Akbar (1542 - 1605) was the third Mughal emperor, ruling from 1556 until his death and transforming an unstable inheritance into the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent. [1] He combined military expansion with conciliation of his Hindu subjects, abolishing discriminatory taxes, allying with Rajput houses and promoting a doctrine of universal tolerance, while overhauling the empire's administration and revenue systems. [2]
Early life and accession
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar was born on 15 October 1542 at Umarkot in Sindh, where his father, the exiled emperor Humayun, had taken refuge after losing his throne to Sher Shah Suri. [1] Akbar's childhood was spent in flight and in the care of relatives in Kabul and Kandahar, and he grew up without formal literacy, though he later assembled a large library and had works read aloud to him.
Humayun recovered Delhi in 1555 but died within months. Akbar succeeded in 1556 at the age of thirteen, under the regency of the general Bairam Khan. In the same year Mughal forces defeated the Hindu general Hemu at the Second Battle of Panipat, securing the recovered territory. Akbar dismissed Bairam Khan in 1560 and took personal control of government. [2]
Expansion of the empire
Over four decades Akbar extended Mughal authority across most of northern and central India. Campaigns brought Malwa, Gujarat, Bengal, Kabul, Kashmir and Sindh under his control, along with parts of the Deccan, and he took the Rajput stronghold of Chittor after a celebrated siege. [3]
He paired conquest with accommodation. Rajput rulers who submitted were retained in their lands and given high rank in the imperial service, and marriage alliances linked the dynasty to the house of Amber and others. Many of the empire's leading generals and administrators were Hindus. [2]
Government and religious policy
Akbar's administration rested on the mansabdari system, under which officials held numerical ranks that fixed both their status and the cavalry they were required to maintain. With his finance minister Todar Mal he introduced the zabt settlement, assessing land revenue on measured area and average yields rather than arbitrary demand. [1]
In 1564 he abolished the jizya, the tax levied on non-Muslims, having already ended the tax on Hindu pilgrimage. At his capital he convened debates in the Ibadat Khana among Muslim, Hindu, Jain, Zoroastrian and Jesuit scholars, and articulated the principle of sulh-i-kul, or peace with all. In 1582 he promulgated the Din-i Ilahi, a small court order of ethical devotion centred on the emperor that attracted few adherents and did not survive him. [2]
Culture and the court
Akbar founded the city of Fatehpur Sikri in 1571 and made it his capital for some fifteen years; its red sandstone palaces and great mosque survive as one of the most complete Mughal architectural ensembles. [3]
His workshops produced the mature Mughal style of miniature painting, blending Persian technique with Indian subject matter. He commissioned Persian translations of the Mahabharata and other Sanskrit texts, and his chronicler Abu'l-Fazl compiled the Akbarnama, whose administrative volume, the Ain-i-Akbari, remains a primary source for the period. [1]
Later years and legacy
Akbar's final years were marked by conflict with his son Salim, who rebelled before eventually succeeding him as the emperor Jahangir. Akbar died in 1605 and was buried in a monumental tomb at Sikandra near Agra. [2]
He is regarded as the architect of the Mughal state, whose institutions of revenue and rank outlasted him by more than a century, and his policy of tolerance has remained a reference point in debates over pluralism in South Asia. [1]
