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The Taj Mahal at Agra
The Taj Mahal at Agra is acknowledged to be one of the zconders of the world, and is thought by many to be the most beautiful building ever erected by man. Even the most lavish praises that have been bi\^ upon it fail still to do justice to the exquisite charm of its construction and surroundings, which can be fully appreciated only by seeing it; and all who have visited it are ready to concede that no more perfect monu- ment in marble has been erected to the memory of a woman than this beautiful edifice dedicated by the Moghul emperor, Shah Jahan, to Mum- tac-i-Mahal. his beloved wife.
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I STORY of INDIA
Edited b»
A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON, Ph.D.,LLD.
Profeaior of Indo-lranian LangiHjM in Coli— hia Unrverwiy
VOLUME IV
From the Reign of Al^oar the Great to the Fall of the Moghul Empire
By
STANLEY LANE- POOLE M. A., Utt D. MR. I. A.
Profeaiof of Arabic at Trinity College. Dublin
I
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Copyright, fQOJ, by G. P. Putnam's Sons
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Etonhnrn Prrae
INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR
WHEN Akbar the Great, the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth, ascended the throne of India, it was with a heart inspired by the highest ideals ever held by a ruler of Islamitic blood, and the manner in which he lived up to these ideals made him the noblest monarch, after Asoka, that ever reigned over the land beyond the river Indus.
Akbar was followed by his son Jahangir, the Great Moghul, and he by Shah Jahan, the Magnificent, who was succeeded in turn by Aurangzib, the Puritan Emperor and last of the line of great Moghuls.. Moham- medan India reached the culmination of its glory in the fortunes of this dynasty. The subsequent rise of the Marathas heralded a new era, and signs of the beginnings of European power in India were now at hand.
The interesting story of these events,, as told by Professor Lane-Poole, has been supplemented by includ- ing in this volume two selections from native Moham- medan chroniclers found in that inexhaustible mine of material, Elliot's " History of India as Told by Its Own
iii
iv INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR
Historians " in Professor Dowson's edition, the indebt- edness to which is acknowledged.
With reference to the preparation of the text of the present volume editorially and with regard to the illustrations, I have been guided in general by the prin- ciples laid down in the preceding volumes of the series. Besides the assistance previously acknowledged in respect to illustrative material and other matter, I desire to unite with the publishers in thanking Mr. Frederick J. Agate, of New York, who was with me in my travels through India, for the use of certain photo- graphs in his collection, and also to thank Dr. Edward S. Holden, Librarian of the United States Military Acad- emy at West Point, for the pictures of two Moham- medan heroines, Nur Jahan and Mumtaz-i-Mahal, reproduced from miniatures in the British Museum, through the courtesy of Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, of New York.
A. Y. Williams Jackson.
CONTENTS
♦
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The United Empire — Akbar the Great. 1556-1605 a. d. . 1
II. Akbar's Reforms — The Divine Faith. 1566-1605 a. d. . 25
III. The Great Moghul and European Travellers. 1605-
1627 a. d 51
IV. Shah Jahan — The Magnificent. 1628-1658 a.d. . . 88 V. The Puritan Emperor — Aurangzib. 1659-1680 a. d. . . 121
VI. The Ruin of Aurangzib — The Maratha War. 1680-
1707 a.d 145
VII. The Fall of the Moghul Empire — The Hindu Revival.
1707-1765 a. d 173
Appendix I. Akbar's Capture of Fort Asir — From the
Akbar -Namah of Illahbad Faizi of Sirhind . . . 193
Appendix II. Ibrahim Khan's Chronicle of the Marathas 215
Appendix III. Chronological Summary 277
Appendix IV. Moghul Emperors • 279
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-•-
PAGE
Taj Mahal Frontispiece
Cuirass made of hide covered with velvet, and studded with nails . . 1
The Palace at Gwalior 6
Gold coins of Akbar at Agra, a. h. 981 (a. d. 1573) .... 9
The Daulat Bagh, Ajrair 11
Agra Gate, Fathpur-Sikri 16
Lake at Udaipur . 19
The Ruined City of Amber, near Jaipur . . • . . . .20
The Divan-i-Khas, Fathpur-Sikri 34
Sheikh Salim Chisti's Tomb at Fathpur-Sikri 35
« The Turkish Sultana's House," Fathpur-Sikri 38
Darugha Pershad's House, Fathpur-Sikri 45
Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra 49
An Indian Shield .. 51
A Budgerow, Calcutta 54
Gold Coins of Jahangir 58
Palace of Jahangir at Agra 63
A Combat with iron claws 65
House of carved teak, Surat 71
A Dancing Girl, or Bayadere 75
Tomb of Nur Jahan's Father at Agra 79
Tomb of Jahangir at Lahore 85
Empress Nur Jahan, the wife of Jahangir 86
Coin of Jahangir and Nur Jahan 87
Gold coin of Shah Jahan, a. h. 1066 (a. d. 1655-6) .... 88
Entrance gate to the Taj Mahal, Agra 91
Mausoleum of Itmad-ad-daulah at Agra 95
Rhinoceros Fight 98
Taj Mahal at Agra 101
Shah Jahan's Palace at Agra 104
Tombs of the Kings at Golkonda 109
The Taj Mahal at Agra Ill
vii
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
ShahJahan 117
The Fort at Agra ' . . 119
Cap-Makers and Turban-Fitters 123
Hindu Musicians 124
Aurangzib 127
The Jami< Mas j id, or Great Mosque at Delhi 130
Lattice in Bathroom of Shah Jahan's Palace at Delhi . . . .134
The Audience-Hall, Divan-i-Aara, at Delhi 135
An Elephant Fight at Jaipur 137
Gold coin of Aurangzib, struck at Thatta a. h. 1072 (a. d. 1661-2) . . 141
Mosque of Aurangzib at Benares 146
Street scene in Jodhpur 148
The Palace at Udaipur 150
The Mihtar-i Mahal at Bijapur 154
The Great Mosque of Bijapur 159
Fort at Golkonda 163
Marble Fretwork Screen around the Tomb in the Taj Mahal • . . 165
An Indian Dagger 168
A Sikh Quoit-Turban 175
A Type of Indian Beauty 179
The Peacock Throne, now in Teheran . 181
Eastern Afghan Types 185
The Old Observatory at Ujjain . 194
A Type of Indian Hill Fort 201
The Great Gateway, Buland Darwazah, Fathpur-Sikri • . 207
Moghul Cavalry Helmet 208
Sivaji, the Founder of the Maratha Power 216
Mekka Gate at Aurangabad • . .218
A Maratha Brahman 224
Daulatabad 227
The River Attok 232
Landing Ghats along the Gauges . • • • • . . .235
A Maratha Helmet 237
The Jami< Masjid at Delhi . 240
Arms of the Marathas 243
Carved Pillar in Divan-i-Khas, Fathpur-Sikri 247
The Jumna at Agra 251
The Gopal Bhawan in the Palace of Dig 257
The Hill of Parvati from the Lake, near Poona 260
Nasik . 264
An Elephant of State 265
An Indian Scimitar . 270
CUIRASS, MADE OF HIDE COVERED WITH VELVET, AND STUDDED WITH NAILS.
CHAPTER I
THE UNITED EMPIEE
AKBAR, THE GREAT
1556 -1605 A. D.
THE long reign of Akbar, which lasted from 1556 to 1605, has been represented as the golden age of the Moghul empire. It was in reality but the beginning of the period of splendour which ended with the disas- trous wars of Aurangzib. Akbar was the true founder and organizer of the empire, but it is too often forgotten that it took him twenty years of hard fighting to bring
Hindustan under subjection, and that even at his death
1
2 AKBAR THE GREAT
the process was incomplete. There was no sudden and miraculous submission to the boy of thirteen who found himself called to an as yet unconquered throne by the accident that ended his father's ineffectual life in the beginning of 1556. A hard struggle was before him ere he could call himself king even of Delhi. He was fortunate, no doubt, in the divisions of his adversaries, and after the crushing defeat of Himu at Panipat he was never called upon to meet a general muster of Indian troops; but the process of reducing usurper after usurper, and suppressing one rebellion after an- other, was tedious and harassing, and in spite of a wise statesmanship matured by experience, and a clemency and toleration which grew with advancing years, to the day of his death Akbar seldom knew what it was to enjoy a year's freedom from war.
At the time of his accession the only parts of India that he possessed were the Panjab and Delhi in the north, which were the fruits of the victory at Sirhind in 1555. The Afghan dynasty still held Bengal and the Ganges valley; the Rajputs were independent in West- ern Hindustan, and there were innumerable chiefs in possession of separate principalities all over the coun- try. It was not till the third year of his reign that Akbar was able to occupy Ajmir. Gwalior fell in 1558, and by 1561 he had driven the Afghans back from Lucknow and Jaunpur. The Moghul empire so far was almost restricted to the Panjab and the Northwest Provinces, though Malwa was partly overrun in 1561, and Burhanpur in Khaniiesh was captured a year later.
AKBAR'S ACCESSION TO THE THBONE 3
The storming of Chitor in 1567 was a conspicuous land- mark in history, but it was not till 1572 that the Raj- puts were finally brought into the empire. Bengal was not conquered before 1575, and Gujarat, though occu- pied in 1572, had to be retaken in 1584 and gave trouble for several years more. Kabul, under Akbar's brother Hakim, was almost a separate kingdom and frequently aggressive. Among the outlying provinces, Orissa be- came part of the empire as late as 1590, Kashmir in 1587, Sind in 1592, Kandahar in 1594, and only a small portion of the Deccan was annexed in Akbar's life.
The reign was thus a perpetual series of efforts toward the expansion of a territory originally small. So doubtful indeed seemed Akbar's prospects of Indian sovereignty at the moment when his father's unex- pected death placed him in command, that in the first council of war the generals strongly urged an imme- diate retreat upon Kabul, and their advice was over- ruled only by the firm decision of the regent Bairam, an old Turkman officer who had followed Babar and Humayun, and realized better than the others the divided and leaderless state of the enemy. Matters were certainly in an alarming position. Sikandar of Delhi had been driven to the mountains, where he held Mankot against all attacks, but a far more formidable army was marching to take vengeance, Himu, the general of the Bengal kingdom, a Hindu who had rap- idly advanced from a mere shopkeeper to practically supreme power, entered Agra unopposed, defeated Tardi Beg at Delhi, occupied the capital, assumed the
4 AKBAR THE GREAT
historic title of Raja Vikramajit, and then advanced to crush the Moghul forces.
When the dispirited remnant of the garrison of Delhi reached Akbar's headquarters at Sirhind, news had just arrived of another blow, the revolt of Kabul. Fortunately the young emperor had a great soldier at his side to meet the crisis. Bairam, the atalik, or regent, was a consummate general and a man of iron resolu- tion. He instantly made an example of Tardi Beg, for the loss of Delhi, and placed the other disgraced officers under arrest. Then he sent on the advance-guard, which was lucky enough to intercept the entire park of Ottoman artillery which Himu had incautiously set adrift; and on Friday the 5th of November, 1556, the two armies confronted each other on the field of Pani- pat, where thirty years before Babar had overthrown the Afghan power, and where two centuries later an- other battle swept away the Maratha hordes and pre- pared the way for England.
In spite of the loss of his guns, Himu commanded a force sufficient to dismay the Moghul leaders. He had three divisions, the centre of which was composed of twenty thousand horse (Afghans and Rajputs) sup- ported by five hundred elephants, and the whole force of elephantry numbered at least 1500. Himu led the advance, " scowling on his elephant Hawa, ' the Wind.' " His charge upon the Moghul left was suc- cessful; he then turned to crush their centre. But here the archers stood firm, the enemy were harassed by showers of arrows, and one fortunate shaft pierced
DEFEAT OF HIMU AT PANIPAT 5
the eye of the Hindu leader. There was no one in authority to take up the command, and the masterless crowd broke up like a herd of stampeded horses. Himu on his elephant was driven straight into the presence of Akbar, and Bairam bade the boy flesh his sword on the dying " infidel.' ' The honourable chivalry which distinguished Akbar above all his line at once burst forth: " How can I strike a man who is as good as dead? " he cried. Bairam had no such fine scruples, and immediately dispatched the wounded man.
The crisis had been bravely met, and Akbar had never again to confront so dangerous an enemy. Hence- forward, though constantly fighting, he had the advan- tage—incalculable in Oriental warfare— of being in the position of the attacker, not the attacked. Delhi again opened its gates and received him with effusive loyalty. Agra followed the example of the capital, and after an eight months' siege Sikandar surrendered Mankot and retired to Bengal. The young prince was now king at least in the northwest corner of India. The process of settling this comparatively small territory and deal- ing with the revenues and the status of the military vassals occupied the next few years, and, except for the reduction of the great fortress of Gwalior and the conquest of the Ganges valley as far as Jaunpur and Benares, the limits of the kingdom were not greatly extended.
In 1560 Akbar took the reins into his own hands. He had chafed under the masterful management of Bairam, whose severity and jealousy had been shown
AKBAR THE GREAT
in several high-handed executions and had roused gen- eral discontent. Palace intrigue set Akbar's mind against his old tutor, who was doubtless slow to realize that his pupil was no longer a child to be held by a
THE PALACE AT GWALIOR.
leading-string. In an Eastern harem there are power- ful influences against which few ministers can prevail, and Akbar's foster-mother, Maham Anaga, ruled the palace in those early years. She used her power to undermine the emperor's esteem for Bairam. Taking
BAIRAM REMOVED FROM THE REGENCY 7
advantage of a visit to Delhi, where he was free from the regent's domination, she worked upon his natural impatience of the regent's arrogance, and induced him to break his bonds. Akbar publicly announced that he had taken the government into his own hands, and sent orders to the deposed minister to go on pilgrimage to Mekka— a courteous form of temporary banishment. The young emperor might, perhaps, have dealt more gently with the honoured servant of his father and grandfather— one, too, who had so strenuously served him in his hour of peril— but the change had to be made, and it could not be easy in any way. Bairam left for Gujarat to take a boat for Arabia, but on his way he fell among evil counsellors who tempted him to revolt. He was defeated and made humble submis- sion, when Akbar instantly pardoned him with all his old kindness. But there could now be no place for Bairam in the government, and he set forth sadly on his pilgrimage, once the chief desire of the staunch Mos- lem, but now a mark of his downfall. Before he could embark he was assassinated by an Afghan in quittance of a blood-feud.
The nurse's triumph was brief. For a time she acted almost as a prime minister, and her quick intel- ligence, as well as her devotion to her foster-son, made her invaluable to him. Unhappily, her hopes were wrapped up in her own son, Adham Khan. She pushed him forward to high command, which he filled with more arrogance than loyalty; he fell into disgrace, and when finally out of envy and chagrin he murdered
8 AKBAR THE GREAT
Akbar 's foster-father, the prime minister Shams-ad-din, in 1563, and then stood at the door of the harem as if in sanctuary, his cup was full. The emperor rushed out, sword in hand, felled the assassin with a blow of his fist, and, foster-brother though he was, Adham was instantly thrown over the battlements of the palace. It broke his mother's heart, and she survived him but forty days.
It was time that Akbar freed himself from this harem influence. Adham had already tarnished the emperor's name in Malwa, where, after expelling the pleasure-loving and cultured Afghan governor, Baz Bahadur, he behaved grossly toward the vanquished. " Baz Bahadur,'' writes Elphinstone, " had a Hindu mistress who is said to have been one of the most beau- tiful women ever seen in India. She was as accom- plished as she was fair, and was celebrated for her verses in the Hindi language. She fell into the hands of Adham Khan on the flight of Baz Bahadur, and, finding herself unable to resist his importunities and threatened violence, she appointed an hour to receive him, put on her most splendid dress, on which she sprinkled the richest perfumes, and lay down on a couch with her mantle drawn over her face. Her at- tendants thought that she had fallen asleep, but on endeavouring to awake her on the approach of the khan, they found she had taken poison and was already dead." Nor was this all. Other ladies of Baz Baha- dur's harem were in Adham 's possession, and when Akbar himself rode to Malwa in hot haste and bitter
AKBAR'S PERSONALITY 9
shame to stop his lieutenant's atrocities, Maham Anaga had these innocent women killed, lest they should tell tales to the emperor. Akbar was well quit of both mother and son.
Although the young emperor was still immature, and it was many jrears before he entered upon that stage of philosophic enlightenment which has made his name a household word for wisdom and toleration, he had already shown something of his character and self-reliance. His refusal to strike the dying Himu,
GOLD COINS OF AKBAR AT AGRA, A. H. 981, (A. D. 1573).
his firm and yet not unkind treatment of his revolted regent, his honest indignation at Adham's iniquities, show that Akbar possessed the right spirit. Physically he is described by his son Jahangir, in later life, as of middle stature, long in the arms and sturdy of figure, rather sallow in face, with black eyes and eyebrows and an open forehead. A wart on the left side of his nose was regarded as not only auspicious but exceed- ingly beautiful. His voice was ringing, and, in spite of scant culture, his conversation had a charm of its own. " His manners and habits," adds his son, " were quite different from those of other people, and his countenance was full of godlike dignity." His mode of life was regular and abstemious. His time was care-
10 AKBAR THE GREAT
fully filled, and he slept little; " his sleep looked more like waking.' ' He ate but one meal a day, and that in moderation, never approaching satiety. Ganges water, " cooled with saltpetre/' was his drink, and it was kept sealed for fear of poison. He took meat but twice a week, and even then with repugnance, for he disliked making his body a " tomb for beasts "; but some meat he found necessary to support his fatigues. He was a man of great energy and constant occupation, capable of immense and prolonged effort, and fond of all manly exercises. He was a fine polo player and so devoted to the game that he used to play it even by night, using fireballs. The chase was his keenest delight, and he would break the tedium of the long marches of his many campaigns by hunting elephants or tigers on the way. We read of 350 elephants taken in a single day; at another time he stalked wild asses for thirty-five miles, and shot sixteen. He had names for his guns, and kept records of their performances. There were vast battues, when thousands of deer, nil- gau, or Indian blue antelope, jackals, and foxes were driven by the beaters in a circle of forty miles, and the lines drawn closer and closer, till Akbar could enjoy at his ease several days' shooting and hawking with plenty of sport, and still leave a few thousand head for his followers to practise on. These battues some- times took place by night, and there is a curious paint- ing of the period, showing one of these nocturnal hunts with the emperor on horseback, and the game, startled by the bright flashing of a lantern, leaping as the chief
AKBAR'S MODE OF LIFE
11
shikar, or huntsman, draws his bow. Akbar had also mechanical genius. He devised a new method of mak- ing gun-barrels of spirally rolled iron, which could not burst; he invented a machine which cleaned sixteen barrels at once, another by which seventeen guns could be fired simultaneously with one match, and there were many more things that he improved by his talent for invention*
THE DAULAT BAGH, AJMIB.
Nothing seemed to fatigue Akbar. He is said to have ridden from Ajmir to Agra, a distance of 240 miles, in a day and a night, and even if (with some authorities) we double the time, it is still wonderful travelling, and one is not surprised to read that he often exhausted his horses when pushing on night and day at breakneck speed. He liked to see a good fight, too, and one day at Thanesar he chanced upon a curi- ous spectacle. It was the annual festival, and there was a vast crowd beside the sacred lake; the holy men were gathering a rich harvest in charity, when the
12 AKBAR, THE GREAT
customary struggle arose between two sects of fanatics for the possession of the bathing-place. They came to the emperor and begged to be allowed to fight it out according to their habit. He consented, and allowed some of his soldiers to smear their bodies with ashes and go in to support the weaker side. There was a splendid fight; many were killed, we are told; and " the emperor greatly enjoyed the sight.' '
On a campaign Akbar was indefatigable. In one of his pursuits of Ali Kuli Khan-zaman, an Uzbeg officer who repeatedly revolted in the name of Akbar 's jealous brother, Hakim, and was as often pardoned by his too forgiving sovereign, he pushed on so rapidly that of his army only five hundred men and elephants succeeded in being in at the finish. In spite of his reduced force, Akbar rode straight for the enemy, and took his own share of the fighting. " As the battle grew hot, the emperor alighted from his elephant, Bal- sundar, and mounted a horse. Then he gave orders for the elephants to be driven against the lines of Ali Kuli Khan. Among them there was an elephant named Hiranand, and when he approached the ranks of the enemy, they let loose against him an elephant called Diyana; but Hiranand gave him such a butt that he fell upon the spot. Ali Kuli received a wound from an arrow, and while he was drawing it out another struck his horse. The animal became restive, and Ali Kuli was thrown. An elephant named Narsing now came up and was about to crush him, when Ali Kuli cried out to the driver, * I am a great man; if you
A REBELLION CRUSHED IN SURAT 13
take me alive to the emperor he will reward you.' The driver paid no heed to his words, but drove the animal over him and crushed him under foot." Many prisoners were cast to the elephants to be trampled to death, a common mode of execution in India, in which Akbar showed no scruple. After refusing, in his chiv- alrous way, to attack an unprepared enemy till the trumpets had announced his approach, he had no qualms about making a pyramid of two thousand rebels' heads after the fashion of his ancestor Timur. He could be terribly stern and was subject to paroxysms of rage, in one of which he threw a .servant from the battlements for falling asleep in the palace, but his natural in- clination was ever towards mercy, and his forgiveness often cost him dear.
As an example of personal courage his attack on his rebellious cousins, the Mirzas, at Surat in 1572 may be instanced. Pressing on at his usual speed, he found himself on the bank of the Mahindri River in face of the enemy, with only forty men at his back. Sixty more soon joined him, and with this handful he forth- with swam the river, stormed the town, and, rushing through, discovered the enemy in a plain on the other side. The emperor's force was outmatched by ten to one, and the fighting was desperate. " The royal forces were in a narrow place, hedged in with thorns, where three horsemen could not pass abreast. The emperor with much courage was at the front, with Raja Bhag- van Das beside him. Three of the enemy's horsemen now charged them. One attacked the raja, who hurled
14 AKBAR THE GREAT
his spear at him and wounded him as he was entangled in the thorns, so that he fled; the other two attacked his Majesty, who received them so stoutly that they were forced to make off." Two officers now joined Akbar, who, refusing their escort, sent them after his assailants; and the little force, roused by their em- peror's danger, utterly routed the enemy. The courage of Akbar had put every man on his mettle, and the victors returned to Baroda the heroes of the hour. In the campaign of 1572-3 Akbar not only retook Ahmada- bad and entered Cambay and Baroda, but captured the strong fort of Surat, which had been built with extraor- dinary care and skill to keep out the Portuguese, and contained mortars bearing the name of Sulaiman the Great of Turkey. When Akbar took the fort of Juna- garh in Kathiawar in 1591, he found there a gun of the same Sultan, whose fleet had vainly attacked the coast castles and had been forced to abandon the guns. The presence of the Raja Bhagvan Das at Akbar's side in the skirmish just described is significant. If he had not been altogether successful in managing his Mohammedan followers, a turbulent body of adventur- ers, the emperor more than redeemed his overindul- gence to rebellious Moslems by his wise conciliation of Hindus. It may be that the very truculence and in- subordination which he found so hard to check among his Turkish officers threw him perforce into the arms of the Rajputs; for we can hardly believe that a mere lad, brought up in an atmosphere of despotic rule, could as yet have imagined the ideal of a government resting
AKBAR'S ALLIANCE WITH RAJPUTS 15
upon the loyalty of the native population. As early as 1562 Bhagvan's father, Raja Bihari Mai, the lord of Amber and ancestor of the present maharajas of Jaipur, had come to pay his homage to the new sov- ereign. " He was received with great honour and con- sideration, and his daughter, an honourable lady, was accepted by his Majesty, and took her place among the ladies of the court.' ' Akbar had already married his cousins Rukayya and Salima, but this union with a Rajput princess marked a new policy. Her father was decorated with the highest rank of the official aris- tocracy, as a mansabdar, or general of five thousand horse, and the bride, freely exercising the rites of her own faith and performing the usual Hindu sacrifices, encouraged her husband's tendency towards religious toleration. Later on he took other women, Hindu, Per- sian, Moghul, and even an Armenian, until his harem formed a parliament of religions, though no rumour of their probable debates ever reached the outside world. Abu-1-Fazl says there were more than five thou- sand inmates of the harem, in various capacities, and sagely remarks that " the large number of women—a vexatious question even for great statesmen— furnished his Majesty with an opportunity to display his wis- dom.' '
An almost immediate result of this alliance with the Rajput princess was the abolition in 1562 of the jizya, or poll-tax, which Mohammedan conquerors lev- ied upon unbelievers in accordance with the law of Islam. His next act was to discontinue the tax upon
16 AKBAR THE GREAT
Hindu pilgrims, on the ground that, however super- stitious the rites of pilgrimage might be, it was wrong to place any obstacle in the way of man's service to God. No more popular measures could have been en- acted. The jizya was an insult as well as a burden, and both taxes bore heavily on the poor and were bitterly
AGRA GATE, FATHPirR - SIKRI.
resented. It was the reimposition of the tax on religion in the time of Aurangzib that, more than anything else, uprooted the wise system established by his ancestor. But while conciliating the Hindus by just and equal government, Akbar did not hesitate to interfere with some of their most cherished practices when they offended his sense of, humanity. He forbade child- marriage, trial by ordeal, and animal sacrifice; he
REFORM MEASURE8 17
permitted widows to marry again, and set his face resolutely against the burning of widows on their hus- band's pyres: wholly to abolish suttee was beyond his power, but he ordained that the sacrifice must be vol- untary, and he took personal pains to see that no com- pulsion should be used. He also insisted that " the consent of the bride and bridegroom and the permission of the parents are absolutely necessary in marriage contracts "— a new idea in a country where girls were married without regard for their own wishes or desires.
Akbar was too shrewd a man to suppose that the hereditary pride of the Rajputs was to be conquered merely by kind words and mild measures. He knew that often the best way to make friends with a man is to knock him down. Udai Singh, the great rana of Mewar (son of Sanga, Babar's adversary), left him in no doubt as to his hostility. He sheltered Baz Baha- dur when driven from Malwa by the imperial army, and when other rajas came and tendered their allegiance to the Moghul, Udai Singh stood aloof, apparently secure in his rocky fortresses and numerous array of troops and elephants. Akbar, he thought, could never take his strong castle of Chitor, standing on an isolated crag, four hundred feet high, and with almost perpen- dicular sides towards the top. The summit was occu- pied by an immense fortress, well supplied with pro- visions, wells, and water-tanks, and garrisoned by eight thousand veterans of the Rajput race under a famous leader, Jai Mai, the rana himself having prudently
18 AKBAR THE GREAT
retreated to the Aravali hills on Akbar's approach in 1567.
The citadel in Akbar's time is thus described by Mulla Ahmad: " The castle is situated in the midst of a level plain which has no other hills. The mountain is twelve miles round at the base, and nearly six at the summit. On the east and north it is faced with hard stone, and the garrison had no fears on those sides, nor could guns, swivels, stone-slings, or mangonels do much damage on the other sides, if they managed to reach them. Travellers do not mention any fortress like this in all the world. The whole summit was crowded with buildings, some several stories high, and the battlements were strongly guarded and the maga- zines full." The garrison laughed at the slender force of three or four thousand which the emperor had brought against a fortress twelve miles in girth, and well they might.
They had to deal with a skilful engineer, however, and Akbar made his dispositions with great care. Bat- teries were set up all around the fort, and a strict blockade was established. Meanwhile generals were sent to seize Rampur and Udaipur, and to lay the surrounding country waste. " From day to day," says Mulla Ahmad, " the gallant assailants brought their attacks closer to the fort on every side, though many fell under the resolute fire of the defenders. Orders were given for digging trenches and making sabats, and nearly five thousand builders, carpenters, masons, smiths, and sappers were mustered from all parts.
The Ruined City of Amber, near Jaipur. Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, New York.
SIEGE OF THE FOBTBESS OF CHITOB 21
Sabats, or broad covered ways, under the shelter of which the besiegers approach a fortress protected from gun and musket fire, are contrivances peculiar to Hin- dustan, for the strong forts of that land are full of guns, muskets, and defensive machines, and can be taken only by this means. Two sabats were accordingly begun; one, opposite the royal quarters, was so broad and high that two elephants and two horses could easily pass abreast, with raised spears. The sabats were begun from the brow of the hill (i. e. half-way up, below the perpendicular scarp), which is a fortress upon a fortress." Seven or eight thousand horsemen and gunners strove to stop the work, and in spite of the bull-hide roofs over the labourers, a hundred or so were killed every day, and their corpses were used as build- ing materials. There was no forced labour, by Akbar's order, but the volunteers were stimulated by showers of money. Soon one of the sabats overtopped the wall of the castle, and on the roof of it a gallery was made whence the emperor could watch the fight.
Meanwhile the sappers had not been idle. Two bastions were mined with gunpowder, and a storming party was drawn up. The first mine blew a bastion into the air, and the stormers rushed into the breach, shouting their war-cry, and were at once at hand-grip with the garrison. At that moment the second mine, owing to a miscalculation, exploded and hurled in frag- ments into the air the crowd struggling in the breach. The charge was so heavy that stones and corpses were hurled " miles " away, according to the historian.
22 AKBAR, THE GREAT
and the royal army was half blinded by the dust and smoke and by the hail of stones and bodies that de- scended upon them.
The first approach had failed, and Akbar now or- dered the other sabat to be pushed forward. He was more resolved than ever to take the fort by storm " so that in future no other fortress should dare to with- stand him." He took up his position in the gallery on the top of the sabat, as before, armed with his musket, " deadly as the darts of fate, with which he killed every moving thing that caught his eye." At last the walls were breached, and the assault was ordered. Jai Mai, the commandant, " an infidel, yet valiant," strug- gled bravely in every part and all day long, encourag- ing his men to beat off the enemy. At the hour of evening prayer he came in front of the royal battery, where Akbar sat discharging his gun " Sangram " as often as light flashed forth in the bastion. Jai Mai happened to be standing in the tower encouraging his men just when a blaze of light revealed his face to Akbar, who fired and killed him on the spot. Then the garrison gave up hope, and after burning the body of their leader, they performed their dismal rite of jauhar, burning all their families and goods in huge bonfires, and then rushing on to death. The besiegers saw the flare of the pyres, and poured through the breaches, while Akbar looked on from the top of the sabat. Three elephants he sent into the castle to aid in the general massacre of the devoted garrison. The Rajputs fought every step; each lane and street and
FALL OF THE CITADEL OF CHITOE 23
bazar was sternly disputed; they fought up to the very temple. Two thousand were killed by midday; the total death-roll of the Hindus was at least eight thou- sand men, besides their families; the rest were made prisoners, as we know from the accounts of those who were present at the storming. The heroism of the defence was long commemorated in popular tradition by the two statues, supposed to represent Jai Mai and his brother, mounted on stone elephants, which flanked the gate of the fortress at Delhi. " These two ele- phants/ ' says Bernier, " mounted by the two heroes, have an air of grandeur and inspire me with an awe and respect which I cannot describe.' '
The fall of Chitor, followed by two other famous fortresses, Rantambhor and Kalinjar, a few months later, secured the allegiance of the Eajputs. The rajas agreed to acclaim a power which they found as irre- sistible as it was just and tolerant. Akbar cemented the good feeling by marrying another princess, daugh- ter of the raja of Bikanir, and henceforward he could rely on the loyalty of the most splendid soldiery in India. In his future campaigns, as in those of his son and grandson, there were always brave Hindus to the fore, and the names of Bhagvan Das, Man Singh, and Todar Mai are famous in the annals of Moghul war- fare and administration. Bhagvan Das and Man Singh not only distinguished themselves in the wearisome and reiterated campaigns which the unsettled state of Guja- rat compelled Akbar to undertake for a space of twenty years, but were even trusted by him in 1578 to wage
24
AKBAR THE GREAT
war upon the ever hostile rana of Udaipur, Rajput against Rajput. They justified his confidence, drove the rana to the Indus, and captured his strongholds of Goganda and Kunbhalmir.
CHAPTER II
AKBAR'S REFORMS
THE DIVINE FAITH
1566 -1605 A.D.
THIS assimilation of the Hindu chiefs was the most conspicuous feature of Akbar's reign. His wars were like other Indian wars, only mitigated by his sovereign quality of mercy to those who submitted, and by his scrupulous care that the peasants should not suffer by the passage of his troops. The empire was gradually extended till it stretched from Kandahar to the Bay of Bengal, and included the whole of Hin- dustan down to the Narbada. But the remarkable points about this expansion to the old limits of Ala-ad- din's realm were, first, that it was done with the willing help of the Hindu princes, and, secondly, that expan- sion went hand in hand with orderly administration. This was a new thing in Indian government, for hitherto the local officials had done pretty much as it pleased them, and the central authority had seldom interfered so long as the revenue did not suffer. Akbar allowed no oppression by his lieutenants, and not a few of his campaigns were undertaken mainly for the
25
26 AKBAR'S REFORMS
purpose of punishing governors who had been guilty of self-seeking and peculation. Much of the improve- ment was due to his employment of Hindus, who at that time were better men of business than the uneducated and mercenary adventurers who formed a large pro- portion of the Mohammedan invaders.
No Moslem served Akbar more zealously or with more far-reaching results than the great financier, Raja Todar Mai, a Khatri Rajput, who had served in his youth under the able administration of Sher Shah, and had thus gained priceless experience in the management of lands and revenues. He assisted Akbar 's first chan- cellor of the exchequer, Muzaffar Khan, in settling the newly acquired kingdom, and in 1566 took a leading part in suppressing the revolt of Ali Kuli. It was the first time, in Moghul rule, that a Hindu had been sent against a Moslem enemy, and his employment was doubtless due to Akbar 's suspicion that the Moham- medan generals might act in collusion with their old comrade, the rebel. After this he was employed in settling the revenue system of Gujarat, and then again took military command in the conquest of Bengal in 1574-7 and its reduction in 1581, when he distinguished himself by his firm courage. He was rewarded soon afterwards with the office of vizir, and in 1582 became chief finance minister, introducing the famous reforms and the new assessment known as Todar Mai's rent- roll, the Domesday Book of the Moghul empire. He died in 1589. " Careful to keep himself from selfish ambition,' ' writes Abu-1-Fazl, " he devoted himself to
TODAR MAL, AKBAR'S GREAT FINANCIER 27
the service of the state, and earned an everlasting fame."
There is no name in mediaeval history more re- nowned in India to the present day than that of Todar Mai, and the reason is that nothing in Akbar's reforms more nearly touched the welfare of the people than