Mughal Empire - IV
1. In 1577 Akbar undertook the reform of the currency
and appointed Khwaja Abdus Samad Shirazi, a noted
painter and calligraphist, to be the superintendent of the
imperial mint at Delhi.
2. Besides Delhi, provinical mints were located at
Lahore, Jaunpur, Ahmedabad, Patna and Tanda (in Bengal).
3. The silver coin issued during Akbar’s reign was
round in shape, like its modern successor, and was known
as rupee. It weighed 172 grains.
4. Akbar also introduced a square rupee called Jalali,
but it was not as popular as the round rupee.
5. The chief copper coin was the dam or paisa or fulus.
It weighed 323.5 grains or almost 21 grams.
6. The ratio between the dam and the rupee was 40 to 1.
7. The lowest copper coin was jital. 25 jitals made one
paisa.
8. The most common gold coin was the Ilahi, which
was equal to 10 rupees in value.
9. The biggest gold coin was the shahanshah. It
weighed a little over 101 tolas and was used mostly in high
value business transactions.
10. The coins bore calligraphic inscriptions containing
name and titles of the emperor and the place and year of
mintage. Very few coins had figures inscribed on them.
11. The judicial system of Mughals was based on
Islamic law. As it was not possible in practice to enforce
Islamic law on Hindus, a compromise was effected. While
criminal cases continued to be decided according to the
Islamic law in all cases, Hindu law was administered in
deciding civil and religious disputes in which the parties
were Hindus.
12. Although Akbar had rejected the Islamic theory of
kingship, he made no fundamental change in the judicial
system.
13. One important change introduced by Akbar in the
judicial system was to restrict the scope of Islamic law and
to extend that of general or customary law of the land so as
to make it include as many causes as possible.
14. Akbar did not apply Islamic law of capital punish-ment for apostasy from Islam or for propagating Hinduism
or Christianity.
15. Akbar appointed Hindu judges to decide the caus-es of Hindus.
16. The king was the highest judge in the Mughal
empire. The next judicial authority was the qazi, who was
appointed by the emperor and worked during his pleasure.
17. Originally, the chief qazi’s main qualifications used
to be his knowledge of Islamic theology and his narrow sec-retarian views. Akbar, however, appointed to this post men
of liberal religious outlook and broad sympathies towards
all sections of the society.
18. Chief qazi was paid his salary in cash, as also was
given an assignment of land entitled Madad-i-Mash or sub-sistence allowance.
19. Qazis were assisted by muftis, whose main duty
was to interpret the law and issue a fatwa.
20. Akbar’s police administration was divided into
three categories of urban, district and village police.
21. In all cities and towns kotwal headed the local
police. His main duty was to see that the life of the city con-tinued undisturbed. Besides, he had to examine weights and
measures, keep an eye on the currency and enforce Akbar’s
social legislation.
22. Kotwal was personally held responsible for the
value of property stolen in case he failed to discover the
thief.
23. The kotwal was authorised to inflict punishment
on offenders. However, he was not empowered to inflict
capital punishment.
24. In the district the law and order was maintained by
the faujdar. His main duties were the policing of the roads
of the district and suppressing of disorders of all kinds.
25. The village headman was responsible for policing
at the village level.
26. The imperial service during Akbar’s reign was
organized on bureaucratic principles, but was military in
organization and outlook.
27. The most flourishing towns during Akbar’s
regime were Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Delhi, Allahabad,
Benaras, Lucknow, Lahore, Multan, Ujjain, Ahmedabad,
Ajmer, Patna, Rajmahal and Dhaka.
28. The most important industry of the time was culti-vation of cotton and manufacture of cotton cloth. The prin-cipal centres of cotton manufacture were Jaunpur, Benaras,
Patna, Burhanpur, Lucknow, Khairabad and Akbarpur.
29. Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore were important
centres of silk-weaving.
30. The principal outlets for foreign sea-borne trade
during Akbar’s regime were Cambay, Surat and Broach in
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Gujarat, Lahori Bandar in Sindh, Bassein, Chaul and Dabul
(modern Bhabol) in the Ratnagiri district, Goa and Bhatkal,
Calicut and Cochin in Malabar, and Negapatnam and
Masulipatnam on the east coast, and Satgaon, Sripur,
Chatgaon and Sonarghat in Bengal.
31. Two main land routes for exports were Lahore to
Kabul and beyond, and from Multan to Kandhar and
beyond.
32. Gold and silver were not allowed to be exported
during the Akbar’s regime. Only imports were allowed.
33. Among the popular indoor games during Akbar’s
reign were chaupar, phansa and pachisi. Akbar was
particularly fond of chandalmandal and pachisi.
34. The Tajak, a well-known work of Astronomy, and
the Tazuk-i-Baburi, or the memoirs of Babur, were translat-ed into Persian during Akbar’s reign.
35. The Mahabharat was rendered into Persian by
Naqib Khan, Abdul Qadir Badayuni and Shaikh Sultan of
Thanesar and was named Razm-nama, the book of wars.
36. The Lilawati, a Sanskrit treatise on Mathematics,
was rendered into Persian by Faizi.
37. Among the notable works of literature during
Akbar’s regime were: Abul Fazal’s Akbar-Nama and Ain-i-Akbari, Nizamud-Din Ahmad’s Tabqat-i-Akbari, Gula-badan Begam’s Humayun-Nama and Jauhar’s Tazkirat-ul-Waqayat. Abbas Sarwani produced the Tohfa-i-Akbar
Shahi alias Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi.
38. Akbar ordered the compilation of the history of
1000 years of Islam, and Naqib Khan Mullah Mohammad
of Thatta and Jaffer Beg were commissioned to write out the
work. The book, with an introduction by Abul Fazi, became
known as the Tarikh-i-Alfi.
39. The reign of Akbar was golden age of Hindi poet-ry. The most notable luminaries of Hindi were Tulsi Das,
Sur Das, Abdur Rahim Khan Khana, Ras Khan and Birbal.
40. Among the famous works of Tulsi Das were Ram-charitmanas and Vinaya Patrika.
41. Akbar created a separate department of painting
and Khwaja Abdus Samad, one of the best painters of his
court, was placed at its head.
42. Abdus Samad was a Persian who had come from
Shiraz. He was given the title of Shirin-qalam or ‘sweet
pen’.
43. Daswanth, Basawan, Kesu, Lal, Mukand, Madhu,
Jagan, Mahesh, Tara, Khem Karan, Sanwla, Haribansh and
Ram were some well-known Hindu painters during
Akbar’s reign. They were experts in portrait painting.
44. According to Abul Fazal eight modes of calligra-phy were in vogue at Akbar’s court, of which the eighth
kind, named Nastaliq, was specially favoured by Akbar.
45. The most important calligraphist at Akbar’s court
was Mohammed Hussain Kashmiri, who was given the
title of Zarin Qalam. Some of the other famous cal-ligraphists were Maulana Baqir, Mohammed Amin of
Mashad, and Mir Hussein Ralanki.
46. The Ain-i-Akbari gives names of 36 first-rate musi-cians in Akbar’s court. They were arranged in seven divi-sions. Each division was required to entertain Akbar for one
fixed day in the week.
47. Akbar himself was a skilled musician and was an
expert performer on Naqqara (kettle drum).
48. Tansen was the most notable musician of the age.
He had been trained in a school established at Gwalior by
Raja Man Singh Tomar.
49. Baba Ram Das was another famous musician of
Akbar’s court and was ranked next only to Tansen.
50. Sur Das, besides being a great poet, was also a
musician of Akbar’s court.
51. The gigantic forts at Agra, Lahore and Allahabad
were built by Akbar.
52. The Agra fort resembles that of Gwalior. It has two
main gateways, namely, the Delhi gate and the Amar Singh
gate. Inside, about 500 buildings of red sandstone were
built. Most of these were later pulled-down by Shahjehan.
53. The greatest architectural achievement of Akbar
was his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri. Three sides of Fateh-pur Sikri are covered by a wall and the fourth side by an
artifical lake. The walls have nine gates, of which Buland
Darwaza, built of marble and sandstone, is “one of the most
perfect architectural achievements in the whole of India”.
54. Decorative carving was an important feature of
Mughal architecture.
55. Mughals brought the concept of geometrically
designed gardens to India. The chief characteristic of
Mughal gardens was artificial irrigation in the form of chan-nels, basins or tanks, and dwarf waterfalls.
56. The most important garden associated with Akbar
is at Sikandra. In the centre of this garden stands his mau-soleum.
57. Akbar was illiterate. But, he acquired knowledge of
theology, literature, philosophy, history, etc. by having
books read out to him every day.
58. Akbar was the first ruler of Medevial India to
discard the Islamic basis of sovereignty and to lay down the
principle that the king was the father of all his subjects,
irrespective of caste, race or religion.
59. Akbar sought to strengthen the society by doing
away with its evils. He tried to abolish Sati, child-marriage
and old-age marriage. He did not allow circumcision before
the age of 12, and allowed Muslim converts to go back to
their original religion if they liked.
60. Akbar attempted to give his empire cultural unity
by making Persian the court language and by providing in
that language (either by translation or original composition)
the best Hindu and Muslim thought, religious as well as
secular.
61. Most of the fine arts, such as architecture, painting
and music were nationalised and made the common
property of the Hindus and Muslims alike.
62. Akbar gave his empire the political and adminis-trative unity of the highest kind possible in that age, by
giving all the provinces the same system of administration,
the same set of officials, the same administrative methods,
the same revenue system and the same coinage.
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