Akbar the Great

Akbar was the grandson of Babur who founded the Mughal rule in India. However, during the time of Humayun, the territory was lost to the Afghans under the Surs. After the interregnum of Afghan rule, it was recaptured in 1555. And it was left to Akbar to rebuild the empire from scratch. Akbar was only fourteen years old when his father Humayun died, and he was crowned on Feb 14, 1556. It was under Akbar, that the Mughals fought and won the second Battle of Painpat (November 5, 1556) Akbar as a leader was unique to his time. His leadership skills were not limited to war, expansion and consolidation of Mughal Empire. But his most important contribution was the way that he moulded the Mughal Empire and created legitimacy for his rule that was not based on brute force, but on the consent of the governed.

To a large extent the Mughal rule was an extension of his personality. At personal level, he was tolerant to other religions. He married Hindu Rajput princesses, but did not force them to convert to Islam. They were free to practice religion of their choice. Akbar himself was interested to explore the essence of different religions, consequently he built an ibadat-khana to which he would invite spiritual leaders of different faith and question them and listen to their discussions. The most important aspect of his religious policy was that he abolished jizia, and also quashed many of the restrictive laws of religious worship on the non-Muslims that existed from earlier times.

His spiritual curiosity later on translated into his founding a faith called din-i-ilahi (also called tahud-i-ilahi), Akbar being its spiritual preceptor. This in many ways was a distillation of teachings of different faiths and exhibited a tolerant attitude. It laid stress on individual purity and ethical behaviour. Akbar never forced anyone to become a member of his din, and according to the Ain-i-Akbari, there were only eighteen full time adherents and no more than a few thousand followers. Akbar founded the imperial structures through his quality of being a good leader, soldier and a strategist. He conquered nearly the whole of Indian subcontinent except the southern areas.
His empire stretched from the present Afghanistan to that of Bangladesh. The most significant aspect of his extension of Mughal rule was that in many of the areas where the Hindu Rajput rulers were ruling, he would not annex their kingdoms, but on their acceptance of Mughal suzerainty, he would let them be rulers of their areas as vassals of Mughals, and also recruit their princes to the Mansabdari ranks. This way he won a willing acceptance to his imperialism. And in many of the campaigns of the Mughals, it was these Rajput princes who were the commanders of the Mughal armies. The support of Rajputs was an equally important bulwark to the conservative Islamic sections in the Mughal court.