Talk:Akbar
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Akbar stands tall among the kings who ruled India. He was the greatest of the Moguls, the Muslim dynasty that dominated India between the early 16th and 18th centuries.
Akbar was exposed to the battles and powers of rule from a young age. Akbar inherited the throne, after the sudden death of his father king Humayun, at the age of 13, in 1556. In 1579 he abolished the Jizya, a tax imposed on all but the poorest non-Muslims. This was the most notable in a series of measures to recruit the Hindu majority and others to the cause of unifying and expanding his empire. He defeated an impregnable Hindu fortress in Rajasthan and went on to marry the Rajput princess Padmini, who was permitted to conduct Hindu rites in the harem.
Akbar's religious tolerance strengthened his empire and earns him his special place in history. He is credited with innovations in textiles and artillery alike. Himself an illiterate man, perhaps because of dyslexia, he loved learning and disputation. His administrative and fiscal innovations underpinned it for a century after his death. He patronized such scholars as Birbal, Abul Fazl and Tansen. He was subject to bouts of melancholy and what were probably epileptic fits early in life. He saw these as spiritual experiences; and perhaps they gave his curiosity a religious twist.
As his reign progressed Akbar moved ever further from Islamic orthodoxy. He built a capital, Fatehpur Sikri, around the tomb of a Sufi (Islamic mystic) saint who had prophesied the birth of his heir. Later he took to inviting clerics from various religions, including Portuguese Jesuits from Goa, to debate their faiths.
Eventually, Akbar came up with his own ``religion of God, more a fraternal order, headed by himself, than a religion, based on a creed of harmony among peoples and a practice that involved making disciples of his leading nobles. Unsurprisingly, Muslim clerics saw this as blasphemy. Eventually, it became official policy to discourage, if not to prohibit, Islamic forms of prayer. Akbar paid the price in an abortive rebellion by his son, claiming to be a defender of the faith. Akbar softened towards Islam thereafter, and is thought to have died, in 1605, a Muslim, not an apostate.
His descendants, most notably, the deeply bigoted great-grandson Aurangzeb overturned the religious tolerance Akbar had established for the Mogul Government. Aurangjeb tore down Hindu temples and revived the Jijya--and a Hindu consciousness that after his death was to help pull the Mogul empire apart, weaken India, and let in the British.
References
Rizvi S.A.., The Wonder That was India -II, Rupa , 1993
National Geographic, When the Moguls Ruled, Vol 167, No 4, 1985
Schulberd L, and Editors of TIME-LIFE, Historic India, Time-Life, 1968
J.T. Wheeler, Wheeler's India, Peter Fenelon Collier, 1858 Babur Nama, The memoirs of Babur, Portfolio of 16th century miniatures, Archeological Survey of India Economist, 12/31/99, Vol. 353 Issue 8151, Millennium issue p63, 2p, 1c.
When did he defeat Hemu?
November 5 of what year did Akbar defeat Hemu??
Just a rehash of the 1911 Britannica entry?
Khalid B. 13:49, 2004 Jan 27 (UTC) The article at present is a rewording from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. http://5.1911encyclopedia.org/A/AK/AKBAR.htm. That article says: "In religion he was at first a Mussulman, but the intolerant exclusiveness of that creed was quite foreign to his character" and "Scepticism as to the divine origin of the Koran led him to seek the true religion in an eclectic system". This wording is biased, and is typical of writings at the time when dealing with "foreign" religions or cultures.
A more realistic view is that Akbar tried to make religions live in harmony in his multi-ethnic, multi-religious realm. He established the Ibadat Khana and and held disputations between various religions (see Din-e-Ilahi), but was appalled by the animosity between the officials of each religion. The Portuguese Jesuits tried to convert him, and were not interest in a debate. The Muslim clerics were too traditional. Perhaps he was too tolerant for his time, but he was Muslim and died a Muslim never the less.
Should the article be revised? I like someone who is more familiar with Indian history to verify the above.
akbar's elephant judge/executioner
I seem to recall in an earlier version of Wiki [Crushing by elephant] [1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crushing_by_elephant) a reference to Akbar the Great's practice of using his favored elephant as judge for criminal trials. The defendant would place his head on a pedastal, the elephant would place it's foot on his head, some ceremony of statements, then the elephant would decide whether or not to crush the head of the prisoner. If he chose not to, the prisoner was set free. Perhaps this was removed do to historical unprovableness, but I think it is an interesting factoid. Also it would be interesting to know the name of the elephant.
viz [2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Crushing_by_elephant) quote [...is Akbar's "Elephant Judge" story from Ein-e-Akbari or from British accounts? --Das]
Life in Hell
Is the reference to a comic strip (Life in Hell) about gay rabbits appropriate in the See also section for a historical figure? It seems very strange. Ornil 04:52, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Nine Famous Courtiers Of Akbar
Let's not get revisionist, shall we? The Persian and Urdu and, I dare say, Hindustani phrase is nau-rathan. "nava rathna" is a poor transliteration from a reverse-Sanskritization. In South Asian literature and poetry, they are referred to as "nau-rathan".—iFaqeer (Talk to me!) 08:19, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC)
eating
I have read that Akbar ate one meal a day, at no fixed time, but expected a hundred dishes ready within the hour when he was ready to eat. Also, I have read that his hunting camp was larger than the London of his day. Also, why in the hell is there a See Also link to a comic strip? Is this a way to mock the greatest Mogul Emperor, who surely surpassed any king of Europe within a thousand years?
