A Short History of the Mughal Empire (I.B.Tauris Short Histories)

by Fisher, H, Michael

  The warrior-ethic remained central for mansabdars; their assigned jagirs provided their major source of income. But many mansabdars also engaged directly or indirectly in money-lending, commercial speculation and the production of luxury goods.23 To manage culturally distasteful ‘trade,’ many mansabdars used a Hindu or Jain ‘man of business,’ to their mutual profit. Indeed, when traditional-minded amirs complained to Akbar in 1564 that he was demeaning himself by employing Todar Mal to run his finances, he replied: ‘Every one of you has a Hindú to manage his private affairs. Suppose we too have a Hindú, why should harm come of it?’24 But such business agents remained dependent on the mansabdar’s favor: he could seize their property at will, with little recourse (as an abused agent’s son bemoaned).25

  Many mansabdars also used their official posts for personal profit. Some compelled merchants to sell their goods at concessional prices, or to purchase goods from them at above market rates. Some notoriously never paid their bills. Nonetheless, mansabdars largely recognized their official duty to protect and foster commerce, particularly by policing roads and punishing theft in lands they administered.

  Additionally, higher mansabdars (like Akbar himself) had their own karkhanas (artisanal and artistic workshops) that produced luxury goods for their households, gifts, or sale. Some courtiers, including imperial womenfolk, invested in ocean-going ships and commerce. However, the Mughal Empire (unlike some contemporaries) did not allow rich merchants to purchase rank, thus largely excluding commercial classes from direct political power.26

  Imperial service in the field or at court, while potentially richly rewarding, remained uncertain and dangerous. Many mansabdars died in battle and they occasionally assassinated each other. In court, they constantly jockeyed for Akbar’s attention and patronage. Indeed, Akbar demoted, dismissed, imprisoned, exiled, or executed many mansabdars, including most of those holding the highest ranks. Some survivors eventually obtained his pardon, reinstatement and subsequent promotions. Akbar himself barely survived at least one assassination attempt, multiple serious wounds in battle and various reckless encounters with wild or maddened beasts, some of which left him severely injured. His death from any one of these would have substantially altered the course of the Mughal Empire, or even shattered it. Akbar’s three surviving sons maneuvered and conspired against each other, knowing that only one would succeed as Padshah; two died before he did.

  Thus, Emperor Akbar and his core mansabdars devised and imposed an unprecedented, extensive and advanced administrative-military structure. The imperial center envisioned its models for land revenue, jagirs, provincial administration and mansabs as just and uniform throughout the expanding Empire. But in practice, there were many deviations and regional variations. In addition, even as Akbar personally changed as he reigned from ages 14 to 64, he and his close advisors built capitals, developed ideologies, and waged wars.

  6

  EMPEROR AKBAR’S COURTS, IDEOLOGIES AND WARS, BY MAIN CAPITAL

  I am only seeking for the truth…

  Akbar speaking to Father Antonio Monserrate, S.J. (1581)1

  Over Akbar’s long reign, in a series of capitals, he and his selected advisors constructed around him distinctive and evolving imperial cultures, policies and bodies of mansabdars, even while his reorganized armies expanded his empire. The Central Asian tradition that Akbar inherited valued the ruler’s movement through his domain, with the state always centered on his court, wherever located, and the emperor often in direct command. Indeed, Mughal emperors organized their palace complexes like their military encampments, and vice versa.2 Akbar also made his court elaborately ritualized and hierarchic, rather than collegial like Babur’s.

  Akbar’s developing ideologies and his relationships with various ethnic communities reflected his imperial career and his personal spiritual journey. After Akbar and his supporters made his throne more secure, he had expanded scope to implement his current vision of his empire and his role within it and the cosmos. Yet he always faced constraints from powerful groups inside and outside his domain, each with its own agenda. Overall, Akbar’s relationships with various religions proved highly controversial; from his day until the present, people holding strong but irreconcilably opposing convictions have struggled to shape Akbar’s image.

  Many long-term developments spanned Akbar’s half-century-long regime—including repeated challenges from Timurid relatives, his political marriages, and his evolving land revenue, jagir, provincial administrative and mansab systems. Nonetheless, broadly distinct phases marked Akbar’s composition of his mansabdars, military deployments and religious beliefs and practices. Those phases correlate with his four major capitals. Agra was the main imperial center during both Humayun’s reigns in Hindustan; Akbar remained based there for his first 14 years on the throne, although he often visited elsewhere. Akbar then decisively shifted to his new purpose-built court-capital of Fatehpur Sikri, where he largely remained for another 14 years. Both nearby cities stood strategically central to the imperial heartland of Hindustan, but Akbar’s court culture in each clearly differed. In 1585, Akbar suddenly left Fatehpur and eventually based his court in Lahore, nearer the unstable western frontier. Over his nearly 14 years based in Lahore, he developed his court and empire in striking ways, including by acquiring Lower Sind, Kashmir and Qandahar. Finally, he spent his last seven years personally commanding the Mughal drive into the Deccan and then, back in Agra, holding off his rebellious eldest son, Salim, who was based down the Jumna River in Allahabad.

  THE AGRA PERIOD, 1556–71

  Akbar, as youthful emperor under regency and then during the first decade of his own rule, largely lived in Agra, although he made periodic hunting, military, inspection, pleasure and devotional journeys beyond its walls. Asserting control over Humayun’s legacy, Akbar authorized construction (c. 1562–71) of a magnificent tomb for his father, near Humayun’s Din Panah complex in Delhi. Architecturally, this monument evoked the dynasty’s current culture: primarily Islamic Timurid traditions with additional Iranian elements.

  Simultaneously (1565–73), Akbar invested vast resources in extensively rebuilding and strengthening Agra’s defenses. This reflected young Akbar’s well-founded concerns over military security.

  Within Agra’s citadel, Akbar created his court complex, demonstrating his early architectural aesthetic: uniform red sandstone surfaces, highlighted with white marble. Rather than a single palace with interior rooms for each function, the varied buildings stood apart, each housing a distinct component of his court, administration and household. He daily presided in his diwan-i am, ‘general audience hall’ (although access required permission). Deeper in the complex, Akbar sat enthroned in his diwan-i khas (‘special audience hall’) before his assembled mansabdars and honored visitors. Each deferentially stood with crossed arms in hierarchically arranged semicircles centered on his throne, moving outward from the highest to the lowest. Akbar’s major domo or he himself summoned individuals to approach the throne, make the kind of obeisance appropriate to his status and current fashion, present nazr and other offerings, respond deferentially to any words Akbar might bestow upon him, and receive a khilat or other award. The courtier then withdrew to his previously or newly designated place. Even more protected were inner buildings where only very select men and women could enter. His private audience chamber (ghusal-khana, ‘bath chamber,’ from its original purpose) provided a still highly ceremonial place where the emperor conducted business or conversed with specially invited dignitaries or companions. Beyond were the imperial harem buildings, containing the many women’s suites. Visits among women of the harem and by wives of high dignitaries created a lively society. But Mughal imperial women were gradually becoming more secluded from the public world than in earlier generations.

  Agra, from South West, Engraved by J. Walker from Painting by W. Hodges, 17933

  Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi, c. 1570.

  Akbar customarily dined alone, meaning only he d
ined, but he was usually surrounded by attendants and high courtiers. Since Akbar ate substantial amounts of opium over most of his life, imperial dinners might end with his sinking into a stupor, his guests withdrawing deferentially, and his personal servants discretely conveying him into his sleeping chambers. On ceremonial occasions, and in the few instances when Akbar evoked earlier Timurid traditions, select high courtiers dined with him.

  Akbar also built within the palace complex a free-standing mosque for his own devotions and those of his household and courtiers, a hamam (‘bathhouse’) for their cleanliness and kitchens to produce meals of quality appropriate to the diner’s status. A functional fortress, Agra’s citadel contained living quarters and an arsenal for the sizable imperial bodyguard and garrison, with stables for a multitude of elephants, horses and other animals. Akbar famously supervised all these stables personally. The numerous imperial servants, artisans and other workers had lodgings in the palace complex or surrounding city, depending on their status. Within the citadel or nearby were many imperial karkhanas where artificers and artists worked on imperial commissions, making valuable items for the imperial household or as gifts for other monarchs or mansabdars. Occasionally, Akbar might honor a high mansabdar by permitting him to commission art in these imperial workshops. Mansabdars had their smaller versions of the imperial complex, often a mansion surrounded by karkhanas and the houses of subordinates, thus forming neighborhoods in the imperial or provincial capital. Further, Mughal ceremonial, sartorial, artistic and architectural fashions spread across north India.

  Akbar awarded mansabs to men from various ethnic backgrounds in gradually shifting proportions. Emerging from regency, Akbar inherited from Bairam Khan a body of high commanders and officials: the majority were Sunni Turanis (Central Asians) while a third were Shi‘a Iranis, who were often administrative specialists. Some Iranians had immigrated with Humayun, others came to Bairam Khan. Only a scattering of Indians had joined Bairam Khan’s administration.

  Over Akbar’s Agra years, the total number of mansabdars of each ethnicity rose, but their percentages shifted, reflecting availability and Akbar’s own preferences. For the 1565–75 period, Turani mansabdars declined to 38 per cent—reduced from the majority but still the plurality.4 Iranis also declined, to 27 per cent. However, among high-ranking amirs, Turanis and Iranis were each about 40 per cent. Akbar’s Rajput political marriages grew their proportion, until they (and a few other Hindus) comprised 10 per cent of his mansabdars. In addition, even more Indians whose families had converted to Islam became mansabdars, reaching 14 per cent of the total (but only 9 per cent of amirs). All this reflects the gradual but substantial incorporation of north Indians into the Empire.

  To make his Agra court culturally preeminent, Akbar recruited the finest and most expensive artists from across India and the Islamic lands to the west. Among his most famous courtiers was the singer entitled Mian Tansen (born Ramtanu Pandey, later, after conversion, renamed Mohammad Ata Khan).5 He is still revered for creating many ragas (the tonic and aesthetic foundation for classical Indian music). He had trained at the Gwalior court and then been enticed by Rewa’s ruler. In 1562, Akbar sent that ruler and him a mandatory invitation. For the rest of Mian Tansen’s career, he adorned Akbar’s court, being lavishly rewarded and honored (although evidently never with a mansab).

  In 1567, Akbar invited a budding poet of Persian, Shaikh Abu-al-Faiz, pen-name Faizi (d. 1595). This invitation was controversial since his father, Shaikh Mubarak, had been repeatedly punished for heterodoxy, including by Akbar. Indeed, when the imperial summons arrived, Abu-al-Faiz was reportedly unsure whether to evade or obey it.6 When a younger brother, Shaikh Abu-al-Fazl, came of age, he too joined the court, rising to become Akbar’s main publicist, amanuensis, ideologue, historian and trusted confidant.

  Similarly, Akbar also patronized many of the finest painters, both on paper and on interior walls. He attracted to his atelier artists from the prestigious Safavid court. He also sponsored many Indian artists, recruiting some from other Indian courts. After about 1582, his atelier innovated by attributing works to individual artists, rarely done previously in Indic traditions.7 Gradually, Akbar promoted a distinctive style combining Persian and Indian aesthetics. Additionally, Akbar patronized astrologers, calendar-makers, calligraphers, chronogram-creators, and jewelers.

  Simultaneously, like Akbar’s predecessors, he led or launched armies in every direction that threatened danger or promised plunder or rich revenues. Many of Akbar’s early martial expeditions westward fought Rajputs, the counterpoint to his concurrent policy of political marriages with more cooperative Rajputs. In 1562, Mughal forces captured Jodhpur from the Rathor Rajputs of Marwar, returning this city when they submitted to Mughal sovereignty. In 1567–8, Akbar personally commanded a bloody three-month-siege of the strategically located and supposedly impregnable fortress of Chittor, main bastion of the Sisodia Rajputs of Mewar. Although the Sisodia ruler escaped before the siege, Akbar and his commanders were impressed by the bravery of the fort’s remaining defenders and the mass male and female suicide, jauhar, of many rather than surrender. The victorious Mughals slaughtered the survivors, but Sisodia rulers resisted in their hinterland for five decades longer.

  Other Rajput rulers apprehended the proven Mughal siege technology and ruthless perseverance at Chittor, and were attracted by the rewards of alliance and imperial service. In 1569, the Hada Rajput commander of the famed Ranthambhor fortress negotiated an honorable surrender after a month-long siege, as did the Baghela Rajput ruler of Bhatta who gave up Kalinjar citadel. In 1570, the Rathor Rajputs of Bikaner and the Bhati Rajputs of Jaisalmir also negotiated recognition of Akbar’s sovereignty. Further, Akbar later strengthened his own fortress at Ajmer, in central Rajasthan, to secure intimidating dominance over Rajput lands, and to pursue the remaining holdouts.

  From 1564, Akbar’s commanders also drove southward into Gondwana, the heavily forested homeland of the Gonds (an amalgam of adivasi communities). Like previous empires (and the Indian Republic today), the Mughal state always found controlling such foresters frustrating since they were hard to locate, difficult to move armies against, and resistant to outside authority. But their lands contained many wild elephants—highly valued for their utility and long associated with royalty—and some rulers had amassed large treasuries. To resist this Mughal invasion, numerous Gond rajas rallied behind the widowed Rani Durgavati of Garha-Katanga, whose dynasty boasted being Rajput. She personally led the combined Gond forces, dying in battle; her followers fought until death, committed mass suicide, submitted, or evaded the invaders. Her younger sister, Kamla Devi, reportedly entered Akbar’s harem. In 1567, Akbar recognized the brother of the late Garha-Katanga king in exchange for promised acceptance of Mughal sovereignty. But this region remained an interior frontier for the Empire.

  Akbar also pressed south against the Khandesh Sultanate, strategically located between Hindustan and the Deccan. This dynasty had exchanged brides with the Mughals, but relations remained occasionally hostile nonetheless. However, Akbar postponed extensive commitment of Mughal forces into Khandesh and the Deccan beyond.

  To the east, Jaunpur, Bihar, Bengal and Orissa had long attracted but also resisted Mughal invasions. While environmentally varied, these territories included agriculturally rich lands, with qasbas and urban centers of well-established artisanal manufacturing (especially cloth) and a strong overseas export trade (increasingly via European merchants). In the Bay of Bengal, Portuguese, Arakanese and other maritime powers had also long plundered commercial shipping.

  Even after Bairam Khan had conquered parts of eastern India, Mughal administration there remained thin. Many Central Asian, Irani and even Hindustani mansabdars found Bengal’s humid climate and riverine terrain alienating. Repeatedly in the mid-1560s, imperial officials governing eastern India themselves rebelled against young Akbar, evoking instead Mirza Hakim’s sovereignty. Even after Akbar’s loyalist forces restored his authority (
albeit temporarily), imperial officials posted in eastern India had difficulty penetrating the power structure of settled Indo-Afghan and other local rulers and zamindars.

  Simultaneous with these military campaigns, Akbar strove to build loyalty among influential men who had long supported his family and shaped his own early beliefs. During Akbar’s twenties based in Agra, he largely respected the orthodox Sunni traditions of his ancestors, shared by the majority of his mansabdars and Muslim subjects. These orthodox Sunni policies proved politically advantageous as Akbar mobilized backing against Bairam Khan, known for his Shi‘i sympathies, and then as Akbar established his own corps of mansabdars.

  Through the 1570s, Akbar gave both financial and ideological support to Sunni ‘ulama. His state needed ‘ulama to staff judicial courts, lead congregational prayers, invoke divine blessing on the sovereign, teach Islamic sciences, instruct children in basic literacy and numeracy and make Hindustan a moral society. To secure their support and services, Akbar appointed orthodox Sunni men as Sadr, empowered to give revenue grants to ‘ulama, Sufi pirs (Naqshbandi and also India-based) and indigent but worthy Muslims. Akbar personally observed conventional Sunni forms of worship, including the prescribed five daily prayers. Under the guidance of strongly Sunni ‘ulama (including Shaikh ‘Abd-un-Nabi), Akbar punished sects they claimed were deviant, including millennial Mahdists and outspoken Shi‘as. During this period, Akbar also characterized as jihads some military campaigns against non-Muslims, including some fought on his behalf that included Hindu Rajputs fighting against other Hindu Rajputs.