Rulers of India: Akbar Part 8

Custom counts for much in India, and custom p.r.o.nounced in favour of the recognition of the influence of the chief man of the village, and it became necessary practically to deal, at least conjointly, with him.

When the Emperor took into consideration the circ.u.mstances attending the holding of lands, he found not only that grants had been made by his predecessors to unworthy objects, but that his own administrators had been guilty of bribery and corruption of various degrees. It was shortly after Faizi joined him in camp, and had acquired great influence with him, that his eyes were opened to these enormities. He found to his horror that the chief perpetrators of them were men who made the largest professions of sanct.i.ty. Then followed, almost immediately, the sarcastic exile of these men to Mekka: {189} then, a thorough inquiry into the department. There were four cla.s.ses to whom it had been considered desirable that the sovereign should be able to render State a.s.sistance. The first cla.s.s comprised the men who devoted themselves to literature and learning, and who had no means of their own. It had seemed desirable that such men should not be hara.s.sed by the need of having to care for their daily bread. The second cla.s.s included those who 'toil and practise self-denial, and while engaged in the struggle with the selfish pa.s.sions of human nature, have renounced the society of men.' The third, the weak and poor, who had no strength for toil. The fourth, honourable men of gentle birth, who, from want of knowledge, are unable to provide for themselves by taking up a trade.

To inquire into the circ.u.mstances of pet.i.tioners of these cla.s.ses an experienced officer of presumably correct intentions had been appointed. He was ent.i.tled Sadr, or chief, and ranked above the Kazi and the judges. When, in consequence of the inquiries set on foot at the instance of Faizi, it was discovered that the whole of this department was a hotbed of corruption, Akbar made a clean sweep of the officials, from the Sadr down to the smallest Kazi, and nominated men drawn from a different cla.s.s, fencing their functions with strict regulations.

But, as sovereign who had to reward great services rendered to the crown, Akbar required to dispose of large grants of land to men devoted to his service. Thus, he paid the Mansabdars, or officers entrusted {190} with high command, by temporary grants of land in lieu of a money allowance. He found that the most powerful of his immediate predecessors, the Sher Shah who had expelled his father, Humayun, had been more than lavish in his grants of land to his immediate followers, men mostly of Afghan descent. Akbar inquired into the circ.u.mstances under which these grants had been made, and in many instances he resumed them to bestow them upon his own adherents.

In acting in this way he only followed the precedent set him by previous sovereigns. But he had even more reason than that which precedent would sanction. He found that the land specified in the _firman_ granted to the holder but rarely corresponded in extent to the land which he actually held. Sometimes it happened that the language of the _firman_ was so ambiguously worded as to allow the holder to take all that he could get by bribing the Kazis and the provincial Sadr. Hence, in the interests of justice and the interests of the crown and the people, he had a perfect right to resume whatever, after due inquiry, he found to be superfluous. He discovered, moreover, that the 'Ulama, or learned doctors, a cla.s.s more resembling the pharisees of the New Testament than any cla.s.s of which history makes record, and whom he cordially detested, had been very free in helping themselves during the period of his minority, and before the representations of Faizi had induced him to make inquiries. He therefore made the strictest {191} investigation into their t.i.tles. When these were found faulty, or he had reason to believe that they had been dishonestly obtained, he resumed the grants, and exiled the ex-holders to Bukkur in Sind, or to Bengal, the climate of which had, in those days, a very sinister reputation.

At the period of his reform, moreover, he greatly reduced the authority of the Sadr, transferring to his own hands the bulk of the power which had devolved upon them.

Regarding the general tendency and result of the reforms inst.i.tuted by Akbar in the territorial system of the country, a distinguished writer[6] has recorded his judgment that, much as they 'promoted the happiness of the existing generation, they contained no principle of progressive improvement, and held out no hopes to the rural population by opening paths by which it might spread into other occupations, or rise by individual exertion within his own.' I venture, with some diffidence and with the greatest respect, to differ from this criticism. Akbar, admittedly, promoted the happiness of the generation amongst whom he lived. To have proceeded on the lines suggested by Mr. Elphinstone, he would have destroyed a principle which was then vital to the existence of Hindu society as it was const.i.tuted. Akbar went dangerously near to that point when he attempted to negotiate directly with the cultivators instead of through the headman of the village. He recognised in sufficient time that he must deal very charily and {192} cautiously with customs which had all the force of law, and he withdrew his order.

[Footnote 6: _The History of India_, by the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone.]

The chief adviser of Akbar in matters of revenue, finance, and currency was the Raja Todar Mall, of whom I have spoken in the last chapter. He was a man of great ability and of tried integrity. Though attached to the court of a Muhammadan sovereign, he was an earnest Hindu, and performed faithfully all the ceremonies of his religion.

On one occasion when accompanying Akbar to the Punjab, in the hurry of departure he forgot his idols. As he transacted no business before his daily wors.h.i.+p he remained for several days without food or drink, and was at last with difficulty consoled by the Emperor.

Of the army the princ.i.p.al component force was cavalry. Elephants too const.i.tuted an important feature in the array of battle. As a rule, the presence of elephants was supposed to indicate the presence of the Emperor, or rather, it was believed that the sovereign could not be present unless elephants were there. In the last chapter I have given an example of the happy mistake committed by a formidable antagonist of the Emperor in consequence of this prevailing impression.

The empire north of the Vindhyan range was portioned by the Emperor into twelve subahs or provinces. These were each governed by a viceroy, subordinate only to the sovereign. He held office during good behaviour, and was bound in all things to carry out the instructions of his master. Under {193} him were local military officers called _faujdars_, who united in their own persons the duties devolving upon a chief of police and a military commander. To them was consigned the maintenance of peace in their several districts; the superintendence of military establishments within the same; the command of the regular troops there located; and, generally, the repression of disturbances.

The lines upon which justice was administered by the officers of Akbar were the same as those introduced by his Afghan predecessors.

The Kuran was the basis upon which the law rested. But precedents often modified the strict interpretation. Where, moreover, the law leaned to severity it was again modified by the instructions drafted by the Emperor or his advisers. The leading features of these instructions were to temper justice with mercy. The high officers were enjoined to be sparing in capital punishments. In one rescript addressed to the Governor of distant Gujarat, that functionary was directed in no case, except in that of dangerous sedition, to inflict capital punishment until his proceedings had received the confirmation of the Emperor.

South of the Vindhyan range, in the division known as the Deccan, or South, the imperial possessions were originally divided into three subahs or commands. Subsequently, when new provinces and districts had been acquired, they were increased to six. After the death of Akbar these were all placed under one head, called the Subahdar, the precursor of {194} the Nizam. With him, but subordinate to him, was a.s.sociated an administrative financial officer called the Diwan, or Chancellor.

Akbar was a very magnificent sovereign. Though simple in his habits, he recognised, as the greatest of British Viceroys recognised after him, that show is a main element in the governing of an Eastern people. It is necessary to strike the eye, to let the subjects see the very majesty of power, the 'pomp and circ.u.mstance' attending the being whose nod indicates authority, who is to them the personified concentration on earth of the attributes of the Almighty. This is no mere idea. The very expressions used by the natives of India at the present day show how this thought runs through their imaginations. To them the man in authority, the supreme wielder of power, sits in the place of G.o.d. His _fiat_ means to them weal or woe, happiness or misery. On days of ceremony, then, they expect that this all-powerful being shall display the ensigns of royalty, shall surround himself with the pomp and glitter which betoken state. Akbar thoroughly understood this and acted accordingly.

We are not left to the descriptions of the author of the Ain to realise the imposing grandeur of his ceremonies. The native historians speak of his five thousand elephants, his twelve thousand riding-horses, his camp-equipage containing splendid tents, comprising halls for public receptions, apartments for feasting, galleries for exercise, chambers for retirement, all of splendid material and rich and varied {195} colours. They describe the Emperor himself on the days of special ceremonial seated in a rich tent, the awnings of which were thrown open, in the centre of carpeting of the softest material, covering at least two acres of ground, receiving the homage of his n.o.bles. These occupied tents inferior only in degree to that of the sovereign. Then ensued, in the sight of the people, the ceremony of weighing the sovereign against various articles, to be distributed to those who needed them. According to the number of years the sovereign had lived there was given away an equal number of sheep, goats, and fowls to the breeders of those animals. A number of the smaller animals were likewise set at liberty. The Emperor himself distributed with his own hand almonds and fruits of the lighter sort among his courtiers.

On the great day of the festival Akbar seated himself on his throne, sparkling with diamonds, and surrounded by his chiefest n.o.bles, all magnificently attired. Then there pa.s.sed before him, in review, the elephants with their head and breast-plates adorned with rubies and other stones, the horses splendidly caparisoned, the rhinoceroses, the lions, the tigers, the panthers, the hunting-leopards, the hounds, the hawks, the procession concluding with the splendidly attired cavalry. This is no fancy picture. The like of it was witnessed by Hawkins, by Roe, and by Terry, in the time of the son and successor of Akbar, and those eminent travellers have painted in gorgeous colours the magnificence of the spectacle.

{196} These scenes were witnessed only on days of high ceremony. At ordinary times Akbar was the simple, unaffected, earnest man, ever striving after truth, such as the work he accomplished gives evidence of. That work was the consolidation of an empire, torn by Muhammadan conquerors for more than four centuries, and at the end of that period still unsettled, still unconsolidated. During those four centuries the principles of the Kuran, read in a bigoted and unnatural sense by the Afghan conquerors, had been distorted to rob and plunder the Hindu population. The most enlightened of his earlier predecessors, Sultan Firuz Shah, described by an English writer as possessing 'a humane and generous spirit,' confesses how he persecuted those who had not accepted the faith of Islam. Those principles of persecution for conscience sake, in full swing at the time of the accession of Akbar, Akbar himself abolished.

Akbar's great idea was the union of all India under one head. A union of beliefs he recognised at a very early stage as impossible. The union therefore must be a union of interests. To accomplish such a union it was necessary, first, to conquer; secondly, to respect all consciences and all methods of wors.h.i.+pping the Almighty. To carry out this plan he availed himself to a modified extent only of the Muhammadan ritual. Instead of the formula under which so many persecutions had been organised, 'there is but one G.o.d, and Muhammad is his Prophet,' he adopted the revised version: 'there is but one G.o.d, and Akbar is his {197} vicegerent on earth.' The prophet, he argued, came to preach the oneness, the unity, of G.o.d to an idolatrous people. To that people Muhammad was the messenger to proclaim the good tidings. But the precepts that messenger had laid down and had embodied in the Kuran had been interpreted to teach the propagation of the doctrine of the oneness of G.o.d by the sword.

The consequences of acting upon that mis-reading, as Akbar considered it, had been failure, at least in India. To that failure he had before him the witness of upwards of four centuries. He had but just entered his twenty-first year when he recognised that government carried on on such a principle must inevitably alienate. His object, I cannot too often repeat, was to bring together, to conciliate, to cement, to introduce a principle which should produce a community of interests among all his subjects. The germ of that principle he found in the alteration of the Musalman profession of faith above stated.

The writings of Muhammad, misinterpreted and misapplied, could only produce disunion. He, then, for his age and for his reign, would take the place of the Prophet. He would be the interpreter of the generous and merciful decrees of the one All-powerful.

The dominant religion should not be, as long as he was its interpreter, the religion of the sword. It should carry, on the contrary, a healing influence throughout India; should wipe away reminiscences of persecution, and proclaiming liberty of conscience, should practise the most perfect toleration. When this change had been generally recognised Akbar would then appeal {198} to the princes and peoples of India to acknowledge the suzerainty of the one prince who would protect and yet not persecute. He would appeal to them to aid in the regeneration he was preparing, not in his individual interest, but in the interests of the millions who, for four centuries, had been hara.s.sed by invasions, by civil wars, by persecutions following both.

Akbar did not appeal to an unreflecting or an obstinate people. With one exception, that of Chitor (now known as Udaipur), the Rajput princes and people of the most influential part of India came into his scheme. The most powerful amongst them, Jaipur and Jodhpur, helped him with the counsels of the men who, Hindus, were his most trusted captains, and with their splendid soldiers. The princ.i.p.al opposition he encountered was from the bigots of his own court, and from the descendants of the Afghan invaders settled in Bengal, in Orissa, and in Western India. For the sake of his beneficent scheme it was necessary to bring these into the fold. He tried at first to induce them to accept their authority from him. They accepted it only, on the first occasion, to seize an opportunity to rebel. There was then no choice but conquest. So he conquered. Toleration, good and equal laws, justice for all, invariably followed.

Thus it was that he, first of the Muhammadan invaders of India, welded together the conquered provinces, and made them, to the extent to which he conquered, for a portion of Southern India remained unsubdued, one united Empire. These are his t.i.tles {199} to the admiration of posterity. We, who have watched his work, and have penetrated his motives, recognise the purity of his intentions. He did not wish, as the bigots of his Court declared that he wished, to have himself obeyed and wors.h.i.+pped as a G.o.d. No: he declared himself to be the interpreter of the religion of which the Prophet had been the messenger in the sense of teaching its higher truths, the truths of beneficence, of toleration, of equal justice irrespective of the belief of the conscience. His code was the grandest of codes for a ruler, for the founder of an empire.

'There is good in every creed; let us adopt what is good, and discard the remainder.' Such was his motto. He recognised this feature in the mild and benevolent working of Hinduism, in the care for the family inculcated by it, in the absence of the spirit of proselytism. He recognised it in the simple creed of the followers of Zoroaster. He recognised it in Christianity. There was good in all. He believed, likewise, that there was good in all men. Hence his great forbearance, his unwillingness to punish so long as there was hope of reform, his love of pardoning. 'Go and sin no more' was a precept that const.i.tuted the very essence of his conduct.

Such was Akbar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty. Such were the principles which enabled him to found it. They were principles which, if adhered to, would have maintained it. They were the principles by accepting which his Western successors maintain it at the present day.

{200} In the foregoing pages I have spoken of Akbar and his achievements as though I were comparing him with the princes of our own day. Handicapped though he is by the two centuries which have since elapsed, Akbar can bear that comparison. Certainly, though his European contemporaries were the most eminent of their respective countries, though, whilst he was settling India, Queen Elizabeth ruled England, and Henry IV reigned in France, he need not shrink from comparison even with these. His reputation is built upon deeds which lived after him. No one can suppose that his successor, Jahangir, had he followed Humayun, could have conciliated and welded together the divided territories he would have inherited or conquered. His pa.s.sionate and bigoted character would have rendered the task impossible. But the foundations dug by Akbar were so deep that his son, although so unlike him, was able to maintain the empire which the principles of his father had welded together. When we reflect what he did, the age in which he did it, the method he introduced to accomplish it, we are bound to recognise in Akbar one of those ill.u.s.trious men whom Providence sends, in the hour of a nation's trouble, to reconduct it into those paths of peace and toleration which alone can a.s.sure the happiness of millions.

{201}

INDEX

ABUL Ma'ALi, favourite of Humayun, is sent to occupy Dipalpur, 62: rebellion, and death of, 97.

ABULFAZL, becomes the friend of Akbar, 151: character, studies, and influence of, 152-3, 170: murder of, 139.

AGRA, the building of the fort of, 99.

AGRICULTURE, measures taken by Akbar to benefit those addicted to, 121.

AKBAR, birth of, 52: is abandoned at Shal, 53: is taken to Kandahar, and tended by his aunt, 54: is removed to Kabul, 54, 55: where his father rejoins him, 55: perils of, at Kabul, 55-9: joins his father in the invasion of India, and is present at the battle of Sirhind, 62: is sent by his father to the Punjab, 63: is there proclaimed Emperor, 63: choice of courses before, 65: turns to contest the empire with Hemu, 66: moves on Panipat, 68: wins the battle of Panipat, 70: refuses to slay the captured Hemu, 71: the problem he had to solve in India, 78-80: personal appearance of, 81: character and predispositions of, 82-4: secures the Punjab, 84, 85: feels the preponderating influence of Bairam, 85-7: a.s.sumes the administration and exiles Bairam to Mekka, 88: suppresses the rebellion of Bairam, 89: personal rule of, begins, 91: the aims of, 92, 93: begins to carry out his plan of bringing all India into his system, 93: design of, of welding together, 94: deals with the Gakkhars, 96, 97: reception of, in Mandu, 98: deals with the revolt of the Uzbek n.o.bles, 100: conquers Behar, 101, 102: suppresses rebellions in the Punjab and Kabul, 102: besieges Chitor, 105: founds Fatehpur-Sikri, 106: after securing Rajputana, marches on Gujarat, 108: incidents of the conquest of Gujarat by, 109-13: extent of the authority of, 115: reverses the principle of making war support war, 116: orders the invasion of Bengal, 118: and invades it himself, 118: captures Patna, 119: returns to Delhi, 120: and Fatehpur-Sikri, 121: takes measures to benefit the agriculturists, 121: completes conquest of Bengal, 122: builds the Ibadat-khana at Fatehpur-Sikri, 123: abolishes inland tolls and the _jizya_, 126: proceeds to Kabul, 127: reasons of, for matrimonial alliances with Rajput families, 129-31: proceedings of, in the Punjab, 131-6: revisits Kabul, 134: proceeds to the Deccan, but returns to repress the rebellion of Prince Salim, 136-8: family of, 141: illness of, 142: dying words of, 144: character of, 144, 145: disposition, principles, and training of, 146: influence of Faizi over, 151: influence of Abulfazl over, 153-5: creed promulgated by, 157: uses made by, of his power, 159: religious code of, 160: culls from many religions, 161: his own conception of his position, 163: discourages Sati, 164: discourages professors, but encourages men of real learning, 166: his affection for Faizi and Abulfazl, 170: how the principles of, affected his administration, 171: making difference of religion no distinction, 172: abolis.h.i.+ng the tax on pilgrimages, 172: the _jizya_, 174: how they affected his dealings with the Hindus, 175: attachment of, to his relatives, 177: likings and peculiarities of, 179: fondness for field sports of, 179: daily habits of, 180: reasons of, for marriage with Rajput princesses, 181-4: wives of, 184: revenue system of, 185: rewards granted by, to the deserving, 189: wise caution displayed by, in disturbing ancient customs, 191: army of, 192: divisions of the empire of, 192: magnificence of, 194: a true seeker after truth, 197: character of the people he appealed to, 198: comparison of, with his European contemporaries, 200.

aLi KULi KHaN-i-SHAIBaNi, brilliantly captures Hemu's artillery, 68.

ARGUMENT, the, of the work, 5.

ATTOCK, on the Indus, built by Akbar, 127-31.

BaBAR, family from which, was descended, 12: age of, at time of father's death, 13: loses Ferghana, 14: surprises Samarkand, 15: is defeated by the Uzbeks, 15: and flees to the deserts, 16: crosses the Oxus, and conquers Kabul, 18: impressions on the mind of, by first glance at the Punjab, 18: resolves to conquer Kandahar, 19: visits Herat, 19: terrible march of, from Herat to Kabul, 20: marches for Kandahar, 21: defeats his enemy and takes it, 22: vicissitudes of the fortunes of, against the Uzbeks, 23: is proclaimed ruler of Sind, 24: first, second, and third invasions of India by, 31: fourth invasion of India by, 32: fifth invasion of India by, 33: reaches Panipat, 33: fights and wins the battle of Panipat, 34: the position of, in India, 35: difficulties of, with his army, 37: generous and n.o.ble nature of, 39: methods of, to conquer the country, 39: defeats Sanga Rana, 41: conquers large portions of Central India and of Oudh, 42: invades Behar, 43: health of, declines, 45: devotion of, to Humayun, 46: dies, 46: character of, 47, 48: last words of, 48.

BAIRaM KHaN, the best general of Humayun, invades Jalandhar, 62: defeats the generals of Sikandar Shah on the Sutlej, and marches to Sirhind, 62: is joined by Humayun and Akbar, and helps to defeat Sikandar Shah, 62: goes with Akbar to the Punjab as his Atalik, 63: murders Tardi Beg, 67, 68: urges Akbar to slay the captured Hemu, 70, 71: virtually rules the new conquest, 85: is exiled to Mekka by order of Akbar, 88: rebels, is defeated, and a.s.sa.s.sinated, 89, 90.

BENGAL, king of, in the time of Akbar, 117: is invaded by Akbar, 118: submits to Akbar, 122: Man Singh appointed Governor of, 133.

BHAGWaN DaS, of Jaipur, Raja, connection of, with Akbar, 111: gallantry of, 111: is governor of the Punjab, 128: death of, 134.

BiRBAL, Raja, is killed by the Yusufzais, 131, and note.

DaNYaL, Prince, the one failing of, causes death of, 141, 142.

DauD KHaN, king of Bengal, _vide_ BENGAL.

DECCAN, the, campaigns in, and partial conquest of, 136.

FAIZi, Shaikh, story of, 150: how he influenced the actions of Akbar, 151, 170.

FATEHPUR-SiKRi, founded by Akbar, 106, 107: discussions in the Ibadat-khana at, 123: memorable scenes at, 156, 157, 161.

FERGHaNa, kingdom of, 13, 14.