Mughal emperor Akbar: reign, expansion, reforms and religious policy
Mughal emperor Akbar explained: his accession at 13, expansion from Malwa to Bengal, Rajput policy, mansabdari and revenue reforms, and Sulh-i-Kul religious tolerance.
Akbar, the third Mughal emperor, reigned from 1556 to 1605 and turned his grandfather Babur's fragile conquests into a durable empire covering most of the Indian subcontinent. He is remembered for centralising administration, reforming land revenue, and pursuing a policy of religious tolerance that brought Hindus, especially Rajputs, into the highest ranks of Mughal service.
A boy emperor who had to win his throne
Akbar was born in 1542 at Umarkot in Sindh, while his father Humayun was in exile after being driven from Delhi by the Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri. Humayun recovered his throne only in 1555 and died the next year, leaving a 13-year-old heir whose authority barely extended beyond Punjab and the region around Delhi.
The succession was immediately contested. Within months of Humayun's death, Hemu, a minister of the Sur dynasty, captured Delhi itself. On 5 November 1556 a Mughal force defeated Hemu at the Second Battle of Panipat, the same plain where Babur had won thirty years earlier, and Akbar's throne was safe. For the first years his chief minister, Bairam Khan, directed affairs, but in 1560 Akbar forced Bairam Khan to retire and began to rule in his own right.
Expansion: from Malwa to Bengal and the Deccan
Akbar spent the next four decades steadily enlarging his empire. Malwa fell in 1561, Gujarat, with its valuable ports and western trade, was conquered in 1573, and Bengal was annexed in 1576 after its Afghan ruler rebelled and was killed. Later campaigns added Kashmir in 1586, Sindh in 1591 and Kandahar in 1595, and by 1601 Mughal armies had pushed into the Deccan, taking Khandesh, Berar and part of Ahmadnagar.
His handling of the Rajputs was as important as his conquests. Where earlier Muslim rulers had treated the Rajput chiefs mainly as enemies, Akbar combined conciliation with force: chiefs who acknowledged him kept their ancestral lands, paid tribute, supplied troops and entered marriage alliances with the imperial family, and their sons rose to the highest ranks of Mughal service. Rulers who refused, above all Mewar, faced long sieges, most famously Chittor in 1568, but the policy as a whole won the empire a loyal Hindu nobility it had never had before.
Administration: mansabdars and measured revenue
Akbar's lasting achievement was administrative. He organised the nobility through the mansabdari system, under which every officer held a numerical rank that fixed his pay and status and the cavalry he was expected to maintain, with horses branded and soldiers described on rolls to prevent fraud. The system was not hereditary: rank came from the emperor, which kept the nobility dependent on him rather than on inherited land.
For revenue he built on the work of his finance minister Raja Todar Mal. The zabti system measured cultivated land and assessed the state's share from average produce and average prices over the previous ten years, formalised as the dahsala system in 1580, with land classified by how regularly it was cultivated. In the same year the empire was divided into twelve provinces, each with its own governor and officials, so that the centre could supervise a territory stretching from Kabul to Bengal.
Religion, culture and legacy
Akbar never renounced Islam, but he took a sustained interest in the other faiths of his realm and reduced discrimination against non-Muslims, abolishing both the pilgrimage tax and the jizya. He built the Ibadat Khana, or House of Worship, at Fatehpur Sikri for discussions between scholars of different religions, and he later proclaimed Din-i-Ilahi, a court-centred creed drawing on several traditions, as part of his wider policy of Sulh-i-Kul, or universal tolerance.
Although he could not read or write himself, Akbar made his court a centre of art and learning, attracting poets, painters, musicians and translators, and Sanskrit works were rendered into Persian under his patronage. He died in October 1605 and was succeeded by his son Salim, who took the title Jahangir. Later rulers often held Akbar's reign up as a model of a strong, centralised and tolerant empire, and his administrative machinery outlived him by generations.
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Frequently asked questions
Which number Mughal emperor was Akbar?
Akbar was the third Mughal emperor, after Babur and Humayun, and he reigned from 1556 to 1605.
How old was Akbar when he became emperor?
He was 13 when his father Humayun died in 1556. His chief minister Bairam Khan guided the young emperor at first, until Akbar took full control in 1560.
Which battle secured Akbar's throne?
The Second Battle of Panipat, fought on 5 November 1556, in which Akbar's forces defeated Hemu, a Hindu minister who had seized Delhi. The victory secured Akbar's succession.
What was Akbar's policy of Sulh-i-Kul?
Sulh-i-Kul, meaning universal tolerance or universal peace, was Akbar's policy of treating subjects of all faiths impartially. He abolished the pilgrim tax and the jizya, the tax on non-Muslims, and opened high office to Hindus.
What were Akbar's main administrative reforms?
The mansabdari system, in which every officer held a rank (mansab) fixing his status and salary, and the zabti or dahsala land revenue system, formalised in 1580 under Raja Todar Mal, which assessed revenue from measured land, average produce and average prices.