Attagirl, Devki! Spot on!🤗
Akbar was later remarkably concerned about the conditions of life of women. See the part I wrote about Akbar and Sati in my earlier thread of Reminiscences of Rajat's Jalal, in part 3. Here is the extract:
Akbar and sati: This is all as far as the extract from the post goes, but for those interested, I am adding a note on the Rani Damayanti episode, and Akbar's ban on forcible sati.
Like his father, the Emperor Humayun, Akbar issued official general orders prohibiting forcible sati and insisted that no woman could commit sati without the specific permission of his chief police officers. The chief police officers were instructed by him to delay the woman's decision for as long as possible.Pensions, gifts, and rehabilitative help were offered to the potential sati to persuade her from committing the act.
Akbar could thus be seen as the intellectual forefather of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who campaigned against sati, and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, who campaigned for widow remarriage, in the 20th century.
His commitment to wiping out forcible sati was demonstrated very dramatically one day in 1583, when Akbar heard that Rani Damayanti, the cousin sister of one of his Rajput wives, Rukmavati, was being forced to commit sati by her sons on the death of her husband. She was the daughter of Mota Raja Udai Singh of Jodhpur, and her husband was Raja Jai Mal of Mertha who had just died .
On getting this news, Akbar personally rode all the way from Agra to Ranthambore to save this lady from being forced to commit sati. What is remarkable is that he went by himself, all alone. His personal security guard, when they heard the emperor had gone off all on his own, galloped after him.
Akbar arrived at the palace just in time to stop the sati taking place; already the Rani was being led out to the sati site (after having been drugged). By the sheer force of his personality, he was able to stop the sati from taking place. [This particular incident, of Akbar stopping the forcible Sati, is described in detail in V.A. Smith's book, 'Akbar the Great Mughal']
Now what an episode this, and Akbar's ban on forcible sati, would have made!! But of course the CVs are more interested in wet masalas!
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He was amazingly enlightened for his times, and for ours as well. He was in fact the precursor of Raja Ram Mohan Roy in this respect.
Shyamala Aunty
Originally posted by: devkidmd
As far as the woman incident is concerned, I feel it was the way it was back then. This is medieval times we are talking about. Women were commodities back then. Even royal women(or should I say especially Royal women?). Why would Jalal or anyone care about what happened to that insignificant rural woman afterwards? She might've been shunned by her community and husband for all he cared. It was a way to humiliate the Rajputs by picking her up for his "diljoyee" and show them who is boss. That's it. The only looser in this whole thing is obviously that woman.
This has nothing to do with trying to show him to be more ruthless than he was and everything to do with the value placed on women back then. We'll be shocked to hear about how women were treated even in the last century.
Jalal did not turn into a total saint even as he evolved into a more tolerant ruler so why should we expect him to be a saint when he was a young emperor surrounded and influenced by fanatics like BK whose only method of conquering Hindustan was by breaking their "guroor"?
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