of the age, and with the sentiments
of the people over whom he ruled, to draw up and
promulgate a religious code such as, he thought,
would commend itself to the bulk of his people.
The chief feature of this code, which he called Din-
i-Ilahi, or 'the Divine faith/ consisted in the ac-
knowledgment of one God, and of Akbar as his
Khalifah, or vicegerent on earth. The Islamite
prayers were abolished as being too narrow and
wanting in comprehension, and in their place were
substituted prayers of a more general character,
based on those of the Parsis, whilst the ceremonial
was borrowed from the Hindus. The new era or
date, which was introduced in all the government
records, and also in the feasts observed by the Em-
peror, was exclusively Parsi. These observances
excited little open opposition from the Muhamma-
dans, but the bigoted and hot-headed amongst them
did not the less feel hatred towards the man whom
they considered the principal adviser of the sovereign.
They displayed great jealousy, moreover, regarding
the admission of Hindu princes and nobles to high
commands in the army and influential places at court.
It was little to them that these men, men like
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 161
Bhagwan Das, Man Singh, Todar Mall, Birbal, were
men of exceptional ability. They were Hindus, and,
on that account and on that alone, the Muhanimadan
historians could not bring themselves to mention
their names without sneering at their religion, and
at the fate reserved for them in another world.
The inquiring nature of the mind of Akbar was
displayed by the desire he expressed to learn some-
thing tangible regarding the religion of the Portuguese,
then settled at Goa. He directed Faizi to have trans-
lated into Persian a correct version of the New Testa-
ment, and he persuaded a Jesuit priest, Padre Rodolpho
Aquaviva, a missionary from Goa, to visit Agra.
It was on the occasion of the visit of this Father
that a famous discussion on religion took place in
the Ibadat-Khana, at which the most learned Mu-
hammadan lawyers and doctors, Brahmans, Jains,
Buddhists, Hindu materialists, Christians, Jews, Zoro-
astrians or Parsis, each in turn spoke. The story is
thus told by Abulfazl. ' Each one fearlessly brought
forward his assertions and arguments, and the dis-
putations and contentions were long and heated.
Every sect, in its vanity and conceit, attacked and
endeavoured to refute the statements of their an-
tagonists. One night the Ibadat-Khana was bright-
ened by the presence of Padre Kodolpho, who for
intelligence and wisdom was unrivalled among Chris-
tian doctors. Several carping and bigoted men at-
tacked him, and this afforded an opportunity for
the display of the calm judgment and justice of the
1 62 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
assembly. These men brought forward the old received
assertions, and did not attempt to arrive at truth by
reasoning. Their statements were torn to pieces, and
they were nearly put to shame, when they began to
attack the contradictions of the Gospel, but they could
not prove their assertions. With perfect calmness
and earnest conviction of the truth the Padre replied
to their arguments, and then he went on to say :
'"If these men have such an opinion of our Book,
and if they believe the Kuran to be the true word of
God, then let a furnace be lighted, and let me with
the Gospel in my hand, and the 'Ulama (learned
doctors) with their holy book in their hands, walk
into that testing-place of truth, and the right will be
manifest." The black-hearted mean-spirited dispu-
tants shrank from this proposal, and answered only
with angry words. This prejudice and violence greatly
annoyed the impartial mind of the Emperor, and, with
great discrimination and enlightenment, he said :
1 " Man's outward profession and the mere letter
of Muhammadanism, without a heartfelt conviction,
can avail nothing. I have forced many Brahmans,
by fear of my power, to adopt the religion of my
ancestors ; but now that my mind has been enlight-
ened with the beams of truth, I have become con-
vinced that the dark clouds of conceit and the mist
of self-opinion have gathered round you, and that not
a step can be made in advance without the torch of
proof. That course only can be beneficial which we
select with clear judgment. To repeat the words of
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 163
the creed, to perform circumcision, or to be prostrate
on the ground from the dread of kingly power, can
avail nothing in the sight of God :
Obedience is not in prostration on the earth :
Practice sincerity, for righteousness is not borne upon the brow ! " '
Whatever we may think of this discussion, of the
test of fire proposed by the Christian priest, we may
at least welcome it as showing the complete toleration
of discussion permitted at the Ibadat-Khana, and,
above all, as indicating the tendency of the mind of
Akbar. He had, in fact, reasoned himself out of belief
in all dogmas and in all accepted creeds. Instead of
those dogmas and those creeds he simply recognised
the Almighty Maker of the world, and himself, the
chiefest in authority in his world as the representative
in it of God, to carry out his beneficent decrees of
toleration, equal justice, and perfect liberty of con-
science, so far as such liberty of conscience did not
endanger the lives of others. He was very severe
with the Muhammadans, because he recognised that
the professors of the faith of the dominant party are
always inclined to persecution. But he listened to all,
and recognising in all the same pernicious feature,
viz., the broad, generous, far-reaching, universal quali-
ties attributed to the Almighty distorted in each case
by an interested priesthood, he prostrated himself
before the God of all, discarding the priesthood of all.
He has been called a Zoroastrian, because he
recognised in the sun the sign of the presence of the
Almighty. And there can be no doubt but that the
L 2
1 64 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
simplicity of the system of the Parsis had a great
attraction for him. In his own scheme there was no
priesthood. Regarding himself as the representative
in his world of the Almighty, he culled from
each religion its best part, so as to make religion
itself a helpful agency for all rather than an agency
for the persecution of others. The broad spirit of his
scheme was as much raised above the general compre-
hension of the people of his age, as were his broad
political ideas. To bring round the world to his views
it was necessary that ' an Amurath should succeed an
Amurath.' That was and ever will be impossible.
The result was that his political system gradually
drifted after his death into the old narrow groove
whence he had emancipated it, whilst his religious
system perished with him. After the reigns of two
successors, Muhammadan but indifferent, persecution
once again asserted her sway to undo all the good the
great and wise Akbar had effected, and to prepare, by
the decadence of the vital principle of the dynasty,
for the rule of a nation which should revive his im-
mortal principle of justice to all and toleration for all.
In the foregoing remarks I have alluded to the fact
that Akbar allowed liberty of conscience in so far as
that liberty did not endanger the lives of others. He
gave a marked example of this in his dealing with the
Hindu rite of Sati. It is not necessary to explain that
the English equivalent for the word ■ Sati ' is ' chaste
or virtuous,' and that a Sati is a woman who burns
herself on her husband's funeral pile. The custom
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 165
had been so long prevalent among Hindu ladies of
rank that not to comply with it had come to be
regarded as a self-inflicted imputation on the chaste
life of the widow. Still, the love of life is strong, and
the widow, conscious of her own virtue, and unwilling
to sacrifice herself to an idea, had occasionally shown
a marked disinclination to consent to mount the pile.
It had often happened then that the priests had ap-
plied to her a persuasion, either by threats of the terrors
of the hereafter or the application of moral stimulants,
to bring her to the proper pitch of willingness.
Such deeds were abhorrent to the merciful mind
of Akbar, and he discouraged the practice by all
the means in his power. His position towards the
princes of Rajputana, by whom the rite was held in
the highest honour, would not allow him so far to
contravene their time-honoured customs, which had
attained all the force of a religious ordinance, to
prohibit the self-sacrifice when the widow earnestly
desired it. Before such a prohibition could be issued
time must be allowed, he felt, for the permeation to
the recesses of the palace of the liberal principles he
was inaugurating. But he issued an order that,
in the case of a widow showing the smallest dis-
inclination to immolate herself, the sacrifice was not
to be permitted.
Nor did he content himself with words only.
Once, when in Ajmere, whilst his confidential agent,
Jai Mall, nephew of Raja Bihari Mall of Ambar, was
on a mission to the grandees of Bengal, news reached
1 66 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
him that Jai Mall had died at Chausa. Jai Mall
had been a great favourite with Akbar, for of all
the Raj pu tana nobles he had been the first to pay
his respects to him, and had ever rendered him true
and loyal service. He had married a daughter of
Raja Udai Singh of Jodhpur, a princess possessing
great strength of will. When the news of her hus-
band's death reached Ambar she positively refused to
become a Sati. Under the orders of the Emperor she
had an absolute right to use her discretion. But when
she did use it to refuse, the outcry against her, headed
by Udai Singh, her son, became so uncontrollable, that
it was resolved to force her to the stake. Information of
this reached Akbar, and he determined to prevent the
outrage. He was just in time, for the pile was already
lighted when his agents, one of them the uncle of the
deceased, reached the ground, seized Udai Singh, dis-
persed the assembly, and saved the princess.
Attached as Akbar was to his learned and liberal-
minded friends, Faizi and Abulfazl, he encouraged all
who displayed a real love for learning, and a true
desire to acquire knowledge. He hated pretence and
hypocrisy. He soon recognised that these two quali-
ties underlay the professions of the 'Ulamds (Muham-
madan doctors of learning) at his court. When he
had found them out, he was disgusted with them, and
resolved to spare no means of showing up their
pretensions.
1 He never pardoned,' writes Professor Blochmann,
'pride and conceit in a man, and of all kinds of
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 167
conceit, the conceit of learning was most hateful
to him.' Hence the cry of the class affected by his
action that he discouraged learning and learned
men. He did nothing of the sort. There never has
flourished in India a more generous encourager of
the real thing. In this respect the present rulers of
India might profit by his example. One of the men
whose knowledge of history was the most extensive
in that age, and who possessed great talents and a
searching mind, was Khan-i-Azam Mirza, son of his
favourite nurse. For a long time this man held fast
to the orthodox profession of faith, ridiculing the ' new
religion ' of Akbar, and especially ridiculing Faizi and
Abulfazl, to whom he applied nicknames expressing
his sense of their pretensions. But at a later period
he had occasion to make the pilgrimage to Mekka,
and there he was so fleeced by the priests that his
attachment to Islam insensibly cooled down. On his
return to Agra, he became a member of the Divine
Faith. He wrote poetry well, and was remarkable
for the ease of his address and his intelligence. One
of his many aphorisms has descended to posterity.
It runs as follows : 'A man should marry four wives —
a Persian woman to have somebody to talk to ; a
Khorasani woman for his housework ; a Hindu
woman, for nursing his children ; and a woman from
Marawannahr (Turkistan), to have some one to whip
as a warning to the other three.'
One of the ablest warriors and most generous of
men in the service of Akbar was Mirza Abdurrahim,
168 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
son of his old Atalik or preceptor, Bairam Khan.
For many years he exercised the office of Khan
Khanan, literally ■ lord of lords,' tantamount to com-
mander-in-chief. But he was as learned as he was
able in the field. He translated the memoirs of
Babar, well described by Abulfazl as ' a code of prac-
tical wisdom/ written in Turkish, into the Persian
language then prevalent at the court of Akbar, to
whom he presented the copy. Amongst other writers,
the historians, Nizam-u-din Ahmad, author of the
Tabakat-i-Akbari, or records of the reign of Akbar ;
the authors of the Tarikhi-i-Alfi, or the history of
Muhammadanism for a thousand years ; and, above
all, the orthodox historian, Abul Kadir Badauni,
author of the Tarikh-i-Badauni, or Annals of Badauni,
and editor and reviser of a history of Kashmir, stand
conspicuous.
Badauni was a very remarkable man. Two years
older than Akbar, he had studied from his early
youth various sciences under the most renowned and
pious men of his age, and had come to excel in music,
history, and astronomy. His sweet voice procured
for him the appointment of Court Iman for Fridays.
For forty years Badauni lived at court in company
with Shaikh Mubarik and his sons Faizi and Abulfazl,
but there was no real friendship between them, as
Badauni, an orthodox Musalman, always regarded
them as heretics. Under instructions from Akbar he
translated the Bamayana from its original Sanscrit into
Persian, as well as part of the Mdhdbhdrata. His
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 169
historical work above referred to as the Tarikh-i-
Badauni, and which is perhaps better known under
its alternative title Muntakhabat-ul-Tawarikh, or
Selections from the Annals, is especially valuable for
the views it gives of the religious opinions of Akbar,
and its sketches of the famous men of his reign.
Badauni died about eleven years before the Emperor,
and his great work, the existence of which he had
carefully concealed, did not appear until some time
during the reign of Jahangir. It is a very favourite
book with the bigoted Muhammadans who disliked
the innovations of Akbar, and it continued to be
more and more prized as those innovations gradually
gave way to the revival of persecution for thought's
sake.
It is perhaps unnecessary to give a record of the
other learned men who contributed by their abilities,
their industry, and their learning to the literary
glory of the reign of Akbar. The immortal Ain
contains a complete list of them, great and small.
But, as concerning the encouragement given to arts
and letters by the sovereign himself, it is fitting to
add a few words. It would seem that Akbar paid
great attention to the storing in his library of works
obtained from outside his dominions, as well as of
those Hindu originals and their translations which
he was always either collecting or having rendered
into Persian. Of this library the author of the Ain
relates that it was divided into several parts. ' Some
of the books are kept within, some without the Harem.
170 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
Each part of the library is subdivided, according
to the value of the books and the estimation in
which the sciences are held of which the books treat.
Prose books, poetical works, Hindi, Persian, Greek,
Kashmir ian, Arabic, are all separately placed. In
this order they are also inspected. Experienced
people bring them daily, and read them before his
Majesty, who hears every book from the beginning to
the end. At whatever page the readers daily stop,
his Majesty makes with his own pen a mark, ac-
cording to the number of the pages ; and rewards the
readers with presents of cash, either in gold or silver,
according to the number of leaves read out by them.
Among books of renown there are few which are not
read in his Majesty's assembly hall ; and there are no
historical facts of past ages, or curiosities of science,
or interesting points of philosophy, with which his
Majesty, a leader of impartial sages, is unacquainted.'
Then follows a long list of books specially affected by
the sovereign, some of which have been referred to in
preceding pages.
I have, I think, stated enough to show the influence
exercised by literary men and literature on the history
of this reign. The influence, especially of the two
learned brothers, Faizi and Abulfazl, dominated as
long as they lived. That of Abulfazl survived him,
for the lessons he had taught only served to confirm
the natural disposition of his master. The principles
which the brothers loved were the principles con-
genial to the disposition of Akbar. They were the
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 171
principles of the widest toleration of opinion ; of
justice to all, independently of caste and creed ; of
alleviating the burdens resting on the children of the
soil ; of the welding together of the interests of all
classes of the community, of the Bajput prince, proud
of his ancient descent and inclined to regard the
Muhammadan invader as an outcast and a stranger;
of the Uzbek and Mughal noble, too apt to regard the
country as his own by right of conquest, and its
peoples as fit only to be his slaves; of the settlers
of Afghan origin, who during four centuries had
mingled with, and become a recognised part of the
children of the soil ; $ of the indigenous inhabitants,
always ready to be moved by kindness and good
treatment.
There was one class it was impossible to conciliate:
the Muhammadan princes whose families had ruled in
India, and who aspired to rule in their turn ; who, in
Bengal, in Orissa, in Behar, and in many parts of
Western India, still exercised authority and main-
tained large armies. These men, regarding their
title as superior to that of Akbar, and not recognising
the fact that whilst their predecessors had lived on
the surface, Akbar was sending roots down deep
into the soil, resisted his pretensions and defied his
power. How he tried conciliation with these men,
and how their own conduct compelled him to insist
on their expulsion, has been told in the last chapter.
I propose now to relate how the broad principles
natural to Akbar and confirmed by his association
172 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
with Faizi and Abulfazl, affected the system of ad-
ministration introduced by the reforming sovereign.
In a previous page of this chapter I have quoted an
expression of his own, to the effect that he had, at one
time of his reign, forced Brahmans to embrace Mu-
hammadanism. This must have happened because
Akbar states it, but of the forced conversions I have
found no record. They must have taken place whilst
he was still a minor, and whilst the chief authority
was wielded by Bairam. From the moment of his
assumption of power, that is, from the day on which
he gave the till then all-powerful Bairam Khan per-
mission to proceed to Mekka, he announced his inten-
tion, from which he never swerved, to employ Hindus
and Muhammadans alike without distinction. In the
seventh year of his reign, he being then in the twenty-
first year of his life, Akbar abolished the practice,
heretofore prevailing, by which the troops of the
conqueror were permitted to forcibly sell or keep in
slavery the wives, children, and dependants of the
conquered. Whatever might be the delinquencies
of an enemy, his children and the people belonging
to him were, according to the proclamation of the
sovereign, to be free to go as they pleased to their
own houses, or to the houses of their relatives. No
one, great or small, was to be made a slave. 'If the
husband pursue an evil course/ argued the liberal-
minded prince, ■ what fault is it of the wife ? And if
the father rebel, how can the children be blamed ? '
The same generous and far-seeing policy was pur-
HIS PRINCIPIES AND ADMINISTRATION 173
sued with unabated vigour in the reform of other
abuses. The very next year, the eighth of his reign,
the Emperor determined to abolish a tax, which,
though extremely productive, inflicted, as he con-
sidered, a wrong on the consciences of his Hindu
subjects. There are no people in the world more
given to pilgrimages than are the Hindus. Their
sacred shrines, each with its peculiar saint and its
specific virtue, abound in every province of Hindustan.
The journeys the pilgrims have to make are often long
and tedious, their length being often proportioned to
the value of the boon to be acquired. In these pil-
grimages the Afghan predecessors of the Mughal had
recognised a large and permanent source of revenue,
and they had imposed, therefore, a tax on all pilgrims
according to the ascertained or reputed means of each.
Abulfazl tells us that this tax was extremely prolific,
amounting to millions of rupees annually. But it
was felt as a great grievance. In the eyes of the
Hindu a pilgrimage was often an inculcated duty, im-
posed upon him by his religion, or its interpreter, the
Brahman priest. Why, he argued, because he sub-
mitted his body to the greatest inconvenience, measur-
ing his own length along the ground, possibly for
hundreds of miles, should he be despoiled by the State?
The feelings of his Hindu subjects on this point soon
reached the ears of Akbar. It was submitted to him
by those who saw in the tax only an easy source of
revenue that the making of pilgrimages was a vain
superstition which the Hindus would not forego, and
174 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
therefore the payment being certain and continuous,
it would be bad financial policy to abolish the tax.
Akbar, admitting that it was a tax on the superstitions
of the multitude, and that a Hindu might escape pay-
ing it by staying at home, yet argued that as the
making of pilgrimages constituted a part of the
Hindu religion, and was, in a sense, a Hindu form of
rendering homage to the Almighty, it would be wrong
to throw the smallest stumbling-block in the way of
this manifestation of their submission to that which
they regarded as a divine ordinance. He accordingly
remitted the tax.
Similarly regarding the jizya, or capitation tax im-
posed by Muhammadan sovereigns on those of another
faith. This tax had been imposed in the early days of
the Muhammadan conquest by the Afghan rulers of
India. There was no tax which caused so much bitter-
ness of feeling on the part of those who had to pay it :
not one which gave so much opportunity to the dis-
play and exercise of human tyranny. The reason why
the sovereigns before Akbar failed entirely to gain the
sympathies of the children of the soil might be gathered
from the history of the proceedings connected with this
tax alone. ' When the collector of the Diwan,' writes
the author of the Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi, ' asks the
Hindus to pay the tax, they should pay it with all
humility and submission. And if the collector wishes
to spit into their mouths, they should open their mouths
without the slightest fear of contamination, so that the
collector may do so The object of such humiliation
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 175
and spitting into their mouths is to prove the obedience
of infidel subjects under protection, and to promote the
glory of the Islam, the true religion, and to show con-
tempt for false religions/ That the officials who acted
in the manner here described contravened the true
spirit of Islam, I need nob stop to argue. There is not
a religion which has not suffered from the intemperate
zeal of its bigoted supporters ; and Muhammadanism
has suffered at least as much as the others. But the
extract proves the extent to which it was possible for
the agents of an unusually enlightened prince to tyran-
nise over and to insult the conquered race in the name
of a religion, whose true tenets they perverted by so
acting.
Akbar recognised not only the inherent liability
to this abuse in the collection of such a tax, but
also the vicious character of the tax itself. The very
word ' infidel ' was hateful to him. ' Who is certain
that he is right? ' was his constant exclamation. Recog-
nising good in all religions, he would impose no tax
on the conscientious faith of any man. Early then,
in the ninth year of his reign, and in the twenty-third
of his life, three years, be it borne in mind, before he
had come under the influence of either of the two
illustrious brothers, Faizi and Abulfazl, he, prompted
by his own sense of the eternal fitness of things, issued
an edict abolishing the jizya. Thenceforth all were
equal in matters of faith before the one Eternal.
The dealings of Akbar with the Hindus were not
confined to the abolition of taxes which pressed hardly
176 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
on their religious opinions. He endeavoured, with as
little show of authority as was possible, to remove
restrictions which interfered with the well-being and
happiness of the people. What he did regarding Sati
I have already related. The kindred question of the
re-marriage of a widow met with the greatest en-
couragement from him. He even went further, and
issued an edict rendering such re-marriage lawful.
In the same spirit he forbade marriages before the
age of puberty, a custom deeply rooted amongst the
Hindus, and carried on even at the present day,
though theoretically condemned by the wisest among
them. He prohibited likewise the slaughter of animals
for sacrifice, and trials by ordeal. Nor was he less
stringent with those of the faith in which he was
born. His method with them took the form rather
of example, of persuasion, of remonstrance, than a
direct order.
He discouraged the excessive practice of prayers,
of fasts, of alms, of pilgrimages, but he did not
forbid them. These were matters for individual
taste, but Akbar knew well that in the majority of
instances open professions were merely cloaks for
hypocrisy; that there were many ways in which a
man's life could be utilised other than by putting on
an austere appearance, and making long prayers.
The rite of circumcision could not, indeed, be for-
bidden to the Muhammadans, but Akbar directed that
the ceremony should not be performed until the lad
had attained the age of twelve. To humour the pre-
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 177
juclices of the Hindus, he discouraged the slaughter of
kine. On the other hand, he pronounced the killing
and partaking of the flesh of swine to be lawful.
Dogs had been looked upon by Muhammadans as
unclean animals, and the strict Muhammadan of the
present day still regards them as such. Akbar de-
clared them to be clean. Wine is prohibited to the
Muslim. Akbar encouraged a moderate use of it.
In the later years of his reign ( 1 592) he introduced, to
the great annoyance of the bigoted party at his court,
the practice of shaving the beard. In a hot country
such as India the advantages arising from the use of
the razor are too obvious to need discussion. But,
although the order was not obligatory, the compliance
or non-compliance with the custom became a dis-
tinguishing mark at the imperial court. Few things
are more repugnant to a devout Musalman than the
shaving of his beard. It was so then, and it is so
now. The example set in this respect by the sove-
reign caused then many murmurs and much secret
discontent.
Amongst others of the natural characteristics of
Akbar may be mentioned his attachment to his
relatives. Of one of these, a foster-brother, who per-
sistently offended him, he said, whilst inflicting upon
him the lightest of punishments: ' Between me and
Aziz is a river of milk, which I cannot cross.' The
spirit of these words animated him in all his actions
towards those connected with him. Unless they were
irreclaimable, or had steeped their hands in the blood
M
178 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
of others, he ever sought to win them back by his
gentleness and liberality. He loved forgiving, reinstat-
ing, trusting, and though the exercise of these noble
qualities led sometimes to his being imposed upon,
they told in the long run. He was a good son, a
loving husband, and perhaps too affectionate a father.
His sons suffered from the misfortune of having
been born in the purple. One of them, Prince
Danyal, was a prince of the highest promise, but the
temptations by which he was surrounded, unchecked
by his tutors, brought him to an early grave. Simi-
larly with Prince Murad. As to his successor, Jahan-
gir, he was, in most respects, the very opposite of his
father. Towards the close of the reign he set an
example which became a rule of the Mughal dynasty,
that of trying to establish himself in the lifetime of
his father, whose dearest friend, Abulfazl, he had
caused to be assassinated. Nothing could exceed the
exemplary patience and forbearance with which Akbar
treated his unworthy son. Again, Akbar abhorred
cruelty : he regarded the performance of his duty as
equivalent to an act of worship to the Creator.
In this respect he made no difference between
great and small matters. He was not content
to direct that such and such an ordinance should
be issued. He watched its working ; developed
it more fully, if it were successful ; and marked
the details of its action on the several races who
constituted his subjects. He had much confidence
in his own judgment of men. He was admittedly
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 179
a good physiognomist. Abulfazl wrote of him that
* he sees through some men at a glance/ whilst even
Badauni admits the claim, though with his usual
inclination to sneering at all matters bearing on the
Hindus, he declares that Akbar obtained the gift of
insight from the Jogis (Hindu ascetics or magicians).
With all his liberality and breadth of view Akbar
himself was not free from superstition. He believed
in lucky days. Mr. Blochmann states that he im-
bibed this belief from his study of the religion of
Zoroaster, of which it forms a feature. His courtiers,
especially those who were secretly opposed to his re-
ligious innovations, attributed his undoubted success
to luck. Thus Badauni writes of 'his Majesty's usual
good luck overcoming all enemies/ whereas it was his
remarkable attention to the carrying out of the details
of laws and regulations which he and his councillors
had thoroughly considered which ensured his success. .
He was very fond of field sports, especially of
hunting, but after the birth of the son who succeeded
him he did not hunt on Fridays. If we can accept
the authority of the Emperor Jahangir, Akbar had
made a vow that he would for ever abstain from
hunting on the sacred day if the mother of Jahangir
should have a safe deliverance, and he kept it to the
end of his life. There is abundant evidence to prove
that Akbar was not only fond of music, but was very
musical himself. He delighted in the old tunes of
Khwarizm, and, according to Abulfazl, himself com-
posed more than two hundred of these, ' which are the
M 2
i8o THE EMPEROR AKBAR
delight of young and old.' The same authority states
that ' his Majesty had such a knowledge of the science
of music as trained musicians do not possess.' Every
day the court was treated to an abundance of music,
the sounds of which have in all times been especially
agreeable to Eastern monarchs. He also was gifted,
to a considerable extent, with the genius of invention.
The Ain records how he invented a carriage, a wheel
for cleaning guns, and elephant gear ; how, further,
he made improvements in the clothing of his troops
and in his artillery.
In his diet Akbar was simple, taking but one regular
meal a day. He disliked meat, and abstained from it
often for months at a time. He was specially fond of
fruits, and made a study of their cultivation. Abulfazl
records that he regarded fruits ' as one of the greatest
gifts of the Creator,' and that the Emperor brought
horticulturists of Iran and Turan to settle at Agra
and Fatehpur-Sikri. ' Melons and grapes have be-
come very plentiful and excellent ; and water-melons,
peaches, almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, etc., are
everywhere to be found.' He adds that fruits were
largely imported from Kabul, Kandahar, Kashmir,
Badakshan, and even from Samarkand. The Ain
contains a long list of these, which the reader who
knows India will read with pleasure. It is interest-
ing to find that, even in those days, the first place
among the sweet fruits of Hindustan is given to
the mango. This fruit is described as ' unrivalled in
colour, smell, and taste ; and some of the gourmands
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 181
of Turan and Iran place it above musk-melon and
grapes.'
One word as to tho daily habits of Akbar and to
the manner in which he was accustomed to pass an
ordinary day at Agra or Fatehpur-Sikri. It would
seem that he kept late hours, spending the evenings
far into the early morning in conversation and dis-
cussion. In such matters he occupied himself, accord-
ing to the record of Abulfazl, till ' about a watch
before daybreak/ when musicians were introduced.
At daybreak the sovereign retired into his private
apartments, made his ablutions, dressed, and about an
hour later presented himself to receive the homage of
his courtiers. Then began the business of the day.
Probably this was concluded often long before midday,
when the one meal which Akbar allowed himself was
usually served, though there was no fixed hour for it.
The afternoon was the recognised hour of sleep.
Sometimes Akbar devoted the early morning to field
sports, and sometimes the late evenings to the game
of chaugan, or polo, for which purpose balls made of
the palas wood were used. The hottest hours of the
day were the hours of rest and recuperation.
Akbar had not reigned long ere he recognised the
importance of attaching to his throne the Hindu
princes of Rajputana by a tie closer even than that of
mere friendship. It is interesting to note how he
managed to overcome the inborn prejudices of the
high caste princes of Rajast'han to consent to a union
which, in their hearts, the bulk of them regarded as
1 82 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
a degradation. It would seem that his father, Hu-
mayun, had to a certain extent prepared the way.
In his erudite and fascinating work 1 . Colonel Tod
relates how Humayun, in the earlier part of his
reign, became the knight of the princess Kurnavati
of Chitor, and pledged himself to her service. That
service he loyally performed. He addressed her
'always as 'dear and virtuous sister.' He also won
the regard of Raja Bihari Mall of Amber, father of
the Bhagwan Das, so often mentioned in these pages.
Akbar subsequently married his daughter, and
becoming thus connected with the House of Amber
(Jaipur), could count upon Bhagwan Das and his
nephew and adopted son, Man Singh, one of the
greatest of all his commanders, as his firmest friends.
Writing in another page of Bhagwan Das, Colonel Tod
describes him as • the friend of Akbar, who saw the
value of attaching such men to his throne.' He adds,
and few men have ever enjoyed better opportunities
of ascertaining the real feelings of the princes of
Raj pu tana, ■ but the name of Bhagwan Das is ex-
ecrated as the first who sullied Rajput purity by
matrimonial alliance with the Islamite.' Prejudice is
always strong, and nowhere stronger than in caste.
Rajpiitana never produced greater or larger-minded
princes than Bhagwan Das and his nephew. Their
intimate union with Akbar contributed more than
any other circumstance to reconcile the Rajputs to
1 Annals and Antiquities of Bajast'Jidn, by Lieutenant-Colonel James
Tod, second (Madras) edition, pp. 262, 282-3.
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 183
the predominance of the Mughal. The union was
further cemented by the marriage, already referred to,
between Prince Salim and a daughter of Bhagwan
Das. What the real influence of Akbars adminis-
tration was upon that chivalrous race may be gathered
from the short summary which Colonel Tod, himself,
more Rajput in his sympathies than the Rajputs
themselves, devotes to his career.
'Akbar,' writes that author, 'was the real founder
of the empire of the Mughals, the first successful
conqueror of Rajput independence. To this end his
virtues were powerful auxiliaries, as by his skill in
the analysis of the mind and its readiest stimulant to
action, he was enabled to gild the chains with which
he bound them. To these they became familiarised
by habit, especially when the throne exerted its
power in acts gratifying to national vanity, or even in
ministering to the more ignoble passions.' Unable,
apparently, to comprehend the principle which un-
derlay the whole policy of Akbar, that of conquering
that he might produce union, and regarding him as he
lightly regarded his Afghan and Pathan predecessors,
Colonel Tod attacks him for his conquests. Yet even
Colonel Tod is forced to add : ' He finally succeeded in
healing the wounds his ambition had inflicted, and
received from millions that meed of praise which no
other of his race ever obtained/ I need not add that
if to render happiness to millions is one of the first
objects of kingship, and if to obtain that end union
has to be cemented by conquest, the means sanction
184 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
the end. Akbar did not conquer in Rajputana to rule
in Rajputana. He conquered that all the Rajput
princes, each in his own dominions, might enjoy that
peace and prosperity which his predominance, never
felt aggressively, secured for the whole empire.
From the Raja of Jodhpur, Udai Singh, at the
time the most powerful of the Rajput princes, Akbar
obtained the hand of his daughter for his son Salim.
The princess became the mother of a son who suc-
ceeded his father as the Emperor Shah Jahan. In
him the Rajput blood acquired a position theretofore
unknown in India. Of this marriage, so happy in its
results, Colonel Tod writes that Akbar obtained it by
a bribe, the gift of four provinces which doubled the
fisc of Marwar (Jodhpur). He adds: ' With such
examples as Amber and Marwar, and with less power
to resist temptation, the minor chiefs of Rajast'han,
with a brave and numerous vassalage, were trans-
formed into satraps of Delhi, and the importance
of most of them was increased by the change/ Truly
did the Mughal historian designate them as ' at once
the props and ornaments of the throne/
There surely could not be a greater justification of
the policy of Akbar with respect to Rajputana and its
princes than is contained in the testimony of this
writer, all of whose sympathies were strongly with
the Rajputs.
Whilst on the subject of the imperial marriages, I
may mention that Akbar had many wives, but of
these eight only are authoritatively mentioned. His
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 185
first wife was his cousin, a daughter of his uncle,
Hindal Mirza. She bore him no children, and sur-
vived him, living to the age of eighty-four. His
second wife was also a cousin, being the daughter of a
daughter of Babar, who had married Mirza Nuruddin
Muhammad. She was a poetess, and wrote under the
nom deplume, Makhfi (the concealed). His third wife
was the daughter of Raja Bihari Mall and sister of Raja
Bhagwan Das. He married her in 1560. The fourth
wife was famed for her beauty : she had been previ-
ously married to Abdul Wasi. The fifth wife, mother
of Jahangir, was a Jodhpur princess, Jodh Baei. As
mother of the heir apparent, she held the first place in
the harem. The sixth, seventh, and eighth wives
were Muhammadans.
In the matter of domestic legislation Akbar paid
considerable attention to the mode of collecting re-
venue. He found existing a system devised by Sher
Shah, the prince who had defeated and expelled his
father. The principles upon which this system was
based were (1) the correct measurement of the land ; (2)
the ascertaining the average production of a block of
land per bigha 1 ; (3) the settlement of the proportion
of that amount to be paid to the Government by each :
(4) the fixing of the equivalent in money for the
settled amount in kind. Akbar proposed rather to
develope this principle than to interfere with it.
1 A bfghji is a portion of land measuring in the North-west
Provinces nearly five-eighths of an acre. In Bengal, it is not quite
one-third of an acre.
1 86 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
With this object he established a uniform standard to
supersede the differing standards theretofore employed.
* This laudable regulation/ we are told in the Ain,
' removed the rust of uncertainty from the minds of
collectors, and relieved the subject from a variety of
oppressions, whilst the income became larger, and the
State flourished/ Akbar likewise caused to be adopted
improved instruments of mensuration, and with these
he made a new settlement of the lands capable of
cultivation within the empire. We are told in the
Ain that he was in the habit of taking from each
bigha of land ten sers (about twenty pounds) of grain
as a royalty. This was at a later period commuted
into a money payment. In each district he had store-
houses erected to supply animals, the property of the
State, with food ; to furnish cultivators with grain for
sowing purposes ; to have at hand a provision in case
of famine ; and to feed the poor. These store-houses
were placed in charge of men specially selected for
their trustworthy qualities.
The land was in the earlier part of the reign
divided into three classes according to its fertility,
and the assessment was fixed on the average produc-
tion of three bighas, one from each division. The
cultivator might, however, if dissatisfied with the
average, insist on the valuation of his own crop.
Five classifications of land were likewise made to
ensure equality of payment in proportion to the
quality of the land and its immunity from acci-
dents, such as inundation. Other regulations were
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 187
carefully formed to discriminate between the several
varieties of soil, all having for their object the fixing
of a system fair alike to the cultivator and the
Government.
Gradually, as I have above indicated, as the Govern-
ment became settled, a better principle was introduced
to fix the amount payable to the State. For this
purpose statements of prices for the nineteen years
preceding the survey were called for from the village
heads. From these an average was struck, and the
produce was valued at the current rates. At first
these settlements were annual, but as fresh annual
rates were found vexatious, the settlement was made
for ten years, on the basis of the average of the pre-
ceding ten.
To complete this agricultural system, Akbar made
at the same time a new division of the country for
revenue purposes. Under this scheme the country
was marked out in parcels, each yielding a karor (ten
millions) of ddms, equal to twenty-five thousand
rupees. The collector of each of these parcels was
called a karori. Whenever a kar6ri had collected the
sum of two lakhs of ddms l , he was required to send
it to the Treasurer- General at head-quarters. It was
found, however, after a time, that the arbitrary division
based simply upon a mathematical theory produced
1 Two hundred thousand dams, equivalent to five thousand rupees.
A dam is a copper coin, the fortieth part of a rupee. The coin
known as the damri, used at the present day for the purposes of
calculation, is the eighth part of a dam.
1 88 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
confusion and disturbed ancient ways, of all others
most congenial to the Hindus. After a trial, then,
the artificial division was abandoned in favour of the
ancient system of the people, under which the lands
were parcelled out in conformity with the natural
features of the country and the village system pre-
vailing therein.
Against the farming of the revenue, as a certain
mode of oppression, Akbar was very strong. He
particularly enjoined upon his collectors to deal
directly, as far as was possible, with the cultivator
himself, rather than with the village headman. This
was an innovation which, though based upon the best
intentions, did not always answer. Custom counts
for much in India, and custom pronounced in favour
of the recognition of the influence of the chief man of
the village, and it became necessary practically to deal,
at least conjointly, with him.
When the Emperor took into consideration the
circumstances attending the holding of lands, he
found not only that grants had been made by his
predecessors to unworthy objects, but that his own
administrators had been guilty of bribery and cor-
ruption of various degrees. It was shortly after
Faizi joined him in camp, and had acquired great
influence with him, that his eyes were opened to these
enormities. He found to his horror that the chief
perpetrators of them were men who made the largest
professions of sanctity. Then followed, almost im-
mediately, the sarcastic exile of these men to Mekka.
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 189
then, a thorough inquiry into the department. There
were four classes to whom it had been considered
desirable that the sovereign should be able to render
State assistance. The first class comprised the men
who devoted themselves to literature and learning,
and who had no means of their own. It had seemed
desirable that such men should not be harassed by
the need of having to care for their daily bread. The
second class included those who 'toil and practise
self-denial, and while engaged in the struggle with
the selfish passions of human nature, have renounced
the society of men.' The third, the weak and poor,
who had no strength for toil. The fourth, honourable
men of gentle birth, who, from want of knowledge, are
unable to provide for themselves by taking up a trade.
To inquire into the circumstances of petitioners of
these classes an experienced officer of presumably
correct intentions had been appointed. He was en-
titled Sadr, or chief, and ranked above the Kazi and
the judges. When, in consequence of the inquiries
set on foot at the instance of Faizi, it was discovered
that the whole of this department was a hotbed of
corruption, Akbar made a clean sweep of the officials,
from the Sadr down to the smallest Kazi, and nomi-
nated men drawn from a different class, fencing their
functions with strict regulations.
But, as sovereign who had to reward great services
rendered to the crown, Akbar required to dispose of
large grants of land to men devoted to his service.
Thus, he paid the Mansabdars. or officers entrusted
190 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
with high command; by temporary grants of land in
lieu of a money allowance. He found that the most
powerful of his immediate predecessors, the Sher Shah
who had expelled his father, Humayun, had been more
than lavish in his grants of land to his immediate
followers, men mostly of Afghan descent. Akbar
inquired into the circumstances under which these
grants had been made, and in many instances he re-
sumed them to bestow them upon his own adherents.
In acting in this way he only followed the prece-
dent set him by previous sovereigns. But he had
even more reason than that which precedent would
sanction. He found that the land specified in
the firmdn granted to the holder but rarely corre-
sponded in extent to the land which he actually
held. Sometimes it happened that the language of
the firman was so ambiguously worded as to allow
the holder to take all that he could get by bribing
the Kazis and the provincial Sadr. Hence, in the ,
interests of justice and the interests of the crown
and the people, he had a perfect right to resume
whatever, after due inquiry, he found to be super-
fluous. He discovered, moreover, that the 'Ulama,
or learned doctors, a class more resembling the
pharisees of the New Testament than any class of
which history makes record, and whom he cordially
detested, had been very free in helping themselves
during the period of his minority, and before the
representations of Faizi had induced him to make
inquiries. He therefore made the strictest investi-
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 191
gation into their titles. When these were found
faulty, or he had reason to believe that they had
been dishonestly obtained, he resumed the grants,
and exiled the ex-holders to Bukkur in Sind, or
to Bengal, the climate of which had, in those days, a
very sinister reputation. At the period of his reform,
moreover, he greatly reduced the authority of the
Sadr, transferring to his own hands the bulk of the
power which had devolved upon them.
Regardiug the general tendency and result of the
reforms instituted by Akbar in the territorial system
of the country, a distinguished writer 1 has recorded
his judgment that, much as they ■ promoted the
happiness of the existing generation, they contained
no principle of progressive improvement, and held out
no hopes to the rural population by opening paths by
which it might spread into other occupations, or rise
by individual exertion within his own.' I venture,
with some diffidence and with the greatest respect, to
differ from this criticism. Akbar, admittedly, pro-
moted the happiness of the generation amongst whom
he lived. To have proceeded on the lines suggested
by Mr. Elphinstone, he would have destroyed a
principle which was then vital to the existence of
Hindu society as it was constituted. Akbar went
dangerously near to that point when he attempted to
negotiate directly with the cultivators instead of
through the headman of the village. He recognised
in sufficient time that he must deal very charily and
1 The History of India, by the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone.
192 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
cautiously with customs which had all the force of
law, and he withdrew his order.
The chief adviser of Akbar in matters of revenue,
finance, and currency was the Raja Todar Mall, of
whom I have spoken in the last chapter. He was a
man of great ability and of tried integrity. Though
attached to the court of a Muhammadan sovereign,
he was an earnest Hindu, and performed faithfully all
the ceremonies of his religion. On one occasion when
accompanying Akbar to the Punjab, in the hurry of
departure he forgot his idols. As he transacted no
business before his daily worship he remained for
several days without food or drink, and was at last
with difficulty consoled by the Emperor.
Of the army the principal component force *was
cavalry. Elephants too constituted an important
feature in the array of battle. As a rule the presence
of elephants was supposed to indicate the presence of
the Emperor, or rather, it was believed that the
sovereign could not be present unless elephants were
there. In the last chapter I have given an example
of the happy mistake committed by a formidable
antagonist of the Emperor in consequence of this
prevailing impression.
The empire north of the Vindhyan range was
portioned by the Emperor into twelve subahs or
provinces. These were each governed by a viceroy,
subordinate only to the sovereign. He held office
during good behaviour, and was bound in all things
to carry out the instructions of his master. Under
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 193
him were local military officers called fdujddrs, who
united in their own persons the duties devolving upon
a chief of police and a military commander. To them
was consigned the maintenance of peace in their
several districts; the superintendence of military
establishments within the same ; the command of the
regular troops there located ; and, generally, the re-
pression of disturbances.
The lines upon which justice was administered by
the officers of Akbar were the same as those introduced
by his Afghan predecessors. The Kuranwas the basis
upon which the law rested. But precedents often
modified the strict interpretation. Where, moreover,
the law leaned to severity it was again modified by
the instructions drafted by the Emperor or his ad-
visers. The leading features of these instructions
were to temper justice with mercy. The high officers
were enjoined to be sparing in capital punishments.
In one rescript addressed to the Governor of distant
Gujarat, that functionary was directed in no case,
except in that of dangerous sedition, to inflict capital
punishment until his proceedings had received the
confirmation of the Emperor.
South of the Vindhyan range, in the division known
as the Deccan, or South, the imperial possessions
were originally divided into three subahs or com-
mands. Subsequently, when new provinces and
districts had been acquired, they were increased to
six. After the death of Akbar these were all placed
under one head, called the Subahdar, the precursor of
N
194 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
the Nizam. With him, but subordinate to him, was
associated an administrative financial officer called
the Diwan, or Chancellor.
Akbar was a very magnificent sovereign. Though
simple in his habits, he recognised, as the greatest of
British Viceroys recognised after him, that show is a
main element in the governing of an Eastern people.
It is necessary to strike the eye, to let the subjects
see the very majesty of power, the 'pomp and cir-
cumstance ' attending the being whose nod indicates
authority, who is to them the personified concentration
on earth of the attributes of the Almighty. This is
no mere idea. The very expressions used by the
natives of India at the present day show how this
thought runs through their imaginations. To them
the man in authority, the supreme wielder of power,
sits in the place of God. Hisjiat means to them weal
or woe, happiness or misery. On days of ceremony,
then, they expect that this all-powerful being shall
display the ensigns of royalty, shall surround himself
with the pomp and glitter which betoken state. Ak-
bar thoroughly understood this and acted accordingly.
We are not left to the descriptions of the author
of the Ain to realise the imposing grandeur of his
ceremonies. The native historians speak of his five
thousand elephants, his twelve thousand riding-horses,
his camp-equipage containing splendid tents, com-
prising halls for public receptions, apartments for
feasting, galleries for exercise, chambers for retire-
ment, all of splendid material and rich and varied
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 195
colours. They describe the Emperor himself on the
days of special ceremonial seated in a rich tent, the
awnings of which were thrown open, in the centre of
carpeting of the softest material, covering at least two
acres of ground, receiving the homage of his nobles.
These occupied tents inferior only in degree to that
of the sovereign. Then ensued, in the sight of the
people, the ceremony of weighing the sovereign against
various articles, to be distributed to those who needed
them. According to the number of years the sovereign
had lived there was given away an equal number of
sheep, goats, and fowls to the breeders'of those animals.
A number of the smaller animals were likewise set at
liberty. The Emperor himself distributed with his
own hand almonds and fruits of the lighter sort among
his courtiers.
On the great day of the festival Akbar seated
himself on his throne, sparkling with diamonds,
and surrounded by his chiefest nobles, all magnifi-
cently attired. Then there passed before him, in
review, the elephants with their head and breast-plates
adorned with rubies and other stones, the horses
splendidly caparisoned, the rhinoceroses, the lions,
the tigers, the panthers, the hunting-leopards, the
hounds, the hawks, the procession concluding with
the splendidly attired cavalry. This is no fancy pic-
ture. The like of it was witnessed by Hawkins, by
Roe, and by Terry, in the time of the son and successor
of Akbar, and those eminent travellers have painted in
gorgeous colours the magnificence of the spectacle.
N %
196 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
These scenes were witnessed only on days of high
ceremony. At ordinary times Akbar was the simple,
unaffected, earnest man, ever striving after truth, such
as the work he accomplished gives evidence of. That
work was the consolidation of an empire, torn by
Muhammadan conquerors for more than four centuries,
and at the end of that period still unsettled, still uncon-
solidated. During those four centuries the principles
of the Kuran, read in a bigoted and unnatural sense
by the Afghan conquerors, had been distorted to rob
and plunder the Hindu population. The most enlight-
ened of his earlier predecessors, Sultan Firuz Shah,
described by an English writer as possessing 'a humane
and generous spirit,' confesses how he persecuted those
who had not accepted the faith of Islam. Those prin-
ciples of persecution for conscience sake, unchallenged
at the time of the accession of Akbar, Akbar himself
abolished.
Akbar's great idea was the union of all India
under one head. A union of beliefs he recognised at
a very early stage as impossible. The union therefore
must be a union of interests. To accomplish such a
union it was necessary, first, to conquer ; secondly, to
respect all consciences and all methods of worshipping
the Almighty. To carry out this plan he availed him-
self to a modified extent only of the Muhammadan
ritual. Instead of the formula under which so many
persecutions had been organised, ' there is but one God,
and Muhammad is his Prophet,' he adopted the revised
version : ' there is but one God, and Akbar is his vice-
HIS PRINCIPLES AND ADMINISTRATION 197
gcrent on earth/ The prophet, he argued, came to
preach the oneness, the unity, of God to an idolatrous
people. To that people Muhammad was the messenger
to proclaim the good tidings. But the precepts that
messenger had laid down and had embodied in the
Km an had been interpreted to teach the propagation
of the doctrine of the oneness of God by the sword.
The consequences of actiDg upon that mis-reading, as
Akbar considered it, had been failure, at least in India.
To that failure he had before him the witness of up-
wards of four centuries.- He had but just entered his
twenty-first year when he recognised that government
carried on on such a principle must inevitably alienate.
His object, I cannot too often repeat, was to bring to-
jjether, to c onciliate, to cement, to introduce a principl e"
which should produce a community of interests among
all his subjects. The germ of thai principle he found in
the alteration of the Musalman profession of faith above
stated. The writings of Muhammad, misinterpreted
and misapplied, could only produce disunion. He,
then, for his age and for his reign, would take the place
of the Prophet. He would be the interpreter of the
generous and merciful decrees of the one All-powerful.
The dominant religion should not be, as long as he
was its interpreter, the religion of the sword. It should
carry, on the contrary, a healing influence throughout
India ; should wipe away reminiscences of persecution,
and proclaiming liberty of conscience, should practise
the most perfect toleration. When this change had
been generally recognised Akbar would then appeal
■k
198 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
to the princes and peoples of India to acknowledge the
suzerainty of the one prince who would protect and
yet not persecute. He would appeal to them to aid in
the regeneration he was preparing, not in his in-
dividual interest, but in the interests of the millions
who, for four centuries, had been harassed by invasions,
by civil wars, by persecutions following both.
Akbar did not appeal to an unreflecting or an
obstinate people. With one exception, that of Chitor
(now known as Udaipur), the Rajput princes and
people of the most influential part of India came into
his scheme. The most powerful amongst them,
Jaipur and Jodhpur, helped him with the counsels of
the men who, Hindus, were his most trusted captains,
and with their splendid soldiers. The principal op-
position he encountered was from the bigots of his
own court, and from the descendants of the Afghan
invaders settled in Bengal, in Orissa, and in Western
India. For the sake of his beneficent scheme it was
necessary to bring these into the fold. He tried at
first to induce them to accept their authority from
him. They accepted it only, on the first occasion, to
seize an opportunity to rebel. There was then no
choice but conquest. So he conquered. Toleration, good
and equal laws, justice for all, invariably followed.
Thus it was that he, first of the Muhammadan
invaders of India, welded together the conquered
provinces, and made them, to the extent to which he
conquered, for a portion of Southern India remained
unsubdued, one united Empire. These are his titles
HIS PRINCIPIES AND ADMINISTRATION 199
to the admiration of posterity. We, who have watched
his work, and have penetrated his motives, recognise
the purity of his intentions. He did not wish, as the
bigots of his Court declared that he wished, to have
himself obeyed and worshipped as a God. No : he de-
clared himself to be the interpreter of the religion of
which the Prophet had been the messenger in the sense
of teaching its higher truths, the truths of beneficence,
of toleration, of equal justice irrespective of the
belief of the conscience. His code was the grandest
of codes for a ruler, for the founder of an empire.
' There is good in every creed ; let us adopt what
is good, and discard the remainder.' Such was
his motto. He recognised this feature in the mild
and benevolent working of Hinduism, in the care for
the family inculcated by it, in the absence of the
spirit of proselytism. He recognised it in the simple
creed of the followers of Zoroaster. He recognised it
in Christianity. There was good in all. He believed,
likewise, that there was good in all men. Hence his
great forbearance, his unwillingness to punish so long
as there was hope of reform, his love of pardoning.
1 Go and sin no more ' was a precept that constituted
the very essence of his conduct.
Such was Akbar, the founder of the Mughal dy-
nasty. Such were the principles which enabled him
to found it. They were principles which, if adhered
to, would have maintained it. They were the prin-
ciples by accepting which his Western successors
maintain it at the present day.
200 THE EMPEROR AKBAR
In the foregoing pages I have spoken of Akbar and
his achievements as though I were comparing him
with the princes of our own day. Handicapped
though he is by the two centuries which have since
elapsed, Akbar can bear that comparison. Certainly,
though his European contemporaries were the most
eminent of their respective countries, though, whilst
he was settling India, Queen Elizabeth ruled England,
and Henry IV reigned in France, he need not shrink
from comparison even with these. His reputation is
built upon deeds which lived after him. No one can
suppose that his successor, Jahangir, had he followed
Humayun, could have conciliated and welded to-
gether the divided territories he would have inherited
or conquered. His passionate and bigoted character
would have rendered the task impossible. But the
foundations dug by Akbar were so deep that his son,
although so unlike him, was able to maintain the empire
which the principles of his father had welded to-
gether. When we reflect what he did, the age in
which he did it, the method he introduced to accom-
plish it, we are bound to recognise in Akbar one of
those illustrious men whom Providence sends, in the
hour of a nation's trouble, to reconduct it into those
paths of peace and toleration which alone can assure
the happiness of millions.
INDEX
Abdul Mi all, favourite of Hu-
mayun, is sent to occupy Dfp£l-
piir, 62 : rebellion, and death
of, 97.
Abulfazl, becomes the friend of
Akbar, 151 : character, studies,
and influence of, 152-3, 170:
murder of, 130.
Agra, the building of the fort of,
99.
Agriculture, measures taken by
Akbar to benefit those addicted
to, 121.
Akbar, birth of, 52 : is abandoned
at Shal, 53 : is taken to Kan-
dahar, and tender! by his aunt,
54: is removed to K^bul, 54, 55:
where his father rejoins him,
55: perils of, at K£bul, 55-9:
joins his father in the invasion
of India, and is present at the
battle of Sirhind, 62 : is sent
by his father to the Punjab, 63 :
is there proclaimed Emperor,
63 : choice of courses before, 65 :
turns to contest the empire
with Hemu, 66 : moves on
P&ifpat, 68 : wins the battle
of Pan! pat, 70 : refuses to slay
the captured Hemu, 71: the
problem he had to solve in
India, 78-80 : personal appear-
ance of, 81 : character and pre-
dispositions of, 82-4: secures
the Punjab, 84, 85 : feels the
preponderating influence of
Bairain, 85-7 : assumes the
administration and exiles Bai-
ram to Mekka, 88 : suppresses
the rebellion of Bairam, 89 :
personal rule of, begins, 91 :
thfi^ aima of, 92, 93 : begins to
carry" out his plan of bringing
all India into his system, 93 :
design of, of welding together,
94 : deals with the Gakk liars,
96, 97 : reception of, in Mandu,
98 : deals with the revolt of the
Uzbek nobles, 100: conquers
Behar, 101, 102 : suppresses
rebellions in the Punjab and
K^bul, 102 : besieges Chitor,
105 : founds Fatehpur-Sikrf,
106 : after securing Rajput^na,
marches on Gujarat, 108 : in-
cidents of the conquest of Gujarat
by, 109-13; extent of the
authority of, 115 : reverses the
principle of making war sup-
port war, 116: orders the in-
vasion of Bengal, 118: and
invades it himself, 118: cap-
tures Patna\ 119: returns to
Delhi, 120: and Fatehpur-
Sikrf, 121 : takes measures to
benefit the agriculturists, 121 :
completes conquest of Bengal,
122: builds the Ib^dat-khana
at Fatehpur-Sikrf, 123: abo-
lishes inland tolls and the
jizyd, 126: proceeds to Kabul,
127 : reasons of, for matrimonial
alliances with Rajput families,
129-31 : proceedings of, in the
202
INDEX
Punjab, 1 31-6 : revisits Kabul,
134: proceeds to the Deccan,
but returns to repress the re-
bellion of Prince Salfm, 136-8 :
family of, 141 : illness of, 142 :
dying words of, 144: character
of, 144, 145 : disposition, prin-
ciples, and training of, 146 :
influence of Faizi over, 151 :
influence of Abulfazl over, 153-
5 : creed promulgated by, 157 :
uses made by, of his power, 159 :
religious code of, 160: jcullg
{YnTn Tirin.ny relig i ons, 1 61 : his
own conception of his position,
163: discourages Satf, 164:
d iscourages professors, but en-
^in^e^Zj nen~Trf-Tg a ^learm ng,
lT5o"This affection for FaizTand
Abulfazl, 1 70 : how_tlig_prin-
ciples of, affected his adminis-
tration, 171 : making difference
of^r^H^fion no distinction, 172 :
abolishing the tax on pilgrim-
ages, 172: the jizyd, 1 74 : how
they affected his dealings with
the Hindus, 1 75 : attachment
of, to his relatives, 177 : likings
and peculiarities of, 179: fond-
ness for field sports of, 1 79 :
daily habits of, 180 : reasons of,
for marriage with Eajput prin-
cesses, 181-4: wives of, 184:
revenue system of, 1 85 : rewards
granted by, to the deserving,
189 : wise caution displayed, by
in disturbing ancient customs,
191 : army of, 192 : divisions
of the empire of, 192 : mag-
nificence of, 194: a true seeker
after truth, 197: character of
the people he appealed to, 198 :
comparison of, with his Euro-
pean contemporaries, 200.
Aii KuLf KHAN-f-SHAiBANf, bril-
liantly captures Hemu's artil-
lery, 68.
Argument, the, of the work, 5.
Attock, on the Indus, built by
Akbar, 127-31.
JBabar, family from which, was
descended, 12 : age of, at time
of father's death, 13: loses
Ferghana", 14 : surprises Samar-
kand, 15 : is defeated by the
Uzbeks, 15 : and flees to the
deserts, 16: crosses the Oxus,
and conquers Kdbul, 18 : im-
pressions on the mind of, by
first glance at the Punjab, 18 :
resolves to conquer Kandahar,
19 : visits Her£t, 19 : terrible
march of, from Her£t to K£bul,
20 : marches for Kandahar, 2 1 :
defeats his enemy and takes it,
22 : vicissitudes of the fortunes
of, against the Uzbeks, 23 : is
proclaimed ruler of Sincl, 24:
first, second, and third invasions
of India by, 31 : fourth invasion
of India by, 32 : fifth invasion of
India by, 33 : reaches Panfpat,
33 : fights and wins the battle
of Panfpat, 34 : the position of,
in India, 35 : difficulties of,
with his army, 37 : generous
and noble nature of, 39 : me-
thods of, to conquer the country,
39 : defeats Sanga R£n£, 41 :
conquers large portions of Cen-
tral India and of Oudh, 42 :
invades Behar, 43 : health of,
declines, 45 : devotion of, to
Humayun, 46 : dies, 46 : cha-
racter of, 47, 48: last words of, 48.
Bairam Khan, the best general
of Humayiin, invades Jaland-
har, 62 ; defeats the generals of
Sikandar ShaTi on the Sutlej,
and marches to Sirhind, 62 ; is
joined by Humayun and Akbar,
and helps to defeat Sikandar
Shall, 62 : goes with Akbar to the
Punjab as his Atalik, 63; mur-
ders Tardl Beg, 67, 68 ; urges
Akbar to slay the captured
Hemu, 70, 71 ; virtually rules
the new conquest, 85 ; is ex-
iled to Mekka by order of Akbar,
88 ; rebels, is defeated, and
assassinated, 89, 90.
INDEX
203
Bengal, king of, in the time of
Akbar,i 1 7: is invaded byAkbar,
118: submits to Akbar, 122:
M£n Singh appointed Governor
of, 133-
Bhagwan Das, of Jaipur, Raja\
connection of, with Akbar, 1 1 1 :
gallantry of, in : is governor
of the Punjab, 128 : death of,
134-
Birbal, Raj£, is killed by the
Yusufzais, 131, and note.
Danyal, Prince, the one failing ■
of, causes death of, 141, 142.
Daud Khan, king of Bengal, vide
Bengal.
Deccan, the, campaigns in, and
partial conquest of, 136.
FAizf, Shaikh, story of, 150 : how
he influenced the actions of
Akbar, 151, 170.
Fatehpur-Sikri, founded by Ak-
bar, 106, 107 : discussions in the
Ib&dat-khana at, 123: memor-
able scenes at, 156, 157, 161.
Ferghana, kingdom of, 13, 14.
Gakkhars, the, are subdued by
Akbar, 96, 97.
Gujarat, story of the conquest
of, by Akbar, 108-15.
Hemu, rise to power of, 61 : wins
two victories and threatens
Delhi, 62, 63 : defeats Tardf
Beg and occupies Delhi, 66 :
moves towards Panipat, 68 : is
attacked, and defeated byAkbar,
70: is slain, 71.
Herat, position of, in the time of
Babar, 17: route between, and
Kabul, 20 : is conquered by the
Uzbeks, 21.
Humayun, eldest son of B^bar
and father of Akbar, assists his
father in the conquest of India,
40 : is sent for at the time of
his father's illnes.s, 45 : sickness,
and recovery of, 46: succeeds
Babar, 50 : character of, 50 :
after a reign of eight years is
driven from India by Sher
Sh£h, 50, 51 : spends two and a
half years in Sind, 51 : wooes,
wins, and marries Hamida" Be-
gam, 52, 53: flight of, to Amar-
k<5t, 52 : action of, on learning
of the birth of Akbar, 53 : sets
out for Kandahar, 53 : is forced
to abandon Akbar at Shal, 53 :
conquers Kandahar and Kabul,
55 : vicissitudes of fortune be-
tween, and Kamran, at Kalml,
55-9: resolves to recover India,
59: invades India, 61 : defeats
Sikandar Shah at Sirhind, 62 ;
death of, 63, 64.
India, sketch of history of, before
the Mughal invasion, 26 : cha-
racter of the rule of dynasties
prior to that of the Mughal, 27,
30 ; B£bar'B position in, after
Panfpat, 35 : internal condition
of, at the time, 36 : position of,
at the time of the death of B£-
bar, 48 : general condition of,
in the middle of the 16th cen-
tury, 72-80.
Kabul, kingdom of, in the time
ofB^bar, 17: Akbar is removed
to, 54, 55 : vicissitudes of fortune
between Huinayun an'd Kani-
ran at, 55-9: Akbar appeases
troubles at, 102: Akbar restores
order at, 127.
Kamran, Mirza, vicissitudes of
fortune in contest of with Hu-
mayun, 54-9: finally succumbs,
59-
Kandahar, important position
of, recognised by B<£bar, 19:
taken by Bdbar, 22 : is captured
by the Uzbeks, 23 : is .secured
by Babar, 31 : Akbar is taken
to > 53> 54 : is conquered by !Hu~
may tin, 55.
Kashmir, conquest of, by Akbar,
*3'-5-
204
INDEX
Khusru, Prince, chances of, to
succeed Akbar, 141-3.
Learned Men, who flourished in
the time of Akbar, notice of
some of the, 166-9.
Library, the, of Akbar, 169.
Man Singh, of Jaipur, gallantry
of, in Gujarat, 111: appointed
Governor of Kabul, 132 : on the
remonstrance of the Kalmlis is
transferred to Bengal, 133: con-
duct of, during Akbar's illness,
143;
Me war, R£na" of, refuses to come
into Akbar's system, 124: is
defeated at Huldfgh£t, 125:
still fights for his own hand,
140.
Murad, Prince, son of Akbar,
death of, 136.
Orchha, the Ra^ja* of, is prompted
by Prince Salim to murder
Abulfazl, 139, and note.
Okissa, conquest of, by Akbar,
118-22.
Panipat, the first battle of, 33,34:
second battle of, 68-71.
Patna, taken by Akbar, 119.
Punjab, the Babar's first impres-
sions of, 18 : renews his ac-
quaintance with, 32 : again, 33 :
Akbar enters, and pursues his
enemy into the Siwaliks 63-6:
sojourn of Akbar in, 131 -6.
Rajput an A, matrimonial alliances
of Akbar with the royal families
of, 128, 181: dealings with the
several princes of, 91-143.
Sal!m, Prince (afterwards the
Emperor Jah^ngir), character
of, 137 : rebels, 138 : causes the
murder of Abulfazl, 139: vicious
conduct of, 140-42 : apparent
repentance of, 144 : is girt with
his dying father's sword, 144.
Samarkand, city of, surprised by
Babar, 15: taken by the Uz-
beks, 15 : is reconquered by,
and captured from, Babar, 23.
Sanga, R£na\ position of, in Raj-
ptitana, 40 : is defeated by Ba-
bar, 41.
Shaibani Khan, vide Uzbek.
Sher Khan, afterwards Sher Shah,
revolts from B^bar, 43 : drives
Humayun from India, 50, 51 :
reign of, 60 : defects of rule of,
and predecessors of, 73-8.
Sikandar Shah, claims the rule
over Muhammadan India, 61 :
is defeated by Humayun at
Sirhind, and flees to the Siwa-
liks, 62 : again shows signs of
life, 63 : retreats into Mankdt,
6$ : pursued by Akbar, surren-
ders on terms, 84, 85.
Sind, Bdhar is proclaimed ruler
of, 24 : completion of the con-
quest of, under Akbar, 134, 135.
Tardi Beg, prudent conduct of,
on the death of Humayun, 64 :
is defeated by Hemn, 66 : joins
Akbar at Sirhind. 67 : where he
is murdered by Bairam, 68.
Todar Mall, Raj£, is sent by
Akbar to repair the defeat of
his troops by the Yusufzais, 132:
death of, 1 34 : influence of, with
Akbar, 192.
Umershaikh, father of BiCbar, 1 3.
Uzbeks, the, defeat B^bar before
Samarkand 15: conquer Herat,
21: take KnndahaV, 23: con-
tests of, with Babar, 23 : the,
nobles, revolt against Akbar,
100: are forgiven, 101.
Yusufzais, the, repulse the troops
of Akbar, 131 : are defeated by
Todar Mall, 132.
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A BRIEF HISTORY OP THE INDIAN
PEOPLES.
Standard Edition (Twenty-fikst), revised to 1895.
Eighty-second Thousand.
This Edition incorporates the suggestions received by the author
from Directors of Public Instruction and other educational authorities
in India; its statistics are brought down to the Census of 1891 ; and
its narrative to 1892. The work has received the emphatic approval
of the oriran of the English School Boards, and has been translated
into five languages. It is largely employed for educational purposes in
Europe and America and as a text-book prescribed by the University
of Calcutta for its Entrance Examination from 1886 to 1891.
* "A Brief History of the Indian Peoples," by W. W. Hunter, pre-
sents a sort of bird's-eye view both of India and of its people from the
earliest dawn of historical records .... A work of authority and of
original value.' — The Daily News (London).
1 Dr. Hunter may be said to have presented a compact epitome of the
results of his researches into the early history of India ; a subject upon
whicli his knowledge is at once exceptionally wide and exceedingly
thorough.' — The Scotsman.
1 Within the compass of some 250 pages we know of no history of the
people of India so concise, so interesting, and so useful for educational
purposes as this.' — The School Board Chronicle (London).
'For its size and subject there is not a better written or more trust-
worthy history in existence.' — The Journal of Education.
1 So thoroughly revised as to entitle it to separate notice.' — The Times.
' Dr. Hunter's history, if brief, is comprehensive. It is a storehouse
of facts marshalled in a masterly style ; and presented, as history
should be, without the slightest suspicion of prejudice or suggestion of
partisanship. Dr. Hunter observes a style of severe simplicity, which
is the secret of an impressive presentation of details.' — The Daily
lie view (Edinburgh).
' By far the best manual of Indian History that has hitherto been
published, and quite equal to any of the Historical Series for Schools
edited by Dr. Freeman. We trust that it will soon be read in all the
schools in this Presidency.' — The Times of India.
Extract from a criticism by Edward Giles, Esq., Inspector of Schools,
Northern Division, Bombay Presidency: — 'What we require is a
book which shall be accurate as to facts, but not overloaded with
them ; written in a style which shall interest, attract, and guide un-
cultivated readers ; and short, because it must be sold at a reasonable
price. These conditions have never, in my opinion, been realized
previous to the introduction of this book.'
* Tlie publication of the Hon. W. W. Hunter's "School History of
India" is an event in literary history.'— zBeis & Bayyet (Calcutta).
* He has succeeded in writing a history of India, not only in such a
way that it will be read, but also in a way which we hope will lead
young Englishmen and young natives of India to think more kindly
of ea'-h other. The Calcutta University has done wi.-ely in prescribing
this brief history as a text- book for the Entrance Examination.' — The
Hindoo Patriot (Calcutta).
O
©pinions of tU IPtess
ON
SIR WILLIAM HUNTER'S 'DALHOUSIE.'
1 An interesting and exceedingly readable volume Sir William
Hunter has produced a valuable work about an important epoch in
English history in India, and he has given us a pleasing insight into
the character of a remarkable Englishman. The " Rulers of India"
series, which he has initiated, thus makes a successful beginning in his
hands with one who ranks among the greatest of the great names which
will be associated with the subject.' — The Times.
' To no oae is the credit for the improved condition of public intelli-
gence [regarding India] more due than to Sir William Hunter. From
the beginning of his career as an Indian Civilian he has devoted a rare
literary faculty to the task of enlightening his countrymen on the subject
of England's greatest dependency. . . . By inspiring a small army of
fellow-labourers with his own spirit, by inducing them to conform to his
own method, and shaping a huge agglomeration of facts into a lucid and
intelligible system, Sir W. Hunter has brought India and its innumer-
able interests within the pale of achievable knowledge, and has given
definite shape to the truths which its history establishes and the
problems which it suggests. . . . Such contributions to literature are apt to
be taken as a matter of course, because their highest merit is to conceal
the labour, and skill, and knowledge involved in their production ; but
they raise the whole level of public intelligence, and generate an
atmosphere in which the baleful influences of folly, ignorance, prejudice,
and presumption dwindle and disappear.' — Saturday Review.
'Admirably calculated to impart in a concise and agreeable form a clear
general outline of the history of our great Indian Empire.' — Economist.
* A skilful and most attractive picture. . . . The author has made good
use of public and private documents, and has enjoyed the privilege of
being aided by the deceased statesman's family. His little work is,
consequently, a valuable contribution to modern history.' — Academy.
1 The book should command a wide circle of readers, not only for its
author's sake and that of its subject, but partly at least on account of
the very attractive way in which it has been published at the moderate
price of half-a-crown. But it is, of course, by its intrinsic merits alone
that a work of this nature should be judged. And those merits are
everywhere conspicuous. ... A writer whose thorough mastery of all
Indian subjects has been acquired by years of practical experience and
patient research.' — The Athenaum.
* Never have we been so much impressed by the great literary abilities
of Sir William Hunter as we have been by the perusal of "The Marquess
of Dalhousie." . . . The knowledge displayed by the writer of the motives
of Lord Dalhousie's action, of the inner working of his mind, is so com-
plete, that Lord Dalhousie himself, were he living, could not state them
more clearly. . . . Sir William Hunter's style is so clear, his language
so vivid, and yet so simple, conveying the impressions he wishes so per-
spicuously that they cannot but be understood, that the work must have
a place in every library, in every home, we might say indeed every
cottage.' — Evenivg News.
* Sir William Hunter has written an admirable little volume on
" The Marquess of Dalhousie " for his series of the " Rulers of India."
It can be read at a sitting, yet its references — expressed or implied —
suggest the study and observation of half a life-time.' — The Daily News.
©pinions of tbe Press
ON
SIR WILLIAM HUNTER'S 'LORD MAYO.'
' Sir William W. Hunter has contributed a brief but admirable
biography of the Earl of Mayo to the series entitled " Rulers of India,"
edited by himself (Oxford, at the Clarendon Press).' — The Times.
1 In telling this story in the monograph before us, Sir William
Hunter has combined his well-known literary skill with an earnest
sympathy and fulness of knowledge which are worthy of all commenda-
tion. . . . The world is indebted to the author for a fit and attractive
record of what was eminently a noble life.' — The Academy.
1 The sketch of The Man is full of interest, drawn as it is with com-
plete sympathy, understanding, and appreciation. But more valuable
is the account of his administration. No one can show so well and
clearly as Sir William Hunter does what the policy of Lord Mayo con-
tributed to the making of the Indian Empire of to-day.' — The Scotsman.
* Sir William Hunter has given us a monograph in which there is a
happy combination of the essay and the biography. We are presented
with the main features of Lord Mayo's administration unencumbered
with tedious details which would interest none but the most official of
Anglo-Indians ; while in the biography the man is brought before us,
not analytically, but in a life-like portrait.' — Vanity Fair.
* The story of his life Sir W. W. Hunter tells in well-chosen language
— clear, succinct, and manly. Sir W. W. Hunter is in sympathy with
his subject, and does full justice to Mayo's strong, genuine nature.
Without exaggeration and in a direct, unaffected style, as befits his
theme, he brings the man and his work vividly before us.' — The
Glasgow Herald.
'All the knowledge acquired by personal association, familiarity with
administrative details of t!ie Indian Government, and a strong grasp of
the vast problems to be dealt with, is utilised in this presentation of
Lord Mayo's personality and career. Sir W. Hunter, however, never
overloads his pages, and the outlines of the sketch are clear and firm.'
— The Manchester Express.
1 This is another of the " Rulers of India" series, and it will be hard
to beat. . . . Sir William Hunter's perception and expression are here at
their very best.' — The Pall Mall Gazette.
'The latest addition to the "Rulers of India" series yields to none of
its predecessors in attractiveness, vigour, and artistic portraiture. . . .
The final chapter must either be copied verbally and literally — which
the space at our disposal will not permit — or be left to the sorrowful
perusal of the reader. The man is not to be envied who can read it with
dry eyes.' — Allen* s Indian Mail.
' The little volume which has just been brought out is a study of Lord
Mayo's career by one who knew all about it and was in full sympathy
with it. . . . Some of these chapters are full of spirit and fire. The
closing passages, the picture of the Viceroy's assassination, cannot fail
to make any reader hold his breath. We know what is going to
happen, but we are thrilled as if we did not know it, and were still
held in suspense. The event itself was so terribly tragic that any
ordinary description might seem feeble and laggard. But in this
volume we are made to feel as we must have felt if we had been on
the spot and seen the murderer " fastened like a tiger " on the back of
the Viceroy.' — Daily News, Leading Article.
O 2
©pinions of t&e Jpress
MR.W.S.SETON-KARR'S'CORNWALLIS.'
*This new volume of the "Rulers of India" series keeps up to the
high standard set by the author of " The Marquess of Dalhousie." For
dealing with the salient passages in Lord Cornwallis's Indian career no
one could have been better qualified than the whilom foreign secretary
to Lord Lawrence.' — The Athenceum.
'We hope that the volumes on the "Rulers of India" which are
being published by the Clarendon Press are carefully read by a large
section of the public. There is a dense wall of ignorance still standing
between the average Englishman and the greatest dependency of the
Crown ; although we can scarcely hope to see it broken down altogether,
some of these admirable biographies cannot fail to lower it a little. . . .
Mr. Seton-Karr has succeeded in the task, and he has not only pre-
sented a large mass of information, but he has brought it together in an
attractive form. . . . We strongly recommend the book to all who wish
to enlarge the area of their knowledge with reference to India.' — New
York Herald.
1 We have already expressed our sense of the value and timeliness of
the series of Indian historical retrospects now issuing, under the editor-
ship of Sir W. W. Hunter, from the Clarendon Press. It is somewhat
less than fair to say of Mr. Seton-Karr's monograph upon Cornwallis
that it reaches the high standard of literary workmanship which that
series has maintained.' — The Literary World.
MRS. THACKERAY RITCHIE'S AND MR. RICHARDSON EVANS'
'LORD AMHERST.'
' The story of the Burmese Wa»", its causes and its issues, is re-told
with excellent clearness and directness.' — Saturday Renew.
'Perhaps the brightest volume in the valuable series to which it
belongs. . . . The chapter on " The English in India in Lord Amherst's
Governor-Generalship " should be studied by those who wish to under-
stand how the country was governed in 1824.' — Quarterly Review.
'There are some charming pictures of social life, and the whole book
is good reading, and is a record of patience, skill and daring. The
public should read it, that it may be chary of destroying what has been
so toilsomely and bravely acquired.' — National Observer.
1 The book will be ranked among the best in the series, both on
account of the literary skill shown in its composition and by reason of
the exceptional interest «»f the material to which the authors. have had
access.' — St. James's Gazette.
©pinions of tfje press
MR. S. LANE-POOLE'S 'AURANGZIB.'
1 There is no period in Eastern history so full of sensation as the
reign of Aurangzib. . . . Mr. Lane-Poole tells this story admirably ;
indeed, it were difficult to imagine it better told.' — National Observer.
1 Mr. Lane-Poole writes learnedly, lucidly, and vigorously. . . . He
draws an extremely vivid picture of Aurangzib, his strange ascetic
character, his intrepid courage, his remorseless overthrow of his
kinsmen, his brilliant court, and his disastrous policy ; and he describes
the gradual decline of the Mogul power from Akbar to Aurangzib
with genuine historical insight.' — Times.
1 A well-knit and capable sketch of one of the most remarkable,
perhaps the most interesting, of the Mogul Emperors.' — Saturday Review.
'As a study of the man himself, Mr. Lane-Poole's work is marked
by a vigour and originality of thought which give it a very exceptional
value among works on the subject.' — Glasgow Herald.
'The most popular and most picturesque account that has yet
appeared ... a picture of much clearness and force.' — Globe.
'A notable sketch, at once scholarly and interesting.' — English Mail.
1 No one is better qualified than Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole to take up
the history and to depict the character of the last of the great Mogul
monarchs. . . . Aurangzfb's career is ever a fascinating study.' —
Home News.
* The author gives a description of the famous city of Shall Jah£n, its
palaces, and the ceremonies and pageants of which they were the scene.
. . . Mr. Lane-Poole's well-written monograph presents all the most dis-
tinctive features of Aurangzfb's character and career.' — Morning Post.
MAJOR ROSS OP BLADENSBURG'S
'MARQUESS OP HASTINGS.'
' Major Ross of Bladensburg treats his subject skilfully and attrac-
tively, and his biography of Lord Hastings worthily sustains the high
reputation of the Series in which it appears.' — The Times.
' This monograph is entitled to rank with the best of the Series, the
compiler having dealt capably and even brilliantly with his materials.'
— English Mail.
* Instinct with interest.' — Glasgow Evening News.
' As readable as it is instructive.' — Globe.
1 A truly admirable monograph.' — Glasgow Herald.
* Major Ross has done his work admirably, and bids fair to be one of
the best writers the Army of our day has given to the country. ... A
most acceptable and entrancing little volume.' — Daily Chronicle.
'It is a volume that merits the highest praise. Major Ross of
Bladensburg has represented Lord Hastings and his work in India
in the right light, faithfully described the country as it was, and in
a masterly manner makes one realize how important was the period
covered by this volume.' — Manchester Courier.
1 This excellent monograph ought not to be overlooked by any one
who would fully learn the history of British rule in India.' — Manchester
Examiner.
©pinions of tfre press
COLONEL MALLESON'S 'DUPLEIX.'
* In the character of Dnpleix there was the element of greatness
that contact with India seems to have generated in so many European
minds, French as well as English, and a broad capacity for govern-
ment, which, if suffered to have full play, might have ended in giving
the whole of Southern India to France. Even as it was, Colonel
Malleson shows how narrowly the prize slipped from French grasp.
In 1783 the Treaty of Versailles arrived just in time to save the
British power from extinction.' — Times.
* One of the best of Sir W. Hunter's interesting and valuable series.
Colonel Malleson writes out of the fulness of familiarity, moving with
ease over a field which he had long ago surveyed in every nook and
corner. To do a small book as well as this on Dupleix has been done,
will be recognised by competent judges as no small achievement.
When one considers the bulk of the material out of which the little
volume has been distilled, one can still better appreciate the labour
and dexterity involved in the performance.' — Academy.
* A most compact and effective history of the French in India in a
little handbook of 180 pages.' — Nonconformist.
'Well arranged, lucid and eminently readable, an excellent addition
to a most useful series.' — Record.
COLONEL MALLESON'S 'AKBAR.'
' Colonel Malleson's interesting monograph on Akbar in the "Rulers
of India " (Clarendon Press) should more than satisfy the general
reader. Colonel Malleson traces the origin and foundation of the
Mughal Empire ; and, as an introduction to the history of Muhamma-
dan India, the book leaves nothing to be desired.' — St. James's Gazette.
1 This volume will, no doubt, be welcomed, even by experts in
Indian history, in the light of a new, clear, and terse rendering of an
old, but not worn-out theme. It is a worthy and valuable addition
to Sir W. Hunter's promising series.' — Athenceum.
' Colonel Malleson has broken ground new to the general reader.
The story of Akbar is briefly but clearly told, with an account of what
he was and what he did, and how he found and how he left India. . . .
The native chronicles of the reign are many, and from them it is still
possible, as Colonel Malleson has shown, to construct a living portrait
of this great and mighty potentate.' — Scots Observer.
'The brilliant historian of the Indian Mutiny has been assigned in
this volume of the series an important epoch and a strong personality
for critical study, and he ha3 admirably fulfilled his task. . . . Alike in
dress and style, this volume is a fit companion for its predecessor.' —
Manchester Guardian,
©pinions of t&e IPress
ON
CAPTAIN TROTTER'S 'WARREN HASTINGS.'
4 The publication, recently noticed in this place, of the " Letters,
Despatches, and other State Papers preserved in the Foreign Depart-
ment of the Government of India, 1772-1785," has thrown entirely new
light from the most authentic sources on the whole history of Warren
Hastings and his government of India. Captain L. J. Trotter's
Wakhen Hastings is accordingly neither inopportune nor devoid of an
adequate raison d'etre. Csiptain Trotter is well known as a competent
and attractive writer on Indian history, and this is not the first timo
that Warren Hastings has supplied him with a theme.' — The Times.
1 He has put his best work into this memoir. . . . His work is of
distinct literary merit, and is worthy of a theme than which British
history presents none nobler. It is a distinct gain to the British race
to be enabled, as it now may, to count the great Governor-General
among those heroes for whom it need not blush.' — Scotsman.
1 Captain Trotter has done his work well, and his volume deserves
to stand with that on Dalhousie by Sir William Hunter. Higher
praise it would be hard to give it.' — New York Herald.
1 Captain Trotter has done full justice to the fascinating story of the
splendid achievements of a great Englishman.' — Manchester Guardian.
* A brief but admirable biography of the first Governor-General of
India/ — Newcastle Chronicle.
* A book which all must peruse who desire to be " up to date " on
the subject.' — The Globe.
MR. KEENE'S 'MADHAVA RAO SIEDHIA.'
* Mr. Keene has the enormous advantage, not enjoyed by every
producer of a book, of knowing intimately the topic he has taken up.
He has compressed into these 203 pages an immense amount of informa-
tion, drawn from the best sources, and presented with much neatness and
effect.' — The Globe.
1 Mr. Keene tells the story with knowledge and impartiality, and also
with sufficient graphic power to make it thoroughly readable. The
recognition of Sindhia in the "Rulers" series is just and graceful,
and it cannot fail to give satisfaction to the educated classes of our
Indian fellow-subjects.' — North British Daily Mail.
1 The volume bears incontestable proofs of the expenditure of con-
siderable research by the author, and sustains the reputation he had
already acquired by his "Sketch of the History of Hindustan/" —
Freeman 8 Journal.
1 Among the eighteen rulers of India included in the scheme of Sir
William Hunter only five are natives of India, and of these the great
Madhoji Sindhia is, with the exception of Akbar, the most illustrious.
Mr. H. G. Keene, a well-known and skilful writer on Indian questions,
is fortunate in his subject, for the career of the greatest bearer of the
historic name of Sindhia covered the exciting period from the capture of
Delhi, the Imperial capital, by the Persian Nadir Shah, to the occupation
of the same city by Lord Lake. . . . Mr. Keene gives a lucid description
of his subsequent policy, especially towards the English when he was
brought face to face with Warren Hastings/ — The Daily Graphic.
©pinions of tfje Press
ON
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR OWEN BURNE'S
'CLYDE AND STRATHNAIRN.'
'In " Clyde and Strathnairn," a contribution to Sir William Hunter's
excellent "Rulers of India" series (Oxford, at the Clarendon Press),
Sir Owen Burne gives a lucid sketch of the military history of the
Indian Mutiny and its suppression by the two great soldiers who give
their names to his book. The space is limited for so large a theme, but
Sir Owen Burne skilfully adjusts his treatment to his limits, and rarely
violates the conditions of proportion imposed upon him.' . . . ' Sir Owen
Burne does not confine himself exclusively to the military narrative.
He gives a brief sketch of the rise and progress of the Mutiny, and
devotes a chapter to the Reconstruction which followed its suppression/
. . . '—well written, well proportioned, and eminently worthy of the
series to which it belongs.' — The Times.
'Sir Owen Burne who, by association, experience, and relations with
one of these generals, is well qualified for the task, writes with know-
ledge, perspicuity, and fairness.' — Saturday Review.
'As a brief record of a momentous epoch in India this little book is
a remarkable piece of clear, concise, and interesting writing.' — The
Colonies and India.
'Sir Owen Burne has written this book carefully, brightly, and
with excellent judgement, and we in India cannot read such a book
without feeling that he has powerfully aided the accomplished editor
of the series in a truly patriotic enterprise.' — Bombay Gazette.
'The volume on "Clyde and Strathnairn" has just appeared, and
proves to be a really valuable addition to the series. Considering its
size and the extent of ground it covers it is one of the best books about
the Indian Mutiny of which we know.' — Englishman.
* Sir Owen Burne, who has written the latest volume for Sir William
Hunter's " Rulers of India " series, is better qualified than any living
person to narrate, from a military standpoint, the story of the suppres-
sion of the Indian Mutiny.' — Daily Telegraph.
' Sir Owen Burne's book on " Clyde and Strathnairn " is worthy to
rank with the best in the admirable series to which it belongs.' —
Manchester Examiner.
'The book is admirably written; and there is probably no better
sketch, equally brief, of the stirring events with which it deals.'
— Scotsman.
' Sir Owen Burne, from the part he played in the Indian Mutiny, and
from his long connexion with the Government of India, and from the
fact that he was military secretary of Lord Strathnairn hoth in India
and in Ireland, is well qualified for the task which he has undertaken.' —
The Athenaum.
©pinions of t&e press
VISCOWT HAEJMaE'S 'LORD HARDIME.'
1 An exception to the rule that biographies ought not to be entrusted
to near relatives. Lord Hardinge, a scholar and an artist, has given
us an accurate record of his father's long and distinguished services.
There is no filial exaggeration. The author has dealt with some con-
troversial matters with skill, and has managed to combine truth with
tact and regard for the feelings of others.' — The Saturday Review.
'This interesting life reveals the first Lord Hardinge as a brave,
just, able man, the very soul of honour, admired and trusted equally
by friends and political opponents. The biographer . . . has produced a
most engaging volume, which is enriched by many private and official
documents that have not before seen the light.' — The Anti-Jacobin.
1 Lord Hardinge has accomplished a grateful, no doubt, but, from
the abundance of material and delicacy of certain matters, a very
difficult task in a workmanlike manner, marked by restraint and
lucidity.' — The Pall Mall Gazette.
' His son and biographer has done his work with a true appreciation
of proportion, and has added substantially to our knowledge of the
Sutlej Campaign.' — Vanity Fair.
'The present Lord Hardinge is in some respects exceptionally well
qualified to tell the tale of the eventful four years of his father's
Governor-Generalship.' — The Times.
'It contains a full account of everything o* importance in Lord
Hardinge's military and political career; it is arranged ... so as to
bring into special prominence his government of India ; and it gives
a lifelike and striking picture of the man.' — Academy.
'The style is clear, the treatment dispassionate, and the total result
a manual which does credit to the interesting series in which it figures.'
— The Globe.
' The concise and vivid account which the son has given of his
father's career will interest many readers.' — The Morning Post.
' Eminently readable for everybody. The history is given succinctly,
and the unpublished letters quoted are of real value.' — The Colonies
and India.
1 Compiled from public documents, family papers, and letters, this
brief biography gives the reader a clear idea of what Hardinge was,
both as a aoldier and as an administrator/— The Manchester Examiner.
' An admirable sketch.' — The New York Herald.
' The Memoir is well and concisely written, and is accompanied by
an excellent likeness after the portrait by Sir Francis Grant.' — The
Queen,
©pinions of t&e Ipress
ON
SIR HENRY CUNNINGHAM'S 'EARL
CANNING.'
'Sir Henry Cunningham's rare literary skill and his knowledge
of Indian life and affairs are not now displayed for the first time,
and he has enjoyed exceptional advantages in dealing with his
present subject. Lord Granville, Canning's contemporary at school
and colleague in public life and one of his oldest friends, furnished his
biographer with notes of his recollections of the early life of his friend.
Sir Henry Cunningham has also been allowed access to the Diary of
Canning's private secretary, to the Journal of his military secretary,
and to an interesting correspondence between the Governor-General
and his great lieutenant, Lord Lawrence.' — The Times.
'Sir H. S. Cunningham has succeeded in writing the history of a
critical period in so fair and dispassionate a manner as to make it
almost a matter of astonishment that the motives which he lias so
clearly grasped should ever have been misinterpreted, and the results
which he indicates so grossly misjudged. Nor is the excellence of his
work less conspicuous from the literary than from the political and
historical point of view.' — Glasgow Herald.
' Sir H. S. Cunningham has treated his subject adequately. In vivid
language he paints his word-pictures, and with calm judicial analysis
he also proves himself an able critic of the actualities, causes, and results
of the outbreak, also a temperate, just appreciator of the character and
policy of Earl Canning.' — The Court Journal.
REV. W. H. HUTTON'S 'MARQUESS
WELLESLEY.'
1 Mr. Hutton has brought to his task an open mind, a trained
historical judgement, and a diligent study of a great body of original
material. Hence he is enabled to present a true, authentic, and
original portrait of one of the greatest of Anglo-Indian statesmen,
doing full justice to his military policy and achievements, and also to
his statesmanlike efforts for the organization and consolidation of that
Empire which he did so much to sustain.' — Times.
'To the admirable candour and discrimination which characterize
Mr. Hutton's monograph as an historical study must be added the
literary qualities which distinguish it and make it one of the most
readable volumes of the series. The st}de is vigorous and picturesque,
and the arrangement of details artistic in its just regard for proportion
and perspective. In short, there is no point of view from which the work
deserves anything but praise.' — Glasgow Herald.
' The Rev. W. H. Hutton has done his work well, and achieves with
force and lucidity the task he sets himself: to show how, under
Wellesley, the Indian company developed and ultimately became the
supreme power in India. To our thinking his estimate of this great
statesman is most just.' — Black and White.
' Mr. Hutton has told the story of Lord Wellesley's life in an admir-
able manner, and has provided a most readable book.' — Manchester
Examiner. •
' Mr. Hutton's range of information is wide, his division of subjects
appropriate, and his diction scholarly and precise.' — Saturday Review.
©pinions of t&e Press
SIR LEPEL GRIFFIN'S ' RAN JIT SINGH.'
1 We can thoroughly praise Sir Lepel Griffin's work as an accurate
and appreciative account of the beginnings and growth of the Sikh
religion and of the temporal power founded upon it by a strong and
remorseless chieftain.' — The Times.
* Sir Lepel Griffin treats his topic with thorough mastery, and his
account of the famous Maharaja and his times is, consequently, one of
the most valuable as well as interesting volumes of the series of which
it forms a part.' — The Globe.
* From first to last it is a model of what such a work should be, and
a classic.' — The St. Stephen's Review.
1 The monograph could not have been entrusted to more capable
hands than those of Sir Lepel Griffin, who spent his official life in the
Punjaub.' — The Scotsman.
1 At once the shortest and best history of the rise and fall of the
Sikh monarchy.' — The North British Daily Mail.
* Not only a biography of the Napoleon of the East, but a luminous
picture of his country; the chapter on Sikh Theocracy being a notable
example of compact thought.' — The Liverpool Mercury.
MR. DEMETRIUS BOULGER'S ' LORD
WILLIAM BENTINCK.'
'The u Rulers of India" series has received a valuable addition in
the biography of the late Lord William Bentinck. The subject of this
interesting memoir was a soldier as well as a statesman. He was
mainly instrumental in bringing about the adoption of the overland
route and in convincing the people of India that a main factor in Eng-
lish policy was a disinterested de.sire for their welfare. Lord William's
despatches and minutes, several of which are textually reproduced in
Mr. Boulger's praiseworthy little book, display considerable literary
skill and are one and all State papers of signal worth.' — Daily Ttle-
graph.
1 Mr. Boulger is no novice in dealing with Oriental history and
Oriental affairs, and in the career of Lord William Bentinck he has
found a theme very much to his taste, which he treats with adequate
knowledge and literary skill.' — The Times.
' Mr. Boulger writes clearly and well, and his volume finds an ac-
cepted place in the very useful and informing series which Sir William
Wilson Hunter is editing so ably.' — Independent.
©pinions of t&c press
ON
MR. J. S. COTTON'S ' MOUNTSTUART
ELPHINSTONE.'
' Sir William Hunter, the editor of the series to which this book
belongs, was happily inspired when he entrusted the Life of Elphin-
stone, one of the most scholarly of Indian rulers, to Mr. Cotton, who,
himself a scholar of merit and repute, is brought by the nature of his
daily avocations into close and constant relations with scholars. . . . We
live in an age in which none but specialists can afford to give more time
to the memoirs of even the most distinguished Anglo-Indians than will
be occupied by reading Mr. Cotton's two hundred pages. He has per-
formed his task with great skill and good sense. This is just the kind
of Life of himself which the wise, kindly, high-souled man, who is the
subject of it, would read with pleasure in the Elysian Fields.' — Sir M.
E. Grant Duff, in The Academy.
' To so inspiring a theme few writers are better qualified to do ample
justice than the author of " The Decennial Statement of the Moral and
Material Progress and Condition of India." Sir T. Colebrooke's larger
biography of Elphinstone appeals mainly to Indian specialists, but
Mr. Cotton's slighter sketch is admirably adapted to satisfy the growing
demand for a knowledge of Indian history and of the personalities of
Anglo-Indian statesmen which Sir William Hunter has done so much
to create.' — The Times.
DR. BRADSHAW'S * SIR THOMAS
MUNRO.'
'A most valuable, compact and interesting memoir for those looking
forward to or engaged in the work of Indian administration.' — Scotsman.
' It is a careful an' I sympathetic survey of a life which should always
serve as an example to the Indian soldier and civilian.' — Yorkshire Post.
'A. true and vivid record of Munro's life-work in almost auto-
biographical form.' — Glasgow Herald.
* Of the work before us we have nothing but praise. The story of
Munro's career in India is ia itself of exceptional interest and im-
portance.' — Freeman's Journal.
' The work could not have been better done ; it is a monument of
painstaking care, exhaustive research, and nice discrimination.' — People.
'This excellent and spirited little monograph catches the salient
points of Munro's career, and supplies some most valuable quotations
from his writings nnd papers.' — Manchester Guardian,
'It would be impossible to imagine a more attractive and at the
same time instructive book about India.' — Liverpool Courier.
1 It is one of the best volumes of this excellent series.' — Imperial and
Asiatic Quarterly Review.
' The book throughout is arranged in an admirably clear manner and
there is evident on every page a desire for truth, and nothing but the
truth.' — Commerce.
• A clear and scholarly piece of work.' — Indian Journal of Education.
©pinions of t&e press
MR. MORSE STEPHENS' 'ALBUQUERQUE.'
' Mr. Stephens' able and instructive monograph . . . We may commend
Mr. Morse Stephens' volume, both as an adequate summary of an
important period in the history of the relations between Asia and
Europe, and as a suggestive treatment of the problem of why Portugal
failed and England succeeded in founding an Indian Empire.' — The
Times.
' Mr. H. Morse Stephens has made a very readable book out of the
foundation of the Portuguese power in India. According to the
practice of the series to which it belongs it is called a life of Affonso de
Albuquerque, but the Governor is only the central and most important
figure in a brief history of the Portuguese in the East down to the time
when the Dutch and English intruded on their preserves ... A plea-
santly-written and trustworthy book on an interesting man and time.'
— The Saturday Review.
'Mr. Morse Stephens' Albuquerque is a solid piece of work, well put
together, and full of interest.' — The Athenceum.
* Mr. Morse Stephens' studies in Indian and Portuguese history have
thoroughly well qualified him for approaching the subject ... lie has
presented the facts of Albuquerque's career, and sketched the events
marking the rule of his predecessor Almeida, and of his immediate
successors in the Governorship and Vkeroyalty of India in a compact,
lucid, and deeply interesting form.' — The Scotsman.
SIR CHARLES AITCHISOfl'S'LORD LAWRENCE.'
1 No man knows the policy, principles, and character of John
Lawrence better than Sir Charles Aitchison. The salient features
and vital principles of his work as a ruler, first in the Punjab, and
afterwards as Viceroy, are set forth with remarkable clearness.' —
Scotsman,
1 A most admirable sketch of the great work done by Sir John
Lawrence, who not only ruled India, but saved it.' — Manchester
Examiner.
*Sir Charles Aitchison's narrative is uniformly marked by directness,
order, clearness, and grasp ; it throws additional light into certain
nooks of Indian affairs; and it leaves upon the mind a very vivid
and complete impression of Lord Lawrence's vigorous, resourceful,
discerning, and valiant personality.' — Newcastle Daily Chronicle.
* Sir Charles knows the Punjab thoroughly, and has made this little
book all the more interesting by his account of the Punjab under John
Lawrence and his subordinates.' — Yorkshire Post.
©pinions of tbe prcas
ON
LEWIN BENTHAM BOWRING'S
'HAIDAR ALI AND TIPU SULTAN.'
'Mr. Bowring's portraits are just, and his narrative of the continuous
military operations of the period full and accurate.' — Times.
4 The story has been often written, but never better or more con-
cisely than here, where the father and son are depicted vividly and
truthfully " in their habit as they lived." There is not a volume of
the whole series which is better done than this, or one which shows
greater insight/— Daily Chronicle.
' Mr. Bowring has been well chosen to write this memorable history,
because he has had the best means of collecting it, having himself
formerly been Chief Commissioner of Mysore. The account of the
Mysore war is well done, and Mr. Bowring draws a stirring picture of
our determined adversary/ — Army and Navy Gazette.
'An excellent example of compression and precision. Many volumes
might be written about the loner war in Mysore, and we cannot but
admire the skill with which Mr. Bowring has condensed the history of
the struggle. His book is as terse and concise as a book can be.' —
North British Daily Mail.
' Mr. Bowring's book is one of the freshest and best of a series most
valuable to all interested in the concerns of the British Empire in the
East.' — 'English Mail.
'The story of the final capture of Seringapatam is told with skill
and graphic power by Mr. Bowring, who throughout the whole work
shows himself a most accurate and interesting historian.' — Perthshire
Advertiser.
COLONEL MALLESON'S 'LORD CLIVE.'
'This book gives a spirited and accurate sketch of a very extra-
ordinary personality.' — Speaker.
' Colonel Malleson writes a most interesting account of Clive's great
work in India — so interesting that, having begun to read it, one is
unwilling to lay it aside until the last page has been reached. The
character of Clive as a leader of men, and especially as a cool, intrepid,
and resourceful general, is ably described ; and at the same time the
author never fails to indicate the far-reaching political schemes which
inspired the valour of Clive and laid the foundation of our Indian
Empire.' — North British Daily Mail.
'This monograph is admirably written by one thoroughly acquainted
and in love with his subject.' — Glasgow Herald.
' No one is better suited than Colonel Malleson to write on Clive,
and he has performed his taisk wifh distinct success. The whole narra-
tive is, like everything Colonel Malleson writes, clear and full of
vigour.' — Yorkshire Post.
' Colonel Malleson is reliable and fair, and the especial merit of his
book is that it always presents a clear view of the whole of the vast
theatre m which Clive gradually produces such an extraordinary change
of scene.' — Newcastle Daily Chronicle,
©pinions of tfre Press
CAFT. TROTTER'S ' EABL OP AUCKLAND.'
'A vivid account of the causes, conduct, and consequences of "the
costly, fruitless, and unrighteous " Afghan War of 1838/ — St. James's
Gazette.
'To write such a monograph was a thankless task, but it has been
accomplished with entire success by Captain L. J. Trotter. He has
dealt calmly and clearly with Lord Auckland's policy, domestic and
military, with its financial results, and with the general tendency of
Lord Auckland's rule.' — Yorkshire Po*t.
'To this distressing story (of the First Afghan War) Captain Trotter
devotes the major portion of his pages. He tells it well and forcibly ;
but is drawn, perhaps unavoidably, into the discussion of many topics
of controversy which, to some readers, may seem to be hardly as yet
finally decided. ... It is only fair to add that two chapters are devoted
to " Lord Auckland's Domestic Policy," and to his relations with
"The Native States of India".'— The times.
1 Captain Trotter's Earl of Auckland is a most interesting book, and
its excellence as a condensed, yet luminous, history of the first Afghan
War deserves warm recognition.' —Scotsman.
1 It points a moral which our Indian Rulers cannot afford to forget
bo long as they still have Russia and Afjghanistan to count with.' —
Glasgow Herald.
Supplementary Volume : price 3*. 6d.
'JAMES THOMASON,' BY SIR RICHARD
TEMPLE.
1 Sir K. Temple's book possesses a high value as a dutiful and
interesting memorial of a man of lofty ideals, whose exploits were
none the less memorable because achieved exclusively in the field
of peaceful administration.' — Times.
' It is the peculiar distinction of this work that it interests a reader
less in the official than in the man himself.' — Scotsman.
1 This is a most interesting book : to those who know India, and
knew the man, it is of unparalleled interest, but no one who has
the Imperial instinct which has taught the English to rule subject
races "for their own welfare" can fail to be struck by the simple
greatness of this character.' — Pall Mall Gazette.
' Mr. Thomason was a great Indian statesman. He systematized
the revenue system of the North-West Provinces, and improved every
branch of the administration.. He was remarkable, like many great
Indians, for the earnestness of his religious faith, and Sir Richard
Temple brings this out in an admirable manner.' — British Weekly.
•The book is "a portrait drawn by the hand of affection, " of one
whose life was " a pattern of how a Christian man ought to live."
Special prominence is given to the religious aspects of Mr. Thomason's
character, and the result is a very readable biographical sketch.' —
Christian.
©pinions of t&e Press
ON
SIR AUCKLAND COLVIN'S 'JOHN
RUSSELL COLVIN.'
' The concluding volume of Sir William Hunter's admirable " Rulers
of India" series is devoted to a biography of John Russell Colvin.
Mr. Colvin, as private secretary to Lord Auckland, the Governor-
General during the first Afghan War, and as Lieutenant-Governor of
the North- West Provinces during the Mutiny, bore a prominent part
in the government of British India at two great crises of its history.
His biographer is his son, Sir Auckland Colvin, who does full justice to
his father's career and defends him stoutly against certain allegations
which have passed into history. ... It is a valuable and effective
contribution to an admirable series. In style and treatment of its
subject it is well worthy of its companions.' — Times.
* Sir Auckland Colvin has been able to throw new light on many of
the acts of Lord Auckland's administration, and on the state of affairs at
Agra on the outbreak of the Mutiny. . . . This memoir will serve to
recall the splendid work which Colvin really performed in India, and to
exhibit him as a thoroughly honourable man and conscientious ruler.' —
Daily Telegraph.
'This book gives an impressive account of Colvin's public services,
his wide grasp of native affairs, and the clean-cut policy which marked
his tenure of power.' — Leeds Mercury.
1 The story of John Colvin's career indicates the lines on which the
true history of the first Afghan War and of the Indian Mutiny should
be written. . . . Not only has the author beeu enabled to make use
of new and valuable material, but he has also constructed therefrom
new and noteworthy explanations of the position of affairs at two turning-
points in Indian history.' — Academy.
1 High as is the standard of excellence attained by the volumes of
this series, Sir Auckland Colvin's earnest work has reached the high-
water mark.' — Army and Navy Gazette.
' Sir Auckland Colvin has done his part with great tact and skill. As
an exiimple of the clear-sighted way in which he treats the various
Indian problems we may cite what he says on the education of the
natives— a question always of great moment to the subject of thia
biography.' — Manchester Guardian.
'Sir Auckland Colvin gives us an admirable study of his subject, both
as a man of affairs and as a student in private life. In doing this, his
picturesque theme allows him, without outstepping the biographical
limits assigned, to present graphic pictures of old Calcutta and Indian
life in general.' — Manchester Courier.
1 This little volume contains pictures of India, past and present, which
it would be hard to match for artistic touch and fine feeling. We wish
there were more of the same kind to follow.' — St. James's Gazette.
'The monograph is a valuable addition to a series of which we have
more than once pointed out the utility and the excellence.' — Glasgow
Herald,
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