Akbar

Answer : Akbar was one of the greatest monarchs who ruled India in the second half of the sixteenth century. He is known in history for a broad and tolerant religious policy. He initiated a religious policy of Catholicism and magnanimity to other religions.

His policy was based on the principle of Sulh-i-kul or universal tolerance and peace.

In evolving the policy of religious tolerance, Akbar was influenced by many factors. His immediate surroundings provided the impetus to it. His father was a Sunni, mother and protector Bairam Khan were Shias. His tutor Abdul Latiff was a man of liberal views. Further, the period in which Akbar lived was that of syncretism. Bhakti saints especially Kabir and Nanak along with the liberal Sufis had created an atmosphere of tolerance. Moreover, Akbar’s desire for an all India empire demanded cooperation from all sections. Akbar’s tolerant religious attitude found manifestation in several fields. In 1563, he had established the practice of forcibly converting prisoners of war to Islam. Going by these liberal traditions, he abolished Zizya in 1564.

He established matrimonial alliances with leading Rajput families. He married Rajput princess but gave them complete religious freedom. Further, to clear his mind on the religious issues he built Ibadat Khana and invited to it leading theologians from various religions. He invited besides Muslims, Hindu, Jain and Christian scholars to his court and tried to understand different aspects of all the religions.

Culmination of Akbar’s tolerant religious attitude can be seen in the issue of Mahar to curb the power of Ulemas and in promulgation of an order of Sufist type called the Tauhid Elahi.

He besides gave employment to the Hindus in his nobility and the Rajputs formed an important section of Hindus in his nobility. He also in accordance with his religious tolerance embarked on project to get Hindu works like Mahabharata, Ramayana, Atharvaveda etc translated in Persian from Sanskrit. He also passed many measures aimed at social and educational reforms. Thus, he forbade sati and insisted on having second wife only in case the first one was impotent. Widow Remarriage was also legalized. The age of marriage was raised to fourteen for girls and sixteen for boys. The sale of wines and spirits was restricted.

Akbar also revised the educational syllabus, laying more emphasis on moral education also mathematics and on secular subjects such as agriculture, geometry, astronomy, logic, history etc. He also gave patronage to artists, poets, painters and musicians irrespective of their religions affiliation.

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Answer : Din I ilahi can’t be said to be Akbar’s folly. It was a syncretic religious doctrine propounded by the Mughal emperor Akbar intended to merge the best elements of the religions of his empire (primarily Islam and Hinduism; elements were also taken from Christianity, Jainism and Zoroastrianism) and thereby reconcile the differences that divided his subjects. Akbar was tolerant of religions other than Islam. In fact, not only did he tolerate them, he encouraged debate on philosophical and religious issues. This led to the creation of the Ibadat Khana (“House of Worship”) at Fatehpur Sikri. From the discussions he led there in 1575, Akbar concluded that no single religion could claim the monopoly of truth. This inspired him to create the Din I ilahi in 1581. Various Muslim clerics responded by declaring this to be blasphemy. Din I Ilahi as propounded by Akbar combined mysticism, philosophy and nature worship.

It also recognized no gods or prophets. This religious doctrine had few followers; the only person other than Akbar who was a Din I ilahi believer until death was Birbal, one of Akbar’s ministers. Raja Man Singh, his commander-in-chief, refused conversion, saying that he recognized only two religions, Hinduism and Islam. Din I ilahi appears to have survived Akbar according to the Dabestan-e Mazâheb of Mubad Shah (Mohsin Fani). However, the movement never numbered more than 19 adherents. Din-i-Ilahi was more of an ethical system. It prohibits lust, sensuality, slander and pride, considering them sins. Piety, prudence, abstinence and kindness are the core virtues. The soul is encouraged to purify itself through yearning of God. Celibacy and the slaughter of animals is forbidden. There are no sacred scriptures or a priestly hierarchy in this religion. A most prominent spiritual leader of his people, Mughal Emperor Akbar devoted considerable amounts of time and resources to sorting out the common truth in the multiple religions he ruled over.

Using the fundamental Muslim principle, that every faith contained the essential truth that God is unified and one thing, Emperor Akbar sought to find the unifying aspects of all religions. Initially, he began this project, long before he came up with Din-i Ilahi, by standing as a benefactor to a series of deliberations at his court between delegates of the various religions, which included Hindus, Christians, and Jains amongst others.

The Din-i Ilahi, the religion that would synthesize the world’s religions into a single religion, that he established was chiefly built upon Islamic elements. Like Islam, it was well balanced and was based on one overriding doctrine which elucidated that God was singular and promoted egalitarianism. In addition to Islam, however, the Din-i Ilahi also contained aspects of Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and Hinduism. The Din-i Ilahi borrowed from Jainism a reverence for anything that had life. From Zoroastrianism, Akbar took the idea of sun-worship and, especially, the idea of celestial sovereignty. In essence, the world, as a creation of God, is a single and unified place that reflects the singularity and unity of its creator.

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Answer : After ascending to the throne solving earlier problems, Akbar started his policy of the expansion of the kingdom in a proper way. In that period, the Rajputs were an important political power. Akbar developed very friendly relations with them and took their help in political matters. Through their power and help, Akbar not only established an enormous Moghul kingdom but also gave a proper form to their participation in strengthening the Moghul Kingdom in later periods. This fact is very important that during the reign of Akbar, the Moghul Empire was greatly expanded. During the times of his predecessors, there were only battles and in that of his successors, the Empire was only partly expanded. In Akbar’s times, the association with the Rajputs started and a friendly relation was established.

As a result of which, the struggle based on religious and political basis of the level for the ruler class diminished gradually. An age of friendship and cooperation started which helped both the sides. In the Delhi Sultanate, the Rajputs had enjoyed and important place from earlier times. In the beginning of the Moghul period, Babur and Humayun faced a major resistance from the Rajputs during their reign. Babur had to fight with Rana Sanga but after that the Rajput’s political dominance, lessened. Till 1556, the Afghans had an important place in Indian politics. Akbar understood the importants of the Rajput power and hence made a proper policy to take their help in the affairs of the Empire. Due to this policy, the Rajputs not only did become his supporters, but they also contributed actively in the expansion of the Moghul Empire. As the revolts of the Rajputs diminished, the reign of Akbar was more or less very peaceful. So, he could built a permanent empire giving enough time to administrative reforms.

There were two major problems as Akbar ascended to the throne— (i) the problem of the Afghans and (ii)the problem of revolt by the Hindu ruler class. The Rajputs could have been a help in solving these problems. The Afghans could have been uprooted if there was an association between the Moghuls and the Rajputs. It is known that during the reign of Babar and Humanyun there developed an armed alliance between the Afghans and the Rajputs. Keeping in view all these things, Akbar sought the help of a section of the powerful Hindus the Rajputs, in solving the internal and external problems. Akbar had promised the Rajputs that there would be no interference in their social, religious and internal political matters. Although there was not any essential condition to establish marriage relations, Akbar strengthened his relations with the rulers like King Bharmal with the help of marriage.

At first, in 1562 Akbar had a treaty of friendship with king Bharmal. King Bharmal and his family cooperated with Akbar till the end. Almost the whole of the Rajput region was included in the Empire of Akbar. Uptill 1585-86, the Rajputs had not only become friends but were participant in the Empire. In the battle of Kabul in 1580 Mansingh showed undaunted gallantry and bravery. King Todarmal had strengthened the economy of the state by giving a new dimension to the land revenue system of that time. The contribution of the Rajputs in the Mughol service consolidated the Empire. Mansingh as the Subedar of Kabul, Shekhawat as that of Agra and Jagannath as that of Ajmer, provided stability to the Empire.

The predecessors of Akbar, Jahangir and Shanjahan, more or less followed his Rajput policy. But during the reign of Aurangzeb, there came a drastic change in these policies. In the beginning,Aurangzeb got the help of the Rajputs. In the fight of succession Jaswant Singh gave military help to Aurangzeb. But in 1679, he had to face the opposition from the Rajputs. Even after that, the relation of Aurangzeb with the Rajput didn’t finish completely. But indeed it got strained. In 1978, after the death of Jaswant Singh the ruler of Marwar, Aurangzeb interfered in the issue of successor of Marwar. This made the Rathore Rajputs his enemies. He fought battles with the Rajputs also during the Marwar battle, Aurangzeb forced ‘jazia tax’ on the Hindus. He collected pilgrimage tax also and destroyed many temples. This gave rise to feeling of enmity and resentment among the Hindus. Later on, the ruler of Marwar allied with the Rathore Rajputs against Aurangzeb. The Rajputs also helped his unsatisfied and revolting Son Akbar, but Aurangzeb solved this problem by his treacherous policy.

Till the end of the period of Aurangzeb the Moghuls had gained strength in north India and sought help of the Marathas in the South, that is why he didn’t give much attention to the Rajputs. Apart from his orthodox policy the contemporary situations very much contributed to his Rajput policy.

The economic and feudal problems were basically responsible for the decline of the Moghul Empire, not his Rajput policy. He added another problem to his problems by distancing the Rajputs. His Rajput policy reflects his incapability to handle the issues which gave a fillip to the prestige of the Moghul Empire. As a result of which political and religious resentment spread to a great extent.

So, comparing and analyzing the policies and deeds of Akbar and Aurangzeb, there is no doubt that Aurangzeb destroyed the prestige and esteem of the Moghul Empire which had prospered and shined brilliantly under the golden reign of Akbar. While Akbar quite diplomatically acquired the support of the Rajputs, Aurangzeb alienated them and weakened his Empire.

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Answer : Akbar’s religious policy was moulded and motivated by his parental and social heritage. He was born and brought up in a Rajput family. His mother herself was Shia muslim. All of Akbar’s teachers and guides in his boyhood incidently happened to be men of inorthodox religious views. His teacher Abdul Latif was a person of liberal views. Akbar learnt from him the nobel lesson of Suleh-i-kul that means peace with all, on universal brotherhood. Bairam Khan was another great personality who influenced his approach.

The socio-political environment also affected his attitude towards the common people. Sher Shah Suri was the forerunner of Akbar in adopting the policy of religious toleration. However, Akbar was the first monarch in medieval India who raised the policy of religious toleration to the pinnacle of secularism. The non-muslims constituted the majority of his Indian subjects. Without winning their confidence and active support, Akbar could not hope to establish and consolidate Mughal empire in India. Akbar fully understood the centrifugal tendencies of the complex Indian socio-political order and made a serious attempt to eliminate these by separating religion from politics.

The first stage of his tolerant policy towards the Hindus was a spiritual awakenning. He had fully realised that basic unity among religions. As a part of his secular policy he married Rajput princess from Amber in 1562 and received voluntary services of Rajput warriors. In 1962, Akbar declared that women and children of the enemy camp must not be molested by Mughal armies on any account. Akbar encamped at Mathura in 1563 when he came to know that, in accordance with the old practice of the muslim rulers, his government has also imposed a tax on the Hindu pilgrims who wanted to have a dip in the holy water of Yamuna. After this he abolished pilgrim tax throughout his dominions. In 1564, he also abolished Jaziya.

Saikh Mubarak, a liberal minded scholar of Sufi dispositions came into contact with Akbar in 1573, after the conquest of Gujarat. He and his two sons Faizi and Fazal greatly influenced young Akbar. Badayuni mentions that later on he was so influenced by the philosophies of Brahmanas and Sramanas that he started believing in the philosophy of transmigration of soul. In 1575, he ordered to built Ibadatkhana an ideal place for religious discource. Thus, he initiated the practice of holding religious discourses there with the learned and the saints of the age; the meetings were held on Thursday night which is a holy day for the Hindus.

Akbar’s proclamation of Majhar was the greatest ever declaration made during the medieval period. The main objective of this declaration was to separate politics from religion and give more importance to royal decree than the orthodox Islamic laws. Akbar called himself Imam-i-Adil or the Chief interpretor of the Islamic Law. In this way, Akbar developed an effective control over Diwan-i-Kaza or the judicial cum relgious department which was earlier dominated by Ulema or Muslim theologians who were always more sympathetic towards the muslim community and rigid on established conventions of Islam. It seems that by calling himself Mujtahid and declaration of Majhar he made himself temporal as well as spiritual leader.

Akbar’s spiritual enlightenment is reflected in his doctrines related with Tauhid-i-Illahi which was later on called Din-i-Illahi. By founding Din-i-Illahi he was eager to weld all the Indians, irrespective of their caste, creed and religious belief and practices, into a homogenous society. So it seems that like Akbar’s Dhamma the whole approach of Din-i-Illahi was national integration and developing peace and amity in the society.

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Answer : Mansabdari order was an endeavour to streamline the military administration. It was basically adopted with the purpose to creat a large centralised and standing army and regularize the system of recruitment. Mansabdari system was basically the system of forming a hierarchy of military officers with different number of contingent. It was a very important feature of the Mongol army. In India itself its some of the features were already present in the military systems of Alauddin Khalji and precursor of Jalaluddin, Md. Akbar, Sher-Shah. In this systems mansabdars were selected on the basis of their capability and experience. The literal meaning of mansab is rank. Two, words in context to mansab : these are Jat and Sawar. Jat means the actual rank and Sawer means the total number of cavalery men under the control of a mansabdar. Dagh and Chehra system were important part of mansabdari system. A register mentioning all the important information about a cavalery man was maintained. This register was called Tajkira. Dagh system was basically adopted to maintain the quality and actual number of horses under a mansabdar. Dagh means branding of the horses. Periodical inspection was another important feature of the mansabdari system.

During Jahangir Du-Aspa and Sih-Aspa system was introduced into this order that was done to facilitate two and even three horses to a cavalery man during war time. Aurangjzeb started taking Khurakan-i-Phil from the mansabdar that was done to check forgery being done in the name of fodder being given to elephants.

No doubt mansabdari system introduced during Akbar’s period played an important role in developing stringent control on military as well as revenue administration but later on due to hereditary claims made on the different ranks this system lost its real significance.

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Answer : A mystic as well as a rationalist, Akbar was profoundly religious and an earnest seeker after truth. Akbar is said to have experi­enced religious ecstasy when he was barely fif­teen. His mind delighted in listening to the philo­sophical discourses of sufis and saints. Gradu­ally he turned away from the path of narrow Mus­lim orthodoxy. The bigotry of the Muslim Ulema disgusted him. He caused no harm in finding out the truth which other religions claimed to possess. Whereas the orthodox would accept only such fea­tures of other religions as did not come into con­flict with Islam, Akbar did not respect these limits. He felt that every faith had something of truth to offer but all were untrue when they denied each others sincerity of purpose. He believed that the denial of the freedom of religion to non-Mus­lims was the negation of disservice to God. He therefore favoured complete tolerance of belief and rejected the Muslim ideal of one scripture and one brotherhood since it deepened religious strife.

Akbar’s religious views thus were radically at odd with orthodox Muslim opinion. Conforming to his views, he abolished the practice of enslave­ment of the Hindu prisoners of war or seeking their conversion to Islam, as well as the hated imposts-pilgrim and Jaziya taxes which the Hindus had been paying for long and allowed complete reli­gious freedom to his Rajput spouses in the Mughal palace. All this happened in the years A.D. 1562-64 when he was barely 20 or 22 years old. He thus broke away from the orthodox tradition of intoler­ance extended to the Hindus. Such near revolu­tionary measures were not based on political ex­pediency. His own religious temperament was the chief reason for such enlightened steps. Signifi­cantly, by A.D. 1562 Akbar was free from his re­gent Bairam Khan’s or his harem’s tutelage and by that time Abul Fazl and Falzi (two of Akbar’s close friends) had not been introduced to him. The decision to put an end to the traditional policy of denying the Hindus absolute religious freedom was independently his and it beyond doubt es­tablishes that Akbar possessed a rare catholicity and natural liberalism.

Political considerations did not prompt him to internalize liberal outlook; it was a natural growth. Rather his catholicity and natural liberal­ism broadened his political vision and sagacity adequate enough as to realize that religious strife and discrimination made for political and social disintegration.

In addition to his being inherently liberal, Akbar had a grand conception of monarchy. He sincerely believed that kingship is a gift of God and that he had a divine mission of expanding his kingdom and promoting the well-being of his subjects. Clearly Akbar was imperial by nature and therefore had a great urge for power and to create an all-India empire. Realistically he ana­lyzed that this implied the establishment of a com­mon citizenship on the basis of complete tolera­tion to the non-Muslims and their association in the administration on equal terms with the Mus­lims. Akbar’s religious views and liberalism were absolutely in conformity with this. He therefore compounded his catholicity and liberalism with his concept of monarchy and imperial instincts to fully conciliate the Hindus in general and the Rajputs in particular. Akbar was greatly success­ful in doing this. He achieved (i.e., a vast and con­solidated empire) which was impossible for the Sultans of Delhi to achieve, because they lacked that inherent catholicity or broadmindedness which Akbar had but they could not doubt liberal principles even as political expedients, though they very much pursued imperialistic policies.

By A.D. 1579 Akbar felt that he would have to have sole authority to take any decisions, therefore, he secured an authority (Mahazar) from Muslim theologians to invest him with the power to adopt anyone of the conflicting opinions of Muslim ju­rists on any issues. The Mahazar did not make him infallible; but it did give that power to Akbar which had hitherto been the special privilege of the Ulema. In A.D. 1582, he, while referring to the discord among the diverse creeds, proclaimed his new or­der, Din-i-Ilahi, emphasizing the necessity of bring­ing them all into one in such fashion that they should be both ‘one’ and ‘all’ with the great advan­tage of not lassoing what is good in any one religion while gaining whatever is better in another. Din-i-Ilahi was no new religion. Being liberal, he never tried to coerce or induce his subjects or friends to adopt Din-i-Ilahi, he was rather persuasive.

Akbar’s relations with the non-Muslims were shaped broadly by his liberal and cosmopolitan outlook, the eager craving of his soul to know the truth and by his imperial vision. What pained him most was the proselytizing nature of Islam. He felt a sense of oneness among the diverse religions. He, therefore, worked for a ‘common nationality and a synthesis of the various elements in the country. He received all-Muslims, Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Jesuit fathers-with equal favour and was influenced by all of them in varying degree.

Akbar’s relations with non-Muslims were based on his Sulh-i-kul i.e., peace with all. That is why he abolished all discriminatory levies or taxes as well as the practice of seeking conversions to Islam; he tried to integrate the non-Muslim ele­ments, particularly Hindus with the Mughal sys­tem of government. (Please explain Akbar’s reli­gious and Rajput policies).

Akbar was deeply interested in Hinduism. He greeted interviews to learned Brahmins, who were Purushottam and Debi. They ex­pounded to him the doctrine of metempsychosis which the emperor approved by saying, there is no religion in which the doctrine of transmigra­tion has not taken firm root. It was not Brahman-ism alone to the doctrines of which he lent a will­ing ear. He took equal interest in Jainism, Zoroas-trianism, Christianity and Sikhism.

The Jain teachers who are said to have greatly influenced the emperor’s religious outlook were Hiravijaya Suri, Vijayasena Suri, Bhanuchandra Upadhayaya, and Jinachandra. From 1578 on­wards one or two Jain teachers always remained at the court of the emperor. From Hiravijaya Shri he received instructions in the Jain doctrine at Fatehpur and received him with great courtesy and respect. Jina-Chandra is reported to have converted the emperor to Jainism, but this statement cannot be accepted any more than the belief of the Jesuits that he had become a Christian. Yet the Jains exercised a far greater influence on his habits and mode of life than the Jesuits. In 1582 at the instance of Hiravijaya Suri the emperor released prisoners and caged birds, and prohibited the slaughter of animals on certain days. Eleven years later, another Jain teacher Siddhachandra paid a visit to the em­peror at Lahore, and was honoured. He obtained several concessions for his co-religionists. The tax on pilgrims to the Satrunjaya hills was abolished, and the holy places of the Jains were placed under their control. In short, Akbar’s giving up the meat and the prohibition of injury to animal life was due to the influence of Jain teachers.

The Parsis or followers of zoroaster also attended the imperial court and took part in the religious de­bates. Badaoni writes that they ‘impressed the em­peror so favourably that he ordered Abul Fazl to make arrangements that sacred fire should be kept burn­ing at the court at all hours of the day according to their custom’. The Parsi theologian Dastur Meherjee Rana who lived at Nawasari in Gujarat initiated the emperor in the mysteries of Zoroastrianism. He was received well at court and was granted 200 bighas of land as a mark of royal favour. The emperor adopted the worship of the sun.

His interest in Christianity was equally keen. He sent for the Christian fathers from Goa to in­struct him in the tenets of their faith. But the fathers were tactless enough to abuse the indulgence shown to them by the emperor by vilifying the prophet, and making unworthy attack upon the Quran, so much so indeed, that on one occasion the life of Father Rodolfo was in peril, and the em­peror had to provide a special guard to protect his person. It does not appear that the Jesuits did any­thing more than give intellectual satisfaction to the emperor whose philosophical earnestness knew no bounds, and who wished to explore all avenues of truth. Vincent Smith is undoubtedly guilty of exag­geration when he says that the contribution made by the Christians to the debates at Fatehpur-Sikri was an important factor among the forces which led Akbar to renounce the Muslim religion.

The emperor felt a great regard for the Sikh gurus also, and on one occasion at the Guru’s re­quest he remitted a year’s revenue for the benefit of the ryots in the Punjab, and once observed that it was a ‘volume worthy of reverence.’

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