Rulers of India: Akbar Part 2

[Footnote 5: Karra is now in ruins. It is in the tahsil or district of the same name in the Allahabad division. In the times of Babar and Akbar it was very prosperous.]

The news which reached Babar here was not of a nature to console. The enemy, to the number of a hundred thousand, had rallied round the standard of Mahmud Lodi; whilst one of his own generals, Sher Khan, whom he had distinguished by marks of his favour, had joined the insurgents and had {44} occupied Benares with his division. Mahmud Lodi was besieging Chanar, twenty-six miles from the sacred city.

Babar immediately advanced, compelled Mahmud Lodi to raise the siege of Chanar, forced Sher Khan to evacuate Benares and re-cross the Ganges, and, crossing the Karamnasa, encamped beyond Chausa, at the confluence of that river and the Ganges, and Baksar. Marching thence, he drove his enemy before him until he reached Arrah. There he a.s.sumed the sovereignty of Behar, and there he learned that Mahmud Lodi, attended by but a few followers, had taken refuge with the King of Bengal.

Nasrat Shah, King of Bengal, had married a niece of Mahmud Lodi. He had entered into a kind of convention with Babar that neither prince was to invade the territories of the other, but, despite this convention, he had occupied the province of Saran or Chapra, and had taken up with his army a position near the junction of the Gogra with the Ganges, very strong for defensive purposes. Babar resolved to compel the Bengal army to abandon that position. There was, he soon found, but one way to accomplish that end, and that was by the use of force. Ranging then his army in six divisions, he directed that four, under his son Askari, then on the left bank of the Ganges, should cross the Gogra, march upon the enemy, and attempt to draw them from their camp, and follow them up the Gogra; whilst the two others, under his own personal direction, should cross the Ganges, then {45} the Gogra, and attack the enemy's camp, cutting him off from his base. The combination, carried out on the 6th of May, entirely succeeded. The Bengal army was completely defeated, and the victory was, in every sense of the word, decisive. Peace was concluded with Bengal on the conditions that the province, now known as Western Behar, should be ceded to Babar; that neither prince should support the enemies of the other, and that neither should molest the dominions of the other.

Thus far I have been guided mainly by the memoirs of the ill.u.s.trious man whose achievements I have briefly recorded. There is but little more to tell. Shortly after his return from his victorious campaign in Behar his health began to decline. The fact could not be concealed, and an account of it reached his eldest son, Humayun, then Governor of Badakshan. That prince, making over his government to his brother, Hindal, hastened to Agra. He arrived there early in 1530, was most affectionately received, and by his sprightly wit and genial manners, made many friends. He had been there but six months when he was attacked by a serious illness. When the illness was at its height, and the life of the young prince was despaired of, an incident occurred which shows, in a manner not to be mistaken, the unselfishness and affection of Babar. It is thus related in the supplemental chapter to the _Memoirs_.[6]

[Footnote 6: This chapter was added by the translators. The same circ.u.mstance is related also by Mr. Erskine in his _Babar and Humayun_.]

{46} 'When all hopes from medicine were over, and whilst several men of skill were talking to the Emperor of the melancholy situation of his son, Abul Baka, a personage highly venerated for his knowledge and piety, remarked to Babar that in such a case the Almighty had sometimes vouchsafed to receive the most valuable thing possessed by one friend, as an offering in exchange for the life of another. Babar exclaimed that, of all things, his life was dearest to Humayun, as Humayun's was to him; that his life, therefore, he most cheerfully devoted as a sacrifice for that of his son; and prayed the Most High to vouchsafe to accept it.' Vainly did his courtiers remonstrate. He persisted, we are told, in his resolution; walked thrice round the dying prince, a solemnity similar to that used by the Muhammadans in sacrifices, and, retiring, prayed earnestly. After a time he was heard to exclaim: 'I have borne it away! I have borne it away!' The Musalman historians relate that almost from that moment Humayun began to recover and the strength of Babar began proportionately to decay.

He lingered on to the end of the year 1530. On the 26th December he restored his soul to his Maker, in his palace of the Charbagh, near Agra, in the forty-ninth year of his age. His remains were, in accordance with his dying request, conveyed to Kabul, where they were interred in a lovely spot, about a mile from the city.

Amongst the famous conquerors of the world Babar will always occupy a very high place. His character {47} created his career. Inheriting but the shadow of a small kingdom in Central Asia, he died master of the territories lying between the Karamnasa and the Oxus, and those between the Narbada and the Himalayas. His nature was a joyous nature. Generous, confiding, always hopeful, he managed to attract the affection of all with whom he came in contact. He was keenly sensitive to all that was beautiful in nature; had cultivated his own remarkable talents to a degree quite unusual in the age in which he lived; and was gifted with strong affections and a very vivid imagination. He loved war and glory, but he did not neglect the arts of peace. He made it a duty to inquire into the condition of the races whom he subdued and to devise for them ameliorating measures.

He was fond of gardening, of architecture, of music, and he was no mean poet. But the greatest glory of his character was that attributed to him by one who knew him well, and who thus recorded his opinion in Tarikhi Reshidi. 'Of all his qualities,' wrote Haidar Mirza, 'his generosity and humanity took the lead.' Though he lived long enough only to conquer and not long enough to consolidate, the task of conquering could hardly have been committed to hands more pure.

Babar left four sons: Muhammad Humayun Mirza, who succeeded him, born April 5, 1508: Kamran Mirza, Hindal Mirza, and Askari Mirza. Before his death he had introduced Humayun to a specially convened council of ministers as his successor, and had given him his dying injunctions. The points upon which he {48} had specially laid stress were: the conscientious discharge of duties to G.o.d and man; the honest and a.s.siduous administration of justice; the seasoning of punishment to the guilty with the extension of tenderness and mercy to the ignorant and penitent, with protection to the poor and defenceless; he besought Humayun, moreover, to deal kindly and affectionately towards his brothers.

Thus died, in the flower of his manhood, the ill.u.s.trious chief who introduced the Mughal dynasty into India; who, conquering the provinces of the North-west and some districts in the centre of the peninsula, acquired for that dynasty the prescriptive right to claim them as its own. He had many great qualities. But, in Hindustan, he had had neither the time nor the opportunity to introduce into the provinces he had conquered such a system of administration as would weld the parts theretofore separate into one h.o.m.ogeneous whole. It may be doubted whether, great as he was, he possessed to a high degree the genius of constructive legislation. Nowhere had he given any signs of it. In Kabul and in Hindustan alike, he had pursued the policy of the conquerors who had preceded him, that of bestowing conquered provinces and districts on adherents, to be governed by them in direct responsibility to himself, each according to his own plan. Thus it happened that when he died the provinces in India which acknowledged him as master were bound together by that tie alone.

Agra had nothing in common with Lucknow; Delhi with {49} Jaunpur.

Heavy tolls marked the divisions of territories, inhabited by races of different origin, who were only bound together by the sovereignty of Babar over all. He bequeathed to his son, Humayun, then, a congeries of territories uncemented by any bond of union or of common interest, except that which had been concentrated in his life. In a word, when he died, the Mughal dynasty, like the Muhammadan dynasties which had preceded it, had shot down no roots into the soil of Hindustan.

{50}

CHAPTER VI HUMaYuN AND THE EARLY DAYS OF AKBAR

Brave, genial, witty, a charming companion, highly educated, generous, and merciful, Humayun was even less qualified than his father to found a dynasty on principles which should endure. Allied to his many virtues were many compromising defects. He was volatile, thoughtless, and unsteady. He was swayed by no strong sense of duty.

His generosity was apt to degenerate into prodigality; his attachments into weakness. He was unable to concentrate his energies for a time in any serious direction, whilst for comprehensive legislation he had neither the genius nor the inclination. He was thus eminently unfitted to consolidate the conquest his father had bequeathed to him.

It is unnecessary to relate in detail a history of the eight years which followed his accession. So unskilful was his management, and so little did he acquire the confidence and esteem of the races under his sway, that when, in April, 1540, he was defeated at Kanauj, by Sher Khan Sur, a n.o.bleman who had submitted to Babar, but who had risen against his son--whom he succeeded under the t.i.tle of Sher Shah--the {51} entire edifice crumbled in his hand. After some adventures, Humayun found himself, January, 1541, a fugitive with a mere handful of followers, at Rohri opposite the island of Bukkur on the Indus, in Sind. He had lost the inheritance bequeathed him by his father.

Humayun spent altogether two and a half years in Sind, engaged in a vain attempt to establish himself in that province. The most memorable event of his sojourn there was the birth, on the 15th of October, 1542, of a son, called by him Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar. I propose to relate now the incidents which led to a result so important in the history of India.

In 1541, Humayun, whose troops were engaged in besieging Bukkur, distrusting the designs of his brother Hindal, whom he had commissioned to attack and occupy the rich province of Sehwan, appointed a meeting with the latter at the town of Patar, some twenty miles to the west of the Indus. There he found Hindal, surrounded by his n.o.bles, prepared to receive him right royally. During the festivities which followed, the mother of Hindal--who, it may be remarked, was not the mother of Humayun--gave a grand entertainment, to which she invited all the ladies of the court. Amongst these Humayun especially noted a girl called Hamida, the daughter of a n.o.bleman who had been preceptor to Hindal. So struck was he that he inquired on the spot whether the girl were betrothed. He was told in reply that, although she had been promised, no {52} ceremony of betrothal had as yet taken place. 'In that case,' said Humayun, 'I will marry her.' Hindal protested against the suddenly formed resolution, and threatened, if it were persisted in, to quit his brother's service. A quarrel, which had almost ended in a rupture, then ensued between the brothers. But the pleadings of Hindal's mother, who favoured the match, brought Hindal to acquiescence, and, the next day, Hamida, who had just completed her fourteenth year, was married to Humayun. A few days later, the happy pair repaired to the camp before Bukkur.

The times, however, were unfavourable to the schemes of Humayun. All his plans miscarried, and, in the spring of 1542, he and his young wife had to flee for safety to the barren deserts of Marwar. In August they reached Jaisalmer, but, repulsed by its Raja, they had to cross the great desert, suffering terribly during the journey from want of water. Struggling bravely, however, they reached, on August 22nd, the fort of Amarkot, on the edge of the desert. The Rana of the fort received them hospitably, and there, on Sunday October the 15th, Hamida Begam gave birth to Akbar. Humayun had quitted Amarkot four days previously, to invade the district of Jun. His words, when the news was brought to him, deserve to be recorded. 'As soon,' wrote one who attended him, 'as the Emperor had finished his thanksgivings to G.o.d, the Amirs were introduced, and offered their congratulations. He then called Jouher (the historian, author of the Tezkereh al {53} Vakiat) and asked what he had committed to his charge. Jouher answered: "Two hundred Shah-rukhis" (Khorasani gold coins), a silver wristlet and a musk-bag; adding, that the two former had been returned to their owners. On this Humayun ordered the musk-bag to be brought, and, having broken it on a china plate, he called his n.o.bles, and divided it among them, as the royal present in honour of his son's birth.... This event,' adds Jouher, 'diffused its fragrance over the whole habitable world.'

The birth of the son brought no immediate good fortune to the father.

In July, 1543, Humayun was compelled to quit Sind, and, accompanied by his wife and son and a small following, set out with the intention of reaching Kandahar. He had arrived at Shal, when he learnt that his brother, Askari, with a considerable force, was close at hand, and that immediate flight was necessary. He and his wife were ready, but what were they to do with the child, then only a year old, quite unfit to make a rapid journey on horseback, in the boisterous weather then prevailing? Reckoning, not without reason, that the uncle would not make war against a baby, they decided to leave him, with the whole of their camp-equipage and baggage, and the ladies who attended him. They then set out, and riding hard, reached the Persian frontier in safety. Scarcely had they gone when Askari Mirza arrived. Veiling his disappointment at the escape of his brother with some {54} soft words, he treated the young prince with affection, had him conveyed to Kandahar, of which place he was Governor, and placed there under the supreme charge of his own wife, the ladies who had been his nurses still remaining in attendance.

In this careful custody the young prince remained during the whole of the year 1544. But soon after the dawn of the following year a change in his condition occurred. His father, with the aid of troops supplied him by Shah Tahmasp, invaded Western Afghanistan, making straight across the desert for Kandahar. Alarmed at this movement, and dreading lest Humayun should recover his child, Kamran sent peremptory orders that the boy should be transferred to Kabul. When the confidential officers whom Kamran had instructed on this subject reached Kandahar, the ministers of Askari Mirza held a council to consider whether or not the demand should be complied with. Some, believing the star of Humayun to be in the ascendant, advised that the boy should be sent, under honourable escort, to his father.

Others maintained that Prince Askari had acted so treacherously towards his eldest brother that no act of penitence would now avail, and that it was better to continue to deserve the favour of Kamran.

The arguments of the latter prevailed, and though the winter was unusually severe, the infant prince and his sister, Bakhshi Banu Begam, were despatched with their attendants to Kabul. After some adventures, which made the {55} escort apprehend an attempt at rescue, the party reached Kabul in safety, and there Kamran confided his nephew to the care of his great-aunt, Khanzada Begam, the whilom favourite sister of the Emperor Babar. This ill.u.s.trious lady maintained in their duties the nurses and attendants who had watched over the early days of the young prince, and during the short time of her superintendence she bestowed upon him the tenderest care.

Unhappily that superintendence lasted only a few months. The capture of Kandahar by Humayun in the month of September following (1545) threw Kamran into a state of great perplexity. A suspicious and jealous man, and regarding the possession of Akbar as a talisman he could use against Humayun, he removed the boy from the care of his grand-aunt, and confided him to a trusted adherent, Kuch Kilan by name. But events marched very quickly in those days. Humayun, having established a firm base at Kandahar, set out with an army for Kabul, appeared before that city the first week in November, and compelled it to surrender to him on the 15th. Kamran had escaped to Ghazni: but the happy father had the gratification of finding the son from whom he had been so long separated. The boy's mother, Hamida Begam, did not arrive till the spring of the following year, but, meanwhile, Kuch Kilan was removed, and the prince's former governor, known as Atka Khan,[1] was restored to his post.

[Footnote 1: His real name was Shams-ud-din Muhammad of Ghazni. He had saved the life of Humayun in 1540, at the battle of Kanauj, fought against Sher Shah.]

{56} For the moment splendour and prosperity surrounded the boy. But when winter came, Humayun, who meanwhile had recovered Badakshan, resolved to pa.s.s the coldest months of the year at Kila Zafar, in that province. But on his way thither he was seized with an illness so dangerous that his life was despaired of. He recovered indeed after two months' strict confinement to his bed, but, in the interval, many of his n.o.bles, believing his end was a.s.sured, had repaired to the courts of his brothers, and Kamran, aided by troops supplied by his father-in-law, had regained Kabul, and, with Kabul, possession of the person of Akbar. One of the first acts of the conqueror was to remove Atka Khan from the person of the prince, and to replace him by one of his own servants.

But Humayun had no sooner regained his strength than he marched to recover his capital. Defeating, in the suburbs, a detachment of the best troops of Kamran, he established his head-quarters on the Koh-Akabain which commands the town, and commenced to cannonade it.

The fire after some days became so severe and caused so much damage that, to stop it, Kamran sent to his brother to declare that unless the fire should cease, he would expose the young Akbar on the walls at the point where it was hottest.[2] {57} Humayun ordered the firing to cease. He continued the siege, however, and on the 28th of April (1547) entered the city a conqueror. Kamran had escaped the previous night.

[Footnote 2: Abulfazl relates in the Akbarnana that the prince actually was exposed, and Haidar Mirza, Badauni, Ferishta, and others follow him; but Bayazid, who was present, though he minutely describes other atrocities in his memoirs, does not mention this; whilst Jouher, in his private memoirs of Humayun, a translation of which by Major Charles Stewart appeared in 1832, states the story as I have given it in the text.]

Kamran had fled to Badakshan. Thither Humayun followed him. But, in the winter that followed, some of his most powerful n.o.bles revolted, and deserted to Kamran. Humayun, after some marches and countermarches, determined in the summer of 1548 to make a decisive effort to settle his northern dominions. He marched, then, in June from Kabul, taking with him Akbar and Akbar's mother. On reaching Gulbahan he sent back to Kabul Akbar and his mother, and marching on Talikan, forced Kamran to surrender. Having settled his northern territories the Emperor, as he was still styled, returned to Kabul.

He quitted it again, in the late spring of 1549, to attempt Balkh, in the western Kunduz territory. The Uzbeks, however, repulsed him, and he returned to Kabul for the winter of 1550. Then ensued a very curious scene. Kamran, whose failure to join Humayun in the expedition against Balkh had been the main cause of his retreat, and who had subsequently gone into open rebellion, had, after Humayun's defeat, made a disastrous campaign on the Oxus, and had sent his submission to Humayun. That prince, consigning the government of Kabul to Akbar, then {58} eight years old, with Muhammad Kasim Khan Birlas as his tutor, marched from the capital to gain possession of the person of his brother. So careless, however, were his movements that Kamran, who had planned the manoeuvre, surprised him at the upper end of the defile of Kipchak, and forced him to take refuge in flight. During the flight Humayun was badly wounded, but nevertheless managed to reach the top of the Sirtan Pa.s.s in safety. There he was in comparative security. Meanwhile Kamran had marched upon and captured Kabul, and, for the third time, Akbar found himself a prisoner in the hands of his uncle. Humayun did not submit tamely to this loss. Rallying his adherents, he recrossed the mountains, and marched on the city. Arriving at Shutargardan he saw the army of Kamran drawn up to oppose him. After some days of fruitless negotiation for a compromise Humayun ordered the attack. It resulted in a complete victory and the flight of Kamran. For a moment Humayun feared lest Kamran should have carried his son with him in his flight. But, before he could enter the city, he was intensely relieved by the arrival in camp of Akbar, accompanied by Hasan Akhta, to whose care he had been entrusted. The next day he entered the city.

This time the conquest was decisive and lasting. In the distribution of awards which followed Humayun did not omit his son. He bestowed upon Akbar as a jaghir the district of Chirkh, and nominated Haji Muhammad Khan of Sistan as his minister, {59} with the care of his education. During the year that followed the causes of the troubles of Humayun disappeared one by one. Kamran indeed once more appeared in arms, but only to be hunted down so vigorously that he was forced to surrender (August, 1553). He was exiled to Mekka, where he died four years later. Hindal Mirza, another brother, had been slain some eighteen months before, during the pursuit of Kamran. Askari Mirza, the other brother, in whose nature treachery seemed ingrained, had been exiled to Mekka in 1551,[3] and though he still survived he was harmless. Relieved thus of his brothers, Humayun contemplated the conquest of Kashmir, but his n.o.bles and their followers were so averse to the expedition that he was forced, unwillingly, to renounce it. He consoled himself by crossing the Indus. Whilst encamped in the districts between that river and the Jehlam he ordered the repair, tantamount to a reconstruction on an enlarged plan, of the fort at Peshawar. He was contemplating even then the invasion of India, and he was particularly anxious that he should possess a _point d'appui_ beyond the pa.s.ses on which his army could concentrate. He pushed the works so vigorously that the fort was ready by the end of the year (1554). He then returned to Kabul. During the winter and early spring that followed, there came to a head in Hindustan the crisis which gave him the opportunity of carrying his plans into effect.

[Footnote 3: He died there in 1558.]

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CHAPTER VII HUMaYuN INVADES INDIA. HIS DEATH

Sher Khan Sur, who had defeated Humayun at Kanauj in 1540, had used his victory to possess himself of the territories which Babar had conquered, and to add somewhat to them. He was an able man, but neither did he, more than the prince whom he supplanted, possess the genius of consolidation and union. He governed on the system of detached camps, each province and district being separately administered. He died in 1545 from injuries received at the siege of Kalinjar, just as that strong fort surrendered to his arms.

His second son, Salim Shah Sur, known also as Sultan Islam, succeeded him, and reigned for between seven and eight years. He must have been dimly conscious of the weakness of the system he had inherited, for the greater part of his reign was spent in combating the intrigues of the n.o.blemen who held the several provinces under him. On his death, leaving a child of tender years to succeed him, the n.o.bles took the upper hand. The immediate result was the murder of the young prince, after a nominal rule of three days, and the seizure of the throne by {61} his maternal uncle, who proclaimed himself as Sultan under the t.i.tle of Muhammad Shah Adel. He was ignorant, cruel, unprincipled, and a sensualist of a very p.r.o.nounced type. He had, however, the good fortune to attach to his throne a Hindu, named Hemu, who, originally a shopkeeper of Rewari, a town of Mewat, showed talents so considerable, that he was eventually allowed to concentrate in his own hands all the power of the State. The abilities of Hemu did not, however, prevent the break-up of the territories which Sher Shah had bequeathed to his son. Ibrahim Khan revolted at Biana, and occupying Agra and Delhi, proclaimed himself Sultan. Ahmad Khan, Governor of the country north-west of the Sutlej, seized the Punjab, and proclaimed himself king under the t.i.tle of Sikandar Shah. Shuja Khan seized the kingdom of Malwa, whilst two rival claimants disputed the eastern provinces. In the contests which followed Sikandar Shah for the moment obtained the upper hand. He defeated Ibrahim Khan at Farah, twenty miles from Agra, then marched on and occupied Delhi. He was preparing to head an expedition to recover Jaunpur and Behar, when he heard of danger threatening him from Kabul.

The events that followed were important only in their results.

Humayun marched from Kabul for the Indus in November, 1554, at the head of a small army, which, however, gathered strength as he advanced. Akbar accompanied him. Crossing the Indus the 2nd of January, 1555, Humayun made for {62} Rawal Pindi, then pushed on for Kalanaur, on the further side of the Ravi. There he divided his forces, sending his best general, Bairam Khan, into Jalandhar, whilst he marched on Lah.o.r.e, and despatched thence his special favourite, Abul Ma'ali, to occupy Dipalpur, then an important centre, commanding the country between the capital and Multan.

Events developed themselves very rapidly. Bairam Khan defeated the generals of Sikandar Shah at Machhiwara on the Sutlej, and then marched on the town of Sirhind. Sikandar, hoping to crush him there, hurried to that place with a vastly superior force. Bairam intrenched himself, and wrote to Humayun for aid. Humayun despatched the young Akbar, and followed a few days later. Before they could come, Sikandar had arrived but had hesitated to attack. The hesitation lost him. As soon as Humayun arrived, he precipitated a general engagement. The victory was decisive. Sikandar Shah fled to the Siwaliks, and Humayun, with his victorious army, marched on Delhi.

Occupying it the 23rd of July, he despatched one division of it to overrun Rohilkhand, another to occupy Agra. He had previously sent Abul Ma'ali to secure the Punjab.

But his troubles were not yet over. Hemu, the general and chief minister of Muhammad Shah Adel, had defeated the pretender to the throne of Bengal, who had invaded the North-west Provinces, near Kalpi on the Jumna, and that capable leader was preparing to march on Delhi. Sikandar Shah, too, who had {63} been defeated at Sirhind, was beginning to show signs of life in the Punjab. In the face of these difficulties Humayun decided to remain at Delhi himself, whilst he despatched Akbar with Bairam Khan as his 'Atalik,' or adviser, to settle matters in the Punjab.

We must first follow Akbar. That prince reached Sirhind early in January, 1556. Joined there by many of the n.o.bles whom Abul Ma'ali, the favourite of his father, had disgusted by his haughtiness, he crossed the Sutlej at Phillaur, marched on Sultanpur in the Kangra district, and thence, in pursuit of Sikandar Shah, to Hariana. The morning of his arrival there, information reached him of a serious accident which had happened to Humayun. He at once suspended the forward movement, and marched on Kalanaur, there to await further intelligence. As he approached that place, a despatch was placed in his hands, drafted by order of Humayun, giving hopes of speedy recovery. But, a little later, another courier arrived, bearing the news of the Emperor's death. Akbar was at once proclaimed.

The situation was a trying one for a boy who had lived but thirteen years and four months. He occupied, indeed, the Punjab. His servants held Sirhind, Delhi, and possibly Agra. But he was aware that Hemu, flushed with two victories, for he had obtained a second over another pretender, was marching towards the last-named city with an army of fifty thousand men and five hundred elephants, with the avowed intention of restoring the rule of Muhammad {64} Shah Adel. To add to his difficulties he heard a few days later that the viceroy placed by his father at Kabul had revolted.

Humayun had met his death by a fall from the top of the staircase leading to the terraced roof of his library in the palace of Delhi.

He lingered four days, the greater part of the time in a state of insensibility, and expired the evening of the 24th of January, in the forty-eighth year of his age. Tardi Beg Khan, the most eminent of all the n.o.bles at the capital, and actually Governor of the city, a.s.sumed on the spot the general direction of affairs. His first care was to conceal the incident from the public until he could arrange to make the succession secure for the young Akbar, to whom he sent expresses conveying details. By an ingenious stratagem he managed to conceal the death of the Emperor for seventeen days. Then, on the 10th of February, he repaired with the n.o.bles to the great Mosque, and caused the prayer for the Emperor to be recited in the name of Akbar. His next act was to despatch the insignia of the empire with the Crown jewels, accompanied by the officers of the household, the Imperial Guards, and a possible rival to the throne in the person of a son of Humayun's brother, Kamran, to the head-quarters of the new Emperor in the Punjab. He then proceeded to take measures to secure the capital against the threatened attack of Hemu.

{65}

CHAPTER VIII AKBAR'S FIGHT FOR HIS FATHER'S THRONE