Mughal Kingship and their Authors

The idea of kingship was not properly defined in the early stages of the Mughal Empire. As time passed, however, the empire gained more power and Humayun defined certain rituals that were meant to make the empire more desirable. It was Akbar who came up with the theory of kingship that regarded emperors as of the highest dignity, even in the eyes of God. This was based on the Persian idea of kingship where the highest authority or power is accorded to the king. Several court ceremonies added to this idea of the king being the supreme power, thus making people obedient. 

Akbar Nama

• Abu’l Fazl worked on the Akbar Nama for thirteen years, starting in 1589
• The Akbarnama is split into three parts, the first two of which are chronicles
• Ain-i Akbari is the third book
• The first volume chronicles mankind’s history from Adam through Akbar’s 30th year
• The second book ends in Akbar’s forty-sixth regnal year (1601)
• The following year, Abu’l Fazl was assassinated by Bir Singh Bundela in a plot orchestrated by Prince Salim
• The Akbarnama was written to provide a detailed description of Akbar’s reign, giving a holistic picture of all aspects of Akbar’s empire
• In the Ain-i Akbari, the Mughal Empire is presented as having a diverse population consisting of Hindus, Jainas, Buddhists and Muslims and a composite culture

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Badshah Nama

• The Badshah Nama was written by Abdul Hamid Lahori, a student of Abu’l Fazl
• This official history is divided into three volumes (daftars), each covering ten lunar years
• Lahori completed the first and second daftars, which covered the first two decades of the emperor’s reign (1627-1647), but he was unable to complete the third due to his advanced age
• Shah Jahan’s wazir, Sadullah Khan, later updated these volumes
• The Asiatic Society initially released edited copies of the AkbarNama and Badshah Nama in the nineteenth century

A Divine Light

• Court chroniclers drew on a variety of sources to demonstrate that the Mughal kings’ power derived directly from God
• One example is the legend of the Mongol queen Alanqua, who got impregnated while asleep in her tent by a beam of sunlight. The Divine Light was transmitted down through the generations via the progeny she bore
• Mughal royalty was seen by Abu’l Fazl as the highest station in the hierarchy of objects receiving God’s light (farr-i izadi)
• The Divine Light was transmitted to the king, who then became the source of spiritual instruction for his subjects, according to this theory
• Mughal artists began to depict rulers with the halo that they had seen on paintings of Christ and the Virgin Mary in Europe

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A Unifying Force

• The empire is depicted in Mughal chronicles as the source of all peace and stability. The emperor reigned supreme over all religious and ethnic groupings, ensuring that justice and peace reigned supreme. The concept of sulh-i kul (perfect peace) is described by Abu’l Fazl as the cornerstone of enlightened government
• All religions and schools of thought had freedom of expression in sulh-i kul, but only if they did not challenge the state’s authority
• State policies were used to implement the sulh-i kul ideal
• Under the Mughals, the nobility was made up of Iranis, Turanis, Afghans, Rajputs, and Deccanis, who were all awarded posts and honours solely for their devotion and loyalty to the ruler
• In 1563, Akbar abolished the pilgrimage fee and in 1564, the Jizya
• All Mughal rulers provided money to support the construction and upkeep of religious structures
• Aurangzeb, on the other hand, reinstated jizya for non-muslims

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Just Sovereignty as Social Contract

• The emperor preserves the four essences of his subjects, namely, life (jan), property (mal), honour (namus), and faith (din), in exchange for loyalty and a portion of resources, according to Abu’l Fazl
• A number of emblems were made to express the concept of justice visually
• The theme of the lion and the lamb (or goat) calmly cuddling next to each other was one such sign
• This was supposed to represent a realm where the powerful and the weak may coexist together

Conclusion

The Mughal Empire introduced the idea of kingship. This regarded kings as the supreme ruler of the empire. Practises such as kissing the ground, submission to the king, and kissing the feet were followed to strengthen this idea. Through the Akbarnama and the Badshah Nama, it was shown how the emperor is considered to be a divine light, a unifying force, a peacemaker, and a just ruler. Although Mughal rule had a major impact on the Indian idea of a ruler, it was defeated in 1857 and lost its power.