Akbar the Great Rules India

In 1556, a thirteen-year-old Akbar became the Mughal emperor after the sudden death of his father, Humayun. Over the next five decades he turned a fragile, recently restored dynasty into one of the largest and wealthiest states in the world. He is remembered above all for the administrative system he built and for a policy of accommodation toward India's many religious communities, which shaped Mughal rule for generations.

The Mughal position in 1556 was precarious. Humayun's father, Babur, had won northern India at the Battle of Panipat in 1526, but Humayun lost the realm to the Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri and spent years in exile before recovering Delhi in 1555. He died the following year after a fall, leaving a boy king. Akbar's guardian and chief general, Bairam Khan, led the regency, and in November 1556 the Mughal army defeated the Hindu general Hemu at the Second Battle of Panipat, securing the throne. Akbar later dismissed Bairam Khan and began ruling in his own right, in the early 1560s.

Through conquest and alliance, Akbar extended Mughal control across northern and central India, taking regions such as Malwa, Gujarat, Bengal, Kashmir and Sindh. He also negotiated with Rajput rulers, often sealing agreements through marriage and offering them high positions in imperial service. His administration relied on the mansabdari system, which ranked officials by numerical grades tied to military and civil duties, and on a land revenue system associated with his finance minister, Todar Mal, that assessed taxes based on measured land and average yields.

Akbar's religious policy is the most celebrated part of his reign. He abolished the jizya, the tax on non-Muslims, and an earlier levy on Hindu pilgrims, and he hosted debates among scholars of different faiths at his court in Fatehpur Sikri, including Muslims, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and Jesuit missionaries. He later promoted a court doctrine often called Din-i Ilahi. Historians disagree about whether it was a genuine new religion or a loyalty-based order among courtiers, and few people joined it. Akbar also sponsored translations of Sanskrit works into Persian and patronized painting, music and architecture that blended Persian and Indian traditions.

Akbar died in 1605, leaving a stable and prosperous empire to his son Jahangir. His reign set the template for Mughal government and court culture, and the dynasty reached its cultural peak under his successors, including the building of the Taj Mahal under his grandson Shah Jahan. Historians still debate how consistently his tolerance was applied and how much of it was pragmatic statecraft, but his reign remains a reference point in discussions of pluralism in South Asia.