History - Administration under Akbar
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Like other Muslim monarchs, Akbar was, at least in theory, subordinate to the wishes of entire Muslim population (millat), which, in turn, was guided by the Muslim learned divines called the Ulema. Akbar sought to remove this check to his will and became the supreme authority over his Muslim subjects by promulgating the Infallibility Decree (Mahzar) in September 1579.
Akbar believed that the king must be absolutely tolerant to every creed and must establish universal peace in his dominion.
As per Abul Fazal’s Akbarnama, Akbar appeared three times every day for State business. Early at sunrise he used to be ready at jhroka-i-darshan to show himself to his subjects. Here he was accessible to the common people and listened to their complaints. Next, he used to hold an open court which generally lasted for four and a half hours. Peo-ple from both sexes were allowed to submit their petitions and the emperor used to decide the cases on the spot.
In the afternoon Akbar used to hold a full durbar in the Diwan-i-Aam. Here he attended to daily routine busi-ness, particularly relating to forces, workshops and to the appointment and promotion of mansabdars and granting of jagirs.
In the evening and often during night Akbar used to meet his ministers and advisers in the private audience hall called Diwan-i-Khas, where special business relating to for-eign relations and internal administration was attended to.
Late in the night, Akbar used to discuss confidential matters related to war, foreign policy and internal adminis-tration in a room called Daulat Khana, which became known in the times of Jehangir as Gusal Khana, owing to its proximity to the royal bathroom.
The Central government under Akbar consisted of four departments, each presided over by a minister. These ministers were: Vakil (Prime Minister), Diwan or Wazir (Finance Minister), Mir Bakhshi (Pay-Master General), and Sadar-us-Sadur (Chief Sadar).
The Mughal ministers did not constitute a Cabinet in the modern sense of term. They were basically secretaries. The initiation of the policies was in the hands of the emperor.
The first finance minister of Akbar was Muzaffar Khan.
Todar Mal, Muzaffar Khan and Shah Mansur were the three most notable finance ministers of Akbar and all the three were skilled financiers and first-rate administrators.
The Diwan or finance minister was assisted by Diwan-i-Khalsa, who was incharge of Khalsa (crown or reserved) lands; Diwan-i-Jagirs, who was incharge of the lands that were given in lieu of service or as free grants (sayurghal); Sahib-i-Taujih, who was incharge of military accounts; and Diwan-i-Bayutut, whose duty was to super-vise the accounts of various workshops attached to the court.
The Mir Bakhshi or Pay-Master General ranked next to the imperial Diwan. His office corresponded to the Diwan-i-Ariz of the Sultanate period.
The Mir Bakhshi was required to maintain a regis-ter in which names, ranks and salaries of mansabdars were recorded. All orders of appointment to mansabs of all ranks were passed through his office. One of his most important duties was to prepare a list of guards who had to keep watch around the royal palace.
The Chief Sadar or Sadar-us-Sadur discharged three-fold duties, namely, to act as the religious adviser to the emperor, to disburse the royal charity, and to function as the chief justice of the empire.
After Akbar reorganized his administration and rejected the Islamic theory of government, the Chief Sadar ceased to be the supreme religious adviser.
Akbar divided his empire into well-defined provinces or subas, and established uniform administration in them. In 1602, the provinces numbered 15.
The three provinces of South (Dakhin), namely, Khandesh, Berar and Ahmadnagar, were constituted into a single viceroyalty and were placed under Prince Daniyal.
In each suba, there was a governor, styled as Sipah Salar, a diwan, a bakhshi, a sadar, a qazi, a kotwal, a mir bahar and a waqaya navis.
The Sipah Salar (governor) was the head of the province. He was popularly called subahadar and some-times only ‘suba’.He was appointed by the emperor and was responsible for the welfare of the people of his province, as also administer even-handed justice. He was also entrusted with the work of realizing tribute from the vassal States situated within the boundaries of his suba.
The provincial Diwan was the second most important officer of the suba. He was appointed on the recommendation of the Imperial Diwan.
There were two parallel and mutually independent authorities in every province. The Sipah Sadar was the head of the military, police and executive services, while the Diwan was the head of the civil and revenue branch—he reported directly to the Imperial Diwan and was not subordinate to the governor.
Generally one officer was appointed to discharge the functions of both the Sadar and the Qazi.
Waqaya Navis was incharge of posting news-writers and spies in all important places in the province. Generally a separate officer was given this job, but at times the provinical Bakhshi was given the dual charge.
The Kotwal was incharge of internal defence, sani-tation and peace in the provincial capital. He was the supreme administrator of all thanasof the province.
The Mir Bahar was incharge of customs and boats and ferry taxes, and port duties in coastal towns.
Each province or suba was divided into a num-ber of districts or Sarkars. Every district had a faujdar, an amalguzar, a qazi, a kotwal, a bitikchi and a khazandar.
The head of the district was faujdar. He had three principal duties to perform: First, to maintain peace and tranquility in his jurisdiction, to keep the roads free from robbers and thieves, and to enforce imperial regulations; Secondly, being a military officer, he was incharge of a small force or local militia. It was his duty to keep this army ready for service; Thirdly, he was required to assist the amalguzar (the collector) in the work of revenue collection.
Amalguzar or the revenue collector was the second most important official of a district. He was also required to punish robbers and other miscreants in order to protect the peasantry.
The Bitikchi was an important assistant of amal-guzar. His duty was to prepare necessary papers and records regarding the nature of land and its produce and it was on the basis of these records that the assessment was made by amalguzar.
Each sarkar (district) was divided into a number of parganas or mahals. The pargana was the lowest fiscal and administrative unit of administration.
There were four principal officers in every pargana. They were: the shiqdar, the amil, the fotadar and the karkun. Besides, as in the times of Sher Shah Suri, there were two other semi-official functionaries: the qanungo and the chaudhri.
The Shiqdar was the executive officer of the par-gana and was responsible for its general administration.
The amil (sometimes called the Munsif) had to discharge the same duties in the pargana as the amalguzar in the sarkar.
The Fotadar was the treasurer of the pargana. The karkuns were the writers and kept land record.
The Qanungo was the head of the patwaris of the pargana and kept records of the crops, the revenue demands, actual payments, arrears, etc.
The Mughals had no navy, but as their eastern and western frontiers touched seas, they had large num-ber of sea-ports in their possession. All sea-ports were treated as independent administrative units. For exam-ple, Surat was classed as a sarkar and comprised several parganas.
Every town of considerable importance had an independent kotwal appointed to take charge of municipal duties, besides police work. In small towns, these duties were looked after by amalguzar.
The uniforms of the kotwal and the city police were of red colour.
Akbar recognised the village panchayats as a legally established court of justice and upheld its decisions.
Akbar introduced the mansabdari system to organ-ise his armed forces more effectively.
All imperial officers, except the qazis and the sadars, were enrolled as members of the mansabdari sys-tem and were required to maintain some troops propor-tionate to their ranks. All the vassal chiefs, who were rulers of semi-independent States, were also enlisted as mansabdars.
Some mansabdars commanded troops that were recruited directly by the State and not by the mansabdar concerned. Such troops were called dakhilli or supplemen-tary troops.
Ahadis were the gentlemen troopers who were recruited individually and were under the command of a separate mansabdar or officer, and had a diwan and a bakhshi of their own. Ahadis were considered very efficient and loyal troops and were paid high salaries.
An officer was incharge of each branch of the army and was known as Mir Atish.
Many elephants were trained to catch enemy soldiers and dash them against the ground. Such elephants carried two soldiers and two guns called gajnals.
Akbar’s army consisted of officers and troops of several nationalities, over two-thirds of whom were foreign-ers. Thus, it was not a national army, and was not bound by common interests and common sentiment of love for the country.
The fiscal sources of Mughal empire under Akbar were divided into two main divisions—central and local.
The central revenue was derived from Commerce, Mint, Presents, Inheritance, Salt, Customs and Land. Of these the land revenue was the most lucrative and important.
Akbar abolished the religious taxes charged from Hindus, such as the pilgrims’ tax and the jaziya. Zakat, which was of two kinds, namely, first a religious tax from the Muslims only, and second, on cattle and some other articles, lapsed gradually.
Akbar undertook a series of experiments to improve the revenue collection and management. The first of the experiments was undertaken in 1563, when Akbar appointed Aitmad Khan to look after the affairs of the Khalisa lands which comprised the provinces of Agra, Del-hi and a part of Lahore.
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Friday 6 April 2012
History - Mughal Empire – 4
History - Mughal Empire – 4
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Mughals belonged to a branch of the Turks named after Chaghtai, the second son of Chingez Khan, the famous Mongol leader.
The foundation of the Mughal empire in India was laid by Babur, who was a Chaghtai Turk. He descended from his father’s side from Timur and was connected on his mother’s side with Chingez Khan.
In 1494, at the age of 11 years, Babur inherited the small principality of Farghana, now a province of Chinese Turkistan.
Babur was later deprived of his own patrimony of Farghana and had to spend his days as homeless wanderer for about a year. During this time, while staying with a village headman, he heard the story of Timur’s exploits in India from a old lady and this inspired him to begin preparations to conquer India.
Babur occupied Kabul in 1504 and after this it took him 12 years to advance into the heart of India.
Daulat Khan, the most powerful noble of Punjab, who was discontended with Ibrahim Lodhi, invited Babur to invade India.
Babur occupied Lahore in 1524 but had to retreat to Kabul after Daulat Khan turned against him once he realised that Babur had no desire to give up his Indian conquests.
Babur attacked and occupied Punjab again in November 1525.
On April 21, 1526, Babur proceeded against Ibrahim Lodhi and met him at Panipat (First Battle of Panipat). Although Ibrahim Lodhi’s troops were vastly superior, Babur managed a victory by superior strategy and use of artillery, and quickly occupied Delhi and Agra.
The first battle of Panipat marked the foundation of Mughal dominion in India.
Babur faced the toughest resistance to his expansion plans from the Rajput king Rana Sangha.
Rana Sangha, along with rulers of Marwar, Amber, Gwalior, Ajmer and Chanderi, as also Sultan Mahmood Lodi, whom Rana Sangha had acknowledged as ruler of Delhi, met Babur in a decisive contest at Kanhwa, a village near Agra, on March 16, 1527. The aim was to prevent the imposition of another foreign yoke on India. Babur triumphed over them by using similar tactics as in Panipat. Another major reason for defeat of Indian forces was non-joining of several Afghan chiefs.
While the battle of Panipat marked the defeat of titular Sultan of Delhi, the battle of Kanhwa resulted in defeat of the powerful Rajput confederacy.
Babur met the allied Afghans of Bihar and Bengal on the banks of Gogra, near Patna, and inflicted a crushing defeat on them on May 6, 1529. This battle led to a considerable portion of northern India submitting to him.
Babur died at Agra, at the age of 47, on December 26, 1530. His body was first laid at Arambagh in Agra, but was later taken to Kabul, where it was buried in one of his favourite gardens.
During his four-year stay in India, Punjab, territory covered by United Provinces, and North Bihar were conquered by Babur. Rajput State of Mewar also submitted to him.
Babur’s Memoirs were translated into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khananni at the time of Akbar in 1590.
Babur’s son Humayun ascended the throne of India three days after Babur’s death.
Humayun was devoid of wisdom and discretion, as well as strong determination and perseverance of his father. Thus, as a king he was a failure.
Six months after his accession, Humayun besieged the fortress of Kalinjar in Bundelkhand, gained a decisive victory over Afghans at Douhrua and drove out Sultan Mahmood Lodhi from Jaunpur, and even defeated Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. His victories, however, were short-lived due to weakness of his character.
Humayun’s forces were defeated by Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri at Chaunsa near Buxar in June 1539.
On May 17, 1540, the Mughals and the Afghans met again opposite Kannauj. Humayun’s hopelessly demoralised army was defeated at the battle, commonly known as battle of Kannauj—also known as battle of the Ganges or Bilgram. Thus, the sovereignty of India once more passed to the Afghans. Humayun had to leave the life of a wanderer for 15 years.
The intense rivalry of Humayun’s brothers—Kamran, Askari and Hindal— also made it difficult for Humayun to pool all his resources and fight back.
During his wanderings in deserts of Sindh in 1952, Humayun married Hamida Banu Begum, daughter of Sheikh Ali Amber Jaini, who had been a preceptor of Humayun’s brother Hindal.
On November 23, 1542, Humayun was blessed with a son, Akbar, at Amarkot.
Amarkot’s Hindu chief Rana Prasad promised Humayun help to conquer Thatta and Bhakker.
Humayun, however, could not conquer Bhakker, nor could he secure asylum. He, thus, left India and threw himself on the generosity of Shah Tahmashp of Persia.
Shah of Persia helped Humayun with a force of 14,000 men on his promising to confirm to Shia creed, to have the Shah’s name proclaimed in his Khutba and to cede Kandhar to him on his success.
With Persian help Humayun captured Kandhar and Kabul in 1545 but refused to cede Kandhar to Persia.
Civil war among the Suris, after the death of Sher Shah Suri, gave Humayun an excellent opportunity to reclaim the throne of Delhi. In February 1555, he captured Lahore, and after a few months captured Delhi and Agra also.
On January 24, 1556, Humayun died following an accidental fall from the staircase of his library in Delhi.
On February 14, 1556, at the age of 13, Akbar was proclaimed as the successor of Humayun.
At the time when Akbar ascended to the thrown, the country had ceased to enjoy the benefits of reforms of Sher Shah Suri, through the follies and quarrels of his successors, and was also effected by a terrible famine.
At the time when Humayun died, Potuguese were in possession of Goa and Diu. The Suris were still in occupation of the Sher Shah’s dominion. From Agra to Malwa, and the confines of Jaunpur, owned the sovereignty of Adil Shah. Delhi to the smaller Rohtas on the road to Kabul was in hands of Shah Sikander. The borders of the hills to the boundaries of Gujarat belonged to Ibrahim Khan. Sind and Multan had become independent from the imperial control. Orissa, Malwa, Gujarat and the local chieftains of Gondwana had also became independent. South of the Vindhyas lay the extensive Vijayanagar empire and the Muslim Sultanates of Khandesh, Berar, Bidar, Ahmadnagar and Golkunda expressed no interest in northern politics.
Hemu, general and minister of Adil Shah Suri opposed the Mughals soon after accession of Akbar.
Hemu occupied Agra and Delhi by defeating Tardi Beg, the Mughal governor of Delhi.
Hemu assumed the title of Raja Vikramjit or Vikramaditya after his victory in Delhi.
Akbar, alongwith his trusted guardian Bairam Khan, challenged Hemu at Panipat, resulting in the second battle of Panipat. A chance arrow hit in the eye resulted in Hemu falling unconscious, which led to his soldiers dispersing in confusion. The battle marked the real beginning of the Mughal rule in India and set it on the path of expansion.
Sikander Suri surrendered to Akbar in 1557 and was granted a fief in the eastern province. He was later expelled by Akbar and died as a fugitive.
Ibrahim Suri, after wandering from place to place, found asylum in Orissa, where he was killed about 10 years later. With his death there remained no one from the Suri clan to challenge Akbar’s claim to sovereignty.
Sher Shah Suri effected the revival of Afghan power and established a glorious, though short, regime in India by ousting the newly established Mughal authority.
Originally, Sher Shah’s name was Farid. His grandfather, Ibrahim, was an Afghan of Suri tribe and lived near Peshawar. His father’s name was Hassan.
Farid was conferred the title of Sher Khan by Bahar Khan Lohani, independent ruler of Bihar, for having shown gallantry by killing a tiger single-handed.
Sher Shah joined the Babur’s camp in April 1527 and remained in it till June 1528. In return for his services, Babur restored the jagir of Sasaram to him.
The war against allied troops of Bengal Sultan and the Lohanis of Surajgarh, on the banks of Kiul river was a turning-point in the career of Sher Shah. It made him the undisputed ruler of Bihar.
The victory in battle with the Mughal forces led by Humayun, at Chaunsa near Buxar, led to Sher Shah becoming de facto ruler of the territories ruled by the Mughals.
On May 17, 1540, in the Battle of Kannauj, Sher Shah’s forces gave a crushing defeat to Humayun’s forces and the sovereignity of India once again passed to the Afghans.
Sher Shah died on May 22, 1545 from an accidental explosion of gun-powder.
Sher Shah divided his empire into 47 units (sarkars), each of which was sub-divided into several paraganas.
The paragana had one Amin, one Shiqdar, one treasurer, one Hindi text writer and one Perisan writer to keep accounts.
Shiqdar-i-Shiqdaran and Munsif-i-Munsifan supervised the works of the paragana officers.
Sher Shah’s land revenue reforms have unique importance in the adminis-trative history of India. They served as the model for future agrarian systems.
Sher Shah settled the land revenue directly with the cultivators, the State demand being fixed at one-fourth or one-third of the average produce, payable in either kind or cash.
For actual collection of revenue the services of officers like Amins, Muqadams, Shiqdars, Qanungos and the Patwaris were taken.
The rights of tenants were recognised and the liabilities of each were clearly defined in the kabuliyat (deed of agreement) and the patta (title-deed).
Sher Shah connected the impor-tant places by a chain of excellent roads. The longest of these was the Grand Trunk Road, which still survives and extended from Sonargaon in East Bengal to the Indus. One road ran from Agra to Burhanpur, another from Agra to Jodhpur and a fourth from Lahore to Multan.
Sarais or rest-houses were set-up at different places along the roads. These also served the purpose of post-houses.
Sher Shah re-organised the army, borrowing largely the main principles of Ala-ud-din Khilji’s military system.
After Sher Shah’s death, his son Jalal Khan was proclaimed king under the title of Sultan Islam Shah, commonly known as Salim Shah.
Salim Shah was a strong and efficient ruler but he died young in November 1554 and disorder soon followed.
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Mughals belonged to a branch of the Turks named after Chaghtai, the second son of Chingez Khan, the famous Mongol leader.
The foundation of the Mughal empire in India was laid by Babur, who was a Chaghtai Turk. He descended from his father’s side from Timur and was connected on his mother’s side with Chingez Khan.
In 1494, at the age of 11 years, Babur inherited the small principality of Farghana, now a province of Chinese Turkistan.
Babur was later deprived of his own patrimony of Farghana and had to spend his days as homeless wanderer for about a year. During this time, while staying with a village headman, he heard the story of Timur’s exploits in India from a old lady and this inspired him to begin preparations to conquer India.
Babur occupied Kabul in 1504 and after this it took him 12 years to advance into the heart of India.
Daulat Khan, the most powerful noble of Punjab, who was discontended with Ibrahim Lodhi, invited Babur to invade India.
Babur occupied Lahore in 1524 but had to retreat to Kabul after Daulat Khan turned against him once he realised that Babur had no desire to give up his Indian conquests.
Babur attacked and occupied Punjab again in November 1525.
On April 21, 1526, Babur proceeded against Ibrahim Lodhi and met him at Panipat (First Battle of Panipat). Although Ibrahim Lodhi’s troops were vastly superior, Babur managed a victory by superior strategy and use of artillery, and quickly occupied Delhi and Agra.
The first battle of Panipat marked the foundation of Mughal dominion in India.
Babur faced the toughest resistance to his expansion plans from the Rajput king Rana Sangha.
Rana Sangha, along with rulers of Marwar, Amber, Gwalior, Ajmer and Chanderi, as also Sultan Mahmood Lodi, whom Rana Sangha had acknowledged as ruler of Delhi, met Babur in a decisive contest at Kanhwa, a village near Agra, on March 16, 1527. The aim was to prevent the imposition of another foreign yoke on India. Babur triumphed over them by using similar tactics as in Panipat. Another major reason for defeat of Indian forces was non-joining of several Afghan chiefs.
While the battle of Panipat marked the defeat of titular Sultan of Delhi, the battle of Kanhwa resulted in defeat of the powerful Rajput confederacy.
Babur met the allied Afghans of Bihar and Bengal on the banks of Gogra, near Patna, and inflicted a crushing defeat on them on May 6, 1529. This battle led to a considerable portion of northern India submitting to him.
Babur died at Agra, at the age of 47, on December 26, 1530. His body was first laid at Arambagh in Agra, but was later taken to Kabul, where it was buried in one of his favourite gardens.
During his four-year stay in India, Punjab, territory covered by United Provinces, and North Bihar were conquered by Babur. Rajput State of Mewar also submitted to him.
Babur’s Memoirs were translated into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khananni at the time of Akbar in 1590.
Babur’s son Humayun ascended the throne of India three days after Babur’s death.
Humayun was devoid of wisdom and discretion, as well as strong determination and perseverance of his father. Thus, as a king he was a failure.
Six months after his accession, Humayun besieged the fortress of Kalinjar in Bundelkhand, gained a decisive victory over Afghans at Douhrua and drove out Sultan Mahmood Lodhi from Jaunpur, and even defeated Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. His victories, however, were short-lived due to weakness of his character.
Humayun’s forces were defeated by Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri at Chaunsa near Buxar in June 1539.
On May 17, 1540, the Mughals and the Afghans met again opposite Kannauj. Humayun’s hopelessly demoralised army was defeated at the battle, commonly known as battle of Kannauj—also known as battle of the Ganges or Bilgram. Thus, the sovereignty of India once more passed to the Afghans. Humayun had to leave the life of a wanderer for 15 years.
The intense rivalry of Humayun’s brothers—Kamran, Askari and Hindal— also made it difficult for Humayun to pool all his resources and fight back.
During his wanderings in deserts of Sindh in 1952, Humayun married Hamida Banu Begum, daughter of Sheikh Ali Amber Jaini, who had been a preceptor of Humayun’s brother Hindal.
On November 23, 1542, Humayun was blessed with a son, Akbar, at Amarkot.
Amarkot’s Hindu chief Rana Prasad promised Humayun help to conquer Thatta and Bhakker.
Humayun, however, could not conquer Bhakker, nor could he secure asylum. He, thus, left India and threw himself on the generosity of Shah Tahmashp of Persia.
Shah of Persia helped Humayun with a force of 14,000 men on his promising to confirm to Shia creed, to have the Shah’s name proclaimed in his Khutba and to cede Kandhar to him on his success.
With Persian help Humayun captured Kandhar and Kabul in 1545 but refused to cede Kandhar to Persia.
Civil war among the Suris, after the death of Sher Shah Suri, gave Humayun an excellent opportunity to reclaim the throne of Delhi. In February 1555, he captured Lahore, and after a few months captured Delhi and Agra also.
On January 24, 1556, Humayun died following an accidental fall from the staircase of his library in Delhi.
On February 14, 1556, at the age of 13, Akbar was proclaimed as the successor of Humayun.
At the time when Akbar ascended to the thrown, the country had ceased to enjoy the benefits of reforms of Sher Shah Suri, through the follies and quarrels of his successors, and was also effected by a terrible famine.
At the time when Humayun died, Potuguese were in possession of Goa and Diu. The Suris were still in occupation of the Sher Shah’s dominion. From Agra to Malwa, and the confines of Jaunpur, owned the sovereignty of Adil Shah. Delhi to the smaller Rohtas on the road to Kabul was in hands of Shah Sikander. The borders of the hills to the boundaries of Gujarat belonged to Ibrahim Khan. Sind and Multan had become independent from the imperial control. Orissa, Malwa, Gujarat and the local chieftains of Gondwana had also became independent. South of the Vindhyas lay the extensive Vijayanagar empire and the Muslim Sultanates of Khandesh, Berar, Bidar, Ahmadnagar and Golkunda expressed no interest in northern politics.
Hemu, general and minister of Adil Shah Suri opposed the Mughals soon after accession of Akbar.
Hemu occupied Agra and Delhi by defeating Tardi Beg, the Mughal governor of Delhi.
Hemu assumed the title of Raja Vikramjit or Vikramaditya after his victory in Delhi.
Akbar, alongwith his trusted guardian Bairam Khan, challenged Hemu at Panipat, resulting in the second battle of Panipat. A chance arrow hit in the eye resulted in Hemu falling unconscious, which led to his soldiers dispersing in confusion. The battle marked the real beginning of the Mughal rule in India and set it on the path of expansion.
Sikander Suri surrendered to Akbar in 1557 and was granted a fief in the eastern province. He was later expelled by Akbar and died as a fugitive.
Ibrahim Suri, after wandering from place to place, found asylum in Orissa, where he was killed about 10 years later. With his death there remained no one from the Suri clan to challenge Akbar’s claim to sovereignty.
Sher Shah Suri effected the revival of Afghan power and established a glorious, though short, regime in India by ousting the newly established Mughal authority.
Originally, Sher Shah’s name was Farid. His grandfather, Ibrahim, was an Afghan of Suri tribe and lived near Peshawar. His father’s name was Hassan.
Farid was conferred the title of Sher Khan by Bahar Khan Lohani, independent ruler of Bihar, for having shown gallantry by killing a tiger single-handed.
Sher Shah joined the Babur’s camp in April 1527 and remained in it till June 1528. In return for his services, Babur restored the jagir of Sasaram to him.
The war against allied troops of Bengal Sultan and the Lohanis of Surajgarh, on the banks of Kiul river was a turning-point in the career of Sher Shah. It made him the undisputed ruler of Bihar.
The victory in battle with the Mughal forces led by Humayun, at Chaunsa near Buxar, led to Sher Shah becoming de facto ruler of the territories ruled by the Mughals.
On May 17, 1540, in the Battle of Kannauj, Sher Shah’s forces gave a crushing defeat to Humayun’s forces and the sovereignity of India once again passed to the Afghans.
Sher Shah died on May 22, 1545 from an accidental explosion of gun-powder.
Sher Shah divided his empire into 47 units (sarkars), each of which was sub-divided into several paraganas.
The paragana had one Amin, one Shiqdar, one treasurer, one Hindi text writer and one Perisan writer to keep accounts.
Shiqdar-i-Shiqdaran and Munsif-i-Munsifan supervised the works of the paragana officers.
Sher Shah’s land revenue reforms have unique importance in the adminis-trative history of India. They served as the model for future agrarian systems.
Sher Shah settled the land revenue directly with the cultivators, the State demand being fixed at one-fourth or one-third of the average produce, payable in either kind or cash.
For actual collection of revenue the services of officers like Amins, Muqadams, Shiqdars, Qanungos and the Patwaris were taken.
The rights of tenants were recognised and the liabilities of each were clearly defined in the kabuliyat (deed of agreement) and the patta (title-deed).
Sher Shah connected the impor-tant places by a chain of excellent roads. The longest of these was the Grand Trunk Road, which still survives and extended from Sonargaon in East Bengal to the Indus. One road ran from Agra to Burhanpur, another from Agra to Jodhpur and a fourth from Lahore to Multan.
Sarais or rest-houses were set-up at different places along the roads. These also served the purpose of post-houses.
Sher Shah re-organised the army, borrowing largely the main principles of Ala-ud-din Khilji’s military system.
After Sher Shah’s death, his son Jalal Khan was proclaimed king under the title of Sultan Islam Shah, commonly known as Salim Shah.
Salim Shah was a strong and efficient ruler but he died young in November 1554 and disorder soon followed.
Thursday 5 April 2012
History - Mughal Empire – 3
History - Mughal Empire – 3
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Jahangir was born to Maryam-uz-Zamani and Akbar on August 30, 1569. He was named Sultan Muham-mad Salim after Shaikh Salim Chishti of Fatehpur Sikri. Akbar, however, called him Shaikhu Baba.
Abdur Rahim Khan Khana, a profound scholar of Arabic, Turki, Persian, Sanskrit and Hindi, as also a soldier and diplomat of no mean order influenced Jahangir the most and moulded his thoughts. Most of Jahangir’s education took place under Abdur Rahim.
At the age of 15, Jahangir was married to his cousin Manbai, daughter of Raja Bhagwan Dass of Amber. The ceremony was performed both according to Hindu and Muslim rites.
Jahangir gave Manbai the title of Shah Begum. She committed suicide in 1604 owing to her son Khusrav’s unfilial conduct towards her husband.
Jagat Gosain or Jodhabai, daughter of Mota Raja Udai Singh was also among the most important of several wives of Jahangir.
Salim’s loose morals and addiction to wine and other degrading pleasures enraged Akbar, who then tried to bring him round by threat of punishment. The estrangement led to open revolt by Salim. When Akbar set out of South to reconquer Khandesh, Salim made a dash for Agra in order to capture the huge treasure. He was, however, foiled in his attempt and subsequently went to Allahabad and set up his court there. He brought a part of Bihar under his control and set himself up as an independent king.
Akbar sent Khwaja Muhammad Sharif, a playmate and friend of Prince, to Allahabad on a mission of peace. But Salim won him over and appointed him chief minister.
The fact that Akbar’s second son, Murad, was already dead and his third son, Daniyal, was visibly dying made Akbar weak and forced him to take forget and forgive Salim’s follies. Salima Begum, Jahangir’s step-mother, ulti-mately persuaded the prince to return to his path of duty.
After Akbar’s death in 1605, Prince Salim acceded to the throne and assumed the title of Nuruddin Mohammad Jahangir Padshah Ghazi.
Immediately after coronation, Jahangir prohibited levy of many cesses, called tamgha, mir bahri, etc. Jahangir also abolished the punishment of cutting nose and ears.
Jahangir also prohibited the slaughter of animals on certain days in the year and two days in every week, that is, Thursday, which was his accession day, and Sunday, the day of Akbar’s birth.
Jahangir caused a gold chain with bells to be hung between the Shah Burj in the Agra Fort and a post on the road near the bank of Yamuna, so as to enable suitors for jus-tice to ring the bell and approach the emperor without the mediation of any officer or servant.
Within a few months of Jahangir’s accession his eldest son Khusrav revolted. Due to the past conduct of Khusrav, Jahangir had confined him to one corner of Agra fort. On April 6, 1606, on the pretence of a visit to Akbar’s mausoleum at Sikandra, Khusrav proceeded rapidly towards Delhi. On his way he was joined by Husain Beg Badakhshi. Passing by Delhi, he made his way towards Lahore and on the way was joined by Abdur Rahman, the diwan of that province. At Taran Taran, the prince obtained benediction of Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru of Sikhs.
On reaching Lahore, Khusrav found the fort put in a state of defence by the governor Dilawar Khan. Jahangir sent a contingent of troops under Shaikh Farid, as also pro-ceeded himself towards Lahore. The parties engaged in a fight on the plain of Baharowal. Khusrav was defeated and forced to flee towards Kabul. He was, however, captured by Jahangir’s forces, along with Husain Beg and Abdur Rehman.
Jahangir imposed a fine of Rs two lakh on Guru Arjan Dev for bestowing benediction to Khusrav. The Guru, however, refused to pay and was consequently put to death. The Guru’s death estranged Sikhs from the Mughals and led to their rebellion in the time of Aurangzeb.
The most fateful consequence of Khusrav’s rebellion, followed by internal disturbances in the country, was the encouragement of the Shah of Persia to make a bid for the capture of fortress of Kandhar.
Kandhar was a bone of contention between Persia and India during the medieval age. Kandhar was a gateway and a natural base of operations for a Persian or Central Asian invader. Its commercial importance was no less great. It connected the principal trade routes from India to Central Asia and Europe. Babur, who was aware of Kandhar’s importance, captured it in 1522.
After the death of Humayun, Kandhar passed out of Mughal control, but Akbar recovered it in 1594.
In 1611, Jahangir married a widow named Mehr-un-nisa, who was given the title of Nur Mahal, subsequently changed into Nur Jahan. She began exercising unbounded influence on the emperor and the administration of Mughal empire.
Nur Jahan was daughter of Ghiyas Beg, a Persian adventurer in Akbar’s court, who was honoured with the title of Itimad-ud-daulah.
Within a few years of her marriage, Nur Jahan organized a party of her own and took the reins of the gov-ernment in her hands. The party was known as Nur Jahan Junta and consisted of herself, her parents, her brothers and prince Khurram, who was the husband of her niece.
Nur Jahan exercised healthy influence on Jahangir. It was owing to her influence that Jahangir restrained him-self from excessive drinking. Her influence over Jahangir was good and benefited the poor and the needy, as also the votaries of letters and art.
On political and administrative affairs the influence of Nur Jahan was negative. Her dealings with Prince Khur-ram and Prince Shahryar almost convulsed the empire in a civil war.
Akbar could not conquer the whole of Mewar due to stiff resistance from Rana Pratap. Infact, Rana Pratap was able to recover a considerable portion of his territory before his death in 1597. In 1605, Jahangir deputed his second son Parwez to reduce Rana Pratap’s son Rana Amar Singh to submission. A tough battle was fought at the pass of Dewar but it proved indecisive.
Sagar, an uncle of Rana Amar Singh, who had deserted his nephew and lived as a pensioner at the Mughal court, accompanied Prince Parwez in the expedition to defeat Rana Amar Singh.
In 1608, Jahangir sent another force, this time under Mahabat Khan, to subdue Rana Amar Singh. He also failed in the mission.
In 1609, Abdulla Khan was appointed incharge. He defeated Prince Karan but was, in turn, beaten by Rajputs at Ranpura, the northernmost key-point of Mewar.
Jahangir appointed Raja Basu to defeat Rana Amar Singh but he too failed. Raja Basu was then replaced by Mirza Aziz Koka and in 1613 Jahangir personally moved to Ajmer to be near the scene of action and exert pressure. The supreme command of the Mughal army was now entrusted to Prince Khurram. In the constant struggle both sides lost heavily but the Rajputs suffered more due to famine. The resources of tiny Mewar exhausted and Amar Singh offered negotiations.
A treaty of peace was concluded between Rana Amar Singh and Jahangir in 1615. Rana recognized Jahangir as his suzerain. Jahangir restored all the territory to Rana, including Chittor, that had been seized during Akbar’s reign. The Rana was not obliged to attend the impe-rial durbar and, unlike other Rajput chiefs, the Rana was not required to enter into a matrimonial alliance with the Mughal ruling family.
The treaty of 1615, for the first time, brought the end to the long-drawn struggle between Mewar and Delhi. The Rana of Mewar hereafter remained loyal to the Mughal throne, till Aurangzeb, by his thoughtless policy, drove Raj Singh in an open rebellion.
Jahangir adopted Akbar’s policy of conquering the whole of India and bringing it under the rule of his dynasty.
In 1608, Jahangir directed the Khan Khana to conquer the remaining parts of South. But, he could make a little headway due to stiff resistance of Malik Ambar, the prime minister of Ahmadnagar. He used the guerilla war-fare very effectively to defeat the Mughal army.
In 1616, Jahangir made Prince Khurram incharge of the southern command and himself moved to Mandu with all his court to be near the scene of warfare. Overawed by superior force, Malik Ambar at once opened for negotiations. A treaty was signed in 1617 under which Malik Ambar ceded all the territory of Bal-ghat, which he had recently seized from Mughals, as also surrendered the fort of Ahmadnagar. Jahangir was over-joyed with Khurram’s success and conferred on him the high sounding title of Shahjehan.
The treaty of 1617 was brushed aside by Malik Ambar in 1620 when he formed a league with Bijapur and Golkunda and launched an attack on Mughal commander Khan Khana. Jahangir again deputed Shahjehan to take charge of the operation, who successfully forced Ambar to submission. The kingdoms of Ahmednagar, Bijapur and Golkunda were also made to pay a tribute to the emperor.
Jahangir lost Kandhar in 1622 to Perisan rulers due to infighting among the Nur Jahan Junta, as also the estranged relations between Shah Jehan and Nur Jahan, and subsequent rebellion of Shah Jehan.
The three-year-old rebellion of Shah Jehan con-vulsed the empire with a civil war and caused a consider-able loss of money and men. It came to an end in April 1626 after Shah Jahan, faced with nothing but destruction, decid-ed to surrender and seek emperor’s pardon.
The entire operation of dealing with Shah Jahan’s rebellion was undertaken under Mahabat Khan, the great-est soldier and diplomat of the Mughal empire.
Difference between Nur Jahan and Mahabat Khan compelled Mahabat Khan to bring Jahangir under his control by a coup d’ etat and thus deprive Nur Jahan of power in the State. He was helped in this by mostly Rajput soldiers.
Mahabat Khan remained the de facto ruler for 100 days, before Jahangir managed to overthrow him and take charge. Mahabat Khan was not a very capable administrator and this led to his fall.
After regaining his freedom from Mahabat Khan, Jahangir, whose health had completely broken down, set out for Kashmir in March 1627. But he could not regain health in Kashmir and decided to return to Lahore. During his return journey he was taken ill and died on November 7, 1627 near Bhimbar. He was burried at Shahdara near Lahore.
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Jahangir was born to Maryam-uz-Zamani and Akbar on August 30, 1569. He was named Sultan Muham-mad Salim after Shaikh Salim Chishti of Fatehpur Sikri. Akbar, however, called him Shaikhu Baba.
Abdur Rahim Khan Khana, a profound scholar of Arabic, Turki, Persian, Sanskrit and Hindi, as also a soldier and diplomat of no mean order influenced Jahangir the most and moulded his thoughts. Most of Jahangir’s education took place under Abdur Rahim.
At the age of 15, Jahangir was married to his cousin Manbai, daughter of Raja Bhagwan Dass of Amber. The ceremony was performed both according to Hindu and Muslim rites.
Jahangir gave Manbai the title of Shah Begum. She committed suicide in 1604 owing to her son Khusrav’s unfilial conduct towards her husband.
Jagat Gosain or Jodhabai, daughter of Mota Raja Udai Singh was also among the most important of several wives of Jahangir.
Salim’s loose morals and addiction to wine and other degrading pleasures enraged Akbar, who then tried to bring him round by threat of punishment. The estrangement led to open revolt by Salim. When Akbar set out of South to reconquer Khandesh, Salim made a dash for Agra in order to capture the huge treasure. He was, however, foiled in his attempt and subsequently went to Allahabad and set up his court there. He brought a part of Bihar under his control and set himself up as an independent king.
Akbar sent Khwaja Muhammad Sharif, a playmate and friend of Prince, to Allahabad on a mission of peace. But Salim won him over and appointed him chief minister.
The fact that Akbar’s second son, Murad, was already dead and his third son, Daniyal, was visibly dying made Akbar weak and forced him to take forget and forgive Salim’s follies. Salima Begum, Jahangir’s step-mother, ulti-mately persuaded the prince to return to his path of duty.
After Akbar’s death in 1605, Prince Salim acceded to the throne and assumed the title of Nuruddin Mohammad Jahangir Padshah Ghazi.
Immediately after coronation, Jahangir prohibited levy of many cesses, called tamgha, mir bahri, etc. Jahangir also abolished the punishment of cutting nose and ears.
Jahangir also prohibited the slaughter of animals on certain days in the year and two days in every week, that is, Thursday, which was his accession day, and Sunday, the day of Akbar’s birth.
Jahangir caused a gold chain with bells to be hung between the Shah Burj in the Agra Fort and a post on the road near the bank of Yamuna, so as to enable suitors for jus-tice to ring the bell and approach the emperor without the mediation of any officer or servant.
Within a few months of Jahangir’s accession his eldest son Khusrav revolted. Due to the past conduct of Khusrav, Jahangir had confined him to one corner of Agra fort. On April 6, 1606, on the pretence of a visit to Akbar’s mausoleum at Sikandra, Khusrav proceeded rapidly towards Delhi. On his way he was joined by Husain Beg Badakhshi. Passing by Delhi, he made his way towards Lahore and on the way was joined by Abdur Rahman, the diwan of that province. At Taran Taran, the prince obtained benediction of Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru of Sikhs.
On reaching Lahore, Khusrav found the fort put in a state of defence by the governor Dilawar Khan. Jahangir sent a contingent of troops under Shaikh Farid, as also pro-ceeded himself towards Lahore. The parties engaged in a fight on the plain of Baharowal. Khusrav was defeated and forced to flee towards Kabul. He was, however, captured by Jahangir’s forces, along with Husain Beg and Abdur Rehman.
Jahangir imposed a fine of Rs two lakh on Guru Arjan Dev for bestowing benediction to Khusrav. The Guru, however, refused to pay and was consequently put to death. The Guru’s death estranged Sikhs from the Mughals and led to their rebellion in the time of Aurangzeb.
The most fateful consequence of Khusrav’s rebellion, followed by internal disturbances in the country, was the encouragement of the Shah of Persia to make a bid for the capture of fortress of Kandhar.
Kandhar was a bone of contention between Persia and India during the medieval age. Kandhar was a gateway and a natural base of operations for a Persian or Central Asian invader. Its commercial importance was no less great. It connected the principal trade routes from India to Central Asia and Europe. Babur, who was aware of Kandhar’s importance, captured it in 1522.
After the death of Humayun, Kandhar passed out of Mughal control, but Akbar recovered it in 1594.
In 1611, Jahangir married a widow named Mehr-un-nisa, who was given the title of Nur Mahal, subsequently changed into Nur Jahan. She began exercising unbounded influence on the emperor and the administration of Mughal empire.
Nur Jahan was daughter of Ghiyas Beg, a Persian adventurer in Akbar’s court, who was honoured with the title of Itimad-ud-daulah.
Within a few years of her marriage, Nur Jahan organized a party of her own and took the reins of the gov-ernment in her hands. The party was known as Nur Jahan Junta and consisted of herself, her parents, her brothers and prince Khurram, who was the husband of her niece.
Nur Jahan exercised healthy influence on Jahangir. It was owing to her influence that Jahangir restrained him-self from excessive drinking. Her influence over Jahangir was good and benefited the poor and the needy, as also the votaries of letters and art.
On political and administrative affairs the influence of Nur Jahan was negative. Her dealings with Prince Khur-ram and Prince Shahryar almost convulsed the empire in a civil war.
Akbar could not conquer the whole of Mewar due to stiff resistance from Rana Pratap. Infact, Rana Pratap was able to recover a considerable portion of his territory before his death in 1597. In 1605, Jahangir deputed his second son Parwez to reduce Rana Pratap’s son Rana Amar Singh to submission. A tough battle was fought at the pass of Dewar but it proved indecisive.
Sagar, an uncle of Rana Amar Singh, who had deserted his nephew and lived as a pensioner at the Mughal court, accompanied Prince Parwez in the expedition to defeat Rana Amar Singh.
In 1608, Jahangir sent another force, this time under Mahabat Khan, to subdue Rana Amar Singh. He also failed in the mission.
In 1609, Abdulla Khan was appointed incharge. He defeated Prince Karan but was, in turn, beaten by Rajputs at Ranpura, the northernmost key-point of Mewar.
Jahangir appointed Raja Basu to defeat Rana Amar Singh but he too failed. Raja Basu was then replaced by Mirza Aziz Koka and in 1613 Jahangir personally moved to Ajmer to be near the scene of action and exert pressure. The supreme command of the Mughal army was now entrusted to Prince Khurram. In the constant struggle both sides lost heavily but the Rajputs suffered more due to famine. The resources of tiny Mewar exhausted and Amar Singh offered negotiations.
A treaty of peace was concluded between Rana Amar Singh and Jahangir in 1615. Rana recognized Jahangir as his suzerain. Jahangir restored all the territory to Rana, including Chittor, that had been seized during Akbar’s reign. The Rana was not obliged to attend the impe-rial durbar and, unlike other Rajput chiefs, the Rana was not required to enter into a matrimonial alliance with the Mughal ruling family.
The treaty of 1615, for the first time, brought the end to the long-drawn struggle between Mewar and Delhi. The Rana of Mewar hereafter remained loyal to the Mughal throne, till Aurangzeb, by his thoughtless policy, drove Raj Singh in an open rebellion.
Jahangir adopted Akbar’s policy of conquering the whole of India and bringing it under the rule of his dynasty.
In 1608, Jahangir directed the Khan Khana to conquer the remaining parts of South. But, he could make a little headway due to stiff resistance of Malik Ambar, the prime minister of Ahmadnagar. He used the guerilla war-fare very effectively to defeat the Mughal army.
In 1616, Jahangir made Prince Khurram incharge of the southern command and himself moved to Mandu with all his court to be near the scene of warfare. Overawed by superior force, Malik Ambar at once opened for negotiations. A treaty was signed in 1617 under which Malik Ambar ceded all the territory of Bal-ghat, which he had recently seized from Mughals, as also surrendered the fort of Ahmadnagar. Jahangir was over-joyed with Khurram’s success and conferred on him the high sounding title of Shahjehan.
The treaty of 1617 was brushed aside by Malik Ambar in 1620 when he formed a league with Bijapur and Golkunda and launched an attack on Mughal commander Khan Khana. Jahangir again deputed Shahjehan to take charge of the operation, who successfully forced Ambar to submission. The kingdoms of Ahmednagar, Bijapur and Golkunda were also made to pay a tribute to the emperor.
Jahangir lost Kandhar in 1622 to Perisan rulers due to infighting among the Nur Jahan Junta, as also the estranged relations between Shah Jehan and Nur Jahan, and subsequent rebellion of Shah Jehan.
The three-year-old rebellion of Shah Jehan con-vulsed the empire with a civil war and caused a consider-able loss of money and men. It came to an end in April 1626 after Shah Jahan, faced with nothing but destruction, decid-ed to surrender and seek emperor’s pardon.
The entire operation of dealing with Shah Jahan’s rebellion was undertaken under Mahabat Khan, the great-est soldier and diplomat of the Mughal empire.
Difference between Nur Jahan and Mahabat Khan compelled Mahabat Khan to bring Jahangir under his control by a coup d’ etat and thus deprive Nur Jahan of power in the State. He was helped in this by mostly Rajput soldiers.
Mahabat Khan remained the de facto ruler for 100 days, before Jahangir managed to overthrow him and take charge. Mahabat Khan was not a very capable administrator and this led to his fall.
After regaining his freedom from Mahabat Khan, Jahangir, whose health had completely broken down, set out for Kashmir in March 1627. But he could not regain health in Kashmir and decided to return to Lahore. During his return journey he was taken ill and died on November 7, 1627 near Bhimbar. He was burried at Shahdara near Lahore.
History - Mughal Empire – 2
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In 1577 Akbar undertook the reform of the currency and appointed Khwaja Abdus Samad Shirazi, a noted painter and calligraphist, to be the superintendent of the imperial mint at Delhi.
Besides Delhi, provinical mints were located at Lahore, Jaunpur, Ahmedabad, Patna and Tanda (in Bengal).
The silver coin issued during Akbar’s reign was round in shape, like its modern successor, and was known as rupee. It weighed 172 grains.
Akbar also introduced a square rupee called Jalali, but it was not as popular as the round rupee.
The chief copper coin was the dam or paisa or fulus. It weighed 323.5 grains or almost 21 grams.
The ratio between the dam and the rupee was 40 to 1. The lowest copper coin was jital. 25 jitals made one paisa.
The most common gold coin was the Ilahi, which was equal to 10 rupees in value.
The biggest gold coin was the shahanshah. It weighed a little over 101 tolas and was used mostly in high value business transactions.
The coins bore calligraphic inscriptions containing name and titles of the emperor and the place and year of mintage. Very few coins had figures inscribed on them.
The judicial system of Mughals was based on Islamic law. As it was not possible in practice to enforce Islamic law on Hindus, a compromise was effected. While criminal cases continued to be decided according to the Islamic law in all cases, Hindu law was administered in deciding civil and religious disputes in which the parties were Hindus.
Although Akbar had rejected the Islamic theory of kingship, he made no fundamental change in the judicial system. One important change introduced by Akbar in the judicial system was to restrict the scope of Islamic law and to extend that of general or customary law of the land so as to make it include as many causes as possible.
Akbar did not apply Islamic law of capital punishment for apostasy from Islam or for propagating Hinduism or Christianity.
Akbar appointed Hindu judges to decide the causes of Hindus.
The king was the highest judge in the Mughal empire. The next judicial authority was the qazi, who was appointed by the emperor and worked during his pleasure.
Originally, the chief qazi’s main qualifications used to be his knowledge of Islamic theology and his narrow sec-retarian views. Akbar, however, appointed to this post men of liberal religious outlook and broad sympathies towards all sections of the society.
Chief qazi was paid his salary in cash, as also was given an assignment of land entitled Madad-i-Mash or sub-sistence allowance.
Qazis were assisted by muftis, whose main duty was to interpret the law and issue a fatwa.
Akbar’s police administration was divided into three categories of urban, district and village police.
In all cities and towns kotwal headed the local police. His main duty was to see that the life of the city con-tinued undisturbed. Besides, he had to examine weights and measures, keep an eye on the currency and enforce Akbar’s social legislation.
Kotwal was personally held responsible for the value of property stolen in case he failed to discover the thief.
The kotwal was authorised to inflict punishment on offenders. However, he was not empowered to inflict capital punishment.
In the district the law and order was maintained by the faujdar. His main duties were the policing of the roads of the district and suppressing of disorders of all kinds.
The village headman was responsible for policing at the village level.
The imperial service during Akbar’s reign was organized on bureaucratic principles, but was military in organization and outlook.
The most flourishing towns during Akbar’s regime were Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Delhi, Allahabad, Benaras, Lucknow, Lahore, Multan, Ujjain, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Patna, Rajmahal and Dhaka.
The most important industry of the time was culti-vation of cotton and manufacture of cotton cloth. The prin-cipal centres of cotton manufacture were Jaunpur, Benaras, Patna, Burhanpur, Lucknow, Khairabad and Akbarpur.
Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore were important centres of silk-weaving.
The principal outlets for foreign sea-borne trade during Akbar’s regime were Cambay, Surat and Broach in Gujarat, Lahori Bandar in Sindh, Bassein, Chaul and Dabul (modern Bhabol) in the Ratnagiri district, Goa and Bhatkal, Calicut and Cochin in Malabar, and Negapatnam and Masulipatnam on the east coast, and Satgaon, Sripur, Chatgaon and Sonarghat in Bengal.
Two main land routes for exports were Lahore to Kabul and beyond, and from Multan to Kandhar and beyond.
Gold and silver were not allowed to be exported during the Akbar’s regime. Only imports were allowed.
Among the popular indoor games during Akbar’s reign were chaupar, phansa and pachisi. Akbar was particularly fond of chandalmandal and pachisi.
The Tajak, a well-known work of Astronomy, and the Tazuk-i-Baburi, or the memoirs of Babur, were translat-ed into Persian during Akbar’s reign.
The Mahabharat was rendered into Persian by Naqib Khan, Abdul Qadir Badayuni and Shaikh Sultan of Thanesar and was named Razm-nama, the book of wars.
The Lilawati, a Sanskrit treatise on Mathematics, was rendered into Persian by Faizi.
Among the notable works of literature during Akbar’s regime were: Abul Fazal’s Akbar-Nama and Ain-i-Akbari, Nizamud-Din Ahmad’s Tabqat-i-Akbari, Gula-badan Begam’s Humayun-Nama and Jauhar’s Tazkirat-ul-Waqayat. Abbas Sarwani produced the Tohfa-i-Akbar Shahi alias Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi.
Akbar ordered the compilation of the history of 1000 years of Islam, and Naqib Khan Mullah Mohammad of Thatta and Jaffer Beg were commissioned to write out the work. The book, with an introduction by Abul Fazi, became known as the Tarikh-i-Alfi.
The reign of Akbar was golden age of Hindi poet-ry. The most notable luminaries of Hindi were Tulsi Das, Sur Das, Abdur Rahim Khan Khana, Ras Khan and Birbal.
Among the famous works of Tulsi Das were Ram-charitmanas and Vinaya Patrika.
Akbar created a separate department of painting and Khwaja Abdus Samad, one of the best painters of his court, was placed at its head.
Abdus Samad was a Persian who had come from Shiraz. He was given the title of Shirin-qalam or ‘sweet pen’.
Daswanth, Basawan, Kesu, Lal, Mukand, Madhu, Jagan, Mahesh, Tara, Khem Karan, Sanwla, Haribansh and Ram were some well-known Hindu painters during Akbar’s reign. They were experts in portrait painting.
According to Abul Fazal eight modes of calligra-phy were in vogue at Akbar’s court, of which the eighth kind, named Nastaliq, was specially favoured by Akbar.
The most important calligraphist at Akbar’s court was Mohammed Hussain Kashmiri, who was given the title of Zarin Qalam. Some of the other famous cal-ligraphists were Maulana Baqir, Mohammed Amin of Mashad, and Mir Hussein Ralanki.
The Ain-i-Akbari gives names of 36 first-rate musi-cians in Akbar’s court. They were arranged in seven divisions. Each division was required to entertain Akbar for one fixed day in the week.
Akbar himself was a skilled musician and was an expert performer on Naqqara (kettle drum).
Tansen was the most notable musician of the age. He had been trained in a school established at Gwalior by Raja Man Singh Tomar.
Baba Ram Das was another famous musician of Akbar’s court and was ranked next only to Tansen.
Sur Das, besides being a great poet, was also a musician of Akbar’s court.
The gigantic forts at Agra, Lahore and Allahabad were built by Akbar.
The Agra fort resembles that of Gwalior. It has two main gateways, namely, the Delhi gate and the Amar Singh gate. Inside, about 500 buildings of red sandstone were built. Most of these were later pulled-down by Shahjehan.
The greatest architectural achievement of Akbar was his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri. Three sides of Fateh-pur Sikri are covered by a wall and the fourth side by an artifical lake. The walls have nine gates, of which Buland Darwaza, built of marble and sandstone, is “one of the most perfect architectural achievements in the whole of India”.
Decorative carving was an important feature of Mughal architecture.
Mughals brought the concept of geometrically designed gardens to India. The chief characteristic of Mughal gardens was artificial irrigation in the form of chan-nels, basins or tanks, and dwarf waterfalls.
The most important garden associated with Akbar is at Sikandra. In the centre of this garden stands his mausoleum.
Akbar was illiterate. But, he acquired knowledge of theology, literature, philosophy, history, etc. by having books read out to him every day.
Akbar was the first ruler of Medevial India to discard the Islamic basis of sovereignty and to lay down the principle that the king was the father of all his subjects, irrespective of caste, race or religion.
Akbar sought to strengthen the society by doing away with its evils. He tried to abolish Sati, child-marriage and old-age marriage. He did not allow circumcision before the age of 12, and allowed Muslim converts to go back to their original religion if they liked.
Akbar attempted to give his empire cultural unity by making Persian the court language and by providing in that language (either by translation or original composition) the best Hindu and Muslim thought, religious as well as secular.
Most of the fine arts, such as architecture, painting and music were nationalised and made the common property of the Hindus and Muslims alike.
Akbar gave his empire the political and administrative unity of the highest kind possible in that age, by giving all the provinces the same system of administration, the same set of officials, the same administrative methods, the same revenue system and the same coinage.
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In 1577 Akbar undertook the reform of the currency and appointed Khwaja Abdus Samad Shirazi, a noted painter and calligraphist, to be the superintendent of the imperial mint at Delhi.
Besides Delhi, provinical mints were located at Lahore, Jaunpur, Ahmedabad, Patna and Tanda (in Bengal).
The silver coin issued during Akbar’s reign was round in shape, like its modern successor, and was known as rupee. It weighed 172 grains.
Akbar also introduced a square rupee called Jalali, but it was not as popular as the round rupee.
The chief copper coin was the dam or paisa or fulus. It weighed 323.5 grains or almost 21 grams.
The ratio between the dam and the rupee was 40 to 1. The lowest copper coin was jital. 25 jitals made one paisa.
The most common gold coin was the Ilahi, which was equal to 10 rupees in value.
The biggest gold coin was the shahanshah. It weighed a little over 101 tolas and was used mostly in high value business transactions.
The coins bore calligraphic inscriptions containing name and titles of the emperor and the place and year of mintage. Very few coins had figures inscribed on them.
The judicial system of Mughals was based on Islamic law. As it was not possible in practice to enforce Islamic law on Hindus, a compromise was effected. While criminal cases continued to be decided according to the Islamic law in all cases, Hindu law was administered in deciding civil and religious disputes in which the parties were Hindus.
Although Akbar had rejected the Islamic theory of kingship, he made no fundamental change in the judicial system. One important change introduced by Akbar in the judicial system was to restrict the scope of Islamic law and to extend that of general or customary law of the land so as to make it include as many causes as possible.
Akbar did not apply Islamic law of capital punishment for apostasy from Islam or for propagating Hinduism or Christianity.
Akbar appointed Hindu judges to decide the causes of Hindus.
The king was the highest judge in the Mughal empire. The next judicial authority was the qazi, who was appointed by the emperor and worked during his pleasure.
Originally, the chief qazi’s main qualifications used to be his knowledge of Islamic theology and his narrow sec-retarian views. Akbar, however, appointed to this post men of liberal religious outlook and broad sympathies towards all sections of the society.
Chief qazi was paid his salary in cash, as also was given an assignment of land entitled Madad-i-Mash or sub-sistence allowance.
Qazis were assisted by muftis, whose main duty was to interpret the law and issue a fatwa.
Akbar’s police administration was divided into three categories of urban, district and village police.
In all cities and towns kotwal headed the local police. His main duty was to see that the life of the city con-tinued undisturbed. Besides, he had to examine weights and measures, keep an eye on the currency and enforce Akbar’s social legislation.
Kotwal was personally held responsible for the value of property stolen in case he failed to discover the thief.
The kotwal was authorised to inflict punishment on offenders. However, he was not empowered to inflict capital punishment.
In the district the law and order was maintained by the faujdar. His main duties were the policing of the roads of the district and suppressing of disorders of all kinds.
The village headman was responsible for policing at the village level.
The imperial service during Akbar’s reign was organized on bureaucratic principles, but was military in organization and outlook.
The most flourishing towns during Akbar’s regime were Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Delhi, Allahabad, Benaras, Lucknow, Lahore, Multan, Ujjain, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Patna, Rajmahal and Dhaka.
The most important industry of the time was culti-vation of cotton and manufacture of cotton cloth. The prin-cipal centres of cotton manufacture were Jaunpur, Benaras, Patna, Burhanpur, Lucknow, Khairabad and Akbarpur.
Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore were important centres of silk-weaving.
The principal outlets for foreign sea-borne trade during Akbar’s regime were Cambay, Surat and Broach in Gujarat, Lahori Bandar in Sindh, Bassein, Chaul and Dabul (modern Bhabol) in the Ratnagiri district, Goa and Bhatkal, Calicut and Cochin in Malabar, and Negapatnam and Masulipatnam on the east coast, and Satgaon, Sripur, Chatgaon and Sonarghat in Bengal.
Two main land routes for exports were Lahore to Kabul and beyond, and from Multan to Kandhar and beyond.
Gold and silver were not allowed to be exported during the Akbar’s regime. Only imports were allowed.
Among the popular indoor games during Akbar’s reign were chaupar, phansa and pachisi. Akbar was particularly fond of chandalmandal and pachisi.
The Tajak, a well-known work of Astronomy, and the Tazuk-i-Baburi, or the memoirs of Babur, were translat-ed into Persian during Akbar’s reign.
The Mahabharat was rendered into Persian by Naqib Khan, Abdul Qadir Badayuni and Shaikh Sultan of Thanesar and was named Razm-nama, the book of wars.
The Lilawati, a Sanskrit treatise on Mathematics, was rendered into Persian by Faizi.
Among the notable works of literature during Akbar’s regime were: Abul Fazal’s Akbar-Nama and Ain-i-Akbari, Nizamud-Din Ahmad’s Tabqat-i-Akbari, Gula-badan Begam’s Humayun-Nama and Jauhar’s Tazkirat-ul-Waqayat. Abbas Sarwani produced the Tohfa-i-Akbar Shahi alias Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi.
Akbar ordered the compilation of the history of 1000 years of Islam, and Naqib Khan Mullah Mohammad of Thatta and Jaffer Beg were commissioned to write out the work. The book, with an introduction by Abul Fazi, became known as the Tarikh-i-Alfi.
The reign of Akbar was golden age of Hindi poet-ry. The most notable luminaries of Hindi were Tulsi Das, Sur Das, Abdur Rahim Khan Khana, Ras Khan and Birbal.
Among the famous works of Tulsi Das were Ram-charitmanas and Vinaya Patrika.
Akbar created a separate department of painting and Khwaja Abdus Samad, one of the best painters of his court, was placed at its head.
Abdus Samad was a Persian who had come from Shiraz. He was given the title of Shirin-qalam or ‘sweet pen’.
Daswanth, Basawan, Kesu, Lal, Mukand, Madhu, Jagan, Mahesh, Tara, Khem Karan, Sanwla, Haribansh and Ram were some well-known Hindu painters during Akbar’s reign. They were experts in portrait painting.
According to Abul Fazal eight modes of calligra-phy were in vogue at Akbar’s court, of which the eighth kind, named Nastaliq, was specially favoured by Akbar.
The most important calligraphist at Akbar’s court was Mohammed Hussain Kashmiri, who was given the title of Zarin Qalam. Some of the other famous cal-ligraphists were Maulana Baqir, Mohammed Amin of Mashad, and Mir Hussein Ralanki.
The Ain-i-Akbari gives names of 36 first-rate musi-cians in Akbar’s court. They were arranged in seven divisions. Each division was required to entertain Akbar for one fixed day in the week.
Akbar himself was a skilled musician and was an expert performer on Naqqara (kettle drum).
Tansen was the most notable musician of the age. He had been trained in a school established at Gwalior by Raja Man Singh Tomar.
Baba Ram Das was another famous musician of Akbar’s court and was ranked next only to Tansen.
Sur Das, besides being a great poet, was also a musician of Akbar’s court.
The gigantic forts at Agra, Lahore and Allahabad were built by Akbar.
The Agra fort resembles that of Gwalior. It has two main gateways, namely, the Delhi gate and the Amar Singh gate. Inside, about 500 buildings of red sandstone were built. Most of these were later pulled-down by Shahjehan.
The greatest architectural achievement of Akbar was his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri. Three sides of Fateh-pur Sikri are covered by a wall and the fourth side by an artifical lake. The walls have nine gates, of which Buland Darwaza, built of marble and sandstone, is “one of the most perfect architectural achievements in the whole of India”.
Decorative carving was an important feature of Mughal architecture.
Mughals brought the concept of geometrically designed gardens to India. The chief characteristic of Mughal gardens was artificial irrigation in the form of chan-nels, basins or tanks, and dwarf waterfalls.
The most important garden associated with Akbar is at Sikandra. In the centre of this garden stands his mausoleum.
Akbar was illiterate. But, he acquired knowledge of theology, literature, philosophy, history, etc. by having books read out to him every day.
Akbar was the first ruler of Medevial India to discard the Islamic basis of sovereignty and to lay down the principle that the king was the father of all his subjects, irrespective of caste, race or religion.
Akbar sought to strengthen the society by doing away with its evils. He tried to abolish Sati, child-marriage and old-age marriage. He did not allow circumcision before the age of 12, and allowed Muslim converts to go back to their original religion if they liked.
Akbar attempted to give his empire cultural unity by making Persian the court language and by providing in that language (either by translation or original composition) the best Hindu and Muslim thought, religious as well as secular.
Most of the fine arts, such as architecture, painting and music were nationalised and made the common property of the Hindus and Muslims alike.
Akbar gave his empire the political and administrative unity of the highest kind possible in that age, by giving all the provinces the same system of administration, the same set of officials, the same administrative methods, the same revenue system and the same coinage.
Wednesday 4 April 2012
History - Mughal Empire – 2
History - Mughal Empire – 2
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In 1577 Akbar undertook the reform of the currency and appointed Khwaja Abdus Samad Shirazi, a noted painter and calligraphist, to be the superintendent of the imperial mint at Delhi.
Besides Delhi, provinical mints were located at Lahore, Jaunpur, Ahmedabad, Patna and Tanda (in Bengal).
The silver coin issued during Akbar’s reign was round in shape, like its modern successor, and was known as rupee. It weighed 172 grains.
Akbar also introduced a square rupee called Jalali, but it was not as popular as the round rupee.
The chief copper coin was the dam or paisa or fulus. It weighed 323.5 grains or almost 21 grams.
The ratio between the dam and the rupee was 40 to 1. The lowest copper coin was jital. 25 jitals made one paisa.
The most common gold coin was the Ilahi, which was equal to 10 rupees in value.
The biggest gold coin was the shahanshah. It weighed a little over 101 tolas and was used mostly in high value business transactions.
The coins bore calligraphic inscriptions containing name and titles of the emperor and the place and year of mintage. Very few coins had figures inscribed on them.
The judicial system of Mughals was based on Islamic law. As it was not possible in practice to enforce Islamic law on Hindus, a compromise was effected. While criminal cases continued to be decided according to the Islamic law in all cases, Hindu law was administered in deciding civil and religious disputes in which the parties were Hindus.
Although Akbar had rejected the Islamic theory of kingship, he made no fundamental change in the judicial system. One important change introduced by Akbar in the judicial system was to restrict the scope of Islamic law and to extend that of general or customary law of the land so as to make it include as many causes as possible.
Akbar did not apply Islamic law of capital punishment for apostasy from Islam or for propagating Hinduism or Christianity.
Akbar appointed Hindu judges to decide the causes of Hindus.
The king was the highest judge in the Mughal empire. The next judicial authority was the qazi, who was appointed by the emperor and worked during his pleasure.
Originally, the chief qazi’s main qualifications used to be his knowledge of Islamic theology and his narrow sec-retarian views. Akbar, however, appointed to this post men of liberal religious outlook and broad sympathies towards all sections of the society.
Chief qazi was paid his salary in cash, as also was given an assignment of land entitled Madad-i-Mash or sub-sistence allowance.
Qazis were assisted by muftis, whose main duty was to interpret the law and issue a fatwa.
Akbar’s police administration was divided into three categories of urban, district and village police.
In all cities and towns kotwal headed the local police. His main duty was to see that the life of the city con-tinued undisturbed. Besides, he had to examine weights and measures, keep an eye on the currency and enforce Akbar’s social legislation.
Kotwal was personally held responsible for the value of property stolen in case he failed to discover the thief.
The kotwal was authorised to inflict punishment on offenders. However, he was not empowered to inflict capital punishment.
In the district the law and order was maintained by the faujdar. His main duties were the policing of the roads of the district and suppressing of disorders of all kinds.
The village headman was responsible for policing at the village level.
The imperial service during Akbar’s reign was organized on bureaucratic principles, but was military in organization and outlook.
The most flourishing towns during Akbar’s regime were Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Delhi, Allahabad, Benaras, Lucknow, Lahore, Multan, Ujjain, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Patna, Rajmahal and Dhaka.
The most important industry of the time was culti-vation of cotton and manufacture of cotton cloth. The prin-cipal centres of cotton manufacture were Jaunpur, Benaras, Patna, Burhanpur, Lucknow, Khairabad and Akbarpur.
Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore were important centres of silk-weaving.
The principal outlets for foreign sea-borne trade during Akbar’s regime were Cambay, Surat and Broach in Gujarat, Lahori Bandar in Sindh, Bassein, Chaul and Dabul (modern Bhabol) in the Ratnagiri district, Goa and Bhatkal, Calicut and Cochin in Malabar, and Negapatnam and Masulipatnam on the east coast, and Satgaon, Sripur, Chatgaon and Sonarghat in Bengal.
Two main land routes for exports were Lahore to Kabul and beyond, and from Multan to Kandhar and beyond.
Gold and silver were not allowed to be exported during the Akbar’s regime. Only imports were allowed.
Among the popular indoor games during Akbar’s reign were chaupar, phansa and pachisi. Akbar was particularly fond of chandalmandal and pachisi.
The Tajak, a well-known work of Astronomy, and the Tazuk-i-Baburi, or the memoirs of Babur, were translat-ed into Persian during Akbar’s reign.
The Mahabharat was rendered into Persian by Naqib Khan, Abdul Qadir Badayuni and Shaikh Sultan of Thanesar and was named Razm-nama, the book of wars.
The Lilawati, a Sanskrit treatise on Mathematics, was rendered into Persian by Faizi.
Among the notable works of literature during Akbar’s regime were: Abul Fazal’s Akbar-Nama and Ain-i-Akbari, Nizamud-Din Ahmad’s Tabqat-i-Akbari, Gula-badan Begam’s Humayun-Nama and Jauhar’s Tazkirat-ul-Waqayat. Abbas Sarwani produced the Tohfa-i-Akbar Shahi alias Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi.
Akbar ordered the compilation of the history of 1000 years of Islam, and Naqib Khan Mullah Mohammad of Thatta and Jaffer Beg were commissioned to write out the work. The book, with an introduction by Abul Fazi, became known as the Tarikh-i-Alfi.
The reign of Akbar was golden age of Hindi poet-ry. The most notable luminaries of Hindi were Tulsi Das, Sur Das, Abdur Rahim Khan Khana, Ras Khan and Birbal.
Among the famous works of Tulsi Das were Ram-charitmanas and Vinaya Patrika.
Akbar created a separate department of painting and Khwaja Abdus Samad, one of the best painters of his court, was placed at its head.
Abdus Samad was a Persian who had come from Shiraz. He was given the title of Shirin-qalam or ‘sweet pen’.
Daswanth, Basawan, Kesu, Lal, Mukand, Madhu, Jagan, Mahesh, Tara, Khem Karan, Sanwla, Haribansh and Ram were some well-known Hindu painters during Akbar’s reign. They were experts in portrait painting.
According to Abul Fazal eight modes of calligra-phy were in vogue at Akbar’s court, of which the eighth kind, named Nastaliq, was specially favoured by Akbar.
The most important calligraphist at Akbar’s court was Mohammed Hussain Kashmiri, who was given the title of Zarin Qalam. Some of the other famous cal-ligraphists were Maulana Baqir, Mohammed Amin of Mashad, and Mir Hussein Ralanki.
The Ain-i-Akbari gives names of 36 first-rate musi-cians in Akbar’s court. They were arranged in seven divisions. Each division was required to entertain Akbar for one fixed day in the week.
Akbar himself was a skilled musician and was an expert performer on Naqqara (kettle drum).
Tansen was the most notable musician of the age. He had been trained in a school established at Gwalior by Raja Man Singh Tomar.
Baba Ram Das was another famous musician of Akbar’s court and was ranked next only to Tansen.
Sur Das, besides being a great poet, was also a musician of Akbar’s court.
The gigantic forts at Agra, Lahore and Allahabad were built by Akbar.
The Agra fort resembles that of Gwalior. It has two main gateways, namely, the Delhi gate and the Amar Singh gate. Inside, about 500 buildings of red sandstone were built. Most of these were later pulled-down by Shahjehan.
The greatest architectural achievement of Akbar was his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri. Three sides of Fateh-pur Sikri are covered by a wall and the fourth side by an artifical lake. The walls have nine gates, of which Buland Darwaza, built of marble and sandstone, is “one of the most perfect architectural achievements in the whole of India”.
Decorative carving was an important feature of Mughal architecture.
Mughals brought the concept of geometrically designed gardens to India. The chief characteristic of Mughal gardens was artificial irrigation in the form of chan-nels, basins or tanks, and dwarf waterfalls.
The most important garden associated with Akbar is at Sikandra. In the centre of this garden stands his mausoleum.
Akbar was illiterate. But, he acquired knowledge of theology, literature, philosophy, history, etc. by having books read out to him every day.
Akbar was the first ruler of Medevial India to discard the Islamic basis of sovereignty and to lay down the principle that the king was the father of all his subjects, irrespective of caste, race or religion.
Akbar sought to strengthen the society by doing away with its evils. He tried to abolish Sati, child-marriage and old-age marriage. He did not allow circumcision before the age of 12, and allowed Muslim converts to go back to their original religion if they liked.
Akbar attempted to give his empire cultural unity by making Persian the court language and by providing in that language (either by translation or original composition) the best Hindu and Muslim thought, religious as well as secular.
Most of the fine arts, such as architecture, painting and music were nationalised and made the common property of the Hindus and Muslims alike.
Akbar gave his empire the political and administrative unity of the highest kind possible in that age, by giving all the provinces the same system of administration, the same set of officials, the same administrative methods, the same revenue system and the same coinage.
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In 1577 Akbar undertook the reform of the currency and appointed Khwaja Abdus Samad Shirazi, a noted painter and calligraphist, to be the superintendent of the imperial mint at Delhi.
Besides Delhi, provinical mints were located at Lahore, Jaunpur, Ahmedabad, Patna and Tanda (in Bengal).
The silver coin issued during Akbar’s reign was round in shape, like its modern successor, and was known as rupee. It weighed 172 grains.
Akbar also introduced a square rupee called Jalali, but it was not as popular as the round rupee.
The chief copper coin was the dam or paisa or fulus. It weighed 323.5 grains or almost 21 grams.
The ratio between the dam and the rupee was 40 to 1. The lowest copper coin was jital. 25 jitals made one paisa.
The most common gold coin was the Ilahi, which was equal to 10 rupees in value.
The biggest gold coin was the shahanshah. It weighed a little over 101 tolas and was used mostly in high value business transactions.
The coins bore calligraphic inscriptions containing name and titles of the emperor and the place and year of mintage. Very few coins had figures inscribed on them.
The judicial system of Mughals was based on Islamic law. As it was not possible in practice to enforce Islamic law on Hindus, a compromise was effected. While criminal cases continued to be decided according to the Islamic law in all cases, Hindu law was administered in deciding civil and religious disputes in which the parties were Hindus.
Although Akbar had rejected the Islamic theory of kingship, he made no fundamental change in the judicial system. One important change introduced by Akbar in the judicial system was to restrict the scope of Islamic law and to extend that of general or customary law of the land so as to make it include as many causes as possible.
Akbar did not apply Islamic law of capital punishment for apostasy from Islam or for propagating Hinduism or Christianity.
Akbar appointed Hindu judges to decide the causes of Hindus.
The king was the highest judge in the Mughal empire. The next judicial authority was the qazi, who was appointed by the emperor and worked during his pleasure.
Originally, the chief qazi’s main qualifications used to be his knowledge of Islamic theology and his narrow sec-retarian views. Akbar, however, appointed to this post men of liberal religious outlook and broad sympathies towards all sections of the society.
Chief qazi was paid his salary in cash, as also was given an assignment of land entitled Madad-i-Mash or sub-sistence allowance.
Qazis were assisted by muftis, whose main duty was to interpret the law and issue a fatwa.
Akbar’s police administration was divided into three categories of urban, district and village police.
In all cities and towns kotwal headed the local police. His main duty was to see that the life of the city con-tinued undisturbed. Besides, he had to examine weights and measures, keep an eye on the currency and enforce Akbar’s social legislation.
Kotwal was personally held responsible for the value of property stolen in case he failed to discover the thief.
The kotwal was authorised to inflict punishment on offenders. However, he was not empowered to inflict capital punishment.
In the district the law and order was maintained by the faujdar. His main duties were the policing of the roads of the district and suppressing of disorders of all kinds.
The village headman was responsible for policing at the village level.
The imperial service during Akbar’s reign was organized on bureaucratic principles, but was military in organization and outlook.
The most flourishing towns during Akbar’s regime were Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Delhi, Allahabad, Benaras, Lucknow, Lahore, Multan, Ujjain, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Patna, Rajmahal and Dhaka.
The most important industry of the time was culti-vation of cotton and manufacture of cotton cloth. The prin-cipal centres of cotton manufacture were Jaunpur, Benaras, Patna, Burhanpur, Lucknow, Khairabad and Akbarpur.
Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore were important centres of silk-weaving.
The principal outlets for foreign sea-borne trade during Akbar’s regime were Cambay, Surat and Broach in Gujarat, Lahori Bandar in Sindh, Bassein, Chaul and Dabul (modern Bhabol) in the Ratnagiri district, Goa and Bhatkal, Calicut and Cochin in Malabar, and Negapatnam and Masulipatnam on the east coast, and Satgaon, Sripur, Chatgaon and Sonarghat in Bengal.
Two main land routes for exports were Lahore to Kabul and beyond, and from Multan to Kandhar and beyond.
Gold and silver were not allowed to be exported during the Akbar’s regime. Only imports were allowed.
Among the popular indoor games during Akbar’s reign were chaupar, phansa and pachisi. Akbar was particularly fond of chandalmandal and pachisi.
The Tajak, a well-known work of Astronomy, and the Tazuk-i-Baburi, or the memoirs of Babur, were translat-ed into Persian during Akbar’s reign.
The Mahabharat was rendered into Persian by Naqib Khan, Abdul Qadir Badayuni and Shaikh Sultan of Thanesar and was named Razm-nama, the book of wars.
The Lilawati, a Sanskrit treatise on Mathematics, was rendered into Persian by Faizi.
Among the notable works of literature during Akbar’s regime were: Abul Fazal’s Akbar-Nama and Ain-i-Akbari, Nizamud-Din Ahmad’s Tabqat-i-Akbari, Gula-badan Begam’s Humayun-Nama and Jauhar’s Tazkirat-ul-Waqayat. Abbas Sarwani produced the Tohfa-i-Akbar Shahi alias Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi.
Akbar ordered the compilation of the history of 1000 years of Islam, and Naqib Khan Mullah Mohammad of Thatta and Jaffer Beg were commissioned to write out the work. The book, with an introduction by Abul Fazi, became known as the Tarikh-i-Alfi.
The reign of Akbar was golden age of Hindi poet-ry. The most notable luminaries of Hindi were Tulsi Das, Sur Das, Abdur Rahim Khan Khana, Ras Khan and Birbal.
Among the famous works of Tulsi Das were Ram-charitmanas and Vinaya Patrika.
Akbar created a separate department of painting and Khwaja Abdus Samad, one of the best painters of his court, was placed at its head.
Abdus Samad was a Persian who had come from Shiraz. He was given the title of Shirin-qalam or ‘sweet pen’.
Daswanth, Basawan, Kesu, Lal, Mukand, Madhu, Jagan, Mahesh, Tara, Khem Karan, Sanwla, Haribansh and Ram were some well-known Hindu painters during Akbar’s reign. They were experts in portrait painting.
According to Abul Fazal eight modes of calligra-phy were in vogue at Akbar’s court, of which the eighth kind, named Nastaliq, was specially favoured by Akbar.
The most important calligraphist at Akbar’s court was Mohammed Hussain Kashmiri, who was given the title of Zarin Qalam. Some of the other famous cal-ligraphists were Maulana Baqir, Mohammed Amin of Mashad, and Mir Hussein Ralanki.
The Ain-i-Akbari gives names of 36 first-rate musi-cians in Akbar’s court. They were arranged in seven divisions. Each division was required to entertain Akbar for one fixed day in the week.
Akbar himself was a skilled musician and was an expert performer on Naqqara (kettle drum).
Tansen was the most notable musician of the age. He had been trained in a school established at Gwalior by Raja Man Singh Tomar.
Baba Ram Das was another famous musician of Akbar’s court and was ranked next only to Tansen.
Sur Das, besides being a great poet, was also a musician of Akbar’s court.
The gigantic forts at Agra, Lahore and Allahabad were built by Akbar.
The Agra fort resembles that of Gwalior. It has two main gateways, namely, the Delhi gate and the Amar Singh gate. Inside, about 500 buildings of red sandstone were built. Most of these were later pulled-down by Shahjehan.
The greatest architectural achievement of Akbar was his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri. Three sides of Fateh-pur Sikri are covered by a wall and the fourth side by an artifical lake. The walls have nine gates, of which Buland Darwaza, built of marble and sandstone, is “one of the most perfect architectural achievements in the whole of India”.
Decorative carving was an important feature of Mughal architecture.
Mughals brought the concept of geometrically designed gardens to India. The chief characteristic of Mughal gardens was artificial irrigation in the form of chan-nels, basins or tanks, and dwarf waterfalls.
The most important garden associated with Akbar is at Sikandra. In the centre of this garden stands his mausoleum.
Akbar was illiterate. But, he acquired knowledge of theology, literature, philosophy, history, etc. by having books read out to him every day.
Akbar was the first ruler of Medevial India to discard the Islamic basis of sovereignty and to lay down the principle that the king was the father of all his subjects, irrespective of caste, race or religion.
Akbar sought to strengthen the society by doing away with its evils. He tried to abolish Sati, child-marriage and old-age marriage. He did not allow circumcision before the age of 12, and allowed Muslim converts to go back to their original religion if they liked.
Akbar attempted to give his empire cultural unity by making Persian the court language and by providing in that language (either by translation or original composition) the best Hindu and Muslim thought, religious as well as secular.
Most of the fine arts, such as architecture, painting and music were nationalised and made the common property of the Hindus and Muslims alike.
Akbar gave his empire the political and administrative unity of the highest kind possible in that age, by giving all the provinces the same system of administration, the same set of officials, the same administrative methods, the same revenue system and the same coinage.
Tuesday 3 April 2012
History - Mughal Empire – 1
History - Mughal Empire – 1
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The second Battle of Panipat marked the real beginning of the Mughal Empire in India.
Bairam Khan remained the protector and guardian of Akbar during the initial reign of Akbar.
Akbar’s mother Hamida Banu Begum, and his foster mother Maham Anaga urged Akbar to get rid of the Regent, Bairam Khan. In 1560, Akbar openly expressed his desire to take the reigns of the empire in his own hands and dismissed him. Bairam Khan submitted his resignation and desired to proceed to Mecca. On his way to Mecca, Bairam was stabbed to death by Lohani Afghan, whose father had been killed by Mughal troops under the command of Bairam Khan.
Akbar followed a policy of conquest for the expan-sion of his empire until the capture of Asirgarh in January 1601. He achieved the political unification of the whole of northern and central India by frequent annexations extend-ing over 40 years.
Akbar realised the value of Rajput alliance in his task of building up an Empire in India and tried, as far as possi-ble, to conciliate the Rajputs and secure and ensure their active cooperation in almost all activities. The Empire of Akbar can be said to be an outcome of the coordination of Mughal prowess and diplomacy and Rajput valour and service. Mewar, however, gave stiff resistance to Mughal forces. Rana Sanga, the ruler of Mewar, kept the torch of independence burning. However, after his death, his weak son, Uday Singh, could not hold against the Mughals and Akbar finally besieged the fort of Chittor in October 1567. But, the victory did not come his way easily. Rana Sanga’s brave followers, Jaimnall and Patta, gave stiff resistance. The entire garrison, to the last man, died fighting. The Rajput women performed the rite of Jauhar.
Victory at Chittor resulted in other Rajput chiefs to submit to Akbar. But Mewar continued to defy. Uday Singh continued to retain his independence even after losing the capital. After his death, Mewar found a true leader in Rana Pratap.
The imperial invasion of territory of Rana Pratap took place in April 1576, under troops commanded by Man Singh, the ruler of Amber, and Asaf Khan. A furious battle was fought at the pass of Haldighati. Rana Pratap was defeated by the Mughal forces. His life was, however, saved by the selfless devotion of the chief of Jhala, who drew upon himself the attack of Mughal forces by declaring himself to be the Rana. Rana mounted his favourite horse Chetak and fled to the hills, from where he continued his resistance to the Mughal forces and also managed to recover some of the lost territory. Rana Pratap’s son tried to continue the resis-tance after his father’s death but was finally defeated in 1599 by Mughal forces led by Man Singh.
After annexing Ranthambhor and Kalinjar in 1569, the Mughals subjugated Gujarat. In 1572, Akbar marched in person against Gujarat and defeated all opposition.
Gujarat turned out to be one of the most profitable sources of income for the Mughal empire, chiefly through the re-organisation of its finances and revenues by Todar Mal.
In 1585, Kabul was formally annexed to the Delhi empire after the death of Mirza Muhammad Hakim, step-brother of Akbar who governed Kabul as an independent ruler.
Bhagwan Das and Kasim Khan were deputed by Akbar to conquer Kashmir. They defeated its Sultan Yusuf Shah in 1586 and annexed Kashmir to the Empire.
By 1595, Akbar made himself undisputed ruler of an area extending from Hindukush to Brahamputra, and from Himalayas to the Narmada.
With an ideal of an all-India Empire, Akbar sought to bring the Deccan Sultanates, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golkunda and Khandesh under his hegemony. He also wanted to utilise his control over Deccan as means of push-ing the Portuguese to the sea. Thus, his Deccan policy was purely imperialistic in origin and outlook and not influenced by religious considerations, as was the case with Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb.
Akbar sent a large army under Bairam Khan’s son Abdur Rehman and his second son Prince Murad to annex Ahmadnagar. The city was besieged in 1595, but not before splendid courage and extraordinary resolution shown by Chand Bibi, a queen of Bijapur. Under a treaty with Chand Bibi, Berar was ceded to Akbar’s forces and the boy king of Ahmadnagar agreed to the overlordship of Akbar. The king-dom could be annexed to the empire only during the reign of Shah Jehan.
In July 1599, Akbar himself marched to the south and captured Burhanpur, the capital of Khandesh and laid siege to the mighty fortress of Asirgarh. Akbar seduced the Khandesh officers by money to get the doors of the fort opened. This was the last conquest of Akbar.
In 1601, Akbar returned to Agra to deal with his rebellious son Salim.
On October 17, 1605 Akbar died following severe dysentery. His mausoleum is located at Sikandra.
Akbar observed the external forms of the Sunni faith until 1575, when his association with Shaikh Mubarak and his two sons, Faizi and Abul Fazal, produced change in his views.
Akbar got a building called Ibadat-Khana or the House of Worship constructed at Fatehpur Sikri, with a view to discussing philosophical and theological questions.
Hari Vijaya Suri, Vijaya Sen Suri and Bhanuchandra Upadhaya were prominent Jain teachers who were called by Akbar to attend the philosophical and theological discussions.
Akbar floated a new religion, called Din-i-Ilahi, based on his discussions with people of different religions.
Akbar abolished the pilgrim tax in the eighth year of his reign, and the jaziya in the ninth year.
A week after Akbar’s death, Salim succeeded to the throne of Agra and assumed the title of Nur-ud-din Mohammed Jahangir Padshah (Emperor) Ghazi (Holy warrior).
Five months after his accession to the throne, Jahangir faced rebellion by his son Khusrav. The Prince and his troops were defeated by the Mughal army near Jalandhar and Khusrav was captured alongwith his principal followers, Husain Beg and Abdul Aziz.
The fifth Sikh Guru, Arjan Dev was sentenced to death by Jahangir for helping Prince Khusrav with a sum of money. The execution of Guru Arjan Dev estranged the Sikhs, till then a peace-loving community, and turned them into foes of the Mughal Empire.
In May 1611, Jahangir married Noor Jahan, origi-nally known as Mihir-ul-nisa. The emperor, who styled himself Nor-ud-din, conferred on his new wife the title of Noor Mahal (Light of the palace), which was soon changed to Noor Jahan (Light of the world). She was the daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg, a Persian adventurer.
Jahangir was known to have had several secret love affairs with the ladies of the court. One famous love of Jahangir was Anarkali, for whom he raised a beautiful marble tomb at Lahore.
The most distinguished triumph of Mughal imperialism during the reign of Jahangir was its victory over the Rajputs of Mewar.
In the Deccan, war dragged on throughout his reign against the kingdom of Ahmadnagar. The kingdom of Ahmadnagar was then served by its Abyssinian minister Malik Ambar, one of the greatest statesmen that Medieval India produced.
A partial success was gained by Mughals in 1616, when Prince Khurram captured Ahmadnagar and some other strongholds. For this victory Khurram was rewarded by his father with the title of Shah Jehan (King of the world).
The first serious disaster of the Mughal empire dur-ing the reign of Jahangir was loss of Kandhar. Deceiving the Mughal officers by gifts, Shah Abbas, one of the greatest rulers of Asia in his time, besieged Kandhar in 1621, and finally took it in June 1622.
Shah Jehan revolted against Jahangir with help of Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, an officer in the Mughal court. He was, however, defeated by Mughal forces led by Mahabat Khan, at Balochpur, near Delhi, in 1623. Shah Jehan was then chased from province to province and final-ly, in 1625, he reconciled with his father and retired to Nasik with his wife Noor Jahan, a niece of Mumtaz Mahal, and youngest son Murad. His other sons, Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb, were sent to the imperial court, probably to serve as hostages to ensure his good behaviour.
The success of Mahtab Khan excited the jealousy of Noor Jahan and this hostility drove him to rebellion. Mahtab Khan took Jahangir as prisoner on the banks of Jhelum, while the emperor was on his way to Kabul. However, Jahangir managed to escape from prison and went to Rohtas where troops loyal to him had collected in a large force. Mahtab Khan ultimately made peace with Jahangir, but this triumph remained short-lived as Jahangir died on October 27, 1627. His body was buried in a beautiful tomb at Shah-dara, near Lahore, on the banks of Ravi.
Jahangir had a Chain of Justice, bearing sixty bells, fastened between the Shah Bhurj in the Agra fort and a post on the road, near the bank of Yamuna. The chain could be shaken by the humblest of his subjects to bring their grievances to his notice.
The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (Memoirs of Jahangir) is a brilliant proof of his literary attainments.
Himself a painter, Jahangir was a patron of art and literature and a lover of nature.
Jahangir made no departure from his father’s poli-cy of admitting Hindus to the higher public service. Man Singh, Kalyan Singh, son of Todar Mal, and Vikramadit were three Hindu governors during his reign.
Jahangir also tried to control the practice of sati among Hindus. He passed orders that Hindu widows should not be compelled to become sati without his government’s permission. He also tried to put a stop to female infanticide.
Jahangir was fond of the company of the Vaishnava leader Jadurup and held many discussions with him at Ujjain and Mathura, as a result of which he came to the con-clusion that Hindu Vedanta and Muslim sufism were almost identical.
Jahangir was usually liberal and tolerant towards all religions, but at times sanctioned repressive measures against Muslim heretics. Shaikh Rahim of Lahore, who was a religious leader of a sect, was imprisoned in the fortress of Chunar. Qazi Nurullah was put to death on account of being a notable Shia writer. Shaikh Ahmad Sarhindi was imprisoned in the fortress of Gwalior, but was released later and sent back to Sarhind with gifts.
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The second Battle of Panipat marked the real beginning of the Mughal Empire in India.
Bairam Khan remained the protector and guardian of Akbar during the initial reign of Akbar.
Akbar’s mother Hamida Banu Begum, and his foster mother Maham Anaga urged Akbar to get rid of the Regent, Bairam Khan. In 1560, Akbar openly expressed his desire to take the reigns of the empire in his own hands and dismissed him. Bairam Khan submitted his resignation and desired to proceed to Mecca. On his way to Mecca, Bairam was stabbed to death by Lohani Afghan, whose father had been killed by Mughal troops under the command of Bairam Khan.
Akbar followed a policy of conquest for the expan-sion of his empire until the capture of Asirgarh in January 1601. He achieved the political unification of the whole of northern and central India by frequent annexations extend-ing over 40 years.
Akbar realised the value of Rajput alliance in his task of building up an Empire in India and tried, as far as possi-ble, to conciliate the Rajputs and secure and ensure their active cooperation in almost all activities. The Empire of Akbar can be said to be an outcome of the coordination of Mughal prowess and diplomacy and Rajput valour and service. Mewar, however, gave stiff resistance to Mughal forces. Rana Sanga, the ruler of Mewar, kept the torch of independence burning. However, after his death, his weak son, Uday Singh, could not hold against the Mughals and Akbar finally besieged the fort of Chittor in October 1567. But, the victory did not come his way easily. Rana Sanga’s brave followers, Jaimnall and Patta, gave stiff resistance. The entire garrison, to the last man, died fighting. The Rajput women performed the rite of Jauhar.
Victory at Chittor resulted in other Rajput chiefs to submit to Akbar. But Mewar continued to defy. Uday Singh continued to retain his independence even after losing the capital. After his death, Mewar found a true leader in Rana Pratap.
The imperial invasion of territory of Rana Pratap took place in April 1576, under troops commanded by Man Singh, the ruler of Amber, and Asaf Khan. A furious battle was fought at the pass of Haldighati. Rana Pratap was defeated by the Mughal forces. His life was, however, saved by the selfless devotion of the chief of Jhala, who drew upon himself the attack of Mughal forces by declaring himself to be the Rana. Rana mounted his favourite horse Chetak and fled to the hills, from where he continued his resistance to the Mughal forces and also managed to recover some of the lost territory. Rana Pratap’s son tried to continue the resis-tance after his father’s death but was finally defeated in 1599 by Mughal forces led by Man Singh.
After annexing Ranthambhor and Kalinjar in 1569, the Mughals subjugated Gujarat. In 1572, Akbar marched in person against Gujarat and defeated all opposition.
Gujarat turned out to be one of the most profitable sources of income for the Mughal empire, chiefly through the re-organisation of its finances and revenues by Todar Mal.
In 1585, Kabul was formally annexed to the Delhi empire after the death of Mirza Muhammad Hakim, step-brother of Akbar who governed Kabul as an independent ruler.
Bhagwan Das and Kasim Khan were deputed by Akbar to conquer Kashmir. They defeated its Sultan Yusuf Shah in 1586 and annexed Kashmir to the Empire.
By 1595, Akbar made himself undisputed ruler of an area extending from Hindukush to Brahamputra, and from Himalayas to the Narmada.
With an ideal of an all-India Empire, Akbar sought to bring the Deccan Sultanates, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golkunda and Khandesh under his hegemony. He also wanted to utilise his control over Deccan as means of push-ing the Portuguese to the sea. Thus, his Deccan policy was purely imperialistic in origin and outlook and not influenced by religious considerations, as was the case with Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb.
Akbar sent a large army under Bairam Khan’s son Abdur Rehman and his second son Prince Murad to annex Ahmadnagar. The city was besieged in 1595, but not before splendid courage and extraordinary resolution shown by Chand Bibi, a queen of Bijapur. Under a treaty with Chand Bibi, Berar was ceded to Akbar’s forces and the boy king of Ahmadnagar agreed to the overlordship of Akbar. The king-dom could be annexed to the empire only during the reign of Shah Jehan.
In July 1599, Akbar himself marched to the south and captured Burhanpur, the capital of Khandesh and laid siege to the mighty fortress of Asirgarh. Akbar seduced the Khandesh officers by money to get the doors of the fort opened. This was the last conquest of Akbar.
In 1601, Akbar returned to Agra to deal with his rebellious son Salim.
On October 17, 1605 Akbar died following severe dysentery. His mausoleum is located at Sikandra.
Akbar observed the external forms of the Sunni faith until 1575, when his association with Shaikh Mubarak and his two sons, Faizi and Abul Fazal, produced change in his views.
Akbar got a building called Ibadat-Khana or the House of Worship constructed at Fatehpur Sikri, with a view to discussing philosophical and theological questions.
Hari Vijaya Suri, Vijaya Sen Suri and Bhanuchandra Upadhaya were prominent Jain teachers who were called by Akbar to attend the philosophical and theological discussions.
Akbar floated a new religion, called Din-i-Ilahi, based on his discussions with people of different religions.
Akbar abolished the pilgrim tax in the eighth year of his reign, and the jaziya in the ninth year.
A week after Akbar’s death, Salim succeeded to the throne of Agra and assumed the title of Nur-ud-din Mohammed Jahangir Padshah (Emperor) Ghazi (Holy warrior).
Five months after his accession to the throne, Jahangir faced rebellion by his son Khusrav. The Prince and his troops were defeated by the Mughal army near Jalandhar and Khusrav was captured alongwith his principal followers, Husain Beg and Abdul Aziz.
The fifth Sikh Guru, Arjan Dev was sentenced to death by Jahangir for helping Prince Khusrav with a sum of money. The execution of Guru Arjan Dev estranged the Sikhs, till then a peace-loving community, and turned them into foes of the Mughal Empire.
In May 1611, Jahangir married Noor Jahan, origi-nally known as Mihir-ul-nisa. The emperor, who styled himself Nor-ud-din, conferred on his new wife the title of Noor Mahal (Light of the palace), which was soon changed to Noor Jahan (Light of the world). She was the daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg, a Persian adventurer.
Jahangir was known to have had several secret love affairs with the ladies of the court. One famous love of Jahangir was Anarkali, for whom he raised a beautiful marble tomb at Lahore.
The most distinguished triumph of Mughal imperialism during the reign of Jahangir was its victory over the Rajputs of Mewar.
In the Deccan, war dragged on throughout his reign against the kingdom of Ahmadnagar. The kingdom of Ahmadnagar was then served by its Abyssinian minister Malik Ambar, one of the greatest statesmen that Medieval India produced.
A partial success was gained by Mughals in 1616, when Prince Khurram captured Ahmadnagar and some other strongholds. For this victory Khurram was rewarded by his father with the title of Shah Jehan (King of the world).
The first serious disaster of the Mughal empire dur-ing the reign of Jahangir was loss of Kandhar. Deceiving the Mughal officers by gifts, Shah Abbas, one of the greatest rulers of Asia in his time, besieged Kandhar in 1621, and finally took it in June 1622.
Shah Jehan revolted against Jahangir with help of Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, an officer in the Mughal court. He was, however, defeated by Mughal forces led by Mahabat Khan, at Balochpur, near Delhi, in 1623. Shah Jehan was then chased from province to province and final-ly, in 1625, he reconciled with his father and retired to Nasik with his wife Noor Jahan, a niece of Mumtaz Mahal, and youngest son Murad. His other sons, Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb, were sent to the imperial court, probably to serve as hostages to ensure his good behaviour.
The success of Mahtab Khan excited the jealousy of Noor Jahan and this hostility drove him to rebellion. Mahtab Khan took Jahangir as prisoner on the banks of Jhelum, while the emperor was on his way to Kabul. However, Jahangir managed to escape from prison and went to Rohtas where troops loyal to him had collected in a large force. Mahtab Khan ultimately made peace with Jahangir, but this triumph remained short-lived as Jahangir died on October 27, 1627. His body was buried in a beautiful tomb at Shah-dara, near Lahore, on the banks of Ravi.
Jahangir had a Chain of Justice, bearing sixty bells, fastened between the Shah Bhurj in the Agra fort and a post on the road, near the bank of Yamuna. The chain could be shaken by the humblest of his subjects to bring their grievances to his notice.
The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (Memoirs of Jahangir) is a brilliant proof of his literary attainments.
Himself a painter, Jahangir was a patron of art and literature and a lover of nature.
Jahangir made no departure from his father’s poli-cy of admitting Hindus to the higher public service. Man Singh, Kalyan Singh, son of Todar Mal, and Vikramadit were three Hindu governors during his reign.
Jahangir also tried to control the practice of sati among Hindus. He passed orders that Hindu widows should not be compelled to become sati without his government’s permission. He also tried to put a stop to female infanticide.
Jahangir was fond of the company of the Vaishnava leader Jadurup and held many discussions with him at Ujjain and Mathura, as a result of which he came to the con-clusion that Hindu Vedanta and Muslim sufism were almost identical.
Jahangir was usually liberal and tolerant towards all religions, but at times sanctioned repressive measures against Muslim heretics. Shaikh Rahim of Lahore, who was a religious leader of a sect, was imprisoned in the fortress of Chunar. Qazi Nurullah was put to death on account of being a notable Shia writer. Shaikh Ahmad Sarhindi was imprisoned in the fortress of Gwalior, but was released later and sent back to Sarhind with gifts.
Monday 2 April 2012
History - Pre-historic and Vedic Civilisation
History - Pre-historic and Vedic Civilisation
http://careerprakashan.com/
Ancient geographers referred to Himalayas, as also their less elevated off¬shoot—the Patkai, Lushai and Chittagong hills in the east and the Sulaiman and Kirthar ranges in the west— as Himavat.
Jambu-dvipa was considered to be the inner¬most of seven concentric island-continents into which the earth, as per Hindu cos¬mographers, was supposed to have been divided. The Indian sub-continent is said to part of Jambu-dvipa.
Sapta sindhavah is the name of the country of the Aryans in the Vedas.
In the ancient litera¬ture, there are references of India being divided into five divisions. In the centre of the Indo-Gangetic plains was the Madhya-desh, stretching from river Saraswati, which flowed past Thanesar and Pehowa (present-day Haryana) to Allahabad and Varanasi. The western part of this area was known as Brahamrishi-desh, and the entire region was roughly equivalent to Aryavrata as described in the grammar of Patanjali. To the north of Madhya-desh lay Uttarap¬atha and to its west Aparan¬ta (Western India), to its south Dakshinapath or Dec¬can and to its east Purva¬desh. The term Dakshinapath was in some ancient works restricted to the upper Dec¬can, north of river Krishna and far south was termed as Tamilakam or the Tamil country.
The Negritos were the first human inhabitants of India. Originally, they came from Africa through Arabia, Iran and Baluchistan. They have practically disappeared from the soil of India, except in Andaman Islands.
The Munda languages belong to the Austro-Asiatic family and are to be found at present in the eastern half of Central India, southern bor¬der of the Himalayas and Kashmir and the territory east of Nepal.
Prakit was the single language of Indian sub-con¬tinent in third century B.C. Sanskrit came into being a few centuries later.
The term Paleolithic is derived from two Greek words meaning Old Stone. This name is applied to the earliest people as the only evidence of their existence is furnished by a number of rude stone implements.
Paleolithic men in India are also known as Quartzite men from the fact that majority of chipped stones found in different parts of India are made of hard rock called quartzite.
Paleolithic paintings have been found in caverns at Singanpur near Raigarh in Madhya Pradesh, as also in Kaimur ranges and some places in Mirzapur district.
With the advent of age of metals, in Northern India, copper replaced stone as ordinary material for tools and weapons. And, it took several centuries for iron to replace copper. In Southern India, however, the Iron Age immediately succeeded the Stone Age.
The Indus civiliza¬tion existed in the same peri¬od as those of Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia.
Mohenjodaro was discovered by R.D. Banerjee in 1922 and Harappa by R.B. Dayaram Sahni. Later on, the work was taken over by Sir John Marshall, Director-General of Archeology.
The fertile surround¬ing region of Mohenjodaro is called Nakhlistan or the Garden of Sind.
It is presumed that Iron was not known to the Indus Valley civilisation as not a single scrap of iron has been found in the excava¬tions at various sites.
Developed city-life, use of potter’s wheel, kiln-burnt bricks, and vessels made of copper and bronze are some common and dis¬tinctive features of all the civilizations of the pre-his¬toric period.
The use of mud mor¬tar was common during Indus Valley civilisation. Gypsum and mud were used for plaster. In case of drains, gypsum and lime mortar was used.
The most important feature of houses of Mohen¬jodaro is the presence in them of one or more bath¬rooms, the floors of which were fully laid and connect¬ed by means of drainage channels with the main street.
More than 500 seals have been discovered at var¬ious places inhabited by peo¬ple of Indus Valley civiliza¬tions. These were made of terra-cota.
The seals and paint¬ed pottery of the Indus Val¬ley show the figures of Pipal and Acacia trees. They were regarded as celestial plants and were supposed to be inhabited by divine spirits.
The people of Indus Valley also practiced the worship of Lings and Yoni symbols. The likelihood that both Shiva and Ling worship have been inherited by Hindus from the Indus Valley is rein¬forced by the prevalence of the bull (the vehicle of Shiva) or bull-like animals amongst the seal-symbols.
The pottery of Indus Valley was generally wheel-made and was painted red and black.
The Dravadians are thought to have come to India from eastern Mediter¬ranean. At one time the Dravadian culture was spread throughout India.
Puja ceremonies along with flowers, leaves, fruits and water were per¬formed by Dravadians.
Aryans were accustomed to Homa rites or sacrificial fire. Infact, the word puja has been derived from a Drava¬dian root called Puru, which means “to smear”.
The Dravadian lan¬guage is still spoken by the Brahui people of Baluchis¬tan.
As per the theory propagated by late Bal Gangadhar Tilak the original home of Aryans was the Arc¬tic region. However, the most widely accepted view is that the Aryans originated from Central Asia. The view which is accepted in West is that original home of Aryans was in South-East Europe.
In the early vedic period river Ravi was known as Parushni, river Jhelum as Vitasta, Chenab as Asikni, Beas as Vipas and Sutlej as Sutudri.
The word Veda comes from the root vid, to know. It means knowledge in general. It is specially applied to branch of litera¬ture which has been handed down by verbal transmis¬sion and is declared to be sacred knowledge or Sruti.
Hindus consider the Vedas to be revealed books and give them the titles of Apaurusheya (not made by man) and nitya (Eternal).
According to Kau¬tilya, “The three Vedas, Sama, Rig and Yajus consti¬tute the triple Vedas. These together with Atharvaveda and the Itihasa Veda are known as the Vedas.” The ordinary definition of the Veda does not include Itihasa.
The Veda consists of four different classes of liter¬ary compositions: (a) the Mantra constitutes the old¬est division of Vedic litera¬ture and is distributed in four Samhitas or collections known as the Rik, Sama, Yajus and the Atharva; (b) Brahmanas are the second class of Vedic works. They are mainly prose texts con¬taining observations on sac¬rifice; (c) Aranyakas or forest texts are books of instruction to be given in the forest or writings meant for wood-dwelling hermits; (d) Lastly there are the Upnishads which are either imbedded in the Aranyakas or form their supplements. The above named literary works are classed as Sruti, or reve¬lation, and constitute the Vedic literature proper.
The Brahamanas are the first specimens of praise in the world. They mark the transition from the Vedic to later Brahmanical social order.
The Vedangas are class of compositions that are regarded less authorita¬tive than Sruti and are styled Smriti. The Vedangas are six in number: Siksha (phonet¬ics), Kalpa (ritual), Vyakaran (grammar), Nirukt (etymolo¬gy), Chhand (metrics) and Jyotish (astronomy).
In Vyakarana, Nirukt and Chhand we have the great work of Panini, Yask and Pingal.
The Nyaya Darsana was written by Gautam. According to it, Tarka or log¬ic is the basis of all studies. Knowledge can be acquired by four methods: Pratyaksha or intuition, Anumana or inference, Upma or compari¬son and sadba or verbal testi¬mony.
The basis of the political and social organisa¬tion of the Rig Vedic people was patriarchal family. The successive higher units were styled gram, vis and jan.
The Purus and the Tritsus were two of the most famous Rig-Vedic clans. The names of their prominent rulers are recorded in Rik-Samhita.
In the Rig-Vedic period the foot soldiers were called Patti and warriors who fought from chariots were called Rathins.
The foundation of the political and social struc¬ture in the Rig-Vedic age was the family.
Visvavara, Ghosha and Apala were some lead¬ing women seers of Rig-Vedic times.
Agriculture was the principal occupation of the villagers in Rig-Vedic times.
The standard unit of value in Vedic period was a cow, but necklets of gold (nishka) also served as a means of exchange.
Rik Samgita is a col¬lection of lyrics from early vedic age which consists of hymns in praise of different gods. These are grouped into books termed as ashtakas or mandalas.
Rig Vedic people did not possess the art of writing and early literature of Aryans was known to be transmitted orally.
The early Vedic reli¬gion has been designated by the name of henotheism or kathenotheism (a belief in single gods, each standing out as the highest). Father Dyaus, the shinning god of heaven, and mother Prithvi, the earth goddess, are among the old¬est of the vedic deities.
The worship of Varuna, the encompassing sky, in the early Vedic age is one of the first roots of the later doctrine of Bhakti.
An important char¬acteristic of Vedic mythology is the pre-dominance of the male element. Thus, Vedic civilisation presents a con¬trast to the prehistoric cul¬ture of Indus Valley, where the mother goddess is co¬equal with her male partner.
Sacrifices occupied a prominent place in Vedic rit¬uals. These included offer¬ings of milk, grain, ghee and juice of the Soma plant.
Before the close of the later Vedic period, the Aryans had thoroughly sub¬dued the fertile plains of Yamuna, upper Ganga and the Gandak. The centre of the Aryan world was the areas stretching from Saraswati to the Gangetic plains and occupied by Kurus, the Pan¬chals and some adjoining tribes. It was from this region that Brahmanical civilisation spread to the out¬er provinces, to the land of the Kosalas and the Kasis drained by the Sarayu and the Varnavati, to the swamps of east of Gandak colonised by the Videhas, and to the valley of Wardha occupied by the Vidarbhas.
The Aryan culture was taken to South India by Agastya.
Most important tribe of Rigvedic period was the Bharatas, after whom India has been named in the Con¬stitution. The two most important rulers of Bharatas were Divodas and Sudas. Sudas is famous for his victo¬ry in the Battle of Ten Kings.
The most distin¬guished among the tribes of later Vedic period were the Kurus and Panchals, with their capitals at Asandivat and Kampila, respectively.
Balhika-Pratipiya, Parikshit and Janamejaya were powerful Kuru kings who figure prominently in early epic legends.
The reign of Pan¬chals was home to several theologians and philoso¬phers like king Pravahana-Jaivali and sages like Aruni and Svetaketu.
The fame of the land of the Panchals as centre of Brahmanical learning was eclipsed by the Videhas, whose king Janak won the title of Samrat. The Videhan monarchy fell shortly before the rise of Buddhism. Its overthrow was followed by the rise of the Vajjian Con¬federacy.
The kings of several regions gave themselves var¬ious titles. While the kings of middle country were called raja, the eastern kings were titled Samrat, the southern Bhoj, those in the west Svarat, and the rulers of the northern realms were called Virat.
The taxes collected from people in the later Vedic age were referred to as bali and sulka.
During late Vedic period, Vratyas and the Nishads were two important bodies of men outside the regular castes. The Vratyas were Aryans outside the pale of Brahminism. They appear to have had some special connection with the people of Magadha and the cult of Shiv. The Nishads were non-Aryan people who lived in their own villages and had their own rulers. They were probably identi¬cal with modern Bhils.
Shortly before the rise of Buddhism there were sixteen great nations that occupied the territory from Kabul valley to the banks of Godavari. These were: Anga (East Bihar), Magadha (South Bihar), Kasi (Benaras), Kosala (Oudh), Vriji (North Bihar), Malla (Gorakhpur district), Chedi (between Yamuna and Nar¬mada), Vatsa (Allahabad region), Kuru (Thanesar, Delhi and Meerut districts), Panchal (Bareilly, Buduan and Farrukhabad districts), Matsya (Jaipur), Surasena (Mathura), Asmak (on the Godavari), Avanti (in Mal¬wa), Gandhara (Peshawar and Rawalpindi districts) and Kamboj (South-west Kashmir and parts of Kafiristan).
The Vriji people were regarded by the Bra¬haman law-givers as Vratyas or degraded Ksha¬triyas. The Vrijis had no monarch, but a popular assembly of elders who car¬ried on the business of the State. This type of polity was known as Gana or republic. The Mallas also had a simi¬lar constitution.
The four kingdoms of later Vedic age who grew most powerful were: Avanti, Vatsa, Kosala and Magadha.
The kingdom of Avanti had its capital at Ujjain in modern Malwa.
One prominent ruler of Vatsa territory was Udayana, a scion of the Bharat race.
Kosala had its capi¬tal at Ayodhya and was ruled by a dynasty that claimed descent from illus¬trious Ishvaku, famed in Vedic and epic traditions.
The Kosalas extend¬ed their boundaries in sever¬al directions, including Nepalese Tarai, but their ambitious designs were frus¬trated by Magadha power.
Gargi and Maitreyi were two prominent intellec¬tual women of late Vedic period.
Magadha and Anga were two kingdoms which the Aryans could not Brah¬manise thoroughly and came to possess a mixed population. Kikatas were prominent non-Aryans who lived in Magadha. They were known for their wealth. There was a dislike for Mag¬adha in the Rigveda and the same dislike was continued even during the period of later Vedic civilisation.
In the sixth and fifth century B.C. the throne of Magadha was occupied by a line of kings styled Saisuna¬gas in the Purans, an appella¬tion derived from Sisunaga, the first king of the line in the Puranic list.
The Buddhist writ¬ers, however, put Sisunaga much lower in the list of Magadha kings and split the line into two distinct groups. To the earlier of the two groups they give the name Haryanka, whose most remarkable king was Sreni¬ka or Bimbisara.
The Ashtadhyayi of Panini is a book on Sanskrit grammar.
Khari, Patra, Vista, Satamana, Adhaka, Achita, Purusha and Dishta were different kinds of weights and measures used in later Vedic age.
Taxila or Tak¬shashila was a great centre of learning in late Vedic peri¬od. It was famous for the teaching of medicine, law and military science.
India and Persia have very ancient relations. There are many common gods in the Rig Veda and the Zinda Avesta. The Iranian gods Mithra, Yima and Vere¬traghna have their counter¬part in the Indian Mitra, Yama and Indra Vritrahan.
The Boghaz-Koi inscriptions of about 1400 B.C. refer to certain contracts made between the King of the Hittites (in Persia) and the King of Mitani. In those inscriptions same gods are mentioned as the protectors of these contracts.
The continuance of strong influence of Persia upon India in the Vedic age is indicated by prevalence of the Kharoshti script, a vari¬ety of Aramaic, in the provinces near the Frontier, by the long continued use of the Persian title Satrap, by the form of the Ashoka inscriptions and by the architecture.
Sanskrit is a branch of a linguistic tree known as Indo-European. The trunk of the tree was a common tongue probably spoken in the region north-west of the Black Sea about 2500 B.C.
The Upanishads probe into the nature of universe and the human soul, and the relation of each to the other. They make no absolute state¬ments of right and wrong, of creation, the gods or man; instead, they specu¬late, seeking always to find truth, as opposed to stating it, and offering a wide range of possibilities.
A rudimentary administrative system was prevalent during the Vedic period. The tribal kingdom (rashtra) contained tribes (jana), tribal units (vish) and villages (grama). The nucle¬us was the family (kula), with the eldest male member as its head (kulapa).
http://careerprakashan.com/
Ancient geographers referred to Himalayas, as also their less elevated off¬shoot—the Patkai, Lushai and Chittagong hills in the east and the Sulaiman and Kirthar ranges in the west— as Himavat.
Jambu-dvipa was considered to be the inner¬most of seven concentric island-continents into which the earth, as per Hindu cos¬mographers, was supposed to have been divided. The Indian sub-continent is said to part of Jambu-dvipa.
Sapta sindhavah is the name of the country of the Aryans in the Vedas.
In the ancient litera¬ture, there are references of India being divided into five divisions. In the centre of the Indo-Gangetic plains was the Madhya-desh, stretching from river Saraswati, which flowed past Thanesar and Pehowa (present-day Haryana) to Allahabad and Varanasi. The western part of this area was known as Brahamrishi-desh, and the entire region was roughly equivalent to Aryavrata as described in the grammar of Patanjali. To the north of Madhya-desh lay Uttarap¬atha and to its west Aparan¬ta (Western India), to its south Dakshinapath or Dec¬can and to its east Purva¬desh. The term Dakshinapath was in some ancient works restricted to the upper Dec¬can, north of river Krishna and far south was termed as Tamilakam or the Tamil country.
The Negritos were the first human inhabitants of India. Originally, they came from Africa through Arabia, Iran and Baluchistan. They have practically disappeared from the soil of India, except in Andaman Islands.
The Munda languages belong to the Austro-Asiatic family and are to be found at present in the eastern half of Central India, southern bor¬der of the Himalayas and Kashmir and the territory east of Nepal.
Prakit was the single language of Indian sub-con¬tinent in third century B.C. Sanskrit came into being a few centuries later.
The term Paleolithic is derived from two Greek words meaning Old Stone. This name is applied to the earliest people as the only evidence of their existence is furnished by a number of rude stone implements.
Paleolithic men in India are also known as Quartzite men from the fact that majority of chipped stones found in different parts of India are made of hard rock called quartzite.
Paleolithic paintings have been found in caverns at Singanpur near Raigarh in Madhya Pradesh, as also in Kaimur ranges and some places in Mirzapur district.
With the advent of age of metals, in Northern India, copper replaced stone as ordinary material for tools and weapons. And, it took several centuries for iron to replace copper. In Southern India, however, the Iron Age immediately succeeded the Stone Age.
The Indus civiliza¬tion existed in the same peri¬od as those of Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia.
Mohenjodaro was discovered by R.D. Banerjee in 1922 and Harappa by R.B. Dayaram Sahni. Later on, the work was taken over by Sir John Marshall, Director-General of Archeology.
The fertile surround¬ing region of Mohenjodaro is called Nakhlistan or the Garden of Sind.
It is presumed that Iron was not known to the Indus Valley civilisation as not a single scrap of iron has been found in the excava¬tions at various sites.
Developed city-life, use of potter’s wheel, kiln-burnt bricks, and vessels made of copper and bronze are some common and dis¬tinctive features of all the civilizations of the pre-his¬toric period.
The use of mud mor¬tar was common during Indus Valley civilisation. Gypsum and mud were used for plaster. In case of drains, gypsum and lime mortar was used.
The most important feature of houses of Mohen¬jodaro is the presence in them of one or more bath¬rooms, the floors of which were fully laid and connect¬ed by means of drainage channels with the main street.
More than 500 seals have been discovered at var¬ious places inhabited by peo¬ple of Indus Valley civiliza¬tions. These were made of terra-cota.
The seals and paint¬ed pottery of the Indus Val¬ley show the figures of Pipal and Acacia trees. They were regarded as celestial plants and were supposed to be inhabited by divine spirits.
The people of Indus Valley also practiced the worship of Lings and Yoni symbols. The likelihood that both Shiva and Ling worship have been inherited by Hindus from the Indus Valley is rein¬forced by the prevalence of the bull (the vehicle of Shiva) or bull-like animals amongst the seal-symbols.
The pottery of Indus Valley was generally wheel-made and was painted red and black.
The Dravadians are thought to have come to India from eastern Mediter¬ranean. At one time the Dravadian culture was spread throughout India.
Puja ceremonies along with flowers, leaves, fruits and water were per¬formed by Dravadians.
Aryans were accustomed to Homa rites or sacrificial fire. Infact, the word puja has been derived from a Drava¬dian root called Puru, which means “to smear”.
The Dravadian lan¬guage is still spoken by the Brahui people of Baluchis¬tan.
As per the theory propagated by late Bal Gangadhar Tilak the original home of Aryans was the Arc¬tic region. However, the most widely accepted view is that the Aryans originated from Central Asia. The view which is accepted in West is that original home of Aryans was in South-East Europe.
In the early vedic period river Ravi was known as Parushni, river Jhelum as Vitasta, Chenab as Asikni, Beas as Vipas and Sutlej as Sutudri.
The word Veda comes from the root vid, to know. It means knowledge in general. It is specially applied to branch of litera¬ture which has been handed down by verbal transmis¬sion and is declared to be sacred knowledge or Sruti.
Hindus consider the Vedas to be revealed books and give them the titles of Apaurusheya (not made by man) and nitya (Eternal).
According to Kau¬tilya, “The three Vedas, Sama, Rig and Yajus consti¬tute the triple Vedas. These together with Atharvaveda and the Itihasa Veda are known as the Vedas.” The ordinary definition of the Veda does not include Itihasa.
The Veda consists of four different classes of liter¬ary compositions: (a) the Mantra constitutes the old¬est division of Vedic litera¬ture and is distributed in four Samhitas or collections known as the Rik, Sama, Yajus and the Atharva; (b) Brahmanas are the second class of Vedic works. They are mainly prose texts con¬taining observations on sac¬rifice; (c) Aranyakas or forest texts are books of instruction to be given in the forest or writings meant for wood-dwelling hermits; (d) Lastly there are the Upnishads which are either imbedded in the Aranyakas or form their supplements. The above named literary works are classed as Sruti, or reve¬lation, and constitute the Vedic literature proper.
The Brahamanas are the first specimens of praise in the world. They mark the transition from the Vedic to later Brahmanical social order.
The Vedangas are class of compositions that are regarded less authorita¬tive than Sruti and are styled Smriti. The Vedangas are six in number: Siksha (phonet¬ics), Kalpa (ritual), Vyakaran (grammar), Nirukt (etymolo¬gy), Chhand (metrics) and Jyotish (astronomy).
In Vyakarana, Nirukt and Chhand we have the great work of Panini, Yask and Pingal.
The Nyaya Darsana was written by Gautam. According to it, Tarka or log¬ic is the basis of all studies. Knowledge can be acquired by four methods: Pratyaksha or intuition, Anumana or inference, Upma or compari¬son and sadba or verbal testi¬mony.
The basis of the political and social organisa¬tion of the Rig Vedic people was patriarchal family. The successive higher units were styled gram, vis and jan.
The Purus and the Tritsus were two of the most famous Rig-Vedic clans. The names of their prominent rulers are recorded in Rik-Samhita.
In the Rig-Vedic period the foot soldiers were called Patti and warriors who fought from chariots were called Rathins.
The foundation of the political and social struc¬ture in the Rig-Vedic age was the family.
Visvavara, Ghosha and Apala were some lead¬ing women seers of Rig-Vedic times.
Agriculture was the principal occupation of the villagers in Rig-Vedic times.
The standard unit of value in Vedic period was a cow, but necklets of gold (nishka) also served as a means of exchange.
Rik Samgita is a col¬lection of lyrics from early vedic age which consists of hymns in praise of different gods. These are grouped into books termed as ashtakas or mandalas.
Rig Vedic people did not possess the art of writing and early literature of Aryans was known to be transmitted orally.
The early Vedic reli¬gion has been designated by the name of henotheism or kathenotheism (a belief in single gods, each standing out as the highest). Father Dyaus, the shinning god of heaven, and mother Prithvi, the earth goddess, are among the old¬est of the vedic deities.
The worship of Varuna, the encompassing sky, in the early Vedic age is one of the first roots of the later doctrine of Bhakti.
An important char¬acteristic of Vedic mythology is the pre-dominance of the male element. Thus, Vedic civilisation presents a con¬trast to the prehistoric cul¬ture of Indus Valley, where the mother goddess is co¬equal with her male partner.
Sacrifices occupied a prominent place in Vedic rit¬uals. These included offer¬ings of milk, grain, ghee and juice of the Soma plant.
Before the close of the later Vedic period, the Aryans had thoroughly sub¬dued the fertile plains of Yamuna, upper Ganga and the Gandak. The centre of the Aryan world was the areas stretching from Saraswati to the Gangetic plains and occupied by Kurus, the Pan¬chals and some adjoining tribes. It was from this region that Brahmanical civilisation spread to the out¬er provinces, to the land of the Kosalas and the Kasis drained by the Sarayu and the Varnavati, to the swamps of east of Gandak colonised by the Videhas, and to the valley of Wardha occupied by the Vidarbhas.
The Aryan culture was taken to South India by Agastya.
Most important tribe of Rigvedic period was the Bharatas, after whom India has been named in the Con¬stitution. The two most important rulers of Bharatas were Divodas and Sudas. Sudas is famous for his victo¬ry in the Battle of Ten Kings.
The most distin¬guished among the tribes of later Vedic period were the Kurus and Panchals, with their capitals at Asandivat and Kampila, respectively.
Balhika-Pratipiya, Parikshit and Janamejaya were powerful Kuru kings who figure prominently in early epic legends.
The reign of Pan¬chals was home to several theologians and philoso¬phers like king Pravahana-Jaivali and sages like Aruni and Svetaketu.
The fame of the land of the Panchals as centre of Brahmanical learning was eclipsed by the Videhas, whose king Janak won the title of Samrat. The Videhan monarchy fell shortly before the rise of Buddhism. Its overthrow was followed by the rise of the Vajjian Con¬federacy.
The kings of several regions gave themselves var¬ious titles. While the kings of middle country were called raja, the eastern kings were titled Samrat, the southern Bhoj, those in the west Svarat, and the rulers of the northern realms were called Virat.
The taxes collected from people in the later Vedic age were referred to as bali and sulka.
During late Vedic period, Vratyas and the Nishads were two important bodies of men outside the regular castes. The Vratyas were Aryans outside the pale of Brahminism. They appear to have had some special connection with the people of Magadha and the cult of Shiv. The Nishads were non-Aryan people who lived in their own villages and had their own rulers. They were probably identi¬cal with modern Bhils.
Shortly before the rise of Buddhism there were sixteen great nations that occupied the territory from Kabul valley to the banks of Godavari. These were: Anga (East Bihar), Magadha (South Bihar), Kasi (Benaras), Kosala (Oudh), Vriji (North Bihar), Malla (Gorakhpur district), Chedi (between Yamuna and Nar¬mada), Vatsa (Allahabad region), Kuru (Thanesar, Delhi and Meerut districts), Panchal (Bareilly, Buduan and Farrukhabad districts), Matsya (Jaipur), Surasena (Mathura), Asmak (on the Godavari), Avanti (in Mal¬wa), Gandhara (Peshawar and Rawalpindi districts) and Kamboj (South-west Kashmir and parts of Kafiristan).
The Vriji people were regarded by the Bra¬haman law-givers as Vratyas or degraded Ksha¬triyas. The Vrijis had no monarch, but a popular assembly of elders who car¬ried on the business of the State. This type of polity was known as Gana or republic. The Mallas also had a simi¬lar constitution.
The four kingdoms of later Vedic age who grew most powerful were: Avanti, Vatsa, Kosala and Magadha.
The kingdom of Avanti had its capital at Ujjain in modern Malwa.
One prominent ruler of Vatsa territory was Udayana, a scion of the Bharat race.
Kosala had its capi¬tal at Ayodhya and was ruled by a dynasty that claimed descent from illus¬trious Ishvaku, famed in Vedic and epic traditions.
The Kosalas extend¬ed their boundaries in sever¬al directions, including Nepalese Tarai, but their ambitious designs were frus¬trated by Magadha power.
Gargi and Maitreyi were two prominent intellec¬tual women of late Vedic period.
Magadha and Anga were two kingdoms which the Aryans could not Brah¬manise thoroughly and came to possess a mixed population. Kikatas were prominent non-Aryans who lived in Magadha. They were known for their wealth. There was a dislike for Mag¬adha in the Rigveda and the same dislike was continued even during the period of later Vedic civilisation.
In the sixth and fifth century B.C. the throne of Magadha was occupied by a line of kings styled Saisuna¬gas in the Purans, an appella¬tion derived from Sisunaga, the first king of the line in the Puranic list.
The Buddhist writ¬ers, however, put Sisunaga much lower in the list of Magadha kings and split the line into two distinct groups. To the earlier of the two groups they give the name Haryanka, whose most remarkable king was Sreni¬ka or Bimbisara.
The Ashtadhyayi of Panini is a book on Sanskrit grammar.
Khari, Patra, Vista, Satamana, Adhaka, Achita, Purusha and Dishta were different kinds of weights and measures used in later Vedic age.
Taxila or Tak¬shashila was a great centre of learning in late Vedic peri¬od. It was famous for the teaching of medicine, law and military science.
India and Persia have very ancient relations. There are many common gods in the Rig Veda and the Zinda Avesta. The Iranian gods Mithra, Yima and Vere¬traghna have their counter¬part in the Indian Mitra, Yama and Indra Vritrahan.
The Boghaz-Koi inscriptions of about 1400 B.C. refer to certain contracts made between the King of the Hittites (in Persia) and the King of Mitani. In those inscriptions same gods are mentioned as the protectors of these contracts.
The continuance of strong influence of Persia upon India in the Vedic age is indicated by prevalence of the Kharoshti script, a vari¬ety of Aramaic, in the provinces near the Frontier, by the long continued use of the Persian title Satrap, by the form of the Ashoka inscriptions and by the architecture.
Sanskrit is a branch of a linguistic tree known as Indo-European. The trunk of the tree was a common tongue probably spoken in the region north-west of the Black Sea about 2500 B.C.
The Upanishads probe into the nature of universe and the human soul, and the relation of each to the other. They make no absolute state¬ments of right and wrong, of creation, the gods or man; instead, they specu¬late, seeking always to find truth, as opposed to stating it, and offering a wide range of possibilities.
A rudimentary administrative system was prevalent during the Vedic period. The tribal kingdom (rashtra) contained tribes (jana), tribal units (vish) and villages (grama). The nucle¬us was the family (kula), with the eldest male member as its head (kulapa).
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