[balti]

Two Jesuit priests were invited from Goa in 1580, and Antonio Monserrate tutored Akbar's son Murad. The unorthodox Akbar stopped sponsoring caravans to Mecca. Two years later a Jain delegation persuaded him to renounce hunting, abstain from eating meat most of the year, and greatly limit the days on which animals could be slaughtered. After summoning a general council, Akbar wrote and promulgated his Divine Faith (Din-I-Ilahi) that suggested a rational and ethical mysticism without priests and books. Akbar apparently did not read but had things read to him. Since the empire had only one head, he believed it also should have one set of religious laws for all. The goal was union of the soul with God, and the ethics called for giving charity, sparing animals, permitting widows to remarry, and prohibiting child marriage, incest and forced sati. He encouraged monogamy, chastity, and restrictions on gambling and drinking. Akbar's new faith only gained about two dozen prominent converts. Like the initiation of Sufis to their masters, disciples had to place their head on the Emperor's feet and swear they would sacrifice their life, property, religion, and honor to serve their master. Disciples were to follow Akbar's rule of universal toleration for all religions.

The Dabistan lists ten virtues Akbar recommended that can be summarized as liberality, patience, abstinence from worldly desires, freedom from violence and acquisitiveness, meditating on the consequence of actions, prudence, gentle speaking, giving precedence to others, valuing the Supreme Being more than creatures, purifying the soul and yearning for God by limiting eating, drinking, dress, and marriage. Akbar also advised refraining from lust, sensuality, slaughter, deceit, oppression, intimidation, foolishness, and hunting. It is clear that he emphasized ethics more than rituals, worship, and belief. One did not have to give up one's own religion in order to adopt Akbar's Divine Faith. The purpose of gaining disciples was to instruct them in the service of God, not to gain personal attendants.

Akbar called his religious system Divine Monotheism. He conceived of the one God as a power and essence that is omnipresent as well as a personal being. Reason was the main faculty Akbar advised people to employ. Knowledge from books he considered worse than useless if it is not applied in an active life of good works. The extremes of asceticism and indulgence in worldly pleasures should be avoided. He rejected pre-ordained rewards in heaven or punishments in hell. Rather he believed in the transmigration of souls and their gradual evolution that provide complex rewards and punishments beyond human comprehension. Akbar agreed with Abul Fazl's Sufi conception of the soul as a divine essence. The goal of life is to find spiritual perfection, and Akbar did recommend prayer and meditation. Yet in response to a drought in 1574 he had suggested that the omniscient Creator already knows our every thought, and his mercy does not depend on our appeals.

Akbar transferred his capital to Lahore in 1585. The next year a Mughal army of 5,000 invaded and annexed Kashmir; but some rebels led by Yaqub did not surrender until Akbar went to Srinigar in 1589. In 1586 Yusufzais and Mandars gave the Mughal army its worst defeat when they killed 8,000 retreating soldiers in the Karakar Pass. Akbar promised not to intervene as the Uzbeks invaded Safavid Khurasan, and the Uzbek king Abdullah Khan said he would not support the Afghan tribes. Akbar maintained friendly relations with the Uzbeks and also Persian Shah 'Abbas (r. 1587-1629) by being neutral in their conflicts. The trade route from Kabul through the Khyber Pass provided Lahore markets with horses, fruit, silk, porcelain, and precious metals in exchange for Indian spices, textiles, and other goods. In 1590 Akbar appointed Khan Khanan to govern Multan and conquer Sind. In 1595 the Persian commandant of Qandahar defected to the Mughals, and 'Abdullah Khan surrendered it to Akbar. The northern portion of the empire was also secured that year as Baluchistan was annexed. The Uzbeks ceased to be a threat when 'Abdullah Khan died in 1598.

Akbar began his Deccan campaign by sending envoys to Khandesh, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, and Golconda in 1591. The Ahmadnagar Sultanate was invaded by Prince Murad in 1595. The war was prolonged, and commander Murad died of alcoholism in 1599. In his last campaign Akbar led the army that stormed the fortress of Ahmadnagar in 1600. The Emperor then invaded Khandesh, which surrendered the next year. Akbar appointed his son Daniyal viceroy of the Deccan. While Akbar was in the south, his oldest son Salim tried to seize the fortress at Agra but failed to take it. After Akbar returned to Agra, Salim marched 30,000 cavalry against the capital. His father wrote him a letter offering him Bengal and Orissa, but Salim returned to Allahabad. In 1602 the Emperor sent his biographer Abul Fazl, but Salim had him attacked and killed. Empress Salima Sultan Begam and other women made peace between father and son, and Salim returned to court in 1604. He was temporarily denied opium and wine but succeeded after Akbar's death in October 1605.

In Mughal society the Emperor was all powerful as the supreme state authority making the laws, commanding the military, and overseeing the judicial system. Akbar also became the supreme religious authority and no longer deferred to the Caliph. Muslims still maintained an aristocratic and wealthy class over the Hindu castes, but their lands and titles were not hereditary. This often resulted in less care for their estates. Many slaves served them, and nobles could retreat into their private harems of women. The chief cities of India were considered as wealthy as any in Europe.
Jahangir and Shah Jahan 1605-58

A week after his father's death, Salim took the throne as Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-27). To win popular support he immediately issued twelve edicts to do the following:

1. Certain local taxes are to be prohibited.
2. Wells are to be dug and cultivation promoted in poor areas where theft has been common.
3. Packages of merchants and inheritances are to be protected.
4. Making or selling liquor is prohibited although he admitted he has been drinking since he was eighteen.
5. Confiscating houses and mutilation punishments are banned.
6. Officers shall not seize lands by force.
7. The royal treasury will fund the building of hospitals and hiring of doctors.
8. In honor of his father animals are not to be slaughtered on Thursdays or Sundays.
9. Sunday is to be respected as the first day of creation.
10. Officers of his father's servants are confirmed.
11. Lands devoted to prayer are confirmed.
12. All prisoners are given amnesty and are to be released.

Some scholars doubt these edicts had much effect. The murderer of Abul Fazl was promoted. Shaykh Farid, known as Nawab Murtaza Khan, persuaded the new emperor to promise to uphold Islamic law. When he learned that Muslim girls were marrying Hindus and converting, he prohibited it. Yet he also made the forced conversion of Hindus illegal. Even though he drank and used opium himself, Jahangir prohibited the public sale of wine and bhang (cannabis), castration of children in Bengal and Assam, gambling, and sati (widow suicide). The Portuguese had introduced tobacco to India, and Jahangir banned smoking in 1618; but five years later Surat began exporting tobacco.

Jahangir's oldest son Khusrau had been favored by some to succeed Akbar, and he rebelled in 1606 by hiring an army of 12,000 with money he took from an imperial treasure caravan. They besieged Lahore, but Jahangir's imperial army soon forced them to scatter. Khusrau was caught and had to witness the impaling of his followers. The fifth Sikh guru Arjun refused to pay a fine and was tortured to death for having helped the fleeing Khusrau, who was imprisoned. Other Sikhs were apparently not persecuted because of this. However, Jains were accused of disturbances after their leader Man Singh supported Khusrau's rebellion. When Jahangir went to Kabul to direct the campaign against the Safavids at Qandahar, Khusrau plotted to assassinate his father. Several conspirators were executed, and the Emperor had his son blinded. However, Khusrau lived on in captivity and regained some sight.

Jahangir sent his son Parwiz to subdue Mewar, but the Sisodia ruler evaded the imperial army year after year. When Persia's Shah 'Abbas I had Qandahar besieged in 1606, Jahangir sent a Mughal army that chased them away. In 1611 Emperor Jahangir married a Persian widow of one of his officers who was given the name Nur Jahan, meaning "Light of the World," and as his favorite wife she became a very influential political leader. Her father Itimad-ud-daula became prime minister. In 1612 Jahangir's second son Khurram married the daughter of her brother Asaf Khan. Nur Jahan restrained Jahangir's drinking, and she supported his patronage of learning, art, and charity. As empress she handled more administrative work than he did, especially in his later years. She helped more than 500 destitute orphan girls get married. Jahingir had disciples who wore his picture, and he promoted the best commanders with noble titles and gifts.

In 1608 Islam Khan became governor of Bengal and moved to crush Musa Khan, leader of the twelve bhuiyas (landowners). The Mughal army captured Musa Khan's capital at Sonargaon in 1611, and three months later Musa Khan, his brothers, and allies submitted to the imperialists. Other rebelling Afghans in Bengal were finally defeated by imperial troops the next year, and Bengal was annexed to the Mughal empire as a province in 1613. That year Jahangir moved his capital from Agra to Ajmer, and he sent Khurram on a campaign into Rajasthan. Mewar women and children were captured and sold as slaves until Rana Amar Singh (r. 1597-1620) negotiated a peace with Khurram in 1614, promising not to repair the Chitor fortress. The Portuguese seized four Mughal ships in 1613, causing Jahangir to cancel their privileges and close the churches in Agra and Lahore; but within two years the Jesuits gained reconciliation. In the Deccan the states of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, and Golconda fought each other during the first century of the Mughal empire. Guerrilla warfare by the Marathas that was ably led by the Abyssinian Malik 'Ambar kept the Mughals from securing Ahmadnagar. The southern boundary of the Mughal empire left by Akbar was not advanced until forces led by Khurram defeated Malik 'Ambar in 1616. However, guerrilla resistance continued after the main Mughal forces withdrew.

In 1615 Mughals used force to take over Khokhar diamond mines of Bihar, and in 1617 they annexed part of Orissa and Kishtwar, south of Kashmir. In the northeast Shan people had been moving down from Burma for two centuries. These Ahoms along the Brahmaputra River had become Hindus but without its caste and ritual restrictions. Ahom leaders mobilized their men into the military or used them as forced labor to build roads and irrigation systems. They fought annual battles against the Mughal armies in the northeastern jungles. Prince Khurram led the attacks on the petty kingdoms in the Himalayas and captured the Kangra fort in 1618.

Khurram refused to lead another Deccan campaign until Jahangir agreed to transfer Khusrau to the custody of Nur Jahan's brother Asaf Khan. While the Emperor toured Mandu and Gujarat for several years, his son Khurram got Malik 'Ambar to surrender control of Berar and Ahmadnagar. Nur Jahan countered the growing power of Khurram by marrying her daughter by a previous marriage to Jahangir's youngest son Shahryar in 1620. Malik 'Ambar renounced the treaty and encouraged Bijapur and Golconda to revolt against the Mughals. Khurram insisted that Khusrau accompany him, and within six months his army forced Bijapur and Golconda to pay indemnities. When he learned that Jahangir was ill in 1621, he had Khusrau secretly killed and reported that he had died of illness.

Nur Jahan lost an ally when her father died in January 1622. Two months later Persian shah Abbas besieged and captured Qandahar. Khurram refused to leave the Deccan unless he was given full command. So Jahangir sent his son Shahryar to Qandahar and gave him some of Khurram's jagir tax lands. Jahangir's imperial court was in Kashmir, and Khurram rebelled by leading his Deccan army north and was supported by Malwa and Gujarat; but Mahabat Khan's loyal army defeated the Deccan forces near Fathpur Sikri in 1623. Khurram retreated to Malwa and got one million rupees from the Gujarat treasury to re-supply his army. Jahangir and Nur Jahan moved the imperial army back to Ajmer, regained control of Gujarat and drove Khurram out of Malwa. Khurram retreated to Asir and Golconda. He won a battle to control Bengal briefly, but he was defeated near Allahabad. Khurram took refuge with his previous enemy Malik 'Ambar, who was fighting Bijapur and the Mughals. The depressed Khurram became ill; he agreed to become governor of the Deccan, surrendered two forts, and sent his sons Dara Shukoh and Aurangzeb as hostages to the Mughal court. After Malik 'Ambar died in 1626, Maharashtra fell into turmoil with numerous assassinations.

During this rebellion alcoholic Prince Parwiz was supported by Mahabat Khan and challenged Nur Jahan's hopes for Shahryar. She complained that Jahangir had not approved the marriage of Mahabat's daughter; the son-in-law was arrested and beaten, and the dowry was confiscated. Angry Mahabat led an army of 4,000 Rajput troops to the court and captured Emperor Jahangir and Nur Jahan. They proceeded to Kabul, where Nur Jahan and Asaf Khan mobilized troops and local nobles against the Rajputs. Jahangir pretended to comply; but when the Emperor was reviewing his troops, Mahabat Khan decided to flee to Khurram in the Deccan. Alcoholism caused the death of Prince Parwiz in 1626; he died in the Deccan, and some suspected Khurram. Jahangir went again to Kashmir to improve his health; but he died on his way back near Lahore in October 1627. Vizier Asaf Khan supported Khurram and took control of his mother Nur Jahan and her three young sons. He got nobles to proclaim Khusrau's young son Dawar Bakhsh as emperor. Shahryar used seven million rupees in the Lahore treasury to mobilize an army to fight his cousin; but he was defeated. Shahryar was captured and blinded. Khurram sent a message to Asaf Khan to blind or kill Shahryar, Dawar Bakhsh, and other male Timurid cousins. In January 1628 Asaf Khan imprisoned Dawar Bakhsh and proclaimed Khurram as Emperor Shah Jahan. Then he had his brother executed along with Shahryar and two nephews of Jahangir.

Shah Jahan made Asaf Khan vizier and Mahabat Khan governor of Ajmer. He ruled from the Agra fortress built by Akbar until his new imperial capital at Delhi called Shahjahanabad was completed in 1648. Afghan noble Khan Jahan Lodi had been close to Jahangir; but just before Jahangir's death it was reported that he had received 300 gold hun for persuading Mughal officials to give their positions over to Ahmadnagar officers and to retire to Burhanpur. In 1629 Khan Jahan Lodi and his family secretly fled to the Nizam Shah Murtaza II of Ahmadnagar. Shah Jahan sent three armies after him and moved his court to Burhanpur. Battles devastated the countryside, and famine followed. In 1630 Khan Jahan Lodi was defeated and fled toward the Punjab, but he was trapped and killed along with his two sons. An investigation also caused Bundela emir Jujhar Singh to flee the court, and the Mughal army killed 3,000 Bundela troops in battle.