Putija,
A Short but fantastic post. :)
Let me give my inputs as well...
No one here might have seen anyone beyond his/her grandfather. Still, we talk of so many people from history that he was like this and he was like that...
Similarly, No one of us has seen Akbar or anyone in that age. What we think/feel is due to what we read. After reading about Akbar , one thing is sure which many would agree - He was a man of contrasts, and i would even say that for his relatives he was very lenient.
Case in point is :
1. Forgiving Adham many times.
2. Sharif was finally killed in 1580's after lots of pardoning.
3. And about his "attitude towards women" , which has lately been debated a LOT here. :-P
I have 2 things to share...
a. I shared a Sati post's link recently, which speaks a lot about himself. And he was around 40 that time, which was IN NO manner an OLD age those days.
b. Akbarnama mentions an incident where his son Murad asks for a "soldier" to be sent to him in the warfield. But Akbar replies that, the wife of that soldier is NOT giving her assent to send him to the war, hence Murad has to wait, till Akbar "asks" her.
This ^^^second(b) incident may look like a joke. :-P ; But, this is true, i have read this in Akbarnama. :)4. I found Akbar as a man of many emotions. After the Jauhar of Ranthambore he did NOT come out of his place for 3 days.. !! Though, he NEVER repented Chittor Jauhar or massacre where he was ruthless beyond description, but he clearly was moved after the Jauhar of ladies of Ranthambore.
5. He could be as cruel as anything with someone, but with his close ones he was very caring.
6. He
wept bitterly at death of Faizi (brother of Abul Fazl), and even asked / shouted at his "deadbody to come back to life" . See the amount of pain in this action. Badayuni has narrated this story with sadistic pleaure, as he was not a well wisher of Faizi.
7. Akbar did not take food and drink for many days over the death of another loved friend of his - Birbal.
Especially, his conduct in the point-6 was a revelation for me..
Lastly, his harem never had 5000 women for himself. ! A number blown out of proportion. That was age of polygamy. But that does not in any manner can be held as a clause, that he can not have someone close to him in his life. I have written many NEW recent posts on blog(not old IF ones) where i have shared some thing or other about them - JA..
Rest is what anyone else believes, but one cant easily ignore the points which i've posted. :)
What saddens me "sometimes" is the fact that despite introducing so many reforms for women in those times, when hardly anyone thought in such a direction ; he is still labelled as a womenazir at many places
due to size of his harem, which is also
exagerrated..
Having a large harem does not means he was after women all the time. He was known to have a robust constitution. He was quite moderate in his conduct. Till the very end of his life he was fit and fine. I think one should look into
this aspect of his personality also before declaring him as a ...
Atleast there has to be some difference between Muhammed Shah 'Rangila' and Akbar.!!
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