Jodha Akbar discussion corner! - Page 50

hello ladies, i might be continuing discussions here regarding the episodes being replayed and whoever wishes to throw their two cents are welcome, still waiting for shyamala's reply in this regards!

copy pasting a very useful info given by adi in regards to Akbar the great..

Gals read this (from Havel's History of India)-

The Padshah's authority now extended over an empire far greater than that of Harsha. With the exception of the Rana of Mewar's territory, which remained in the midst of the Mogul Empire as the last independent stronghold of Indo- Aryan royalty, he was undisputed master of the whole of the ancient Aryavarta from the Himalayas to the Narbada river, and was recognised by the vast majority of his Hindu subjects as fulfilling their ideal of an Aryan monarch, although four centuries of Muhammadan rule and the considerable dilution of the Aryan element in the population had dimmed the memories of the golden days when Aryavarta was the most advanced in true culture and civilization, the freest and richest of all countries in Asia or in Europe. The village communities and townships had indeed lost the political influence they possessed under Hindu rule ; the village elders were no longer addressed by State officials in terms of respect which belonged to royalty. But they were again left free in the management of local affairs ; the burden of oppressive taxation had been removed; justice was impartially administered; Hindus enjoyed exactly the same political and social rights as the ruling race,theMoguls,and as the native Musalmans. Almost half of the imperial armies was Hindu, and individually every Hindu was as free as any of Akbar's subjects, for it was not a mere academic theory that the highest offices of State, military and civil were open to him - they were, in fact, usually occupied by Indians and Hindus whose abilities commended them to the Padshah. The Din-Ilahi, moreover, was a bold attempt on Akbar's part to give back to the people a share in the management of the spiritual affairs of the empire such as they had when Harsha-Vardhana convoked the General Assembly of the Sangha at Kanauj to listen to the arguments of the Master of the Iaw.

Further than this in the path of constitutional reform no Musalman monarch, Indian or foreign, could have gone. It was, indeed, a signal proof of Akbar's extraordinary power as a statesman and of his influence in Islam that he could go so far without provoking a general revolt of his Musalman subjects. But Akbar owed much to the time in which he lived and the country in which he was born. It probably would have been impossible for him to have achieved so much in any earlier period of Muhammadan domination in India, or in any other country than India. From a Mogul and dynastic point of view the success of his policy was equally remarkable. The imperial army was not only a war-machine thoroughly well equipped and drilled to a high state of efficiency ; it was animated by the highest spirit of patriotism and recognised by the people as their own defence against misrule and foreign aggression -

a political factor of incalculable importance for the future of the Mogul Empire.

Though the burden of taxation upon agriculture and trade had been greatly lightened, the imperial revenue had enormously increased and the treasuries were filled to overflowing. No other monarch in Asia or in Europe could command the wealth which Akbar had at his disposal for providing the sinews of war, and no other monarch was better served by his officers and men. And the insecurity, misery, and misrule which had been prevalent over the greater part of Hindustan at the beginning of Akbar's reign had given place to order, contentment, and prosperity in little more than thirty years.

Akbar's system of civil administration was essentially bureaucratic, but no bureaucracy was ever more efficient both in promoting the welfare of the State and in reconciling the rulers with the ruled. His government was not only more efficient than that of any former Musalman ruler of India, but it was more permanent in its effects ; its excellent organisation maintained the solidity of the Mogul Empire long after his personal influence was gone"both in the stormy reign of the cynical and egotistical Jahangir, to whom the ethics of the Din-Ilahi were foolishness, and in that of Akbar's favourite grandchild, the prodigal grand seigneur Shah Jahan, when Hindustan again enjoyed a long unbroken peace. It was not until Aurangzib, the iconoclast, revived the narrow and intolerant political principles of Muhammadan orthodoxy and crushed underfoot the free institutions of Aryavarta which had survived the storms of centuries that the splendid fabric of Akbar's statesmanship began to fall into ruin - a ruin so complete that the Aryans of the West have hardly yet begun to recognise the handiwork of their forerunners in the East or to understand the sources whence Akbar drew his inspiration as a statesman.

Thaks for making this thread and also bring Di back to forum and thank you Shyamla Di for sending this link so, I can peacefully read all discussion together I will hit like on early epi.