A Short History of the Mughal Empire (I.B.Tauris Short Histories)

by Fisher, H, Michael

  While Salim chaffed under Akbar’s direct supervision, Akbar entrusted command over his concentrated forces in the Deccan to Murad during the mid-1590s. However, Murad failed to cooperate with the far more experienced Mughal commanders there and accomplished little. When Murad died in 1599, Akbar personally went to supervise, defeating the last holdouts in Khandesh. Meanwhile, Salim marched his own forces to seize Agra but failed. Salim then moved five hundred kilometers down the Jumna River and took Allahabad, which Akbar had heavily fortified.

  Prince Salim Hunting (detail), by Muhammad Nasir al-Munshi, 1600–1604 (Allahabad period). Courtesy Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.83.137) www.LACMA.org

  Over Salim’s years in Allahabad, he established his own court, with escalating assertions of his own sovereignty. Using his prospects as emperor-in-waiting, and also his considerable military force, he ruthlessly compelled everyone in the region—Mughal officials and the populace—to submit to him. He extracted taxes to expand his household. He employed artists who developed a distinctive style, reflecting Salim’s taste.6 Assuming imperial trappings, Salim proclaimed himself Padshah, minted coins bearing this title and ordered the khutba recited in his name from 1602. He constructed a throne platform, inscribed with pretentious verses. Some supporters of the late Mirza Hakim had already thrown their support to Salim. With Murad’s death followed by Daniyal’s in 1604 (both officially of alcohol abuse but widely believed assassinated by Salim), members of those princely establishments also joined Salim. Some regional notables, especially Indian Muslims, supported Salim, as did some leading members of the ‘ulama and mansabdars opposed to Akbar’s administrative and religious innovations. Tensions between Akbar and Salim escalated, each marching armies threateningly against the other.

  Salim also maneuvered to eliminate opponents. Abu-al-Fazl, the courtier most associated with Akbar’s policies, had been appointed governor of Khandesh and promoted to high mansab 5,000. As Abu-al-Fazl returned to Agra in 1602, the Bundela Rajput ruler of Orchha, Raja Bir Singh Dev, overwhelmed his escort, decapitated him, and sent his head to Salim. Salim candidly explained:

  Shaikh Abu-l-fazl who excelled … in wisdom and learning, had adorned himself outwardly with the jewel of sincerity, and sold it to my father at a heavy price …. Since his feelings towards me were not honest, he both publicly and privately spoke against me. At this period when, through strife-exciting intriguers, the august feelings of my royal father were entirely embittered against me, it was certain that if [Abu-al-Fazl] obtained the honour of waiting on [Akbar] it would … preclude me from the favour of union with him. It became necessary to prevent him from coming to Court …. I sent [Bir Singh Dev] a message that if he would stop that sedition-monger and kill him, he would receive every kindness from me.7

  Furious, Akbar sent forces to punish Bir Singh Dev, but he retreated to the surrounding forests as had many opponents of the Empire. (On Jahangir’s accession, he awarded Bir Singh Dev mansab 3,000/2,000, and later made him Maharaja with mansab 5,000/5,000. Graciously forgiving, Jahangir employed Abu-al-Fazl’s son, entitling him Afzal Khan and appointing him governor of Bihar.)

  As ailing Akbar weakened, Salim maneuvered from Allahabad to regain his father’s favor. Salim’s first wife, Manbhawati Bai, the strongest advocate of her son Khusrau’s cause, committed suicide. Finally, Salim’s partisans succeeded and he safely submitted to Akbar in Agra. After Akbar chastised Salim, they were reconciled, just months before Akbar’s death in October 1605. Later historians sympathetic to the new emperor recounted Akbar’s alleged deathbed designation of Salim as his sole heir; few accounts of the event detrimental to Salim survived.

  The new emperor himself later denied any revolt had ever taken place, claiming always to have been loyal despite his traitorous advisors:

  Short-sighted men in Allahabad had urged me also to rebel against my father. Their words were extremely unacceptable and disapproved by me. I know what sort of endurance a kingdom would have, the foundations of which were laid on hostility to a father, and was not moved by the evil counsels of such worthless men, but [rather] waited on my father, my guide, my qibla [Mecca-orientation], and my visible God, and as a result of this good purpose it went well with me.8

  As emperor, Jahangir thus retrospectively condemned anyone who rebelled against imperial authority—particularly his own eldest son, Khusrau.

  During his own years of struggle against Akbar, Jahangir had feared Khusrau’s powerful supporters. After Jahangir’s accession, he kept Khusrau confined. Jahangir distanced Khusrau’s guardian, Raja Man Singh, by dispatching him as governor of Bengal with the unprecedented (for a non-prince) mansab 7,000/7,000. Jahangir also offered Khusrau distant Kabul as his appanage, following family tradition. But Khusrau refused, aiming to acquire the entire Empire for himself.

  Akbar’s Tomb, Sikandara, outside Delhi, c. 18909

  In 1606, Khusrau obtained permission to show devotion to Akbar by visiting his tomb, currently under construction at Sikandara, outside Delhi. Once there, Khusrau escaped into the Punjab. When directly confronted by this senior Mughal prince and possible next emperor, many mansabdars submitted and provided funds and soldiers. Many dignitaries, including Guru Arjun (r. 1581–1606), leader of the rising Sikh movement, offered their blessing.

  Jahangir immediately mobilized troops in pursuit. After Punjab’s governor refused to open Lahore’s gates to Khusrau, his followers were caught and defeated by Jahangir’s forces. Jahangir then imprisoned Khusrau and lined the roads with hundreds of his impaled followers. Jahangir fined and then executed Guru Arjun and imprisoned for two years his son and heir, Guru Hargobind (r. 1606–44).10 In earlier royal revolts, the gracious imperial victor customarily forgave defeated enemies and their followers who begged his pardon, so this mass execution raised the stakes for princely rebellion.

  Nonetheless, from prison, Khusrau headed another plot in 1607. His supporters included an Iranian immigrant, Ghiyas Beg Tehrani (whom Jahangir had entitled I‘timad-ud-Daula and made co-Wazir) and his eldest son, Muhammad Sharif. When Jahangir’s third son, Khurram, revealed his eldest brother’s conspiracy, Jahangir had Khusrau blinded, Muhammad Sharif and other prominent followers executed, and I‘timad-ud-Daula demoted, fined and temporarily imprisoned. Despite this, Khusrau inspired later insurgences, although he remained a prisoner until he died in 1622 while in Khurram’s harsh custody.

  JAHANGIR’S ELABORATIONS

  Jahangir determined to distinguish himself above all other monarchs, including his daunting father. Two Ottoman emperors had already used the title Salim, so he chose a new one for himself, explaining: ‘the labour of the emperor is world domination so I named myself Jahangir (“World Seizer”).’11 He also enhanced many of Akbar’s imperial models, especially featuring divine light, taking as his ‘title of honour’ Nur-al-Din (‘Light of Religion’) ‘inasmuch as my sitting on the throne coincided with the rising and shining on the earth of the great light (the Sun).’ Jahangir inherited treasuries worth roughly 150 million rupees cash (about 150 per cent of the Empire’s total annual income) plus incalculable jewels and other valuables.12 However, Jahangir’s lavish acquisitions considerably reduced this vast reserve and his innovations often had unconsidered economic and political consequences.

  Initially, the new emperor sought supporters, at the expense of his own income. He confirmed and enhanced the revenue grants for many Sunni ‘ulama. He raised the rank and jagir incomes of many mansabdars, including both those who had supported him in Allahabad and also those he now tried to win over. While the total for all mansabs under Akbar never exceeded 200,000, Jahangir awarded nearly 800,000, although his Empire and the number of his mansabdars were not significantly greater.13 Also from Jahangir’s tenth regnal year onward, he instituted extra payments for favored mansabdars, authorizing (and paying for) double the number of cavalrymen for the same sawar: do-aspa seh-aspa (‘two-horse three-horse’ increment, hereinafter indicated 2-3h). Therefore, the share of imperial reven
ue that remained in khalisa—from which came most of Jahangir’s own income—shrank to 5 per cent (in contrast, Akbar had maintained over 25 per cent in khalisa).14 Jahangir also increased the salaries paid from the imperial treasury to his womenfolk and other courtiers. Making such extravagant expenditures, Jahangir (like Babur and Humayun) evidently had no planned budget and ran an annual deficit that only Akbar’s well-stocked treasury enabled. Jahangir also began occasionally to practice ijaradara (‘revenue farming’): selling entrepreneurs the right to collect imperial revenues for the coming year from designated khalisa territories. This garnered cash in advance but relinquished much imperial control over the collection process.15

  Jahangir also personally redefined imperial standards for weights and measures, which meant recalculation of all official accounts. He ostentatiously designed the largest ever Mughal gold coin (used mainly in his elaborate ceremonies).16 He also increased by 20 per cent the size of silver coins minted for general circulation, which disrupted the jagir economy. Indeed, even Jahangir realized that he had overreached; after six years, he restored the official coinage to Akbar’s standards.

  But Jahangir continued to innovate. In his thirteenth regnal year: ‘it entered my mind that … in each month that a coin was struck, the figure of [that month’s astrological] constellation was to be on one face, as if the sun were emerging from it. This usage is my own, and has never been practised until now.’17 Additionally, he had coins portraying himself holding a wineglass, offending his most orthodox Muslim subjects.

  Jahangir’s coins with zodiac images and bust with wineglass18

  Jahangir’s universalist self-image presented him as the embodiment of righteousness. On accession, he ordered a golden ‘chain of justice’ strung from his throne room to outside the fortress, so any aggrieved subject could directly evoke his imperial intervention. However, Jahangir evidently never referred to this chain again and we have no proof that it was ever installed within public reach. Nonetheless, he periodically initiated or renewed his symbolic moral authority, banning the production of alcohol and drugs (although he over-indulged in both and compelled his sons to imbibe as well).19 He thus portrayed himself as imposing impartial justice on all.

  During Jahangir’s reign, courtiers composed numerous books on etiquette.20 These instructed aspirants in the protocols and merits of approaching and pleasing the emperor, which should far outweigh all other interests. In fact, Jahangir’s favor brought great honor, power and wealth.

  Jahangir himself assiduously kept a Persian-language journal, Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, from his coronation until 1624 (when substance abuse disabled him). His journal’s candid personal observations had similarities with Babur’s Turki-language memoir, which Jahangir himself annotated. But, unlike Babur, Jahangir revealed his self-location in Hindustan through his vocabulary and orientation.21 Since Jahangir evidently never revised his journal, it richly documents his changing moods, attitudes and condition: e.g., the origin of his alcohol and opium addictions, their increasingly debilitating effects (by age 26 his hands trembled excessively, so he needed someone to bring his cup to his lip), and his slow withdrawal to what was still a substantial daily consumption.22 In addition to recording the business of empire, this journal repeatedly lauds his own masterful expertise over the arts, natural sciences and theology, and the quality of his collection of the leading human practitioners of all three.

  As emperor, even more than as a prince, Jahangir patronized fine art both for its own sake and also as political propaganda. Many artists who had served him in Allahabad moved into his expanded imperial studios, while those he inherited from Akbar had to adjust to Jahangir’s tastes, which valued stylistic individuality.23 Akbar had favored narrative paintings, showing him vigorously heroic in battle and performing other dramatic actions. Jahangir preferred more naturalistic and direct representations, having himself portrayed ruling peacefully and serenely while engaged in spiritual rather than worldly concerns. Jahangir employed fewer artists and commissioned fewer paintings than had Akbar. But Jahangir’s atelier featured artistic refinement and high-quality materials, using sumptuous colors and occasional gilding.24 Jahangir also celebrated his own connoisseurship of both aesthetics and technique:

  my liking for painting and my practice in judging it have arrived at such a point that when any work is brought before me, either of deceased artists or of those of the present day, without the names being told me, I say on the spur of the moment that it is the work of such and such a man. And if there be a picture containing many portraits, and each face be the work of a different master, I can discover which face is the work of each of them. If any other person has put in the eye and eyebrow of a face, I can perceive whose work the original face is, and who has painted the eye and eyebrows.25

  Indeed, Jahangir tested visitors, including the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe, who (perhaps diplomatically) failed to match Jahangir’s acumen.26 Artists trained in Jahangir’s atelier incapable of his high standards often found employment with his leading courtiers.27

  Jahangir also used fine art to depict his primacy over other rulers and enemies (even if his Empire could not defeat them). Several of Jahangir’s paintings show him symbolically triumphing over Malik Ambar, the Ethiopian commander of Ahmadnagar armies in the Deccan, despite (or perhaps to compensate for) setbacks and defeats Jahangir’s forces suffered from fighting him. Safavid, Ottoman, English and other monarchs appear as his courtiers or inferiors, illustrating Jahangir’s pronouncement: ‘Although he is the king of Hindustan in outward appearance, inwardly he is the emperor of the world by right and by heritage.’28 Jahangir’s painters also featured him embodying and transmitting divine light.

  A collector, Jahangir expanded his library of individual paintings and illustrated manuscripts. An authority, he sorted these by quality and subject matter: e.g., grading manuscripts into five classes based on the quality of the calligraphy, illuminations, paper and content. He also selectively patronized poets and other authors who produced literature in Persian and Indic regional languages, especially if they praised and located him in divine cosmology.

  Further, throughout Jahangir’s life, he acquired natural rarities, embellished by his workshops into fine objects for his pleasure. Courtiers, diplomats and other visitors learned that offering precious objects would attract Jahangir’s attention and favor. For instance, Jahangir noted in 1619:

  … out of the veined spotted tooth [walrus tusk] which my son Shah-Jahan had given me as an offering, I ordered to be cut off sufficient for two dagger-hilts [carved in] the Jahangiri fashion …. One hilt came out coloured in such a way as to create astonishment [since] the flowers looked as if a skilful painter had depicted them …. In short, it was so delicate that I never wish it to be apart from me for a moment …29

  When he acquired a rare flower, fruit, or animal (including a North American turkey imported via Goa), he had them documented in paintings, and sometimes physically dissected to satisfy his curiosity and enhance his knowledge of natural principles. Jahangir’s possession of such works of man and nature revealed his self-proclaimed mastery over the world.30

  Jahangir valued city building and monumental architecture less than his predecessor or successor. While Jahangir did complete, restore, or expand some forts and palaces, he preferred patronizing pleasure gardens and pavilions, hunting lodges, bridges, caravanserais and tombs. When Jahangir’s favorite antelope died in his garden near Lahore, he marked the grave with an impressive tower, embellished with a sculpture and an engraved prose eulogy.31 Jahangir’s architecture displayed his aesthetic sense by ordering light and airy spaces. His buildings often used costly white marble exteriors. He adorned the interior walls of his vast encampment tents and buildings with rich textiles, murals and portraits.

  Over time, Jahangir interested himself in various religious dignitaries, assembling current favorites at court. While maneuvering for accession and to strengthen his early regime, he courted the support of leadin
g advocates for Sunni orthodoxy, including Naqshbandi pir Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, so critical of Akbar. But Jahangir never wanted these religious leaders to interfere in his reign. After 14 years as emperor, Jahangir noted:

  … a Shayyād (a loud talker, a cheat) of the name of Shaikh Ahmad [Sirhindi] had spread the net of hypocrisy and deceit … and caught in it many of the apparent worshippers without spirituality …. I considered the best thing for him would be that he should remain … in the prison of correction until the heat of his temperament and confusion of his brain were somewhat quenched, and the excitement of the people also should subside. He was accordingly … imprisoned in Gwalior fort.32

  After a year, Jahangir released Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi and brought him to court.

  Jahangir also initially developed his self-identification with Chishti pirs. Jahangir recounted that his namesake, Shaikh Salim Chishti, had prophesized his own ‘urs (‘wedding’ with Allah, meaning death) as soon as the infant prince memorized anything. When, at age two, the prince learned a simple couplet (from a maidservant unaware of the pir’s prophesy), Shaikh Salim indeed died; but only (according to Jahangir) after designating Jahangir as his spiritual heir. Emperor Jahangir employed Shaikh Salim’s male descendants, awarding them mansabs and important offices; some became Jahangir’s own spiritual devotees.

  Jahangir claimed in 1614 that long-deceased Shaikh Mu‘in-ud-Din Chishti restored him from illness to health. Jahangir displayed this mark of spiritual blessing by piercing his earlobes for pearl earrings. Out of devotion to Jahangir, hundreds of mansabdars, both at court and in the field, imitated him; Jahangir supplied 732 pearl earrings to his devotees.33