Akbar the Great
ICSE Class 7 · History & Civics · Chapter 8
What this chapter covers
- Akbar's accession to the throne
- Akbar's conquests
- Akbar's relations with other rulers: the Rajput policy
- Akbar's administration and the mansabdari system
- Akbar's revenue system
- Akbar's religious policy
- Art and culture under Akbar
- Why Akbar is called "the Great"
Key definitions
A regent is a person who rules on behalf of a king who is too young or too weak to rule himself.
Foreign policy is the way a ruler deals with the rulers of other countries, through friendship, treaties or war.
Rajput policy is the name given to Akbar's plan of winning the Rajput rulers over as partners in the empire through friendship, marriage alliances and high posts, while using force only against those who refused.
A marriage alliance is a marriage arranged between two ruling families to make a political friendship between their kingdoms.
A subah is a province of the Mughal Empire, governed by an officer called the subahdar.
The mansabdari system is the system under which every officer of Akbar's government held a numbered rank, called a mansab, that fixed his status, his pay and the number of horsemen he had to keep.
Zat is the personal rank of a mansabdar, which fixed his place at court and his own salary.
Dagh is the branding of horses with the royal mark, so that the same horse could not be shown twice at an inspection.
Land revenue is the share of a peasant's harvest, or its value in money, that the government collects as tax on the land he cultivates.
The zabti system is Akbar's method of land revenue in which each field was measured, its average produce worked out, and the revenue fixed in cash at one-third of that average.
Sulh-i-kul is the idea of "peace with all", under which Akbar's government treated people of every religion equally and did not favour or persecute any of them.
The Buland Darwaza is the giant gateway of the Jama Masjid at Fatehpur Sikri, built to celebrate Akbar's conquest of Gujarat.
Key points
- Akbar became emperor at thirteen in 1556 CE, with Bairam Khan as his regent.
- The Second Battle of Panipat (1556 CE) against Hemu made Mughal rule in north India secure.
- Akbar took full control in 1562 CE and conquered Malwa, Gondwana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal, Kabul, Kashmir, Sind, Kandahar and parts of the Deccan.
- His foreign policy aimed to close the north-west frontier to invaders.
- The Rajput policy won Rajput rulers over through marriage alliances and high posts; only Mewar resisted, under Maharana Pratap.
- The empire was divided into subahs, sarkars and parganas, run by officers appointed by the emperor.
- Under the mansabdari system every officer held a rank with a zat and a sawar number; dagh and chehra (the Sultanate's huliya) checked cheating.
- Raja Todar Mal's zabti or dahsala system fixed land revenue at one-third of a ten-year average yield, paid in cash.
- Akbar abolished the pilgrim tax and the jizya, held debates in the Ibadat Khana and followed the principle of sulh-i-kul.
- The Din-i-Ilahi was a small order of disciples, open to all faiths, that ended with Akbar's death.
- Akbar's reign produced Fatehpur Sikri, the Buland Darwaza, Mughal miniature painting, the Akbarnama and the music of Tansen.