Produced by Ron Swanson _RULERS OF INDIA_ EDITED BY SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER, K.C.S.I., C.I.E. M.A. (OXFORD): LL.D. (CAMBRIDGE) AKBAR _London_ HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE AMEN CORNER, E.C. [_All rights reserved_] [Illustration: MAP OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE] RULERS OF INDIA AKBAR BY COLONEL G. B. MALLESON, C.S.I. OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS: 1890 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGES I. THE ARGUMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11 II. THE FAMILY AND EARLY DAYS OF BABAR . . . . . . . . . . 12-16 III. BABAR CONQUERS KABUL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-25 IV. BABAR'S INVASIONS OF INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-34 V. THE POSITION OF BABAR IN HINDUSTAN . . . . . . . . . . 35-49 VI. HUMAYUN AND THE EARLY DAYS OF AKBAR . . . . . . . . . 50-59 VII. HUMAYUN INVADES INDIA. HIS DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . 60-64 VIII. AKBAR'S FIGHT FOR HIS FATHER'S THRONE . . . . . . . . 65-71 IX. GENERAL CONDITION OF INDIA IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72-80 X. THE TUTELAGE UNDER BAIRAM KHAN . . . . . . . . . . . . 81-90 XI. CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91-145 XII. THE PRINCIPLES AND INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION OF AKBAR . 146-200 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201-204 _NOTE_ The orthography of proper names follows the system adopted by the Indian Government for the _Imperial Gazetteer of India_. That system, while adhering to the popular spelling of very well-known places, such as Punjab, Lucknow, etc., employs in all other cases the vowels with the following uniform sounds:-- _a_, as in wom_a_n: _a_, as in l_a_nd: _i_, as in pol_i_ce: _i_, as in intr_i_gue: _o_, as in c_o_ld: _u_, as in b_u_ll: _u_, as in s_u_re. {5} THE EMPEROR AKBAR CHAPTER I THE ARGUMENT I crave the indulgence of the reader whilst I explain as briefly as possible the plan upon which I have written this short life of the great sovereign who firmly established the Mughal dynasty in India.[1] [Footnote 1: For the purposes of this sketch I have referred to the following authorities: _Memoirs of Babar_, written by himself, and translated by Leyden and Erskine; Erskine's _Babar and Humayun_; _The Ain-i-Akbari_ (Blochmann's translation); _The History of India, as told by its own Historians_, edited from the posthumous papers of Sir H. M. Elliot, K.C.B., by Professor Dowson; Dow's _Ferishta_; Elphinstone's _History of India_; Tod's _Annals of Rajast'han_, and various other works.]