Conquest and Consolidation of the Empire: Part I

• Humayun had rescued and restored the Mughal Empire in 1555. But, had it not been for Akbar, the Empire perhaps would not have sustained. It was during his rule that the Mughal Empire became a political fact and an important factor in Indian politics.
• Humayun could hardly accomplish the task of conquest and consolidation. He died soon after (26 January 1556) leaving behind his minor son Akbar under heavy odds. selfstudyhistory.com

Second Battle of Panipat:

• The return of the Mughals to Delhi in 1555 had not ended the Afghan danger, and the Mughals came to be thrown out of India again, following the death of Humayun at Delhi (1556).
• Afghans were still powerful:
  • The Mughals had defeated a much larger force than theirs headed by Sikandar Sur at Sirhind in 1554, but Sikandar still had powerful forces at his disposal in Punjab.
  • Adali, another claimant to the Sur throne, dominated Bihar and east U.P. from his capital at Chunar.
  • Bengal was under the control of Muhammad Khan Sur. 50,000 Afghans had assembled near Jaunpur under the son of Jalal Khan Sur.
• Hearing of the death of Humayun, the Afghans drove the Mughals out of Bayana, Etawah, Sambhal, Kalpi, Narnaul and Agra, and Hemu, a general of Adali advanced upon Delhi with a huge force.
• Rise of Hemu:
  • Hemu has been called a baqqal (trader).
  • Caste wise, Hemu was a Dhusar or Bhargava, who claim to be Gaur Brahmans.
  • He is said to have started life as a seller of saltpeter at Rewari, and was then shuhna (superintendent) of the market at Delhi under Islam Shah, and had also done the work of soldiering.
  • He rose to be the Chief Commander of the forces of Adali, and the position of wazir.
  • He is reputed to have won twenty-two battles against the opponents of Adali or Sultan Adil Shah.
  • According to Abdul Fazl, after his victory at Delhi against Tardi Beg, “the ambition of sovereignty” was stirring in Hemu’s mind.
  • Badayuni says that he assumed the title of Vikramjit like a great Raja in Hindustan from whom the people of Hind take their era, and that he ” had done his best there to subvert the ordinances of Islam”.
  • Nizamuddin Ahmad merely says that Hemu had assumed the title of Raja Vikramjit.
  • However, the assumption of the title of “Vikramjit” does not imply that Hemu had proclaimed himself as an independent king.
    • In fact, the military force at the disposal of Hemu consisted almost entirely of Afghans.
    • At the second battle of Panipat fought with Bairam Khan on November 5, 1556, Hemu’s left wing was commanded by Ramaiyya, the son of his sister, but there is no reference to his army consisting of Rajputs.
    • In this situation, it would have been disastrous for Hemu to declare himself an independent king.
  • There was some murmuring against Hemu among the Afghans who were, according to Badayuni, ” sick of his usurpation.. prayed for his downfall” .
    • This was on account of jealousy at his rapid rise, and the confidence placed in him by Adali who had provided him with the military forces and abundant treasures.
  • The rise of Hemu was due to the relatively more open society under the Afghans, and the growing accord of the Afghans with the Hindu rajas.
  • This continued in the time of Babur, as we have seen, and was reflected in the subsequent Afghan support to Rana Pratap.
• The defeat of Hemu at the battle field of Panipat was due to:
  • the disaffection of some of Afghan sardars against him,
  • Hemu’s disregard of artillery which he had earlier carelessly allowed the Mughals to capture, and
  • his excessive reliance on his well-armed and trained elephants.
• Even then, the outcome of the battle was uncertain: both the Mughal left and the right wings having been thrown into disarray, and Hemu advancing towards the centre till, by chance, an arrow pierced his eye, and he fainted.
  • Not seeing him, the army panicked, and dispersed.
  • Hemu was brought to Bairam Khan who killed him.
• Immense treasures and stores were captured. Although Hemu’s wife escaped, Hemu’s home was attacked and his father killed.
• Abul Fazl, praises Hemu for his lofty spirit, courage and enterprise, and wishes that if Akbar had come out of his veil, or there had been some far-sighted master of wisdom in his court, they would have kept Hemu as a prisoner, and if he had been persuaded to join royal service, he would have rendered distinguished service.
• The Afghan danger did not disappear even after Hemu’s defeat.
  • It took more than six months military operations and siege of Sikandar Sur at Mankot before he surrendered.
  • Adali had been killed earlier in a battle with the king of Bengal.
  • But the Afghans of Jaunpur continued to be active. According to Abul Fazl, “The Afghans still carried in their brains the vapours of sedition.” Ali Quli Khan Zaman chased away the Afghans at Sambhal. He then advanced on Jaunpur which he gained without opposition.
  • Afghan sardars continued to hold the powerful forts of Chunar and Rohtas, and made repeated efforts to establish a separate principality of Jaunpur but was defeated by Ali Quli Khan Zaman, governor of Jaunpur.
  • After defeating the Afghans, Ali Quli Khan Zaman himself began to dream of independence in the region. He established an alliance with the Afghans of Bihar and Bengal.
• Thus, the situation facing the Mughal empire in the east during the early years of Akbar’s reign was remarkably similar to the one facing Humayun at the time of his ascending the throne.

Struggle with the nobility

• Akbar, who had been born at Amarkot on 15 October 1542 when Humayun was in flight from Bikaner was only one year old, Humayun had to abandon him and flee to Iran in the face of an attempt by Kamran to capture him.
• Akbar was more interested in hunting, riding, animal sports and other past-time such as pigeon-flying, so that he neglected his studies to the extent that he never learnt to write.
• During Humayun’s death at Delhi after a fall from his library, Akbar was only thirteen years old.
  • It was his tutor and Humayun’s confidant, Bairam Khan, who served as the regent from 1556-1560.

Bairam Khan’s regency:

• The period of Bairam Khan’s regency could be divided into four phases:
• First Phase:
  • From the accession of Akbar to before the second battle of Panipat; i.e., January-October 1556.
    • This was a period when the nobles accepted Bairam Khan’s leadership to protect their interests.
  • Politically, this phase was insecure. It saw not only Humayun’s death but also a challenge to the Empire by the Afghan forces under Hemu. The events especially cast a gloom since Akbar was a minor.
  • The only alternative to save the situation was to appoint a regent.
    • But the fear was that the exercise of de facto sovereignty by one of the nobles as regent would disrupt the mutual relations of the nobles and threaten the administration.
    • Despite these fears, Bairam Khan was appointed wakil.
    • Surprisingly, there was no opposition to the appointment even by those nobles who could claim wikalat either on the basis of long service, blood relationship or past association with Akbar.
  • While accepting Bairam Khan as the regent, it appears that these nobles wanted to share power and influence with Bairam Khan.
    • Since the Mughal position was still very insecure, and there was a lot of factionalism and demoralization in the nobility, many nobles having fled in panic at the advance of the Afghans, no one objected to the high position accorded to Bairam.
  • Bairam Khan, on the other hand, was determined to exercise power rigidly. On the assumption of the office as wakil-us Sultanat, he expected factional conflict and tussle for power.
    • He, therefore, began the process of eliminating all those nobles who would challenge him.
    • He dismissed and imprisoned Shah Abul Ma’ali, his ardent critic.
  • Subsequently, all such nobles who posed a challenge to Bairam Khan were sent to Kabul.
  • Bairam Khan wanted to confine Mun’im Khan to Kabul and distance him from the court.
    • The opportunity came in May 1556 when Mirza Sulaiman attacked Kabul, Mun’im Khan’s contacts were delinked with the court for the next four months and Bairam Khan used this period to strengthen his power at the court.
• Second Phase:
  • Marked by the second battle of Panipat and the arrival of the royal ladies (Hamida Banu Begum and Maham Anaga) in India.
    • During this period, Bairam Khan was in absolute control of the state affairs. He attempted to create a personal following.
  • Tensions were developing in the nobility and it was on the verge of crisis by the second battle of Panipat.
    • The imperial forces led by Tardi Beg failed to defend themselves against the Afghan forces at the battle of Tughlaqabad.
    • At this juncture, trying to assert himself, Bairam Khan, without the sanction of the emperor, ordered the execution of Tardi Beg on charges of treachery.
    • This aroused dissensions in the nobility. But the victory at Panipat revived Bairam Khan’s power.
  • He further strengthened his position by distributing titles and jagirs in the Doab and granting promotions and rewards to his loyalists.
    • He also gave important positions to his favourites.
    • Pir Muhammad Khan was appointed his personal wakil, Khwaja, Aminuddin as bakshi and Shaikh Gadai as sadr.
  • To vest considerable power in himself, he prevented access to the king especially that of his possible rivals.
  • The strengthening of Bairam Khan’s power and the exercise of de facto authority by him was resented by the nobility.
• Third Phase:
  • It lasted till mid-1559, Bairam Khan’s influence and power declined.
  • The first evident decline in Bairam Khan’s power was when Akbar was married to the daughter of Mirza Abdullah Mughal, a son-in-law of Mun’im Khan despite Bairam Khan’s resistance.
  • Bairam Khan’s position was also affected after the arrival of Hamida Banu Begum from Kabul in April 1557. She was accompanied by Maham Anaga.
    • Maham Anaga, Akbar’s foster-mother, her relations, and the relations of other foster-mothers were inwardly extremely jealous of Bairam’s preeminence, and tried to create a rift between Akbar and Bairam Khan.
    • Their efforts were strengthened when Akbar’s mother, Hamid Banu Begum who had remained at Kabul during this period due to political uncertainty, joined him at Agra.
    • Maham Anaga explained to Akbar that “as long as Bairam Khan would remain, he would not allow His Majesty any authority in the affairs of the empire; and that in reality the imperial power was in his hands”.
  • Bairam Khan was compelled to compromise on the functioning of the Central government, i.e., he had to share power with leading nobles.
  • Bairam Khan as wakil could not place any proposal before the king without the consent of leading nobles.
  • This compromise diminished his power and by 1558 even his personal wakil, Pir Muhammad, turned against him.
• Fourth Phase:
  • It witnessed the attempts of Bairam Khan to regain control. There was also growth of factional strife which ultimately led to the dismissal of Bairam Khan.
  • To regain his power, he attempted a coup in 1559.
    • He replaced Pir Muhammad by Muhammad Khan Sistani as his personal wakil.
    • Shaikh Gadai was given additional charge apart from being a sadr.
    • Many small ranking officials were also given promotions.
  • But Bairam Khan remained isolated from the large section of the nobility and the king. He aroused their resentment by his authoritarianism.
    • The Turkish nobles were prepared to work with Bairam Khan, but they were extremely envious, and always tried to poison Akbar’s ears against Bairam Khan.
    • It was felt strongly that while the servants of the emperor had poor jagirs, and were kept in the depth of poverty, those serving Khan-i-Khanan Bairam Khan were in ease and luxury. Worse, the emperor had virtually no privy purse at all.
  • Bairam Khan had underestimated the shrewdness of Akbar.
    • He had made no attempt to win the confidence of the king and when the king announced his dismissal in March 1560, all the loyalists of Bairam Khan either supported the king or declared their neutrality.
  • Once Akbar issued the farman calling all the nobles to come to him, even those close to Bairam deserted him.
  • Bairam turned rebel. Akbar soon triumphed over him, and Bairam submitted.
    • Akbar gave Bairam the option of a jagir in the sarkar of Kalpi and Chanderi and a journey to Mecca. Bairam chose the last, but while on his way, he was assassinated by an Afghan at Patan.
    • Since Bairam’s wife, Salima, was a cousin of Akbar, Akbar married her and brought up her son, Abdur Rahim who became a great noble.
• Achievements:
  • During his regency, Bairam Khan had many achievements to his credit.
  • The threat to Kabul from Mirza Sulaiman, the ruler of Badakhshan, was averted.
  • The kingdom extended from Kabul to Jaunpur in the east, and upto Ajmer in the west.
  • The powerful fort of Gwaliyar was captured.
  • An expedition was sent to conquer Malwa.
• Scholars like R.P. Tripathi, have accused Bairam Khan of granting favours to the shias to the disadvantage of the sunnis and thus annoying them.
  • But I.A. Khan argues that although Bairam Khan was a shia, there is no historical evidence to prove that he granted favours on religious grounds.
  • In fact, Bairam Khan’s favourite Shaikh Gadai, the sadr was a Sunni and not a Shia.
  • Bairam was a liberal, and associated with people from all sects. Badayuni, who was an orthodox Sunni, praises him for his wisdom, generosity, sincerity, goodness of disposition, and humility, and that the second conquest of Hindustan, and the building up of the empire was due to his valour.
  • The dominant group of the nobles at the court were Chughtai Turks. Bairam worked with them and made no effort to displace them.
• The period of Bairam Khan’s regency indicates that actually the political power was vested in the nobility.
  • The downfall of Bairam Khan has been seen by historians as a reaction by the nobles against a centralizing tendency.
  • The nobles were not willing to accept his de facto sovereign power.
  • Bairam Khan tried to curb the notility but he failed to acquire absolute power.
    • To maintain his position, he had to depend on one or the other section of the nobility.
    • Thus he failed to acquire a stable independent following.
    • In fact, he alienated large sections of the nobility by giving high ranks and promotions to junior officers and creating inefficient emirs.
  • At the end of his career, Bairam Khan realised that even his favourites opposed him.
  • The king during this period was a mere figurehead who often became a tool in the hands of Bairam Khan’s opponents.
  • Bairam Khan had tried to weld together the two main groups of the Mughal nobility, i.e., the Chaghatai and Khurasani.
  • But most of the nobles regarded this as an attempt by the regent to curb their power and independence.
  • Bairam Khan’s regency was a period of dilemma for him. While he wanted to curtail the independence of the nobility, he needed their support for his power. This created contradictions in his position throughout this period.
  • It was not possible for him to counterbalance this opposition by introducing a new group.
    • The Afghans could not be recruited because they were the main contenders to the throne.
    • The only alternatives were, therefore, the Rajput chiefs, the zamindars or other local chiefs. But, inducting them would have been a long process.
    • Thus, whenever, Bairam Khan tried to recover his position, he was opposed by the court nobility.
    • Consequently, he often found himself isolated and was ultimately overthrown.
  • Bairam Khan’s exit confirmed the struggle between the central authority and the forces against it in the Mughal polity. It resulted in the triumph of the latter.
  • This trend would help to understand the difficulties which Akbar faced with his nobility between 1562-1567 after he assumed complete sovereign powers.
  • Bairam Khan was able to exercise power as the regent as long as nobles supported him. The nobles did not oppose Bairam Khan till the Afghans were crushed. But after Hemu’s defeat in the second battle of Panipat, they resisted the regent’s efforts at centralisation and forced him to accept the authority of the leading nobles.

Struggle for Wakalat:

• The downfall of Bairam Khan led to increased factionalism in the nobility and efforts of powerful noblest to act independently.
• In this situation, the post of wakil, which was the most prestigious post, combining financial, military and administrative powers became a point of struggle between different factions.
• Akbar gave the post to Munim Khan (Sept. 1560-Nov. 1561) a close associate of Humayun.
  • Munim Khan chose to work in close association with Maham Anaga, doubtless because she was influential and enjoyed the confidence of Akbar.
  • In consequence, her power grew, and many followers of her were given high posts. 
• Although, in the words of Abul Fazl,”  Akbar was still behind a veil” , i.e., he did not take interest in day to day administration, he asserted himself on several occasions. 
  • For e.g. Akbar proceeded to Kara against Ali Quli Khan Zaman, who enjoyed the patronage of Munim Khan, to make him disgorge the treasures he had accumulated in the wars against the Afghans in Jaunpur. 
• Munim Khan’s removal, in November, 1561, and appointment of Atka Khan as wakil sharpened the party conflict, and led to a diminution of Maham Anaga’s influence.
  • This led to the murder of Atka Khan in his public diwan by Adham Khan (June 1562).
  • Akbar punished Adhan Khan with death.  This marked the end of Maham Anaga’s surviving influence.
• Munim Khan was made the wakil once more. But Akbar now decided to take steps to strengthen central, control over the nobility.
  • In 1561, he ordered an enquiry into the revenue arrears of different sarkar and subahs as many nobles had encroached on the income of the khalisa areas which made imperial treasury was almost empty.
  • He separated the executive and revenue responsibilities of jagirdars, there by reducing the size of a jagir, and even breaking it up.

Revolt of Uzbek Nobles:

• The leading Uzbek nobles, Ali Quli Khan Zaman, Bahadur Khan, Sikandar Khan, Iskandar Khan and Abdullah Khan had held important posts and commands from the time of Humayun.
• Bahadur Khan had taken active part in the battle of Panipat against Hemu.
• Ali Quli Khan Zaman had distinguished himself in fighting against the Afghans of east U.P. and was governor of Jaunpur.
• The first to show an inclination towards independence was Abdullah Khan Uzbek, the governor of Malwa.
  • When Akbar reached Malwa, Abdullah Khan fled to Gujarat (1564).
  • This rebellion strengthened Akbar’s prejudices against the Uzbeks about whom, according to Nizamuddin, he had a bad opinion.
• Ali Quli Khan Zaman controlled Awadh, Jaunpur and Banaras and had developed close friendship with Sulaiman Karrani, the Afghan ruler of Bengal and Bihar.
  • The Uzbeks nobles met at Jaunpur, and decided upon an open revolt.  
  • Bengal ruler tried to prop up the Uzbeks rebels of Jaunpur as a barrier between the Mughals and Bihar. For the purpose, he sent an army to aid Ali Quli Khan Zaman.
  • Akbar took vigorous diplomatic and military measures to meet this threat.
    • He dispatched an envoy to the powerful ruler of Orissa, an old rival of the Bengal ruler, who agreed to take active steps against the latter if he did not desist from aiding Khan Zaman.
    • A messenger was also sent to the commandant of fort Rohtas to offer help against the Bengal ruler.
    • Akbar was able to isolate the Uzbeks diplomatically  and soon put them militarily on the run.
  • He made Jaunpur his head-quarter and advised his nobles to build houses there till the Uzbeks had been crushed completely.
  • The operations against the Uzbeks lasted two years.
  • Akbar agreed at Munim Khan’s instance, to pardon the Uzbek leaders and also to restore their jagirs (1566).
• Revolt of Mirza hakim:
  • Akbar’s half-brother, Mirza Hakim, had been ousted from Kabul by Mirza Sulaiman of Badakhshan and laid siege to the fort of Lahore.
  • Mirza Hakim, who had failed to win over the nobles of Punjab by bribery and promises of reward, retreated when Akbar reached near Lahore in early 1567. 
• In Akbar’s absence, the Uzbek nobles rose in rebellion again, sieged the country upto Kannauj and besieged the town.
  • In the hope of creating disaffection in Akbar’s camp, they proclaimed Mirza Hakim as the king, and issued the sikka and had the khutba read in his name. But they failed completely in their objectives.
• Returning from Lahore, Akbar vigorously pursued the Uzbeks. In a battle near Karra in June 1567, Khan-i-Zaman was killed and Bahadur Khan was captured and executed. 
• The defeat of Uzbek nobles and of the rebellion of the Mirzas virtually ended the challenge of a section of the old nobles who wanted a more decentralized set up in which the power and privileges of the nobles could be  preserved.
• However centralization of power created the danger of dissidence among the nobility and reassertion of regional sentiments in areas such as the old Jaunpur kingdom, Malwa etc.
• Most of the rebellions during this period were led by Turani nobles.
  • This was a definite factor in the induction of a large number of Iranis into the nobility at this time, as also of Indian Muslims.