Book Review: Ruler of the World + Akbar’s Life
Ruler of the World by Alex Rutherford
When we think of the Mughal emperor Akbar, what we usually think of is, “ Akbar, the Great! “. In fact, even the name Akbar implies the meaning “great”.
Withal, in reality, emperor Akbar’s life was not ‘all-great’. Rather, it was a bittersweet symphony playing somewhere between a trumpeter’s buzzing tunes of achievement and a sitarist’s mellow drones of loneliness. But of course, a stark personification of greatness, it was, though.
Akbar’s father, Humayun, died as abruptly as an avalanche, one evening in Delhi’s Red Fort a.k.a. Purana Qila. He was only twelve-years old at the time of his father’s death.
This was the time when the Moghuls were only re-settling their empire in the Hindustan provinces. Their rule was still quite vulnerable to threats. And so, to protect this boy emperor from a giant score of enemies lurking everywhere around them, Akbar was hidden from the view of the public and secretly ridden away from the fortress by his mother Hamida Bano Begum, his aunt Gulbadan Begum and his father’s khan-i-khanan, Bairam Khan.
Very similar to his grandfather Babur’s secret crowning ceremony, the khutba for Akbar too, was read in a secret affair, proclaiming him the third Moghul emperor. Yet, unlike Babur, there was no trace of fear that he was feeling. He was already well-trained in the business of kingship and well-accustomed to these lands of Hindustan. These were the lands, after all, where Akbar was born. His flesh and blood were made of the very soil and water of here, where he was birthed.
With the supporting aid of his father’s loyal regent Bairam Khan, Akbar was able to re-gain the fortress of Delhi, snatching it from the hands of a man Hemu at his victory in the Second Battle of Panipat against him.
True to his name, Akbar was a man of deep-dyed excellence, magnificence and greatness. Prior to him, in the entire timespace of history, no other king had exhibited such a magnetism of perfection as he casted during his rule. Jalal-ud-din Akbar not only proved to be a tipping point for Moghul dynasty, but a game-changer who remained unconquerable, from his previous generation of kings as well as, even from his younger generations and the emperors who succeeded him.
Fond of hunting tigers & leopards, Akbar loved to utilize his imperial power for executing his youthful desire for independence and free-willed decision making. He was unafraid and unmatched, yet a mighty devotee of God. Not merely religion(s), but God.
It is usually said that Akbar was a miraculous child. In his own words, Akbar, one day, was hunting and then immediately he gave up the desire to hunt further anymore. He felt crampy, sweaty and empty-headed. He sat under a tree and asked his courtiers to leave him alone. He shut himself in his fortress’s chambers for a few days, not allowing anyone to see him or speak to him. Then after a few days of seclusion he announced Din-i-illahi, the religion of one god.
He banned cow slaughter; prohibited the practice of sati & jauhar; and introduced the idea that all religions were leading to one and the same god, and no human would be converted to any other religion in the future unwillingly; and all would be granted the freedom of worship. Lover of spirituality, he frequently visited the Sufi mystic Salim Chishti, and only inspired by his name, he named his own eldest son as ‘Salim’ (Jahangir).
Once a Rajput raja presented to him a gift of Upanishads, and Akbar was so fascinated with these texts that he ordered even more scriptures and entire Vedic literature to be added to his library. He even initiated several works of translating these scriptures from Sanskrit to Hindi, Persian, English and other languages. It is usually said that this work of translation was completed by his great-grandson Dara Shukoh, who himself was an open-minded prince and composed his own version commentating on the Vedic texts.
But guess what, Akbar was born dyslexic. That is, he couldn’t read. In his own words, whenever he would face a scroll or a diary scribbled with words, the words appeared to him to dance all around in the space, yet he couldn’t decipher any of its meaning. He couldn’t read or write himself but his curiosity for knowledge, hunger for creativity and thirst for intellectual stimulation caused him to hire a large number of scholars in his fort and build a giant library for himself. One or the other scholar always remained with him, to read to him, books of poetry, spiritual scriptures, religious texts and other books, whenever he would feel like.
A prodigious mind-reformer, Akbar was the first of emperors to hire his own personal writer who documented the chronicles of his everyday life, taking notes and also acting as his advisor, accompanying him everywhere. It was due to his writer-chronicler Abul Fazl, that the diaries of Akbar, named Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari; over forty-thousand pages chronicling his life, were discovered by the future generations.
This novel of historical fiction by Alex Rutherford, also utilizes the extracts from the translated versions of these diaries to craft the scenes as well as the overall storyline.
“Ruler of the World” is the third book in the ‘Empire of the Moghuls’ series. It is centered around the trajectory of Akbar’s life, Akbar, who was the third Mughal emperor following Babur and Humayun respectively.
Apparently, Akbar’s life-story cannot be demonstrated in a sequence, for it was never a continuum of events. Rather, Akbar was a spark of light for the Moghul dynasty who illuminated not only fresh, creative ideas, but also demolished the various destructive superstitions prevailing in the minds of his subjects, as well as bringing light to the truth of spirituality.
Having said that, Akbar discovered himself to be as lonely as the desert sun; never having anybody to share his innermost thoughts and feelings. But the gem of his trust wasn’t concealed until, before it was cracked and shattered by some of those, who, he loved the most.
Soon after his appointment as the emperor, Akbar found out his half-brother Adham Khan guilty of betraying him. Even more so, his foster-mother Maham Anga too, was discovered to be supporting her own son Adham Khan over Akbar, as well as poisoning Akbar’s ears against his own mother Hamida. Followed by these harsh pinpricks, Akbar developed a bitter resistance towards trusting anybody throughout his lifetime. Even his own his sons too…
…the reason why throughout his lifetime, Akbar’s relationship with his children was mostly distant and estranged; lacking in depth and emotional connection if any. At the point of his nearing death, he reflected how he didn’t really know his children, because he never tried to be close to them; except only he competed with them, and his perfection, undoubtedly they couldn’t match.
Also the reason why, driven by a deep jealousy, his son Salim (Jahangir) ordered his chronicle writer Abul Fazl to be killed and his head brought to him, followed by his own campaign of rebellion against Akbar.
Akbar wore the veil of imperial magnificence to hide his deep vulnerability and fear that he felt towards the world as well as his own family.
The novel depicts, factual or fictional can’t be said, that, Akbar had no “real love in his life”, despite having over thousands of women in his fort’s women’s quarters, and hundreds of wives in marriage, a bond which he considered only as useful as a matter of imperial alliance. Nothing more, nothing less.
No wonder, still and all, Akbar remained one of the most powerful kings, not only in the Mughal dynasty, but in the entire history. Not only great spiritual mystics and thought leaders, but also a medley of artists, architects, writers, and traders from all across the world gathered together in his ibadat-khana to contemplate on various topics, reflect upon the nature of life and discuss motleys of innovative ideas. As the title of the book signifies, he truly was the “Ruler of the World”, invading and ruling everywhere from the southern Deccan to the northern Kandhar, and all in between.
There is no shadow of doubt in this….after all,
…generations of kings rose and dissolved. But Akbar’s reign is something which is remembered by the most.
Akbar used to say, very often, that, a king should be like the sun, his magnificence so bright that it would fulfill everyone’s heart, yet too brilliant for anyone to look directly at.
As his saying goes, so was his very own nature. He was a ruler just like that of the sun. So magnificent, yet so full of contradictions to be fully understood by anyone.
To wrap it up all together, I enjoyed the book big-time, not only in context of the storyline but also in terms of galvanizing my own historical curiosity!
Originally published at http://www.nehasnotebook.com on May 5, 2022.
