HISTORYThe Mughal Period

2 INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTIONThe story so far

You have been reading stories about the Indian subcontinent from the earliest times.

You read about how peoplebegan practicing agricultureall around

and how numerous little kingdomsstarted emerging in variousplaces.

These kingdoms fought with eachother in order to get bigger andmore powerful.

You also read about thebhogpatis who were in chargeof the villages and cities andcould do whatever they feltlike.

Then, after 1192, many of the kingdomswere conquered by Turkish sultans, whoestablished a vast kingdom, orsultanate. The sultanate remainedpowerful for about 200 years.

However, around 1400the sultanate gotdivided into severalsmaller kingdoms.

The story aheadWe will now see how the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty (mauga,la vaMSa), who originallycame from Afghanistan (Afga,ainastana), built a huge empire. Beginning in 1526, it lastedmore than two centuries. The Mughals became one of the most important dynasties ofthe subcontinent. The splendour and luxury of the courts, the policies of the emperors,and the systems of administration and taxation that the Mughals established havehad a deep impact. You will read about all this in the following chapters.

You will also read about how European traders came in the 17th century, and how thisled to the establishment of British rule. For almost 200 years large parts of the Indiansubcontinent were ruled by the British. The policies of the British rulers made very bigchanges in the lives of the people of India. During this period peasants, workers,adivasis, traders, and educated people of India struggled for a long time to free thecountry from British rule. You will read about the national movement and howindependence was eventually won.

AKBAR 3

CHAPTER 1

Akbarthe Mughal Emperor

(Ruling: 1556-1605)

The Beginning of Mughal Rule in India

Such was the army of the Mughal emperor Babar(baabar). Babar had been ruling in Afghanistan andhe was trying to conquer more lands. At that timeDelhi was being ruled by the Afghan king, SultanIbrahim Lodi. In 1526 the armies of Babar andLodi had a battle at Panipat, north of Delhi. With

the help of their cannons and guns, Babar’s armydealt a crushing defeat to the Delhi Sultan.

After taking a lot of riches from the treasuries ofthe Indian kings, Babar’s soldiers wanted to returnto Afghanistan. But Babar wanted to stay on and

This picture shows a Mughal army ready for battle. The soldiers have several new kindsof weapons that are not seen in the pictures of earlier times. Can you identify them?

4 AKBAR

establish his rule in Hindustan. The area between river Indus and riverNarmada was called Hindustan in the Sultanate and the Mughal period.The territories South of the Narmada river were called the Deccan. Aftermuch persuasion Babur was finally able to get his men tostay on to conquer and rule Hindustan.

Babar fought many battles against powerful Afghanchiefs and Rajput kings. But in 1530, only four yearsafter the battle of Panipat, Babar died.

His son, Humayun, became the emperor. Hecontinued the efforts of his father, but he had to faceserious challenges. In 1540 another Afghan sultan,Sher Shah Suri, defeated him and drove him out ofHindustan. However, in 1555 Humayun returnedand began to re-establish his empire. But within ayear he suddenly died in an accident. His 13 yearold son, Akbar (Akbar), became the emperor.

Babar and his amirs

Emperor Akbar and his AmirsAkbar Becomes the EmperorIn 1556 Mughal rule had still not taken a firmhold in Hindustan. All around them other kingsand sultans were trying to drive the Mughals away.It was at this critical time that Akbar became theemperor.

Since Akbar was very young, Amir Bairam Khanacted as the regent, running the administrationon behalf of the ruler. (In those times, high officialswere called amirs.) Bairam Khan also arranged tohave Akbar educated in the duties of an emperor.

When Akbar turned 17 he tookthe reins of the empireinto his own hands. Hemade great efforts toexpand the Mughalempire by fightingotherkings,and hewas verysuccessful.

The Conquest of Malwa andGarha Katanga (gaZ,a kTMgaagaZ,a kTMgaagaZ,a kTMgaagaZ,a kTMgaagaZ,a kTMgaa)In those days there were two major kingdoms inthe area that we now call Madhya Pradesh. Onewas the kingdom of the Sultan of Malwa, BaazBahadur, with its capital at Mandu. Mandu is nearthe city of Indore. The other kingdom was GarhaKatanga. Its capital was Chauragarh, which wasnear what is now Jabalpur. Garha Katanga wasunder Gond rulers, and during Akbar’s time itwas ruled by Rani Durgavati.

In 1561 Akbar sent his foster brother, AadhamKhan, to capture Malwa. Aadham Khan defeated

Baaz Bahadur, the Sultan of Malwa. ThoughBaaz Bahadur fled Mandu, he kept trying towin back his kingdom for many years. In theend, however, he was unsuccessful and had to

accept a position in the service of the Mughals.He was made a Mughal official.

Aadham Khan acquired many valuable treasuresfrom Malwa. But he did not hand over all thesespoils to Akbar. Instead, he tried to keep as muchas possible for himself. When Akbar came to

know of this he was furious. He forced AadhamKhan to part with what he had withheld.Akbar hunting wild animals

Aadham Khan was not the only official to try tocheat the emperor. At around the same timeanother amir, Aasaf Khan, attacked the kingdomof Garha Katanga and defeated Rani Durgavati.Though wounded in battle, the queen fought withgreat valour. But upon seeing her army losing, shekilled herself.

Aasaf Khan looted diamonds, other gems, pricelessobjects of gold and silver and many other thingsfrom Garha Katanga. But out of these vast treasureshe sent only 200 elephants to Akbar. Once again

Akbar took harsh steps against the disloyaltyand dishonesty of an amir.

He forced Aasaf Khanto yield the entire

treasure.

Which kingdoms did Akbar’s amirs conquer?

What did these amirs do that made Akbar angry?

Conflicts between Akbar and theTurani AmirsWhen Akbar became the emperor in 1556 he had51 high officials, or amirs, in his court. These amirswere very wealthy. Akbar had divided responsibilityfor different parts of his empire among them. Eachamir kept an army with him, which had to bepresented before the emperor whenever it was

ordered.

In return for all this the emperor granted eachamir several villages and towns. This was calledtheir jagir. The amirs kept the revenue that was

collected from the villages and towns of theirjagirs. The revenue was for their own

use as well as for running theadministration of the jagirs.

Akbar realised that such actions by his amirs mightsome day become a big problem for him. He didnot want to give them free rein. He thought thatif he allowed the amirs to do as they pleased hewould not be able to make the Mughal empire asstrong as he wanted it to be.

6 AKBAR

Among Akbar’s amirs, some were from Iran andwere known as Irani amirs. But the majority ofthe amirs had come from an area known as Turan,which is in Turkestan. The ancestors of the Mughalemperors had also come from Turan. Many Turaniamirs were in fact related to Akbar.

For this reason the Turani amirs consideredthemselves to be equals of Akbar and had no desireto be under his control. They wanted the freedomto administer their jagirs as they pleased. In factthey even wanted to be able to tell the emperorwhat to do.

But Akbar did not approve of this at all. He didnot want anyone else in the empire to be equal tothe emperor. He wanted everyone to be under hiscontrol. He wanted to be the one to decide whowould become an amir and he wanted to make allthe appointments to both high and low posts. Hewanted all the amirs to follow his rules and tocarry out his orders without any questions.

In the above section, underline the foursentences that you think are the mostimportant.

Complete the following sentences:

The Turani amirs revolted because .......

To suppress these revolts, Akbar ........

The Turani amirs could not tolerate thesepolicies of Akbar. From 1562 to 1567many Turani amirs rebelled against Akbarand they ordered their armies to attackhis.

What was Akbar to do?

Akbar found a solution to the problem.He promoted the interests of theIrani amirs by encouraging them andgiving them new positions. The Irani amirswere happy with this and so they supported Akbarwholeheartedly. With their help Akbar was ableto suppress the revolts of the Turani amirs.

Akbar Attempts to Recruit IndianMuslims (Sheikhzadas) as AmirsA major obstacle in strengthening the empire wasthat the amirs looked upon themselves as equal tothe emperor and did not want to be under hiscontrol.

In addition to this, Akbar faced another problemthat had slowly become very serious. He himselfhad come from Kabul, and his amirs were fromIran and Turan. Those who had come from outsidehad difficulty establishing a strong rule in newplaces because the powerful local people wouldoppose them. Akbar realised that so long as thepowerful Hindustanis did not accept his authority,

Mughal rule would never be secure.

In those days two kinds of peoplewere very powerful in Hindustan:Rajput kings, and Muslim

families who had been stayingin India for centuries and hadacquired land and wealth.These Muslims were knownas Sheikhzadas.

Akbar wanted both ofthese kinds of powerful

Hindustani families to beon his side. To win them

over he gave manySheikhzadas positionsin his court and

made them his amirs. Healso showed greatrespect towards their

religious practices.

A Sheikhzada

Akbar tried to run his kingdom with the

support of the amirs. But he was not able to

get their full backing. Let’s find out why.....

AKBAR 7

Identify Akbar in the above picture. Who doyou think the other people are?

What do you think Akbar might be thinking?

What do you think the others might bethinking about Akbar?

Attempts to Make the Rajputs AmirsAs for the Rajputs, Akbar found that they had nogreat desire to be his amirs. What they wantedwas to remain free and rule their own kingdoms.

Akbar thought that if he wanted to bring overRajput kings to his court he would have to showthat he did not discriminate against Hindus andthat he really wanted to carry all the different kindsof people of Hindustan along with him.

In those days Hindus had to pay two special kindsof taxes that Muslims did not have to pay – thejeziya tax and a tax on pilgrimages to holy places.Only those Hindus who were employees ofthe king or who were orphans did not haveto pay the jeziya. In 1562 Akbar abolishedthe pilgrimage tax and in 1564 he stoppedcollecting jeziya from Hindus. A Rajput King

Some Rajput kings were swayed bythese acts and came into the serviceof Akbar. One of them was RajaBharmal. He was the king of Amer,which is a place near Jaipur. Akbarmade Raja Bharmal his amir. (Lateron Bharmal’s son Bhagwandas andgrandson Mansingh were alsomade amirs of the Mughal empire.)

In return for Bharmal’s support,Akbar granted him manyconcessions. He returned thekingdom of Amer to Bharmal anddeclared that Amer would never betaken away from him or hisdescendants.

Akbar made a proposal to theRajput kings: if they agreed to serve

under him, he would restore their kingdoms tothem. They would be made amirs of the MughalEmpire. They would also be sent to conquerdistant lands and to rule them on behalf of theMughal emperor. In return for all this they wouldbe given jagirs in other parts of the empire as well.Akbar hoped that the Rajput kings would findthese offers so attractive that they would stopopposing him, and they might even agree to serveunder him.

To show his intentionof running his empirein co-operation with

the powerful people ofHindustan, Akbar took a

few more importantsteps. He married

Manibai, thedaughter of Raja

Bharmal.

Akbar offering respects at the dargah of the SufiSaint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer.

8 AKBAR

After the wedding, he allowed her to continueopenly practicing Hinduism. Usually the bridehas to accept the traditions of her husband’s family.Before Akbar’s time, whenever a Hindu bridemarried a sultan, she was not given the freedomto follow her original religion. But Akbar was morewilling to accept the religious freedom of hisHindu queens. In addition to Manibai, Akbarmarried several other Rajput women.

What steps did Akbar take to remove religiousdiscrimination against the Hindus?

What special benefits did Akbar offer Rajput kings?Make a list.

In your view, why did Akbar make these efforts?

Akbar Wages War against the RajputsMost of the Rajput kings were not attracted byAkbar’s offers. They wanted to rule as independentkings rather than to accept Mughal suzerainity(overlordship). They struggled till the end to retaintheir independence. They did see certainadvantages in becoming Mughal amirs, but thesecould not outweigh the advantages of ruling ontheir own.

Seeing this attitude of the Rajput kings, Akbardecided to resort to the use of arms to make thembend to his will. He decided to defeat the majorRajput kings in battle, one by one.

Now let’s see how successful Akbar’s efforts were.

A Hindu queengives birth in

Akbar’s palace. Thechild may be Prince Salim,

who became Emperor Jahangir.

In 1568 Akbar laid seige to Chittorgarh, whichwas the strong fort and famous capital of Mewar,and he was victorious. Though defeated in battle,the king of Mewar, Udaysingh, did not want tobow down before the Mughals. He escaped andstarted preparing to regain his kingdom.

After the victory over Chittorgarh, the Mughalsalso conqueredand annexedthe Rajputkingdoms ofJodhpur andRanthambhor.

Look at this picture of theattack on the Ranthambhor fort.It looks as if three cannons werenot enough and a fourth wasurgently needed on the hilltop.Describe how the cannon isbeing brought up the hill.

AKBAR 9

10 AKBAR

At last the Rajput kingsrealised that they would notbe able to win against theMughals. On the otherhand Akbar was stilloffering them many specialprivileges in return forbeing part of his empire.Thus, many Rajput kingsstarted coming into theservice of the Mughals, andbecame Mughal amirs.

Although these Rajputshad retained theirkingdoms and they werenow safe from Mughalattacks, in two respects theywere not free. One, theycould not strengthen theirforts or increase their armieswithout permission fromthe Mughal emperor. Two,they could not attack ormake pacts with otherkingdoms.

But despite theserestrictions, their kingdomswere safe and secure, withthe might of the Mughalsbehind them. The Rajputkings also had theopportunity to rise to highpositions in Mughal service.

This picture shows the kingof Ranthambhor, RajaSujan Singh, accepting thesuzerainity of Akbar.

Rana PratapRana Pratap, the son of Rana Uday Singh of Mewaralso refused to accept the overlordship of Akbar.He fought valiantly in many battles such as theone in Haldighati. At Haldighati the Mughal forceswere led by the Rajput prince Man Singh.

However Rana Pratap was ultimately defeated andlost control of most of his kingdom. Yet hecontinued to fight the Mughals from the junglesof Mewar. It was his son who finally accepted theoverlordship of Akbar’s son Jahangir, though herefused to become a Mughal official.

AKBAR 11

Name some Rajput kingdoms that came underthe suzerainity of the Mughal empire.

How did Akbar treat the Rajput kings whom hedefeated in battle?

The 1580 Revolt of theIrani and Turani AmirsAkbar had taken steps against theHindus, but all this had no effect on theIrani and Turani amirs. In 1580 they rebelledagainst him with great strength. The revolt brokeout on two sides – in Kabul as well as in Bengal.

Discuss with each other the changes in Akbar’sreligious policies.

In your opinion, what could Akbar have done tosatisfy the Irani and Turani amirs?

This time it was with the help of the Hindustaniamirs that Akbar suppressed the revolt of the Iraniand Turani amirs. Raja Mansingh and Bhagwandassubdued the revolt in Kabul, while Todarmalcrushed the rebel Irani and Turani amirs in Bengal.After this, Akbar faced no other challenge to hispower.

In 1575 Akbar re-imposed the jeziya. Even so, theRajput amirs continued to give him their support.Why were they not unhappy with Akbar?

Discontent among the Turani andIrani AmirsOver a period of time several Sheikhzadas andRajputs became Akbar’s amirs. In addition toRajputs, other Hindus also joined his court. Forinstance, Todarmal (whom Akbar granted the titleof Raja) and Birbal were famous Hindu courtiers.You must have heard stories about them.

As more and more Hindustanis became amirs, afeeling of discontent grew among the Irani andTurani amirs. In the beginning most of the amirsin Akbar’s court had been Irani and Turani.Whatever the emperor wanted to do he could doonly with their support. But now the situationhad changed. Even if the Irani and Turani amirsopposed him, the emperor could still do what hewished – for now he had the support of theHindustani amirs. For this reason, dissatisfactionwas increasing among the Irani and Turani amirs.They felt that because of the Rajputs their powerwas being taken away from them and they wereno longer as important as they used to be.

Akbar Re-imposes the Jeziya in 1575Akbar now began to look for ways to appease theIrani and Turani amirs. But he did not want toweaken the position of the Rajputs. Nor did hewant to restore the strength of the Irani and Turaniamirs to its earlier level. He felt that if he tooksome steps against Hindus it would pacify the Iraniand Turani amirs. So beginning in 1575 he startedspeaking out against Hindus. He imposed thejeziya on them again. He also ordered some of hisofficers to stop Hindus from worshipping idols.

This dagger wasmade during thetimes of EmperorAkbar, and is now ondisplay in a museum inEngland.

12 AKBAR

The Sulah Kul Policy after the 1580RevoltThe 1580 revolt left a deep impact on Akbar.He felt that his order to re-impose the jeziyahad failed to please the Irani and Turaniamirs and had needlessly hurt the Hindus.

Once more there was a great change inAkbar’s religious policy. In 1580 itself heagain abolished the jeziya.

Why did Akbar re-impose the jeziya in 1575? Andwhy did he remove it in 1580? Akbar was keenly interested in other religions. It

is said that at times he would sink into religiousthoughts for whole nights. He would holddiscussions with whichever religious person camehis way.

He got an Ibadat Khanah (a prayer room) madein the mosque near his palace. There he helddiscussions with important scholars of Islam, ormaulvis. He told the maulvis, “I have but oneobjective – to find the truth – to bring forth thetrue principles of religion.”

Akbar found that the maulvis fought too muchamong themselves and kept hurling accusationsat each other. He soon grew tired of this. In 1580he began inviting saints and scholars of otherreligions to the Ibadat Khana. Hindu pundits, Sufisaints, Jain munis of Gujarat, Parsi scholars, andChristian padres – on Akbar’s invitation all camethere to take part in discussions. The Christianpadres were those who used to come with tradersfrom Portugal.

Thus, making Rajputs and Sheikhzadas amirsalong with Iranis and Turanis proved to be of greatbenefit to the Mughal Empire. When the Iraniand Turani amirs rebelled against Akbar, he putdown the revolt with the help of Rajputs andHindustani Muslims.

Why do you think Akbar did not completelyremove the Iranis and Turanis from his court?

Akbar started givingdonations and almsto saints, temples,madarsas, and maths

(maz) of all religions.Before this donationswere given mostly justto Muslim saints,scholars, and mosques.But after 1580 Akbarbegan giving grants even

to distant templesand maths.

AKBAR 13

All these discussions had a great effect on Akbar’sthinking. The thoughts and opinions of Abul Fazl,a minister in his court, also influenced him a lot.Abu al Fazl wrote a book on Akbar’s rule calledAkbar Nama, and from this we get to know a lotabout those times.

A new kind of thought and understanding ofreligion emerged in Akbar’s mind. Badayuni, ahistorian of the time, wrote, “As a result of thesediscussions a rock-like conviction grew in theemperor’s mind, that in all religions there are goodpeople. If true knowledge can be attained in allreligions, then it is not correct to say that there istruth in only one religion and that other religionsare false.”

Inspired by such thoughts, Akbar adopted a newpolicy – Sulah Kul. This was a policy of amitybetween all – a total peace between all religionsand communities.

Following this policy, Akbar banned the slaughterof cows. In his own life he started observing someof the rituals of Hindus, Parsis, and others. Hehad the main religious books or scriptures ofdifferent religions translated into Persian (theofficial language). The Gita, Mahabharata,Atharvaveda, Bible, Panchtantra, SinghasanBattisi, as well as many science books, weretranslated into Persian so that Persian-speakingMuslims could read and understand them.

Akbar holding a discussion in his Ibadat Khanah

14 AKBAR

Akbar had his artists paint this scene from the Mahabharat showing Krishna’scombat with Indra. Who can you recognise in this painting?

AKBAR 15

At the same time, Akbar dropped many aspects ofIslam that he felt were not correct.

Akbar’s policy of Sulah Kul was important becausethe Mughal empire contained people of manyreligions. His amirs followed different religions andthey all had to work together to administer theempire. There were lakhs of Muslims in his realm,but most of the minor officials were Hindus. Thegreat majority of the peasants, craftsmen, andzamindars were Hindus. Members of the tradingclasses followed the Hindu, Jain, or Parsi religions.

Exercises1 When Akbar first became the emperor who were his high officials (amirs)?

Who became his amirs during his reign?

2 Which of the following did the Turani amirs want and which did Akbar want?

(a) That the amirs should have the same rights as the emperor.

(b) That the amirs should run their jagirs in accordance with the wishes of theemperor.

(c) That the emperor should act according to the wishes of the amirs.

(d) That all power should remain with the emperor.

3 What concessions did Akbar offer the Rajput kings in order to get them to behis amirs?

4 Mark true or false:

(a) Impressed by Akbar’s concessions, the Rajputs immediately agreed to behis amirs.

(b) Despite Akbar’s concessions, most of the Rajput kings were not ready tobe his amirs, because they wanted to be free and rule their own kingdoms.

5 Why did the Irani and Turani amirs become unhappy when Rajputs and IndianMuslims became amirs? Explain in your own words.

6 Discuss each of the following:

(a) Why did Akbar abolish the jeziya in 1563?

(b) Why did Akbar re-impose the jeziya in 1575?

(c) Why did Akbar abolish the jeziya once again in 1580?

7 What conclusions did Akbar draw from religious discussions?

8 What steps did Akbar take under the policy of Sulah Kul? Why were thesesteps necessary for the empire?

In such a vast empire it was necessary to beaccepted and have support from all these kinds ofpeople. Only then could the administration of thestate run smoothly and peacefully. With the policyof Sulah Kul, the minds of all kinds of people couldbe inclined in favour of the emperor. This policywas also continued by the Mughal emperors whocame after Akbar.

10 AKBAR

16 AKBAR

The Mughal Empire in 1605(shaded dark grey)