Rise Of Akbar

The beginning of the Mughal empire is conventionally dated to the victory of its founder Babur over Ibrahim Lodi, the last ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, in the First Battle of Panipat (1526). The Mughal emperor had roots in the Turco-Mongol Timurid dynasty of Central Asia, claiming direct descent from both Genghis Khan (founder of the Mongol Empire) and Timur (Turco-Mongol, founder of the Timurid Empire). The Mughals were Muslim rulers who ruled a Hindu Majority country. Even then, during their reign, Hindus enjoyed high administrative positions. The Mughals were extremely fond of art and architecture. They sanctioned the building of huge tombs, gardens and masjids.

The Empire founded by Babur was based on religious toleration. During Babur’s

Akbar succeeded to the throne at 13, and started to recapture the remaining territory lost from Babur 's empire. Akbar is known for his efforts to establish peaceful relations between Hindus and Muslims. These efforts included abolition of ‘Jizyah tax’ paid by the Non-Muslims and Rajput marriage alliances. According to Akbar “No man should be interfered with on account of religion, and anyone is to be allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him”. Throughout his whole life, he was respectful of all faiths and even gave up hunting, a sport he loved, out of respect for his Hindu subjects. He also established a new religion known as ‘Din-i-Ilahi’ which was made by merging the best elements of mostly Hinduism and Islam. However, his new religion died when Akbar died. Akbar had great fondness of literature. He had a library of over 24,000 volumes written in Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Kashmiri, staffed by many scholars, translators, artists, calligraphers and readers. Literature saw great growth during Akbar’s rule. Abul Fazal was a great historian, philosopher and scholar of the period. He is known for two important works ‘Akbarnama’ and ‘Ain-i-Akbari’. Badauni, a historian of fame wrote, ‘Muntakhab-ul-Tawarikh’. Another noted historian, Nizam- ud-Din wrote ‘Tabaqat-i-Akbari’. Sur Das, a blind poet of Agra wrote ‘Sursagar’ in Brij Bhasha. Sant Tulsi Das produced the immortal ‘Ramcharitmanas’ in Awadhi, which is famous even in the present times. Akbar’s court was always filled men of great talent and knowledge. Artisans, poets and architects all came to his court for study and discussion. He himself kept nine extremely talented courtiers who were well versed in various departments like poetry, music and art. These courtiers were known as the ‘Navratnas’ or the nine jewels and were the pride of Akbar’s court. Paintings based on Hindu epics like