Mughal rulers were extremely staunch and fanatic. They were mostly involved in bloodshed, loot and massacre. Akbar was addicted to opium and was a Casanova by nature. Jahangir destroyed the temples of Jagannath Puri, Verinaag, Varaah Avtaar. He also tortured Sikh Gurus and Swetambar Jains. Shah Jahan alone demolished 76 temples in Varanasi and stopped construction of new temples. He encouraged religious conversions and imposed pilgrimage taxes on Hindus.
Humayun ascended the throne of Delhi after Babur who ruled from 1530-1539 and for few months from 1555-1556. He was Babur’s most favourite of his four sons. But Humayun had looted his father’s treasure in 1527 on his way to Badkhasha. In the battles of Kanauj and Chausa, he was badly defeated by the Afghan Sher Khan and subsequently quit Bharat. Humayun had a whirling life and finally died after falling down the stairs.
Humayun was an escapist by nature. His brother Kamran attempted to take over the throne of Delhi but could not go beyond Rajasthan. The king of Bikaner Jaitsi (1526-1542) along with the rulers of Rajasthan defeated Kamran near the forests of Bikaner. In History it is known as the ‘battle of Raatighaati’. After this battle, Kamran never thought of ruling Delhi again.
King Akbar was the third Mughal ruler who ruled from 1556-1605 AD. He was also a foreigner like his two predecessors. According to a historian, Vivian, Akbar was addicted to opium and was a Casanova by nature. According to Abul Fazal (1551-1602), there were about 3,000 women in his harem. His life was also like that of a staunch Muslim and an imperialist. In order to fulfil his political aspirations, he attacked several times and also didn’t hesitate to conquer other states by guile. His first battle was with Hemu (Hem Chandra Vikramaditya) (1501-1556) who had risen from being an ordinary man to become an army General during the time of AdiI Shah. He had won 22 out of 24 battles that he had fought during his lifetime. Hem Chandra had defeated the Mughals in Agra and Delhi prior to his attack on Akbar. He had obtained the title of Vikramaditya at his coronation on October 7th, 1556 at Purana Quila in Delhi and he floated his currency. It can be said without hesitation that this was the Golden day of Bharateeya history when a Bharateeya ruler had overthrown a foreign king and re-established Bharateeya reign after 350 years of foreign rule. On November 5th, 1556 he fought Akbar in the Second Battle of Panipat. Due to an injury in the eye, he was surrounded in the battle field by Muslims and later was beheaded by Bairam Khan. In 1564, Akbar attacked the Queen of Gondwana, Durgawati. She was considered to be an excellent fighter and a justice loving queen and everybody's favourite. After a fierce battle which lasted for two days, she killed herself apprehending defeat and the impending desecration. This was a proof of Akbar's cruelty. Some of the deadliest battles of his life happened in Chittor. He attacked Chittor twice, first in 1567 AD and the subsequent one after almost a decade in 1576 AD. The first battle was against Uday Singh (1537-1572) and the second one against his son, Maharana Pratap. Both these battles were considered epitome of Bharateeya gallantry. Even later Akbar tried to call for battles but in vain. In the war with Maharana Pratap, he gained nothing except an elephant from Maharana Pratap. This battle was known as the Battle of Haldighati.
In spite of several wars leading to bloodshed, loot, massacre etc., Akbar did not succeed in achieving the ambition of his life of conquering his ancestral land of Fargana and could only advance till Kandahar. The primary basis of Akbar's Rajput or religious policies was his imperialistic attitude. His propounded religion, Din-i-Ilahi was not an acknowledgement of his intelligence and was rather an example of his idiocy. This is the reason, there was no one to carry on this concept after his death.
After Akbar, the throne went to Jahangir and Shah Jahan respectively. Both of them were extremely fanatic and hedonistic. Both the rulers only swore by alcohol and women. The patriotic kings of Chittor never bent in front of these two rulers. Jahangir continued to fight Raja Amar Singh I (1597-1620), who was the son of Maharana Pratap which finally ended after the treaty of Mewar in 1613 AD. Even Shah Jahan could not break this. Jahangir lost Kandahar which was conquered by Akbar and Shah Jahan didn't have any remarkable victory in all the 48 battles he fought during his lifetime. Shah Jahan also attempted to recover Kandahar and made three attempts in 1649, 1652 and 1653 respectively but could not regain even an inch. Even from the religious point of view both these rulers were extremely staunch and fanatic.
Dr Satish Chandra Mittal (The writer is Professor (Retd.), History Department, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra) (To be concluded)
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