History of India Page 1 of 13

HISTORY

Subject : History
(For under graduate student)

Paper No. : Paper - III

History of India

Unit : Unit – 2
Polity

Topic No. & Title : Topic - 3

State and religion

Lecture No. & Title : Lecture - 1

Akbar’s religious ideas

Akbar’s Religious Ideas

By all accounts Akbar has been considered as one of the most

important rulers of medieval India. Yet the historians had
debated over the religious measures and religious policies
followed by Akbar.

The different measures taken by Akbar to understand the

complexity of the situation.

There is a distinction between the personal belief of a ruler

and the religion of a state. The question remains whether
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Akbar has tried to impose his personal belief as the religion of

the state on his subjects or not. There has been some kind of
an upsurge in religious thinking in India by the Sufi saints and
the Bhakti saints particularly from the middle of the 16 th
century or even earlier. By this upsurge the common people
had access to some of the saints and both the communities,
the Hindus and the Muslims had come quite close together at
least in some sections in India. In eastern India as well as in
northern India we find these saints predominating over the
common people; Nanak and others had sown the seeds of
communal harmony. It is in this background that we see
Akbar’s attempt to find out a religious formula which will be
acceptable to all.

Turko-Mongal Theory of Religion

Akbar was guided by the Turko-Mongal theory of religion.

Chenghiz Khan did not give prominence to any particular
religion. Timur Long was said to have followed Khan’s
example and there has been no evidence of religious
persecution within his kingdom. Humayun has gone to Persia,
some of his nobles were Shias yet there is no distinction
made by Humayun between the Sunni and the Shia nobles.
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In case of Akbar we see a different turn and policy which he

had followed. Akbar, in the beginning, with the accession of
power, since the fall of Bairam Khan in 1563, began to have
his own rule and he was a person closely following the
orthodox Islam. He did all his prayers; he used to clean the
mosques by himself, he followed the two Ulema leaders Abdur
Nabi and Abdullah Sultanpuri. Abdullah Sultanpuri was the
senior-most. He was the Sheikh-ul-Islam under Sher Shah.
He was also the Sheikh-ul-Islam under his son Islam Shah.
But he was a fanatical person and executed a Madhavai saint
during his reign of Islam Shah. When Bairam Shah came into
power, Abdullah Sultanpuri did not have this kind of prestige
and power. But after 1563, with Akbar coming into power,
Abdullah Sultanpuri rose and became the Sheikh-ul-Islam
once again. Abdur Nabi had become the Sadar-e-Sudoor of
the Mughal Empire. Akbar closely followed their opinion.

Relationship with the religious elite

Akbar was willing to listen to the writings of very liberal Sufis

like Roomi and Hafiz and he began to discuss the religious
questions with the religious scholars. In the beginning they
were all Muslims and he found that there are quite a lot of
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differences between the Muslim leaders of religion. Therefore,

gradually he came to the view that one should hear other
religious leaders of other religion. But in 1563 he had
alienated the Ulemas to a certain extent. In 1563, he
abolished the pilgrimage tax on the Hindus; in 1564, he
abolished the Jiziya tax, the tax on the Hindus.

Abolition of the Jiziya Tax

We have a farman of Akbar of 1579, by which he declares

that Jiziya is abolished. There are two dates that are given,
some of the scholar had taken the later dates, and some had
taken the earlier one. The question may be resolved by
saying that Akbar first ordered that Jiziya should be abolished
but the Ulemas continued to impose this in the country side
and in 1579, Akbar finally gave the farman which has been
found of the abolition of the Jiziya.

But it is one thing to abolish Jiziya and it is another thing to

please the Ulemas, because the Ulemas, the orthodox
Muslims leaders were very unhappy because according to the
Shariat, what they interpret is that the Hindus or the Zimmis
as they are called, they should pay the Jiziya. We would also
see the same question raised during the reign of Aurangzeb.
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Religious hall - Ibadatkhana

After 1564, from 1570 onwards, Akbar began to discuss

religious questions with the Muslim religious teachers and
leaders in a particular hall called the Ibadatkhana. There has
been some controversy as to where this Ibadatkhana was
located. Now it has been found that it was not very far from
the palace. It was near Anup Talab, and this meeting used to
take place there on Thursday evening. This Ibadatkhana was
a building where a Shiekh from Gujarat used to live. And
there was a very big hall surrounding his bedroom where this
discussion used to take place.

From the very beginning there were disputes in the

Ibadatkhana. E.g. one of the questions was how many
marriages can a ruler do? And on this the Muslim leaders and
law givers, all had different opinion. But gradually Akbar’s
religious belief and thoughts were changing. He was feeling
that one should hear other religious leaders to find out
whether there is a common platform of all religious beliefs or
whether there are fundamental and serious differences.

With the objective of searching the truth, Akbar opened the

door of Ibadatkhana to the Hindus, Muslims, Christians,
Zoroastrians and all others. The result was not what Akbar
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expected. There were tremendous disputes, the non Muslims

began to question the prophet hood, the Quran, the Haziz and
the orthodox Ulemas were gradually losing ground and they
were showing themselves far more orthodox and fanatic,
which according to Akbar was not a very good thing for them.

But in the Ibadatkhana discussions during this time there was

always an attempt by the religious leaders of any community
to show that his religion was the superior one. All the
religious leaders did the same thing, so it is not the Ulemas or
the Muslim religious leaders who should be taken as at fault.
There were psychological ego problems of all the religious
teachers. But gradually Akbar understood that this kind of
disputes is doing nothing because the objective to search for
a common platform was not coming out. Therefore he
gradually disliked it and at one point of time it was stopped
around 1580.

Conflicts between Akbar and influential Ulemas

One of the reasons of 1580 was that there were revolts in the
Mughal Empire. In Bengal, Gujarat and other places, the
mansabdars and the nobles began to rebel, particularly on the
question of Daag, i.e. the marking of the horse. The Ulemas
who were completely dissatisfied with Akbar began to join
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them. The Kazi of Bengal gave a fatwa that it is a Jihad

against Akbar. The Kazi of Jaunpur also gave a similar fatwa.
In 1579, Akbar has asked Abdur Nabi and Abdullah Sultanpuri
to go to Mecca and not to return without his permission. They
had come back by 1580 after the revolt. Even Akbar’s brother
Mirza Hakim had come down to Lahore. So, there was a very
critical situation at that time.

It was during this time that Akbar had stopped the debates in
the Ibadatkhana and also began to suppress the revolt with a
very strong hand. Now Akbar began to show that there is
truth in all religions to a certain extent and there should be a
common platform. One may sight Akbar’s ideas regarding the
Hindus earlier. He not only abolished the Jiyiza or the
pilgrimage tax but he also married the daughters of the
Rajput prince e.g. he married the daughter of Raja Bihari Mal
of Amber. (Contrary to all public opinion she is not Jodha
Bai.) Her name is not known but she used to live at the
palace, follow her own religion, used to do puja in her own
apartment.

Jodha Bai probably was the wife of Salim who married the
daughter of Jodhpur prince. Akbar began to give mansabdars,
mansabs to Rajputs and Rajput prince like Man Singh and
others were getting very high positions. In other words, in
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one way Akbar was trying to find out that there is some truth
in all religions, which meant that Islam is not the only one.
And the other is that he is taking the Hindu Rajput chiefs as
mansabdars, as partners of Mughal administration.

It is in this background that in 1579, some of the leading

Ulemas signed a document and presented it to Akbar. This
document is called the Mazhar. This document says that
incase of disputes between the Ulemas, Akbar can give the
final decision, provided it is not in conflict with the Quran and
is good for the welfare of the people. This document has been
called in question by many later historians. Pakistani
historians stated that Akbar was unqualified to give any
decision because he was practically illiterate and he does not
know the law. Vincent smith, the well known historian who
wrote on Akbar, ‘Akbar the great Mughal’, the book, said that
Akbar wanted to be the Pope and the King at the same time.
This was the infallible decree.

Makhan Lal Roy Choudhury who wrote the book on The Din-i-
Ilahi stated that Akbar wanted to be free from the Sunnis of
Middle East and of western Asia and the Shias of Iran.
Badauni, the contemporary to Akbar, said that Akbar was
leaving Islam. With this controversy, one can see that what
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the objective was. Akbar actually never utilized this

document.

There was a case of a Brahmin at Mathura, the Brahman was

accused of vilifying the prophet. After the accusation came,
Akbar constituted a committee of two Hindus, Birbal and Raja
Todar Mal who found the Brahmin guilty. But the Ulemas are
divided over the punishment to be given. One school said that
he should be executed and the other school said that he
should be given a very heavy punishment but not be
executed. The matter came to Akbar, he left it to Abdur Nabi
and he executed the Brahmin. That finally broke the link
between the Ulemas and Akbar.

Akbar at the same time began to look at the rent free or tax
free land grants. This has been given by Abdur Nabi and it
has been found that his wakil in renewing the grant was
taking money. The other person Abdullah Sultanpuri did not
pay the zakat, which all the Muslims should pay. He used to
transfer his property to his wife before the payment and the
wife returned the property to him after the payment. So, he
escaped from paying at all. This kind of accusations began to
continue and there is a bridge definite between. Now, with
the mazhar in his hand, Akbar could deal with the Ulemas,
because he could give the decision only in the cases of
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disputes not otherwise. But Akbar went beyond that. He now

tried to find out a common platform of all religions.

Akbar’s new religious ideas- Din-i-Ilahi

Father Bertolli, a Jesuit father who never came to India,

stated that Akbar had called an assembly in 1582, in which all
the nobles and notables of the empire were invited. In this
assembly he propounded his new religion which he called Din-
i-Ilahi. Actually Abul Fazal never used the word Din-i-Ilahi, he
used to call it Touhi-di-Ilahi. Badauni had used both Din-i-
Ilahi and Touhi-di-Ilahi.

Now Din-i-Ilahi, in the first place is not a new religion. There

is no book, there is no priest, and there is no ceremony. Only
a ring is given to a chela. The earliest description of the Din-i-
Ilahi, was during the time of Shah Jahan, a book was written
by Mohsin Fani called ‘Dabistan-i-Mahazib’. In this book he
had given the full description of the religion.

Sulh-i-Kul: Peace for all

According to sources there are four stages in the way towards

becoming a member of Din-i-Ilahi: life, honor, property, and
religion. Birbal is supposed to have sacrificed all these four.
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Those who sacrifice all these four can be a member of the

Din-i-Ilahi. Akbar was suppose to have asked Man Singh to be
a member of the Din-i-Ilahi, but Man Singh refused to
sacrifice his religion, saying that he knew only Hindu and
Muslim religion and there is no other religion beside them and
he can’t give up his religion for anything. He can sacrifice his
life, his property, his honor, but not his religion. Perhaps that
ended the effort to become a member for Man Singh and that
ended the effort of Akbar making member of Din-i-Ilahi.

Din-i-Ilahi is also called the Sulh-i-kul. The meaning of Sulh-i-

kul is peace for all. That here in this religion in which Islam
was not the dominant one, there would be peace for all
religions. Naturally the orthodox Ulemas were very angry.
They had lost their dominant position. The free land grant had
been curtailed to a great extent. So, they had become very
angry and now there was a lot of difference between Akbar
and the Ulemas because the Ulemas were asking for a more
dominant position in the society.

Conclusion

Even in such cases the question is that why did Akbar alienate
the Ulemas, the orthodox section of the Muslims and why did
he try to take members of the nobles to Din-i-Ilahi. Various
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opinions had been given. Badauni, Jesuit missionaries like

Father Mosserar, Father Bertolli and later on the historian
Vincent Smith, they all stated that Akbar wanted to be the
Pope and the Emperor at the same time. But there no
evidence in the documents that Akbar wanted to be the Pope.
He never utilized the mazhar to any extent, Din-i-Ilahi was
never preached anywhere, within the Mughal Empire and
after a certain time it seemed that the Din-i-Ilahi was more or
less lost.

Now the question is that why this effort, why did Akbar go to
that extent to alienate the orthodox sections of the Muslims?
One of the reasons now had been given and perhaps it is
quite plausible and it is that Akbar’s empire had expanded
very much from 1575 onwards. And to run this administration
Akbar would need a solid cadre of administrators who were
loyal to the Mughal Empire and to Akbar. Therefore this Dil-i-
Ilahi, trying to find a common platform is not only to attract
the Hindus to the Mughal empire as partners of Mughal
administration but also to create a new cadre with a new
ideology. This ideology is a very simple one and is not a
religious ideology but a secular ideology. This ideology is that
a person would serve loyally both Akbar and the Mughal
Empire.
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How far had he succeeded to create this kind of cadre is a

difficult question to ask. But one may see after some time,
after the death of Akbar that his effort was not that much of
success because the revolts began to occur almost within 60
years of death of Akbar. Yet, Akbar is remembered for his
liberality, his generous attitude and for the social measures
he had taken. One of the social measures of Akbar was he
restricted the marriage of men and women to 15 and 13.
Secondly, he made a rule that no women and children would
be taken as prisoner from a rebel village, they should be left
as they are. Then there are certain other measures that Akbar
had taken, e.g. he tried to change the syllabus, put more
secular topics into the syllabus instead of merely religious
history. But the Ulemas were practically in revolt. They found
their dominant position gone, they found their money supply
restricted, therefore they began to cry ‘Islam in Danger’.

It is in this background that Akbar died in 1605. But even if

all his efforts were not successful, he had tremendous work in
science and technology. Even if it not accepted, the fact
remains that he remained one of the greatest rulers of
Medieval India.