Akbar Biography and History

Detailed Introduction and History of Akbar Life,wars, Death,rules, childhood, early life,expansions are given below

Biography of Akbar 

Akbar’s full name was Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar. Akbar was the third ruler of the Mughal dynasty of Timurid lineage. Emperor Akbar was the grandson of the founder of the Mughal Empire, Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, and the son of Nasiruddin Humayun and Hamida Bano. Akbar is considered the greatest emperor of the Mughal Empire in Indian history. If we see from the point of view of fame and popularity, there has been only one emperor in the political history of India who can be compared to Akbar and that emperor was the great ruler of the Maurya dynasty, Emperor Ashoka.

Brief Introduction

• Full Name: Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar
• Born: 15 October 1542 (approx.)
• Place of birth: Umerkot, Sindh (Pakistan)
• Date of death: October 27, 1605 (age 63 years)
• Place of Death: Fatehpur Sikri, Agra
• Father: Humayun
• Mother: Hamida Banu Begum
• Wife: Ruqaiya Begum, Salima Sultan Begum and Maryam uz-Zamani (Harka Bai) etc.  
• Children: Apart from Jahangir, 5 sons 7 daughters
• Reigns: January 27, 1556 to October 27, 1605 AD
• Coronation: February 16, 1556 Gurdaspur near Kalanpur
• Major Battles: Panipat, Haldighati
• Capital: Fatehpur Sikri Agra, Delhi (East)
• Predecessor: Humayun
• Successor: Jahangir
• Royal House: Mughal
• Tomb: Sikandra, Agra

Note: The dynasty of Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, was related to Timur and the Mongol leader Genghis Khan, that is, his descendants were from the family of Timur Lang and the maternal side was related to Genghis Khan. Both Timur Lang and Genghis Khan had massacred millions for the purpose of plundering in India. Thus, Akbar’s arteries were mixed with the blood of two famous plundering and aggressive races of Asia, the Turks and the Mongols.

Life introduction

Akbar was born on the full moon night, hence his name was Badruddin Mohammad Akbar. Badr means full moon. His name Akbar was derived from the name of his maternal grandfather Sheikh Ali Akbar Jami. It is said that after conquering Kabul, his father Humayun changed the date and name of Akbar to protect Akbar from the evil eye.

According to some legends, it is also believed that the people of India honored Akbar with the name Akbar for his successful and efficient rule. In Arabic, the word Akbar means “great” or great. Akbar is also known as Akbar-i-Azam i.e. Akbar the Great, Emperor Akbar, or Mahabali Shahenshah.

Akbar’s early life

Akbar was born on November 23, 1542 in Umerkot, Sindh (which is located in present-day Pakistan), the palace of Rajput ruler Rana Amarsal. In this fort, Emperor Humayun took refuge with his recent wife Begum Hamida Banu Begum. Humayun named his son Jalaluddin Mohammad according to a dream he had seen.

Akbar’s childhood

At the time of the birth of Akbar, his father Humayun had taken refuge with a Rajput king in fear of a Pashtun leader Sher Shah Suri. Due to constantly changing his position, Humayun did not take Akbar with him during his exile in Persia, but left him in Mukundpur, a village in the state of Rewan (present-day Madhya Pradesh). Akbar’s prince Ram Singh I, who later became the king of Rewan, Had a close friendship with. They grew up together and were friends for life. Later, Akbar lived in the Safavid Empire (part of present-day Afghanistan) with one of his uncles, Mirza Askari. First he stayed in Kandahar for a few days and then in Kabul. Humayun’s remained equal with his younger brothers, so Akbar’s condition was not very good with uncles, yet everyone used to treat him well and perhaps the affectionate love was too much, that is why Akbar’s mind was absolutely in education. Didn’t think. He could only take military education. A lot of his time was spent in hunting, running and duel, wrestling etc. 

From birth till the age of 8, Akbar’s life was spent in great instability, due to which proper arrangements for his education and initiation could not be done. Later, when Humayun got his attention, he organized an event in Kabul to start Akbar’s education. But on the occasion of Akbar’s loss, that ceremony was completed on the second day. Mulla Asmuddin Abraham was appointed as the teacher of Akbar. But Mulla Asmuddin proved to be an incompetent teacher. Then this task was first entrusted to Maulana Bamjid, but when he too did not get success, Maulana Abdul Qadir was given this task. But none of the teachers succeeded in educating Akbar. Actually, Akbar was not only interested in reading and writing, he was more interested in pigeon flying, horse riding and dog keeping. But he loved listening to enlightening stories. It is said that when he went to sleep, Then a person used to read something to him. Gradually, with time, Akbar emerged as a mature and sensible ruler who had a keen interest in art, architecture, music and literature.

Coronation

After the death of Sher Shah Suri, taking advantage of the incompetence of his sons Islam Shah and Sikandar Shah, Humayun recaptured Delhi in 1555, but only a few months later, at the age of 48, Humayun was heavily intoxicated from the stairs of his library. He died suddenly due to falling in circumstances. Then Akbar’s patron Bairam Khan kept this death hidden for a few days in the interest of the empire and after making all the preparations, Akbar was crowned on February 14, 1556. 13-year-old Akbar was crowned at a place called Kalnaur in Gurdaspur in Punjab, on a newly constructed stage in golden robes and a dark turban. This forum is still there today. He was called in the Persian language by the word for emperor Shahanshah. Till his adulthood, his kingdom ran under the protection of Bairam Khan. In this way, Akbar got the reins of power at the age of only 13 when he was declared king on 16 February 1556 AD.

Akbar’s expansion

At the time of Akbar, the then Mughal state was extended only from Kabul to Delhi. Along with this, many problems also raised their heads. There was also public outcry over the assassination of Shamsuddin Atka Khan in 1563, the Uzbek rebellion between 1564–65 and the Mirza brothers’ rebellion in 1566–67, but Akbar solved these problems with great skill. He increased his feudal power through his creativity. Meanwhile, in 1566, while returning to the city from the madrassa (in the old fort complex of present Delhi) built by his father named Maham Anka, Akbar was attacked by an arrow, which Akbar saved with his agility, However, there was a deep wound in his arm. After this incident, there was some change in the administration style of Akbar, under which he took full reins of governance in his hands. Soon after this, the Afghan army under the leadership of Hemu was reorganized and stood as a challenge before him. In the early period of his rule, Akbar understood that he would not be able to rule peacefully without ending the Suri dynasty. So he went to Punjab to attack Sikandar Shah Suri, the most powerful ruler of the Suri dynasty.

Akbar’s visit to Punjab and Delhi’s change of power

On his way to Punjab, he handed over the rule of Delhi to the Mughal general Tardi Baig Khan. Sikandar Shah Suri did not prove to be a great resistance to Akbar. In some regions, even before the arrival of Akbar, his army used to retreat. In the absence of Akbar, Hemu Vikramaditya conquered Delhi and Agra, and thus on 6 October 1556, Hemu declared himself the Maharaja of India. With this the Hindu kingdom was re-established in Delhi.

Return of power in Delhi

When Akbar got the news of the defeat of Delhi, he immediately made an intention to march towards Delhi after consulting Bairam Khan. Akbar’s advisors advised him to take refuge in Kabul. A battle took place between the army of Akbar and Hemu at Panipat. This battle is famous as the Second Battle of Panipat . Despite being less in number, Akbar won this war. Dr. R.P. Tripathi wrote about the outcome of the Second Battle of Panipat that Hemu’s defeat was an accident, while Akbar’s victory was a divine coincidence. With this victory, Akbar got 1500 elephants, which later came in handy during the war with Sikandar Shah Suri. Sikandar Shah Suri surrendered and Akbar gave his life.

Akbar’s Empire Expansion

After regaining control of Delhi, Akbar began to expand his kingdom and annexed Malwa in 1562, Gujarat in 1572, Bengal in 1574, Kabul in 1581, Kashmir in 1586 and Khandesh in 1601. have done. Akbar appointed a governor for each of these states. Akbar’s most famous battle was with Rana Pratap of Mewar, who never surrendered despite the defeat of Chittor in 1568 AD and struggled for life with the support of his people. After the fall of Chittor, Akbar conquered a strong fort like Ranthambore, as a result of which other Rajput states including Bikaner Jaisalmer accepted Akbar’s submission.

Akbar did not want the center of the Mughal Empire to be in a remote city like Delhi; So he decided to move the Mughal capital to Fatehpur Sikri, which was in the middle of the empire. After some time, Akbar had to move the capital from Fatehpur Sikri. It is said that water scarcity was the main reason for this. After Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar set up a mobile court which roamed all over the empire, thus making it possible to pay proper attention to all the corners of the empire. In 1585, Akbar made Lahore the capital for the smooth governance of the North-Western state. Before his death, Akbar made Agra the capital back in 1599 and took control from here till the end.  

Akbar’s Expansionist Policies

Akbar expanded his father Humayun’s policy of befriending the Rajput kings in order to expand his empire and strengthen it. Raja Bharmal of Amer married his younger daughter Harkha Bai to Akbar. Akbar granted religious freedom to his Hindu wives and placed their parents and close relatives in high positions. He made Bharmal a great chief, his son Bhagwan Das was given the status of five Hazari and grandson Mansingh was given the highest status of seven Hazari. He sent one of his children to Amber under the care of Bharmal’s wives.

Akbar also established friendship with Rajput families in which there was no relation of marriage to Akbar. Assigned the responsibility of Garh Katanga to Rao Surjan Handa of Ranthambore and granted him the status of Do Hazari. Another great reason for Akbar’s success was the happy combination of his generosity and his policy of religious tolerance. Akbar removed the Jizya tax in 1564, similarly the pilgrimage tax in places of pilgrimage like Banaras, Allahabad was also removed. The practice of forcibly converting war prisoners to Muslims was also ended.

However, according to some historians, the condition of the Hindu kings in Akbar’s court was also not very good and they were only slaves of Akbar. Historian Dashrath SharmaWe write that we call Akbar great according to the history and descriptions of his court like Akbarnama, etc. But if one looks at other notable works, such as the Dalpat Vilas, then it will become clear how indecently Akbar used to treat his Hindu feudatories. Due to the construction of Vishwanath temple by Akbar’s Navratna Raja Mansingh after Akbar’s permission, Hindus boycotted going to that temple. The reason was clear that Raja Mansingh’s family had marital relations with Akbar. The Hindu feudatories of Akbar could not even get the temple built without his permission. In Bengal, Raja Mansingh started the construction of a temple without permission, then Akbar stopped it when he came to know and ordered to convert it into a mosque in 1595.

Battle of Haldighati

At that time there was only one state in the whole of Rajasthan which was not accepting Mughal subjugation and that was Mewar. Akbar sent several envoys one after the other to Maharana Pratap and tried to persuade him, but despite the mediation of Mansingh, things did not work out. Once Rana Pratap had even sent his son Amar Singh to the Mughal court with Bhagwan Das, but the self-respecting Rana Pratap did not want to personally show his respect by appearing before Akbar, so there was no compromise. . After this there was a fierce battle between the two in Haldighati. Akbar was supported by the Rajputs, but some Muslims were fighting on his behalf in the army of Rana Pratap. Apart from the Rajput warriors, a contingent of Afghans was also with Hakim Khan in Rana Pratap’s army.

Akbar’s Administration

In 1560, Akbar himself assumed power and deposed his patron Bairam Khan and sent him on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Bairam Khan was attacked by a group of Afghans in Gujarat on his way to Mecca. An Afghan named Mubarak Khan, whose father was killed by Bairam Khan in the battle of Machhiwala (1555 AD). After the death of Bairam Khan, Akbar married Salima Begum, the widow of Bairam Khan and gave the title of Khan-Khana by including her son Abdur Rahim in his Navaratnas. Abul Fazl has attributed the decline of Bairam Khan to Maham Anga, the mother of Akbar as the most responsible.

Now Akbar had power in his hands but there were also many difficulties. Such as the mass outrage over the murder of Shamsuddin Atka Khan (1563), the Uzbek rebellion (1564-65) and the rebellion of the Mirza brothers (1566-67), but Akbar solved these problems very efficiently. With his imagination, he increased the number of his feudatories. In 1562, he made an agreement with the ruler of Amer – thus the Rajput kings also turned towards him. Similarly, he also gave great help to those coming from Iran. He also made the Indian Muslims towards him with his skillful behavior. He gave a unique introduction to religious tolerance – Jaziya was removed (1563) by imposing it on Hindu pilgrimage places. This made the entire state feel that he was capable of adopting a changed policy. Apart from this, he also forcibly stopped the conversion of war prisoners.

Under the Mansabdari system, Akbar kept such a system in the army units under the big chieftains that every Amir or Sardar had soldiers from all four castes, Mughal, Pathan, Hindustani and Rajput. The emperor used to give Jharokha darshan to the people every morning and used to settle many applications there, the rest of the matters were resolved in the court.

Akbar’s Sexuality

All historians have called Akbar the great Akbar and have portrayed his goodness only, but here it is also important to know that Akbar also had some human weaknesses which show his characteristic silliness. In the then society, prostitution was patronized by Akbar. He had a very large harem in which there were many women. Most of these women were abducted forcibly and kept there. At that time the practice of Sati was also in full swing. Then it is said that some of Akbar’s people used to see the beautiful woman being sati, by force would stop her from becoming sati and after giving the orders of the emperor, that woman was thrown into the harem. Although this episode has been told by court historians in such a way that “in this way Emperor Salamat opposed the practice of Sati and gave protection to those Abla women.”

In his biography, Akbar himself has written – If I had awakened this intelligence earlier, I would not have abducted any woman of my Sultanate and brought her into my harem. From this it becomes clear that he used to get the beauties kidnapped. Apart from this, the futility of non-kidnapping is also known from the fact that neither during the time of Akbar nor during the time of his successors, the harem was closed.

According to Ain Akbari, Abdul Qadir Badayuni says that whenever the wives of begs, nobles, courtiers or other women wish to appear in the service of the emperor, they have to first give notice of their desire and wait for a reply; Those who are deemed fit are allowed to enter the harem. Akbar used to compel his subjects to organize a nude performance of the women of his house collectively, which was named Khudaroz (Pramod Day) by Akbar. Akbar’s sole purpose behind this festival was to select beauties for his harem. Akbar also had a bad vision on Durgavati, the queen of Gondwana. He also attacked their kingdom to get the queen. During the war, the heroic queen Durgavati realized that an attempt was being made not to kill her, but to take her captive. So he committed suicide there. Then Akbar forced his sister and daughter-in-law into his harem. Akbar had also started this practice that his defeated enemies should send selected women from their family and hostess class to his harem.

Death

On collecting extensive information about Akbar, it is revealed that his personality was multi-dimensional. On one hand he pretended to be fair, liberal, all-religious and friendly, on the other hand he was also a cruel, murderous, lustful person who knew that to rule India for a long time, the natives were given fair and equal rights. It is very important to give space. Perhaps this must have been the reason that when he died on 27 October 1605 at Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, his funeral was done soon without any rites. According to tradition, a passage was made by breaking the wall in the fort and his body was quietly buried in the tomb of Sikandra.