Akbar

Abu'l-Fath Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar, popularly known as Akbar I literally "the great"; 15 October 1542]– 27 October 1605) and later Akbar the Great (Urdu: Akbar-e-Azam; literally "Great the Great") was Mughal Emperor from 1556 until his death. He was the third and one of the greatest rulers of the Mughal Dynasty in India. Akbar succeeded his father,Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expand and consolidate Mughal domains in India. A strong personality and a successful general, Akbar gradually enlarged the Mughal Empire to include nearly all of the IndianSubcontinentnorth of the Godavari river. His power and influence, however, extended over the entire country because of Mughal military, political, cultural, and economic dominance. To unify the vast Mughal state, Akbar established a centralised system of administration throughout his empire and adopted a policy of conciliating conquered rulers through marriage and diplomacy. In order to preserve peace and order in a religiously and culturally diverse empire, he adopted policies that won him the support of his non-Muslim subjects. Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic state identity, Akbar strived to unite far-flung lands of his realm through loyalty, expressed through a Persianised culture, to himself as an emperor who had near-divine status.

2005

Akbar is one of the towering figure of the Indo Pak subcontinent.He is remained to be known for his policy of reforms in various departments of the state.Religious policy is one of the controversial and to some remarkable in the history of Mughal empire having a far reaching consequences.

Abu"l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar popularly known as Akbar the Great (1556-1605) is considered as one of the greatest Mughal emperors for his achievements in the military, politics, and administration. In fact, he was the real founder of the empire after his victory at the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556 AD. The victory has paved the way for Akbar to become the sole emperor in the Indian sub-continent and continued to wage wars against the Hindu rajahs. During his reign, Akbar was credited with his liberal ideas and religious policies. These religious policies emerged from different internal and external factors and his success stemmed from his religious policy that was based on Sulh-i Kul (universal peace and harmony between all his subjects regardless with their social, ethical or religious identities). In 1582 A.D, he propounded a new religious ideology namely the Din-i Ilahi (Religion of God). This was a syncretic religious movement and was one of the most substantial dimensions of mutual interaction and relationship between Hinduism and Islam. This paper aims to examine the factors influencing Akbar's religious policy and to critically analyze Akbar's Din-i-Ilahi and Sulh-i Kul by dealing with its basic features and virtues which shaped his attitudes towards other religious and social groups.

The period of Akbar " s rule (1556-1605) has been regarded as one of the most significant and incomparable periods in Indian history in particular regarding with Hindu Muslim interaction. Indeed, Akbar " s success stemmed from his religious policy that based on Sulh-i Kul (universal peace and harmony) between all his subjects regardless with their social, ethical or religious identities. His religious policy was not a sudden event, rather emerged from in the course of time depending on different internal and external factors. The final stage of Akbar " s religious policy, the Din-i Ilahi (Religion of God), was a syncretic religious movement propounded by him in 1582 A.D., was one of the most substantial dimensions of mutual interaction and relationship between Hinduism and Islam. The primary aim of this paper, therefore, is to examine the factors influencing Akbar " s religious policy and to analyze critically Akbar " s Din-i Ilahi by dealing with its basic features and virtues which more or less shaped his attitudes towards other religious and social groups.

2019

Akbar has been seen as one of the greatest rulers of the Mughal dynasty in India. He came to the throne in 1556 upon the death of his father Humayun. The time at which he ascended the throne was a particularly unstable period, when the still developing Mughal state was confronting a great deal of problems – both political and religious. The challenges came not only from the ruling groups but also from indigenous forces in Hindustan. Akbar has been credited with the establishment of the institutional basis of the state and the crystallization of its ideological and political stance. Before we analyse the challenges faced by Akbar, it is helpful to look at the primary contemporary sources and how they influence our perception of Akbar. Abul Fazl's Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari are the two primary accounts giving what can essentially be seen as the official position on various affairs. Abul Fazl was in favour of Akbar's ideology and being the court chronicler has presented him in a very positive light. As a corrective to Fazl's almost eulogical work is Abdul Qadir Badauni's Muntakhab-ut-tawarikh. Badauni was also at Akbar's court, but he was a man of orthodox beliefs, who did not endorse Akbar's liberal ideology and is hence overly critical of his policies. There are however many things mentioned in his account like the Mahzarnama, which are not present in Badauni, thereby giving us a complete picture of Akbar. Another source is Nizamuddin Ahmad's Tabaqat-i-akbari. We also have the accounts of the Jesuit missionaries at Akbar's court. Their accounts however are restricted due to their lack of local knowledge. Also, they held a grudge against Akbar who never promoted Christianity the way they would have expected him to. Hence, they too look upon his policies with a prejudiced eye. We need to study these sources in conjunction in order to arrive at a more or less accurate picture of the time. When Akbar ascended the throne at Kalanaur on 14 February, 1556, he had only a tenuous hold on the Punjab and the Delhi-Agra area. What can be called Mughal political patterns and institutions developed during the first half of Akbar's reign. Babur had brought the Timurid dynasty to India but could not develop distinctively Mughal institutions, practices, and political and cultural styles. Akbar's reign saw the development of a new set of administrative institutions, a new conception of kingship and the constitution of government, a new military system, and new norms of political behaviour. Douglas Streusand believes that evolution of Mughal institutions under Akbar are characterized by the element of compromise. The regime survived because it satisfied both the ruler and the members of the political elite. It represented a compromise between the ideals represented in the rituals and texts which propounded the constitution and economic and military realities, and also between the desires and expectations of the ruler and the nobility. Akbar created the Mughal Empire from two sets of components, what he found in Hindustan and what his father had brought with him from Central Asia. He synthesized these two legacies to produce a distinctly Mughal

The Journal of Interdisciplinary Legal Studies (DiHA), 2024

This article examines Akbar Shah’s approach to religious and social reforms during his rule in India. The second section of the article discusses Akbar Shah’s religious movement, known as Din-i Ilahi, and compares the scope of this movement with the different views expressed by Abū al Fazl and Mawlānā ‘Abd al-Qadir Badayuni. The third section analyzes the impact of Akbar’s religious tolerance on state policy, with a particular focus on the authorization of non-Muslims to construct places of worship and the provision of state support for religious celebrations. The final section provides a detailed analysis of Akbar’s social reforms, with a particular focus on the prohibition of sati (the practice of widows committing suicide by throwing themselves on their husbands’ funeral pyre) and marriage reforms. Akbar’s reforms are regarded as exemplary of a more inclusive approach to religious and cultural diversity in India. As part of these reforms, there has also been a legal transformation regarding the rights of non-Muslims, which deserves to be examined from a socio-legal perspective. Practices such as allowing non-Muslims to build places of worship and providing state support for religious celebrations demonstrate Akbar’s inclusive approach to governance. Keywords: Akbar Shah, Din-i Ilahi, Religious tolerance, Social reforms, Sati prohibition.