=Mān Singh, c. A.D. 1592-1614.=—Man Singh, nephew[9.1.29] and successor of Bhagwandas, was the most brilliant character of Akbar’s court. As the emperor’s lieutenant, he was entrusted with the most arduous duties, and added conquests to the empire from Khotan to the ocean. Orissa was subjugated by him,[9.1.30] Assam humbled and made tributary, and Kabul maintained in her allegiance. He held in succession the governments of Bengal and Behar,[9.1.31] the [354] Deccan and Kabul. Raja Man soon proved to Akbar that his policy of strengthening his throne by Rajput alliances was not without hazard; these alliances introducing a direct influence in the State, which frequently thwarted the views of the sovereign. So powerful was it, that even Akbar, in the zenith of his power, saw no other method of diminishing its force, than the execrable but common expedient of Asiatic despots—poison: it has been already related how the emperor’s attempt recoiled upon him to his destruction.[9.1.32] Akbar was on his death-bed when Raja Man commenced an intrigue to alter the succession in favour of his nephew, Prince Khusru, and it was probably in this predicament that the monarch had recourse to the only safe policy, that of seeing the crown fixed on the head of Salim, afterwards Jahangir. The conspiracy for the time was quashed, and Raja Man was sent to the government of Bengal; but it broke out again, and ended in the perpetual imprisonment of Khusru,[9.1.33] and a dreadful death to his adherents. Raja Man was too wise to identify himself with the rebellion, though he stimulated his nephew, and he was too powerful to be openly punished, being at the head of twenty thousand Rajputs; but the native chronicle mentions that he was amerced by Jahangir in the incredible sum of ten crores, or millions sterling. According to the Muhammadan historian, Raja Man died in Bengal,[9.1.34] A.H. 1024 (A.D. 1615); while the chronicle says he was slain in an expedition against the Khilji tribe in the north two years later.[9.1.35] =Bhāo Singh, c. A.D. 1615-21.=—Rao Bhao Singh succeeded his father, and was invested by the emperor with the Panjhazari, or dignity of a legionary chief of five thousand. He was of weak intellect, and ruled a few years without distinction. He died in A.H. 1030 of excessive drinking.