9 Kings And Chronicles

(c.16th-17th centuries)

Chronicles

➔ Chronicles are texts which present a continous chronological record of events

➔ Mughal rulers believed in Divine Right of Kingship
➔ The Mughal kings commissioned court historians to write accounts.
➔ Modern historians have termed this genre of texts as chronicles

The Mughals and Their Empire

Origin of Mughals

➔ The name Mughal derives from Mongol

➔ Mughals referred to themselves as Timurids, as descendants of the Turkish ruler Timur on the
paternal side.

➔ Chaghtai Turks traced descent from the eldest son of Ghengiz Khan

➔ Babur, the first Mughal ruler, was related to Ghenghiz Khan from his mother’s side.

➔ During the sixteenth century, Europeans used the term Mughal to describe the Indian rulers.

➔ Even the name Mowgli, the young hero of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, is derived from it.

➔ The founder of the empire, Zahiruddin Babur, was driven from his Central Asian homeland,
Farghana, by the warring Uzbeks.

➔ Babur first established himself at Kabul and then in 1526 pushed further into the Indian with his
clan.

➔ His successor, Nasiruddin Humayun (1530-40,1555-56) expanded the frontiers of the empire, but
lost it to the Afghan leader Sher Shah Sur, who drove him into exile.

➔ Humayun took refuge in the court of the Safavid ruler of Iran.

➔ In 1555 Humayun defeated the Surs, but died a year later.

 ➔ Jalaluddin Akbar (1556-1605) the greatest of all the Mughal emperors, for he not only
expanded but also consolidated his empire, making it the largest, strongest and richest kingdom
of his time.

➔ Akbar succeeded in extending the frontiers of the empire to the Hindukush mountains,
andchecked the expansionist designs of the Uzbeks of Turan (Central Asia) and the Safavids of
Iran.

➔ Akbar had three fairly able successors in Jahangir (1605-27), Shah Jahan (1628-58) and Aurangzeb
(1658-1707)

➔ During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the institutions of an imperial structure were
created.

➔ After 1707, following the death of Aurangzeb, the power of the dynasty diminished.

➔ Regional powers acquired greater autonomy.

➔ In 1857 the last emperor of this dynasty, Bahadur Shah Zafar II, was overthrown by the British

Landmarks in the History of the Mughal Empire

• 1526 Babur defeats Ibrahim Lodi, the Delhi Sultan at Panipat,

becomes the first Mughal emperor

• 1530-40 First phase of Humayun’s reign

• 1540-55 Humayun defeated by Sher Shah

• 1555-56 Humayun regains lost territories

• 1556-1605 Reign of Akbar

• 1605-27 Reign of Jahangir

• 1628-58 Reign of Shah Jahan

• 1658-1707 Reign of Aurangzeb

 • 1739 Nadir Shah invades India and sacks Delhi

• 1761 AhmadShah Abdali defeats the Marathas in the third battle of

Panipat

• 1765 The diwani of Bengal transferred to the East India Company

• 1857 Last Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah II, deposed by the British
and exiled to Rangoon (present day Yangon, Myanmar)

The Production of Chronicles

➔ Why chronicles written?

1 In order to project a vision of an enlightened kingdom

2 To convey to those who resisted the rule of the Mughals that all resistance was destined
to fail.

3 To ensure that there was an account of their rule for posterity.

➔ Who were the Authors of Chronicles-Courtiers.

➔ Content of Chronicle-Events centred on the ruler, his family, the court and nobles,
wars and administrative arrangements.

➔ Titles of Chronicles-
The Akbar Nama
Badshah Nama,
Alamgir Nama
( the story of Akbar, Shah Jahan and Alamgir (a title of the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb)

Language of Chronicles

From Turkish to Persian

➔ Mughal court chronicles were written in Persian.

➔ During Delhi sulatante the language of the court and of literary writings
-- Persian,Hindavi
 ➔ Mughal rulers were Chaghtai Turks by origin, Turkish was their
mothertongue.

➔ Babur wrote poetry and his memoirs in Turkish

➔ It was Akbar who consciously set out to make Persian the leading language
of the Mughal court.

➔ Cultural and intellectual contacts with Iran,motivated the emperor to

adopt the Persian.

➔ Persian was elevated to a language of Mughal empire

➔ A new language, Urdu, sprang from the interaction of Persian with Hindavi.

➔ Akbar Nama were written in Persian

➔ Babur’s memoirs, were translated from the Turkish into the Persian Babur
Nama.

➔ Translations of Sanskrit texts such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana

into Persian were commissioned by the Mughal emperors.

➔ The Mahabharata was translated as the Razmnama (Book of Wars)

Mughal Rulers And Their Capitals

Babur (1526-1530) -Agra (UP) -1526–1530

Humayun (1530-1540,1555-1556) -Agra -1530-1540;1555-1556

Akbar (1556-1605) Agra(1556-1571)

Fatepur Sikri (1571-1586)
Lahore(1586-1598)
Agra(1598-1605)

Jahangir (1605-1627) Agra(1605-1627)

Shah Jahan (1628-1658) Agra,(1628-1648)Shahjahanabad(Delhi)(1648-1658)

Aurangzeb (1658-1707) Delhi(1658-1857)

The making of manuscripts

➔ All books in Mughal India were manuscripts, that is, they were handwritten.

➔ The centre of manuscript production was the imperial kitabkhana.

➔ kitabkhana was a scriptorium, that is, a place where the emperor’s collection of manuscripts was
kept and new manuscripts were produced.

➔ Paper makers were needed to prepare the folios of the manuscript

➔ Scribes or calligraphers to copy the text

➔ Gilders to illuminate the pages, painters to illustrate scenes from the text

➔ Bookbinders to gather the individual folios and set them within ornamental covers.

➔ Calligraphy, the art of handwriting, was considered a skill of great importance.

➔ Akbar’s favourite calligraphy style was the nastaliq, a fluid style with long horizontal strokes.

➔ It is written using a piece of trimmed reed with a tip of five to 10 mm called qalam, dipped in
carbon ink (siyahi).

➔ The nib of the qalam is usually split in the middle to facilitate the absorption of ink.

The Painted Image

➔ Painters too were involved in the production of Mughal manuscripts.

➔ Alongside the written text, images described an event in visual form.

➔ Paintings enhanced the beauty of a book

➔ Painting enhanced powers of communicating ideas about the kingdom.

➔ The historian Abu’l Fazl described painting as a “magical art”: in his view it had the power to make
inanimate objects look as if they possessed life.

➔ The production of paintings was sometimes opposed by the ulama due to the Islamic prohibition
of the portrayal of human beings
 ➔ interpretations of the shari‘a changed withtime.

➔ The Safavid kings of Iran, patronised the finest artists, who were trained in workshops set up at
court.

➔ The names of painters – such as that of Bihzad – contributed to spreading the cultural fame of the
Safavid court far and wide.

➔ Artists from Iran also reached in Mughal India.

➔ Iranian artists Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad, who accompanied Emperor Humayun to Delhi.

The Akbar Nama and the

Badshah Nama

The Akbar nama

• Among the important illustrated Mughal chronicles the Akbar Nama and
Badshah Nama (The Chronicle of a King) are the most well known.

• It contained an average of 150 full- or double-page paintings of battles, sieges,

hunts, building construction, court scenes, etc.

Abu’l Fazl

• The author of the Akbar Nama, Abu’l Fazl grew up in the Mughal capital of
Agra.

• He was widely read in Arabic, Persian, Greek philosophy and Sufism.

• Abul Fazl was a forceful debater and independent thinker who opposed the
ulama.

• Abu’l Fazl was appointed as adviser and a spokesperson for his policies by
Akbar.

• Abu’l Fazl worked on the Akbar Nama for thirteen years, repeatedly revising
the draft.
 • Sources -The Akbar namah is based on a range of sources, including actual
records of events (waqai ), official documents and oral testimonies of
knowledgeable persons.

• The Akbar Nama is divided into three books of which the first two are
chronicles.

• The first volume contains the history of mankind from Adam to one celestial
cycle of Akbar’s life (30 years).

• The second volume closes in the forty- sixth regnal year (1601) of Akbar.

• The third book is the Ain-i Akbari.

• In 1602 Abu’l Fazl fell victim to a conspiracy hatched by

Prince Salim, and was murdered by his accomplice,Bir Singh Bundela.

• The Akbar Nama was written to provide a detailed description of Akbar’s reign
and all aspects of Akbar’s empire – geographic, social, administrative and
cultural – without reference to chronology.

• In the Ain-i Akbari the Mughal Empire is presented as having a diverse

population consisting of Hindus, Jainas, Buddhists and Muslims and a
composite culture.

Badshah Nama
(story of Shah jahan)

• A pupil of Abu’l Fazl, Abdul Hamid Lahori is known as the author of the
Badshah Nama.

• Emperor Shahjahan commissioned him to write a history of his reign

• The Badshah Nama is this official history in three volumes (daftars) of ten
lunar years each.
 • Lahori wrote the first and second daftars comprising the first two decades of
the emperor’s rule (1627-47); these volumes were later revised by Sadullah
Khan, Shah Jahan’s wazir.

• Infirmities of old age prevented Lahori from proceeding with the third decade
which was then chronicled by the historian Waris

• The Asiatic Society of Bengal, founded by Sir William Jones in 1784, undertook
the editing, printing and translation of many Indian manuscripts.

• Edited versions of the Akbar Nama and Badshah Nama were first published by
the Asiatic Society in the 19th century.

• The Akbar Nama was translated into English by Henry Beveridge

• Only excerpts of the Badshah Nama have been translated into English

• The Nawab of Awadh gifted the illustrated Badshah Nama to King George III in
1799

• Since then it has been preserved in the English Royal Collections,

now at Windsor Castle.

• in 1997 for the first time, the Badshah Nama paintings were shown in
exhibitions in New Delhi, London and Washington

The Ideal Kingdom

A divine light

➔ Court chroniclers drew upon many sources to show that the power of the
Mughal kings came directly from God.

➔ One of the legends they narrated was tha of the Mongol queen Alanqua, who
was impregnated by a ray of sunshine while resting in her tent.
 ➔ The offspring she bore carried this Divine Light and passed it on from
generation to generation.

➔ Abu’l Fazl placed Mughal kingship as the highest station in the hierarchy of
objects receiving light emanating from God (farr-i izadi ).

Historical origin of ‘divine light’

➔ In Plato’s Republic, God is represented by the symbol of the sun.

➔ A famous Iranian sufi, Shihabuddin Suhrawardi (d. 1191) who first developed
this idea that ‘there was a hierarchy in which the Divine Light was transmitted
to the king who then became the source of spiritual guidance
for his subjects’

➔ Suhrawardi’s writings were studied by Shaikh Mubarak, who transmitted their

ideas to his sons, Faizi and Abu’l Fazl,

➔ Mughal artists, from the seventeenth century onwards, began to portray

emperors wearing the halo, which they saw on European paintings of Christ
and the Virgin Mary to symbolise the light of God

A unifying force (Sulh-i Kul)(absolute peace)

➔ Abu’l Fazl describes the ideal of sulh-i kul(absolute peace) as the cornerstone
of enlightened rule.

➔ In sulh-i kul all religions and schools of thought had freedom of expression.

➔ The ideal of sulh-i kul was implemented through state policies

➔ The nobility under the Mughals was a composite one comprising Iranis,
Turanis, Afghans,Rajputs, Deccanis – all of whom were given position sand
awards purely on the basis of their service and loyalty to the king.

➔ Akbar abolished the tax on pilgrimage in 1563 and jizya in 1564 as the two
were based on religious discrimination.
 ➔ Instructions were sent to officers of the empire to follow the precept of sulh-i
kul in administration.

➔ All Mughal emperors gave grants to support the building and maintenance of
places of worship.

➔ Even when temples were destroyed during war, grants were later issued for
their repair – (during the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb)

➔ However, during the reign of Aurangzeb, the jizya was re- imposed on non-
Muslim subjects.

Just sovereignty as social contract

➔ Abu’l Fazl defined sovereignty as a social contract: the emperor protects the
four essences of his subjects, namely, life (jan), property (mal), honour
(namus) and faith (din), and in return demands obedience and a share of
resources. Only just

➔ One of the favourite symbols used by artists was the motif of the lion and the
lamb (or goat) peacefully nestling next to each other. This was meant to
signify a realm where both the strong and the weak could
exist in harmony.

Capitals and Courts

Capital cities

➔ The heart of the Mughal Empire was its capital city, where the court
assembled.

➔ Babur took over the Lodi capital of Agra, though during the four years of his
reign the court was frequently on the move.

➔ During the 1560s Akbar had the fort of Agra constructed with red sandstone
quarried from the adjoining regions.
 ➔ In the 1570s Akbar decided to build a new capital, Fatehpur Sikri.

➔ One of the reasons prompting this may have been that Sikri was located on
the direct road to Ajmer, where the dargah of Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti had
become an important pilgrimage centre.

➔ The Mughal emperors entered into a close relationship with sufis of the Chishti
silsila.

➔ Akbar commissioned the construction of a white marble tomb for Shaikh

Salim Chishti next to the majestic Friday mosque at Sikri.

➔ The enormous arched gateway (Buland Darwaza) was meant to remind visitors
of the Mughal victory in Gujarat.

➔ In 1585 the capital was transferred to Lahore to bring the north-west under
greater control and Akbar closely watched the frontier for thirteen years.

➔ Shah Jahan pursued sound fiscal policies and accumulated enough

money to indulge his passion for building.

➔ In 1648 the court, army and household moved from Agra to the
newly completed imperial capital, Shahjahanabad by Shahjahan

➔ Shahjahanabad was a new addition to the old residential city of Delhi

➔ Shahjahanabad included the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid, a tree-lined esplanade
with bazaars (Chandni Chowk) and spacious homes for the nobility.

The Mughal court

throne
➔ The physical arrangement of the court, focused on the sovereign, mirrored his
status as the heart of society.

➔ Its centrepiece was therefore the throne, the takht, which gave physical form
to the function of the sovereign as axis mundi.
➔ The canopy, a symbol of kingship in India for a millennium, was believed to
separate the radiance of the sun from that of the sovereign.

➔ Shah Jahan’s jewelled throne (takht-i murassa) in the hall of public audience in
the Agra palace is described in the Badshah Nama

➔ In court, status was determined by spatial proximity to the king.

➔ Once the emperor sat on the throne, no one was permitted to move from his
position or to leave without permission.

➔ The slightest infringement of etiquette was noticed and punished

on the spot.

Forms of salutation

1 sijda

The highest form of submission

2 Kornish was a form of ceremonial salutation in which the courtier placed the
palm of his right hand against his forehead and bent his head.

3 Chahar taslim is a mode of salutation which begins with placing the back of
the right hand on the ground, and raising it gently till the person stands erect,
when he puts the palm of his hand upon the crown of his head. It is done
four (chahar) times. Taslim literally means submission

4 zaminbos kissing the ground

5 Persian custom of clasping one’s hands in front of the chest.

➔ The forms of salutation to the ruler indicated the person’s status in the
hierarchy

➔ Shah Jahan introduced chahar taslim and zaminbos (kissing the ground).

➔ An ambassador presented to the Mughal emperor was expected to

 offer an acceptable form of greeting – either by bowing deeply or kissing the
ground, or else to follow the Persian custom of clasping one’s hands in front of
the chest.

➔ Thomas Roe, the English envoy of James I, simply bowed before Jahangir
according to European custom, and further shocked the court by demanding a
chair.

Daily activities in the court-

Jharoka darshan

➔ The emperor began his day at sunrise with personal religious devotions or
prayers, and then appeared on a small balcony, the jharoka, facing the
east.

➔ Below, a crowd of people (soldiers, merchants, craftspersons, peasants,

women with sick children) waited for a view, darshan, of the emperor.

➔ Jharoka darshan was introduced by Akbar

➔ Abu’l Fazl gives a vivid account of Akbar’s darbar(Darbar-i Akbari)

diwan-i am

➔ After spending an hour at the jharoka, the emperor walked to the public hall of
audience-diwan-i am-to conduct the primary business of his government.

➔ State officials presented reports and made requests.

diwan-i khas

➔ Two hours later, the emperor was in the diwan-i khas to hold private audiences
and discuss confidential matters.

➔ High ministers of state placed their petitions before him and tax officials
presented their accounts.
 ➔ Occasionally, the emperor viewed the works of highly reputed artists or
building plans of architects (mimar).

Festivals in the court

➔ The Mughal kings celebrated three major festivals a year: the solar and lunar
birthdays of the monarch and Nauroz, the Iranian New Year on the vernal
equinox.

➔ On his birthdays, the monarch was weighed against various commodities

which were then distributed in charity

➔ On special occasions such as the anniversary of accession to the throne, Id,

Shab-i barat and Holi, the court was full of life. Perfumed candles set in
rich holders and palace walls festooned with colourful hangings made a
tremendous impression on visitor

Shab-i barat is the full moon night on the 14 Shaban, the eighth month of the
hijri calendar, and is celebrated with prayers and fireworks in the
subcontinent.

Titles and gifts

➔ The title Asaf Khan for one of the highest ministers originated with Asaf, the
legendary minister of the prophet king Sulaiman (Solomon).

➔ The title Mirza Raja was accorded by Aurangzeb to his two highest-ranking
nobles, Jai Singh and Jaswant Singh.

➔ Titles could be earned or paid for.

➔ Mir Khan offered Rs one lakh to Aurangzeb for the letter alif, that is A, to be
added to his name to make it Amir Khan.
 ➔ Other awards included the robe of honour (khilat), a garment once worn by the
emperor

➔ One gift, the sarapa (“head to foot”), consisted of a tunic, a turban and a sash
(patka).

➔ Jewelled ornaments were often given as gifts by the emperor.

➔ The lotus blossomset with jewels (padma murassa) was given only
inexceptional circumstances.

➔ A courtier never approached the emperor empty handed: he offered either a

small sum of money (nazr ) or a largeamount (peshkash).

➔ Thomas Roe was disappointed when a ring he had presented to Asaf Khan
was returned to him for the reason that it was worth merely 400 rupees.

The Imperial Household

harem

➔ The term “harem” is frequently used to refer to the domestic world of the
Mughals.

➔ It originates in the Persian word haram, meaning a sacred place.

➔ The Mughal harem consisted of the emperor’s wives and concubines, his near
and distant relatives (mother, step- and foster-mothers, sisters, daughters,
daughters-in-law, aunts, children, etc.), and female servants and slaves.

Marriage

➔ Polygamy was practised widely in the Indian subcontinent, especially among

the ruling groups.

➔ Both for the Rajput clans as well as the Mughals marriage was a way of
cementing political relationships and forging alliances.
 ➔ The gift of territory was often accompanied by the gift of a daughter in
marriage.

Begams and aghas

➔ a distinction was maintained between wives who came from royal

families (begams), and other wives (aghas) who were not of noble birth.

➔ The begams, married after receiving huge amounts of cash and valuables as
dower (mahr ), naturally received a higher status and greater attention from
their husbands

➔ The concubines (aghacha or the lesser agha)occupied the lowest position in

the hierarchy of females intimately related to royalty.

➔ They all received monthly allowances in cash, supplemented with gifts

according to their status.

Slaves

➔ Apart from wives, numerous male and female slaves populated the Mughal
household.

➔ The tasks they performed varied from the most mundane to those requiring
skill, tact and intelligence.
➔ Slave eunuchs (khwajasara ) moved between the external andinternal life of
the household as guards, servants, and also as agents for women dabbling in
commerce.

➔ After Nur Jahan, Mughal queens and princessesmbegan to control significant

financial resources.

Jahanara and Roshanara -(Shah Jahan’s daughters)

➔ Shah Jahan’s daughters Jahanara and Roshanara enjoyed an annual income

often equal to that of high imperial mansabdars.

➔ Jahanara, received revenues from the port city of Surat

 ➔ Jahanara participated in many architectural projects of Shah Jahan’s new
capital, Shahjahanabad (Delhi).

➔ Among these was an imposing double-storeyed caravanserai with a courtyard

and garden.

➔ The bazaar of Chandni Chowk, the throbbing centre of Shahjahanabad,

was designed by Jahanara.

Gulbadan Begum(the daughter of Babur)

➔ An interesting book giving us a glimpse into the domestic world of the Mughals
is the Humayun Nama written by Gulbadan Begum

➔ Gulbadan was the daughter of Babur, Humayun’s sister and Akbar’s aunt.

➔ Gulbadan could write fluently in Turkish and Persian.

The Imperial Officials

Recruitment and rank

nobility.

➔ One important pillar of the Mughal state was its corps of officers, also referred
to by historians collectively as the nobility.

➔ The nobility was recruited from diverse ethnic and religious groups. This
ensured that no faction was large enough to challenge the authority of the
state.
 ➔ The officer corps of the Mughals was described as a bouquet of flowers
(guldasta ) held together by loyalty to the emperor.

Nobles during mughal period-Turani,irani,Rajput,Indian muslims

➔ In Akbar’s imperial service, Turani and Iranian nobles were present from the
earliest phase .

➔ Two ruling groups of Indian origin entered the imperial service from 1560
onwards: the Rajputs and the Indian Muslims (Shaikhzadas).

➔ The first to join was a Rajput chief, Raja Bharmal Kachhwaha of Amber, to
whose daughter Akbar got married.

➔ Members of Hindu castes inclined towards education and accountancy were

also promoted, a famous example being Akbar’s finance minister, Raja Todar
Mal, who belonged to the Khatri caste.

➔ Iranians gained high offices under Jahangir, whose politically influential queen,
Nur Jahan (d. 1645), was an Iranian.

➔ Aurangzeb appointed Rajputs to high positions, and under him the Marathas
accounte for a sizeable number within the body of officers.

➔ Chandrabhan Barahman described the Mughal nobility in his book

Char Chaman (Four Gardens), written during the reign of Shah Jahan wrote
People from many races (Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Tajiks, Kurds, Tatars,
Russians,Abyssinians, and so on) and from many countries (Turkey, Egypt,
Syria, Iraq,Arabia, Iran, Khurasan, Turan) included in mughal nobility

Mansabdari system

➔ Akbar designed the mansab system

➔ All government officers held ranks (mansabs) comprising two numerical

designations-They were called Mansabdars
 zat which was an indicator of position in the imperial hierarchy and the salary
of the official (mansabdar)

sawar which indicated the number of horsemen he was required to maintain

in service.

➔ In the seventeenth century, mansabdars of 1,000 zat or above ranked as

nobles (umara, which is the plural of amir ).

➔ The nobles participated in military campaigns with their armies and also
served as officers of the empire in the provinces.

➔ The troopers maintained superior horses branded on the flank by the imperial
mark (dagh).

➔ Akbar,established spiritual relationships with a select band of his

nobility by treating them as his disciples (murid ).

➔ A person wishing to join the service petitioned through a noble, who

presented a tajwiz to the emperor.

➔ The mir bakhshi (paymaster general) stood in open court on the right of the
emperor and presented all candidates for appointment or promotion, while his
office prepared orders bearing his seal and signature as well as those of the
emperor.

➔ There were two other important ministers at the centre:

the diwan-i ala(finance minister) and sadr-us sudur (minister of grants or
madad-i maash, and in charge of appointing local judges or qazis).

➔ The three ministers occasionally came together as an advisory body,

➔ Nobles stationed at the court (tainat-i rakab) were a reserve force to be

deputed to a province or military campaign.
Information and empire

➔ The mir bakhshi supervised the corps of court writers (waqia nawis) who
recorded all applications and documents presented to the court, and all
imperial orders (farman).

➔ Agents (wakil ) of nobles and regional rulers recorded the entire proceedings
of the court under the heading “News from the Exalted Court” (Akhbarat-i
Darbar-i Mualla) with the date and time of the court session (pahar ).

➔ The akhbarat contained all kinds of information such as attendance at the

court, grant of offices and titles, diplomatic

➔ Round-the-clock relays of foot-runners (qasid or pathmar ) carried papers

rolled up in bamboo containers.

➔ The emperor received reports from even distant provincial capitals

within a few days.

➔ The empire was connected by a surprisingly rapid information loop for public
news.

Provincial administration

Province(Suba)-----------governor (subadar)
District(Sarkar)-----------faujdar
Subdistrict(Pargana)----qanungo,chaudhuri,qazi

➔ The central ministers had their corresponding subordinates (diwan, bakhshi

and sadr)in subas

➔ The head of the provincial administration was the governor (subadar)

➔ Each Suba was divided into Sarkars (districts) controlled by faujdars

(commandants) who were deployed with contingents of heavy cavalry and
musketeers
 ➔ The local administration was looked after at the level of the pargana (sub-
district) by three semi-hereditary officers, the qanungo (keeper of revenue
records), the chaudhuri (in charge of revenue collection) and the qazi.

➔ Throughout, but local languages were used for village accounts.

➔ The relationship between local landed magnates, the zamindars, and

the representatives of the Mughal emperor was sometimes marked by
conflicts over authority and a share of the resources.

➔ The zamindars often succeeded in mobilising peasant support against the

state.

Beyond the Frontiers

The Safavids and Qandahar

The siege of Qandahar

➔ The Mughal emperors used titles such as Shahenshah (King of Kings) Jahangir
(World-Seizer), or Shah Jahan (King of the World).

➔ Qandahar was a bone of contention between the Safavids and the Mughals.

➔ The fortress-town Qandahar had initially been in the possession of Humayun,

reconquered in 1595 by Akbar.

➔ Safavid court continued to stake claims to Qandahar.

➔ 1613 Jahangir sent a diplomatic envoy to the court of Shah Abbas to plead the
Mughal case for retaining Qandahar, but the mission failed.

➔ In the winter of 1622 a Persian army besieged Qandahar.

➔ The ill-prepared Mughal garrison was defeated and had to surrender the
fortress and the city to the Safavids.

The Ottomans: pilgrimage and trade

 ➔ The important pilgrim centres of Mecca and Medina were located in Hijaz, part
of Ottoman Arabia

➔ The relationship between the Mughals and the Ottomans was marked by the
concern to ensure free movement for merchants and pilgrims in the territories
under Ottoman control.

➔ Mughals combined religion and commerce by exporting valuable merchandise

to Aden and Mokha, both Red Sea ports, and distributing the proceeds of the
sales in charity to the keepers of shrines and religious men there.

➔ However, when Aurangzeb discovered cases of misappropriation of funds

sent to Arabia, he favoured their distribution in India which, he thought, “was
as much a house of God as Mecca”

Jesuits at the Mughal court

➔ The first Jesuit mission reached the Mughal court at Fatehpur Sikri in 1580 and
stayed for about two years.

➔ The Jesuits spoke to Akbar about Christianity and debated its virtues with the
ulama.

➔ Two more missions were sent to the Mughal court at Lahore, in 1591 and 1595.

➔ The Jesuit accounts are based on personal observation and shed light on the
character and mind of the emperor.

➔ At public assemblies the Jesuits were assigned places in close proximity to

Akbar’s throne.

➔ They accompanied him on his campaigns, tutored his children, and were often
companions of his leisure hours.

➔ Padre Rudolf Acquaviva was the leader of the first Jesuit mission
 ➔ Monserrate, who was a member of the first Jesuit mission, says that Akbar
was very accessible to all

➔ Monserrate remarked that “the king cared little that in allowing

everyone to follow his religion he was in reality violating all”.

Akbar -Questioning Formal Religion

Religious life of Akbar

Interfaith debates in the Ibadat khana

➔ Akbar’s quest for religious knowledge led to interfaith debates in the ibadat
khana at Fatehpur Sikri between learned Muslims, Hindus, Jainas, Parsis and
Christians.

➔ Akbar moved away from the orthodox Islamic ways of understanding

religions towards a self-conceived eclectic form of divine worship focused on
light and the sun.

➔ Akbar and Abu’l Fazl created a philosophy of light and used it to shape the
image of the king and ideology of the state.

➔ Akbar promulgated ‘Din i ilahi’ a new religion.

Hom in Harem

➔ This is an excerpt from Abdul Qadir Badauni’s Muntakhab-ut Tawarikh.

(A theologian and a courtier)

‘’From early youth, in compliment to his wives, the daughters of Rajas of Hind, His
Majesty (Akbar) had been performing hom in the haram,which is a ceremony
derived from fire-worship (atish-parasti ).

➔ On the New Year of the twenty-fifth regnal year (1578) Akbar prostrated
publicly before the sun and the fire.
➔ In the evening the whole Court had to rise up respectfully when the lamps and
candles were lighted.