Akbar the Great: Expansion and Tolerance in Mughal India

Akbar the Great (1542-1605) was the third Mughal emperor of India, reigning from 1556 to 1605. Coming to the throne at thirteen, he turned a fragile foothold around Delhi and Agra into an empire stretching from Afghanistan to Bengal and into the Deccan. His administration, his partnerships with Hindu Rajput rulers and his open court debates on religion made him one of the most influential rulers in South Asian history.

Early life and securing the throne

Akbar was born on 15 October 1542 at Umarkot in Sindh, while his father, the emperor Humayun, was a fugitive. Humayun had been driven out of India by the Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri in 1540, and soon afterwards he fled to Safavid Persia, leaving the infant Akbar to be raised by relatives in Afghanistan.

Humayun regained Delhi in 1555 but died in January 1556 after falling down the stairs of his library. Akbar, then campaigning in the Punjab with his guardian Bairam Khan, was proclaimed emperor at Kalanaur on 14 February 1556. The new reign was immediately threatened by Hemu, a general of the Sur dynasty, who seized Delhi and Agra.

On 5 November 1556 the Mughal army under Bairam Khan defeated Hemu at the Second Battle of Panipat. The victory restored Mughal control of Delhi and Agra, and within a few years the Sur claimants had been eliminated.

Bairam Khan governed as regent until 1560, when Akbar, encouraged by a faction at court, dismissed him. Bairam set out for Mecca but was murdered by an Afghan at Patan in Gujarat in 1561. For a short time the court was dominated by Akbar’s foster mother Maham Anga and her son Adham Khan. After Adham Khan killed a senior minister in the palace in 1562, Akbar had him thrown from a terrace, and from then on he ruled in his own right.

Conquests

Akbar spent much of his reign at war, often leading campaigns in person, and he was known for rapid forced marches, such as his ride to relieve his forces in Gujarat in 1573. The empire grew steadily:

• Malwa was annexed in 1561-62, and Gondwana in central India in 1564, where Rani Durgavati died resisting the Mughals.
• Rajasthan: the great fortress of Chittor fell in February 1568 after a long siege, followed by Ranthambore and Kalinjar in 1569. Most Rajput rulers accepted Mughal overlordship, but the rana of Mewar did not; at Haldighati on 18 June 1576 Maharana Pratap fought a Mughal army led by Man Singh, and although the Mughals held the field, Pratap continued his resistance in the hills.
• Gujarat, with its rich ports, was conquered in 1572-73.
• Bengal and Bihar were taken from their Afghan rulers in 1574-76.
• The north-west: Kabul was secured in 1581 and Kashmir annexed in 1586. Sindh followed in 1591 and Kandahar in 1595.
• The Deccan: Mughal armies took Berar, part of Ahmadnagar in 1600 and the fortress of Asirgarh in 1601.

By the end of the reign the empire was divided into fifteen provinces (subahs). Its population is commonly estimated at around 100 million people or more, although such figures are uncertain.

Administration: mansabdars and revenue

Akbar’s lasting achievement was a system of government able to hold this territory together. Every senior officer, whatever his origin, became a mansabdar, the holder of a numbered rank (mansab). From the 1590s ranks had two parts: zat, which fixed personal status and pay, and sawar, the number of cavalry the officer had to maintain for imperial service.

Mansabdars were usually paid through jagirs, the right to collect revenue from assigned lands. Jagirs were not hereditary and were transferred often, which prevented officers from building up local power. The nobility itself was deliberately mixed, combining Central Asians, Persians, Indian Muslims and Rajput Hindus.

Land revenue was reformed under the finance minister Raja Todar Mal. Building on Sher Shah’s methods, his officials measured fields and calculated average yields and prices over ten years. The resulting dahsala system, introduced around 1580, set cash rates for each crop in each area and gave the state a more predictable income. Peasants paid in cash rather than in kind, which drew the countryside further into a money economy based on the silver rupee.

Rajputs, religion and sulh-i kul

Akbar sought partnership as well as submission from the Hindu Rajput kings. In 1562 he married a daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber, whose son Jahangir would succeed him. Rajput princes such as Raja Man Singh of Amber became leading generals and governors.

He also removed burdens on non-Muslims. In 1563 he abolished the tax on Hindu pilgrims, and in 1564 he abolished the jizya, the poll tax on non-Muslim subjects under Islamic law. His court sponsored Persian translations of Sanskrit works, including the Mahabharata, which became the illustrated Razmnama.

In 1575 Akbar built a “House of Worship” (Ibadat Khana) at his new capital, Fatehpur Sikri, where scholars debated religion in his presence. At first only Sunni Muslim scholars took part, but the circle widened to Shia Muslims, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and Jesuit priests from Portuguese Goa, who arrived in 1580.

In 1579 leading scholars signed a declaration, often called the mahzar, recognising Akbar’s authority to decide between conflicting legal opinions. Over time Akbar developed an ideal of sulh-i kul, “universal peace” or peace with all, under which the emperor stood above religious communities as a protector of all.

From the early 1580s a small group of courtiers became Akbar’s personal disciples. Later writers called this circle Din-i Ilahi (“divine faith”). It had very few members, and most historians see it as a bond of loyalty to the emperor rather than a new religion.

Patronage of the arts

Akbar’s workshops created a distinctive Mughal style of painting that blended Persian, Indian and, later, European elements. Among their largest projects was the Hamzanama, an illustrated adventure story of around 1,400 large paintings produced from the 1560s to the 1570s.

His friend and historian Abul Fazl wrote the Akbarnama, the official history of the reign, with the Ain-i Akbari, a detailed description of the empire’s administration. The court also attracted poets such as Faizi and musicians such as Tansen. Akbar built forts at Agra, Lahore and Allahabad, and the red sandstone city of Fatehpur Sikri, used as the capital from about 1571 to 1585.

Key people

Bairam Khan, a Turkmen general, served Humayun in exile and governed as Akbar’s regent from 1556 to 1560.

Abul Fazl (1551-1602) was Akbar’s adviser and historian. He was killed in 1602 by Bir Singh Deo of Orchha, acting for Prince Salim (later Jahangir).

Raja Todar Mal, a Hindu Khatri who had earlier served Sher Shah’s administration, was the finance minister who reorganised land revenue and also commanded troops in the conquest of Bengal and Gujarat.

Raja Man Singh I of Amber was one of Akbar’s most senior generals and governor of several provinces.

Birbal (Mahesh Das), a Brahmin poet and courtier, was one of Akbar’s closest companions. He died in 1586 when a Mughal force was ambushed by Yusufzai tribesmen in the north-west, and he later became the hero of countless popular tales of wit, most of which are folklore rather than history.

Prince Salim, Akbar’s eldest son, rebelled against his father in 1600-1604 but was reconciled and succeeded as Jahangir in 1605.

Myths and facts

Myth: Akbar’s Rajput queen was called Jodha Bai. The name became popular in the eighteenth century and in modern films, but contemporary sources do not use it. The daughter of Raja Bharmal and mother of Jahangir is known by her title Mariam-uz-Zamani.

Myth: Akbar’s court had nine official “jewels”. The navaratna, a group of nine great men including Birbal and Tansen, is a later tradition borrowed from stories about the legendary king Vikramaditya. Akbar did have many brilliant courtiers, but there was no fixed group of nine.

Myth: Akbar founded a mass religion. Din-i Ilahi had only a small number of initiates, and Akbar did not force it on his subjects.

Death and succession

In his last years Akbar faced the rebellion of Salim and the deaths of two other sons, Murad and Daniyal, from illness linked to drink. He died at Agra on 27 October 1605, probably of dysentery, and was buried at Sikandra. Jahangir completed the tomb around 1613. The empire passed intact to his successors, and later Mughal glories, such as the construction of the Taj Mahal, were built on the foundations he laid.

Timeline

• 1542, 15 October: Akbar is born at Umarkot, Sindh.
• 1556, 14 February: Proclaimed emperor at Kalanaur.
• 1556, 5 November: Mughal victory over Hemu at Panipat.
• 1560: Akbar dismisses his regent, Bairam Khan.
• 1564: The jizya on non-Muslims is abolished.
• 1568, February: Fall of Chittor.
• 1572-1573: Conquest of Gujarat.
• 1575: The Ibadat Khana is built at Fatehpur Sikri.
• 1576, 18 June: Battle of Haldighati.
• 1605, 27 October: Akbar dies at Agra.

Why it matters

Akbar created the Mughal Empire as a working state, with institutions that lasted into the eighteenth century. His policy of drawing Hindus and Muslims into one ruling class, and his willingness to listen to many faiths, remain central to debates about tolerance and statecraft in Indian history.