209. Akbar the Great

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0:28Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnon. And me, William Durymple. Now, now, now, now, the story that we're going to concentrate on is going to involve a name that is going to be familiar to anyone from India and Pakistan, acutely familiar, because we are brought up on childhood stories of the court of Akbar, Akbar the Great. And particularly, I was brought up with stories of Akbar and his wise man, Birbal. And I'll share some of those with you because they are like Aesop's fables. But Akbar's life itself is a little bit like a fairy tale, I should say. True or not true? It really, really is.

1:05And I have to say, this is one of my all-time favourite moments in history, because Akbar is not only an improbable story in itself, it also sort of defies every stereotype that we have of medieval Muslim rulers. This is the man that is the epitome of pluralism and tolerance and open-mindedness in a part of the world and representing a religion which is not usually thought of as either. I mean, he's unusual among Mughal leaders, it should be said. Oh, I mean, unique. Yeah, he's extraordinary. I mean, I think sometimes the criticism of things like the jizzy attacks which was brought in are true and evident.

1:42And the lack of tolerance, you know, among some of the later mogul rulers absolutely were a thing. But this is a man who bucks that trend. Anyway, let's give you dates to this and just give you a tiny little insight of why I think this sort of almost reads like a fairy tale story. If it wasn't true and you sort of presented it to a fiction editor, they'd go, oh, God, is it a children's story? Because it does seem so fantastical. So we're talking about the date 1542. And to be specific, the 15th of October, 1542. And do you remember the last time we spoke about the Mughals? We were talking about Humayu, who had fallen to his death from the steps of his library and had left a note for his little son, Akbar, saying, you know what, I'm feeling poorly, but don't worry about me.

2:27He was more worried about Akbar being sad about the fact that he'd fallen and sort of almost promising, I'll be back. I don't want you to worry, but this terrible thing has happened and I've hit my head. Anyway, he had reason to worry because Himayu dies as a result of this. And so Akbar, who's born in 1542, just remember Himayu was a fugitive at this time. And his 15 year old wife, the love that he finds in the middle of the desert when he's sort of wandering around the deserts of Sindh in Umarqud, they are like beggars. They're eating horses because they have nothing. Boiled in the helmets of their last bodyguards.

3:01Lovely detail. What a fabulous detail that is. But this prince is born, the prince who is of nothing and of nowhere. He's been driven from his home in Delhi. The family is fleeing westward through the wastes of Rajasthan, trying to get to Persia, trying to get somewhere where at least they can eat and be safe. And yet this child, this child of the desert born into nothing, born into fear and fleeing, will be one of the greatest emperors the world has ever known. So just pick up the story there about that. Yeah, what's strange is that his horoscope when he's born is incredibly optimistic. And they log this at the time.

3:43Everything's gone. Everything is lost. But the Brahmins who cast his horoscope in the desert say it's suspicious in every detail. And rightly so, because it turns out this is the man who will build the largest empire in India before the British. And this is known, I mean, today you began your introduction, Nita, very rightly saying that everyone in India and Pakistan will know this, but not many people outside India and Pakistan will. But what's interesting is that as long ago as Milton's England, Akbar was a name to conjure with, and in Paradise Lost, Milton has God reveal to Adam the wonders of God's creation.

4:27And where does he take him? If you're doing it today, you'd probably go to Manhattan or Shanghai or whatever the big buzzy places of the moment. And Milton has God take Adam to Mughal Lahore and Mughal Agra during the period of Akbar. And this is because the Mughals at this point rule 100 million subjects, five times the number ruled by the Ottomans, and many times that ruled by the Safavids and Isfahan, who are two big rivals. And to a man of Milton's generation, this was literally no understatement. Lahore dwarfed any city in the West. A city is second to none in Asia or in Europe, thought another European who happened to get there, who was a Portuguese priest called Father Antonio Montserrat, who we hear a lot of on this episode.

5:12He says, with regards to either size or population or wealth, it's crowded with merchants who foregather there from across Asia. There is no art or craft useful to human life, which is not practiced there. The citadel alone has a circumference of three miles. And let's talk about the citadel. So the citadel from where Akbar will rule this immense kingdom and these millions and millions of people is in Lahore Fort, which you can still visit today. It is just an exceptionally impressive building. And it's not just India and Pakistan, these great swathes of land, most of India, most of Pakistan and much of Afghanistan.

5:47Yep. And Bangladesh. Because let's not forget, you know, Afghanistan is a fairly recently realised phenomenon. But this was a sort of a contiguous, which is very hard back in the day. We talked about in some of the other episodes how sort of different clans, tribal, you know, they have their different tranches of land and often fight with each other, even families fight with each other. But this is kind of a unification of an idea of India that happens under Akbar. And this is the period that the word mogul enters the English language as a synonym for luxury and might. So when the Daily Mail talks about someone being a Hollywood mogul or Trump being this real estate mogul or whatever it is, that is a reference to the impression that the moguls made at this time on the English and it enters the English language in this way.

6:36But what is so fascinating is that, you know, history is full of rulers who are powerful and conquer and do terrible massacres and so on. But what's extraordinary about Akbar is he's one of those extraordinary rulers who conciliate. And having performed some pretty nasty massacres in his teens, he then hands over his army to his enemies, the Rajputs. And in the second half of this episode, when we get there, we'll meet this extraordinary figure of his friend, Rajah Man Singh, who is brought up in the court with Akbar and who goes on to become his main general. it's an extraordinary story don't leave I would never would I ever let the cat out of the bag don't you do this no you are you're hopping around in your chair like a man who's about to burst but look there's a lot to say about Akbar he's a really fascinating character so we're going to do you know a couple three I think maybe episodes on Akbar so if you want to listen to all of our episodes on Akbar and you don't want to wait you know you can join our club I should say this because it's a lovely place to be with some brilliant people you get all sorts of things if you join the club you don't have to wait and lots of people have been joining our club with the Babble episodes.

7:45It's very nice to see. It is very gratifying, but it's also nice for you because, you know, look, you can listen to sort of mini-series together. So, Arquell would be a mini-series. You get early access. You get ad-free listening and you get our weekly newsletter, which is a fabulous resource. So, things that we talk about, follow-ups, recommendations of books. Places to go and see. It's a really neat piece of supportive writing. So, just if you want to join our club, head to empirepoduk.com. That's empirepoduk.com. Anywho, okay, look, let's talk about dates and things. I think it's nice to anchor this in the world as well.

8:20So, the reign of Akbar coincides with the reign of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, and Philip II of Spain. So, it sort of gives you an idea of context of the world where we are. And I want to go back to something that you said, which I was just so fascinated with that. I just want to know what the supportive evidence of this is, that Akbar was not likely to be this man who's sort of associated with wisdom and art because he was dyslexic. So tell me how we know that he's dyslexic. Well, we know it from the beginning because when you remember Humayun was in exile in Persia and then he takes Kabul and he meets for the first time in two years his little son, Akbar, and there's a great sort of fanfare as Akbar begins his education.

9:07And Akbar does not progress in his education. His father is incredibly bookish. Can you remember Humayun had his library camels that were always running off with his books? Although his father never was impressed by his writing. Babur was a horrible dad who just said, your writing is terrible. So Babur was unimpressed by Humayun's writing and Humayun was unimpressed by Akbar's... Lack of ability to read. Well, yeah. And what they first do, of course, is they sack the teacher and they think it's his fault. Then they sack a second teacher. And then they realize that actually this guy just can't do it.

9:37And he prefers hunting and shooting and all that sort of stuff. But strangely, despite that, or maybe not strangely, but maybe as a token. As a result of that. Yeah. He has this extraordinary memory. And he becomes one of the towering figures of his age. And despite his literacy, he's known in all the chronicles and all the memoirs of the time as incredibly intelligent, with this extraordinary gift for memory. But also this reputation. And this, I think, is important to remember. He, unlike Babur, who used to sort of, you know, get down with his troops and go, you know, in one of those parties, he says, half of them are taking opium and the other half are drinking.

10:14And like Humayun, who's always sort of, you know, going off and studying his horoscope with all his mates and all that. Oh, yes. So the horoscope tent, which I think is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. But yes, hanging out with people. With his twister carpet, his horoscope twister carpet. But Akbar is quite imperious, incredibly disciplined, an extraordinary capacity for hard work. He doesn't eat much. He is remarkable for not drinking at a time when rulers drink a lot. He doesn't even sleep much because he's out working. and he enforces his discipline in his court, which as a result sounds rather less fun than the court of Umayyad and Babur.

10:53And while he marries, for diplomatic reasons, 300 wives, which sounds like sort of, you know, debauchery incarnate, he actually talks a great deal about sexual restraint and to this Portuguese Jesuit, Father Montserrat. Sorry, I find that a little ripe, if you don't mind me saying. No, no, no. He says to Father Montserrat that he has a hatred of debauchery and adultery, and he's very luxurious to his main wife. And the others he regards merely as diplomatic They're treaties. Necessities. Yeah, they're treaties. Treaty wives. Okay. Poor women, anyway. Poor women. Not great for them. There are some insights into young Akbar as well, sort of after the death of Hamayu, where he's launched into this position.

11:39It's a very young... I mean, how old is he? Just remind us when Hamayu dies. He's still young. Is he 12 or 13, that sort of thing? He's a teenager about that. But he is the strictness. I think there are some examples which are really interesting. So, you know, as you say, Baba caroused with his troops and got drunken high with them, you know, and watched them and enjoyed all their partying. But Akbar doesn't. He has this sort of formal and distance relationship. And he wants respect. He wants to build a hierarchy. And there is a story about, you know, one of his Mongol nobles salutes him from horseback.

12:12He doesn't get off his horse and salutes him. Akbar, to serve as an example for others, has him arrested because that is not respectful and that is not the hierarchy. So, he gets discipline in the troops. 10 or 12 years later, so assume this is when he's in his 20s or 30s, there's another Mongol noble who arrives drunk in his court. He has him removed from the court, tied to a horse's tail just to humiliate him because you do not turn up drunk if you are a courtier and if you are in the presence of the emperor, and then has him imprisoned. So immediately and very graphically, he says, this is a different reign.

12:52I am not my father, and I'm definitely not my grandfather, and you will get into line. And what we see at this period is the Mughal court change from a place where Humayun or Barbour are down there with their nobles having a nice time carousing to what the Mughal court remains right up until the end, which is incredibly hierarchical with all these different layers of hierarchy. And also, it's a place where a lot of hard work goes on. And the Jesuits are very strapped by this. Akbar's preoccupation, writes one Jesuit, Father Francis Enriquez, he says, are many and very weighty, since almost everything must be rooted through him, which is a lot.

13:34And this is done with great calmness and tranquility, and without any sign of disquiet. He was very hardworking and to this end is never idle. And then there's this other guy, Nicola Minucci, who's one of my favorite characters, who's this sort of Italian con artist who turns up tending to be a doctor and writes this fabulous memoir. And he's rude about almost everyone except Akbar. Akbar is someone he really admires. He says, there is no doubt that this king was the first who brought Hindustan into subjection and was the most successful in war. If any of the Mughal kings inherited the valor and judgment of Timur, it was without contradiction, Akbar.

14:16So look, just again, I looked it up while you were talking. He was 13 when he became the emperor. And actually the death of his father was withheld from everyone until Akbar could be in the right position to be crowned as emperor or anointed as emperor because emperors were not crowned in those days. That's a very Western thing. But he's already married. So, you know, he's 13. This is just the accelerated lives of people back then. Because at the age of nine, he marries. Now, this is extraordinary. So, Hindle, the treacherous, shitty brother of Hamayu, who just lets him down at every turn. Hindle was the slightly less treacherous of all the shitty brothers.

14:53Yeah, but pretty shitty. They're the only kind of crappy one rather than outright charlatan. awful. So he marries his daughter. So he marries his cousin at the age of nine, which was a common practice to marry at that age. So he's got a wife, he's got a title, but he's also got a real mess in front of him. Because in 1556, the Mughals lose Delhi. And that is a major loss for them, a large army, 300 elephants. And he loses that. He loses it again. He loses it to this character called Hemu. Yeah, tell us about Hemu. Tell us who he is. Hemu is, I think, a Hindu who is a general in Sher Shah's army.

15:35Sher Shah, remember, we called him the Lion King, the descendant of the Afghan kings of Bihar and Bengal. And Hemu pops up as soon as Humayun dies. And despite him not having any royal heritage himself, he invades Delhi in October 1556 with a large army, 300 elephants. And it's all looking pretty shaky. Just like his father went through, Hamari losing territory hand over fist. And the person who comes to the rescue is this character, Bayram Khan, who was very important during the reign of Akbar, very loyal. And he's the father of another key figure that we'll come across later called Kanikanat.

16:12And Bayram Khan is the first sort of general to stand by Akbar. There is another battle of Panipat, which nearly goes wrong. Remember that it was at Panipat that Babur defeats the Lodis. this fated battleground continues to be the place where the fate of India is decided. And just as the battle is looking quite bleak for the Mughals, Hemu is hit in the eye by an arrow like Harold Godwinson. Very Battle of Hastings. And actually, it's significant because the numbers are not in their favor, even with Byron by his side and Uttar's forces are enormously outnumbered. So was this man not hit in the eye by an arrow?

16:55They could have and probably would have been wiped out. And that would have been the end of the Akbar story. The whole Mughal story. We'd never have heard them again. Yeah. But instead, Hemu is knocked unconscious by this terrible arrow in the eye. And Akbar, aged now for only 14, reaches the unconscious Hemu, decapitates him personally. And the head gets sent off to Kabul, the body to Delhi, to warn other pretenders on the throne. This is one of two occasions when Akbar behaves very gruesomely and builds, I think, a tower of skulls on the battlefield, like the Mongol forebear. Can I just say, which is appalling, because I've seen some people sort of pop up on various social media going, you know, hang on, how are you not criticising this?

17:33No, no, it's horrific. It is absolutely horrific. You know, Mountain of Sculls, nobody is saying this is part of the glorious bits of his story. And there's going to be one other occasion when Akbar also behaves in an incredibly violent, bloodthirsty manner, and we'll come to that quite soon. But having got his throne, thanks to the generalship of Bairam Khan, quite soon Bairam Khan is sent off to Mecca in 1560. So, you know, quite early on, Akbar doesn't want the old guard around. And initially, he leans on the two brothers of his wet nurse, who's this woman called Maham Anga. And his wet nurse has these sons, which the most important is Adam Khan.

18:20And so as a balance against Bairam, he initially lands on Adam Khan. Bairam Khan is sent off to Mecca. There's a rebellion, but he's defeated. And then two years later, Adam Khan overplays his hand and assassinates Akbar's minister in court. and this is the moment of crisis. Akbar is now 16. It's the second one of his associates who's become over mighty and this guy who he's brought up with, Adam Khan, has killed someone in court and he has to make a decision. What does he do? He orders Adam, who he's known since he was a child, who is one of the closest associates in court, to be thrown. Who is this boob twin?

19:09You know, if it's a wet nurse, it's a boob twin. And we've talked about this before, you know, sort of wet nurses who will look after and feed their own children when they're pregnant. And also, if they're producing milk, they will be given another child, a royal child to feed. And he is, on Akbar's orders, thrown out of a first fall window. And they then look down and see this poor guy twitching. And Akbar allegedly, personally, goes down, puts him over his shoulder, pulls him up the stairs and throws him out a second time. And that's it. And that Adam Khan's tomb is just next to my house in Delhi.

19:43And I pass it many days. What does it look like? Well, it's very big and grand. It's like the old Lodi royal tombs, which are in the Lodi gardens, but bigger. Who would have made that? I mean, would that have been Akbar himself? That is Akbar himself. I mean, these guys were his wet nurse brothers. Yeah. So he throws them off a balcony twice, but then feels bad about it. He throws one of them off the balcony. And the other brother also ends up having a tomb built for himself. And these two gorgeous tombs, which lie either side of the Rorley bus station today, next to my house, are beautiful places.

20:16Adam Khan's tomb is called the Bulbulia, the maze. Bulbulia. Ah, that's like a labyrinth. It's the name for a labyrinth. And it's a place associated with jinns and lots of folklore. It's a beautiful tomb. It's an absolutely wonderful place. And then there's the other brother who's just over the other side of the Kutubanar. And so Akbar, recognizing in a sense his responsibility to these two, does build them both big tombs, but he is not going to let any sympathy or any over show of kindness, the thing that he recognized, finished his father over and over again, forgiving his enemies. And Akbar's going to have none of it.

20:51So he starts off right at the beginning doing exactly what his father did not do. He shows he will not forgive disloyalty, that disloyalty and treachery will result in death or exile. And so first Bayram Khan is sent off, then Adam Khan is thrown out. Mahamanga, the wet nurse, dies of sadness. And this results in Akbar at the age now of whatever he is, 16 or 17, very much in control, showing that he is someone, however young he is, he's not to be messed with. And it's at this point that we see this very, very important decision that he takes to find allies with the most improbable people of all, the Rajputs, who've traditionally been the enemies of his family, who fought Babur when he came to power.

21:43and after the break we will hear the story of Man Singh which is a story which completely changes not only Akbar's own life but will alter forever the nature of Mughal rule.

22:03Welcome back. So just before the break we were talking about how Akbar is trying really very hard, or whether he's trying or not, he is defining what it is to be an emperor and it is in exact opposition to what his father was, which was sort of this rather forgiving dope who kept taking back the most treacherous snakes who were around him and it resulted in him being reduced to begging in a desert for allies and cooking horses in helmets. One thing we didn't mention, part of this sort of redefinition, and it's partly strategic because it is a more secure place and it's partly because he is a different type of emperor, but he moves the court from Delhi to Agra.

22:45Now, for most of you, Agra will be synonymous with the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal doesn't exist at this time. The Taj Mahal will be created by someone who comes later, but it is a very big deal to move a court. I mean, some people have tried it or we talked about the Tuklux trying to move their courts with disastrous consequences. It's a big deal. It's a big gamble, but it pays off, doesn't it, William? Because apart from, you know, you're redefining, I am not like the ones who came before me. You're building something new and strong and in your own image in a way. Correct. And it's at this point too, that we get this extraordinary alliance formed between Akbar's moguls based now in Agra and in a sense their next big power who are the Rajput clan, Raja Barmal, who lives in Amer, which is just under Amber Fort, which is now on the outskirts of Jaipur.

23:42Jaipur again, like the Taj Mahal, is something that comes later. Yeah, we ought to actually explain who the Rajputs were, first of all. So the Rajputs, historically enemies of the Mughals, a very sort of proud Hindu martial people. They pride themselves on being great fighters. They also have great swathes of land. They also have a great deal of pride in being Rajput. It's a really defined regal thing to be, to be a Rajput. And the Rajputs have also defined themselves on fighting with the Mughals. So, to have any kind of allegiance between these two houses is an extraordinary thing. Let's talk about Mansing a little bit more.

24:22I mean, you say Amr is where he is. Also describe what it would have been like then because Amr Ford, there are great forts and Umber Ford and these places in the desert, if you've ever done any kind of traveling to India and you're not from India, the Golden Triangle, this is part of the Golden Triangle that you'll be taken on to see these huge soaring edifices on great high ground which look down into ravines. I mean, strategically very, very protected, but also imposing architecture that shows this is great might here. So strategically important, but also as propaganda, very, very important.

24:56And this is the flex of strength that the Rajputs project. Tell us about Man Singh. I mean, who was he? What was he like? Tell me who he was. So what's important to realise is that Man Singh, when he's born, is not one of the great nobles of India. Today, when you go to Amher Fort, it is, as you say, one of the main tourist sites of India, because it's absolutely enormous. But that fort that we all go and visit on elephants, and it's one of the classic things tourists do, and it's one of the classic views of India, that fort was won and built with the loot that Man Singh gathers as Akbar's general.

25:38and if you go down the slopes I can tell the story very clearly because I was actually at a wedding in Jaipur this weekend and in preparation for this pod I went wandering around Amir with my son Sam who's become obsessed with this story too and has just put a sub stack up all about all the temples built under the moguls by particularly this family oh look at your proud dad I'm proud dad travels of Sam wide sub stack oh sweet yeah drop it drop it help my boy anyway Sam actually led me. He was my tour guide this weekend. And we went round all the temples, of which there are 360 in Amir, underneath the fort.

26:19The important point that he showed me on this trip was that it was a very minor Rajput house. They were effectively squires rather than great maharajas at this point. And their original palace, where Man Singh was brought up, is still there. Today, it's actually a temple. It's been converted into a temple where the coronations, the Abhisheka ceremony of the new Maharajas still goes on. But it's quite modest. It's like, you know, I mean, it's a big, lovely courtyard house that you and I'd be very happy to live in. But it's not, you know, Amer Fort, which is one of the great, amazing palaces of the world.