Akbar
the Great
(born 1542, ruled from 1556 to 1605)
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Akbar is
considered to be one of the greatest Mughal rulers as during his
reign the Mughal empire tripled in size and wealth.
Akbar was the 3rd ruler of the Mughal empire. Son of Humayun, Akbar
was born in Umarkot (Pakistan), and succeeded to the throne at the
age of 13 when his father suddenly died. For the next 5 years Bairam
Khan (regent) helped Akbar rule the kingdom. In 1561 Bairam Khan
died and Akbar took over the government in his own hands.
Akbar knew that, to be a successful ruler of the India subcontinent
he needed to integrate the Hindus in his empire. He won the
allegiance of the Rajputs (Hindu warriors) by a good mix of
tolerance, generosity, and force. He won over the Hindus by
appointing them to important military and civil positions,
conferring honours upon them, and marrying a Hindu princess.
Having got the cooperation of the Hindus, Akbar built his kingdom
that extended from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal and from the
Himalayas to the Godavari River. |
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Did
You Know |
Akbar's
greatest achievement was the establishment of a very effective
administrative system. He was also very tolerant towards other
faiths and religions and let people practice their faiths
independently. He also was a reformist and abolished laws that were
unfair. All this made Akbar very popular with his subjects.
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Abul
Fazal's 2 works - Akbar-nama and Ain-I-Akbari are accounts of
Akbar's court.
The famous singer Tansen was a part of Akbar's court. |
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his rule Arts and Architecture flourished. He had a library of over
24,000 books and he setup a department for translation in his court. He
ordered the translation of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. He built
the Red fort at Agra and also Fatehpur Sekri in honour of Sheikh Salim
Chishti. |
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Did
You Know |
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Birbal
was one of Akbar's courtiers who adopted the Din-E-Illahi as his
religion. |
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He
introduced a new religion, Din-E- Illahi, in 1582. It contained the
teachings mainly from Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. He did not force
the religion on his people and the religion did not become very popular.
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| Akbar
died in 1605 and was succeeded by Jahangir, his son from his Hindu wife
Jodhabai. |
