AKBAR

Sarita Mandana

Description

The birth of a prince in medieval India was usually followed by grand celebrations. Camped out in the wilderness when the news of Akbar s safe delivery reached him; Humayun could only enjoy a quiet moment of thanksgiving. He broke a musk pod and as the fragrance wafted all over the camp; the new father hoped his son s fame would similarly spread across the world. Akbar-emperor; warrior; statesman and thinker-is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic personalities in Indian history. Crowned the king of Hindustan at the age of thirteen; his empire went on to include the farthest corners of the country. Yet he was not just a conqueror. A humanist; his deep interest in literature; architecture; art and his inclusive vision of religions at a time when such thoughts were not in fashion; set him down as one of history s most remarkable men. In this story of his life; as exciting and thrilling as any adventure tale; the author describes Akbar s rough; difficult childhood spent on the run; his consolidation of the empire through war and diplomacy; the myriad interesting and entertaining people who made up his court; the strong women of the Mughal household; and finally; the intriguing circumstances under which the crown passed on to his son; Jahangir. Accompanied by many vignettes of information about the Mughal empire and the world in the 16th century; this book is a fascinating introduction to the life and times of a ruler who still rules our imaginations.

Sujets

• Children's
• Histoire
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 29 avril 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184752601
• Langue: English

Extrait

I am the history bug. Watch out for me in the pages of this book as I bring to you interesting facts and unusual trivia from the past.
The birth of a prince in medieval India was usually followed by grand celebrations. Camped out in the wilderness when the news of Akbar’s safe delivery reached him, Humayun could only enjoy a quiet moment of thanksgiving. He broke a musk pod and, as the fragrance wafted all over the camp, the new father hoped his son’s fame would similarly spread across the world.
Akbar—emperor, warrior, statesman and thinker—is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic personalities in Indian history. Crowned the king of Hindustan at the age of thirteen, his empire expanded to include the farthest corners of the country. Yet he was not just a conqueror. A humanist, Akbar’s deep interest in literature, architecture, art, and his inclusive vision of religions at a time when such thoughts were not in fashion, set him down as one of history’s most remarkable men.
In this story of his life, as exciting and thrilling as any adventure tale, the author describes Akbar’s rough, difficult childhood spent on the run; his consolidation of the empire through war and diplomacy; the myriad interesting and entertaining people who made up his court; the strong women of the Mughal household; and, finally, the intriguing circumstances under which the crown passed on to his son, Jehangir. Accompanied by many interesting facts about the Mughal empire and the world in the sixteenth century, this book is a fascinating introduction to the life and times of an emperor who still rules our imagination.
Cover illustration by Harshvardhan Kadam
PUFFIN BOOKS AKBAR
Kavitha Mandana grew up in parts of the Niligiri hills where telephones and TV did not exist. After an idyllic and undisciplined schooling in Ooty, and a degree in English Literature from Coimbatore, she got into a fairly unliterary career as an advertising copywriter in Bangalore. It took a chaotic six years working with print, TV and radio commercials for her to discover she liked writing and illustrating for kids. She writes regularly in the children’s supplement of the Deccan Herald. Her work has also appeared in Chatterbox and Toot magazines. Tenali Raman (Puffin) was her first historical novel for kids.
Other books in the Puffin Lives series
Ashoka: The Great and Compassionate King
by Subhadra Sen Gupta
Rani Lakshmibai: The Valiant Queen of Jhansi
by Deepa Agarwal
Jawaharlal Nehru: The Jewel of India
by Aditi De
Mahatma Gandhi: The Father of the Nation
by Subhadra Sen Gupta

To Lal,Yash and Ahalya, with love
PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Group (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196 South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in Puffin by Penguin Books India 2010
Copyright © Kavitha Mandana 2010
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-01-4333-083-7
This digital edition published in 2011.
e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-260-1
This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above-mentioned publisher of this e-book.
Contents

Copyright
CHAPTER ONE Desperados!
CHAPTER TWO The Girl Who Refused to be Queen
CHAPTER THREE A Reluctant King
CHAPTER FOUR The Gypsy Prince
CHAPTER FIVE A Baby in the Battlefield
CHAPTER SIX The Boy Who Hated His Books
CHAPTER SEVEN A Crash Course in the School of Life
CHAPTER EIGHT A Night of Bad Dreams
CHAPTER NINE A Tug of War
CHAPTER TEN Blood Feuds
CHAPTER ELEVEN At Home in the Battlefield
CHAPTER TWELVE A New City for Son Salim
CHAPTER THIRTEEN A City Lost to the Jungles
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Suspended Saints!
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Polo-playing Princesses and Crack-shot Queens
CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Graffiti Artist
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Mystery of the Prince Who Vanished
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN The Battle Against the Bottle
CHAPTER NINETEEN The Red Tent—A Call to Arms
CHAPTER TWENTY A Delicate Game of Chess
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE An Elephantine Tussle
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO A True Mughal
Trivia Treasury
1 Desperados!
On a cold evening in Rajasthan, over 550 years ago, a couple of armed men began getting their horses ready for a long ride into the night. Once the sun set, the desert morphed into a different world. From October onwards, a scorching hot day could turn into a freezing night within hours. Apart from the sharp drop in temperature, the bitingly cold wind blowing across the dunes with no trees to break their intensity, would make eyes water. Yet chilly as it gets, the Thar Desert is one of the driest places in the world, with barely 5–10 millimetres of rain through the entire winter.
The two men wrapped themselves in layers of cloth, hoping to beat the cold that would soon envelop the desert along with the darkness, as they dashed off on a desperate mission.They had to somehow find water.The bedraggled group of refugees that they were travelling with had been on the run for the last few months. They had been forced to abandon their palaces, beautifully laid out gardens and enormous wealth in Lahore, in the Punjab, as the army of Sher Shah and his allies chased them over nearly 1000 km. Miraculously, the group had managed to stay just ahead, and out of the reach of their pursuers.
But the journey had taken its toll.Many had deserted the group. Hundreds had been killed in skirmishes. And even more had died from dehydration in the desert. Horses, that had swept this crowd out of harm’s way in the tumultuous Punjab, now dropped dead on their knees in the sands of the Thar.
As the water seekers approached a well, in the fading light they noticed fresh hoof prints in the sand; and in the distance were clouds of dust receding into the horizon. Obviously this oasis had just been visited! Their hopes rose … water, at last !
But when they peered into the well, they found it filled with sand. The men, driven crazy with thirst, couldn’t imagine why anybody would damage a precious water source. But night after night, when the exhausted riders found more wells all filled up with sand, they understood. This was deliberate, well-planned sabotage. Obviously they were being watched by enemies.Those ever-present fresh hoof marks around every well they’d approached meant that they were being constantly spied on by Rajputs hostile to them. The desert dwellers’ superior knowledge of the region gave them an advantage. As the Rajputs tracked the fleeing Northerners, they harassed them, turning the wells en route into useless mirages.
The refugees were tough, battle-hardened Mughals, originally from the mountains beyond the Hindukush range. They were descendants of the fierce Mongol warriors and empire builders Chengis Khan and Timur the Lame. Even the women among them were quite at ease spending months on horseback, covering hundreds of miles on their sturdy tipchak highland horses. But the unsuccessful water-collectors felt especially rotten about returning empty-handed to their camp … because a beautiful young queen was travelling with them. She was barely fifteen years old and nine months pregnant.
The birth of a Mughal prince or princess was imminent, but only if they could find water. Otherwise, both mother and child could die in this bleak corner of Hindustan.

A dynasty saved by an elephant
Horsemanship was in every Mughal’s blood. Across the steppes of Central Asia, where Babur’s family came from, kings and their armies spent more time on horseback than on solid ground. In 1526, when Babur’s men fought Ibrahim Lodi’s massive army at Panipat, it was the first time the Mughals were facing elephants in battle.Yet their superior weapons and formidable cavalry (horse-mounted soldiers) were able to beat Lodi’s army.
In India, the Mughals soon grew to appreciate and value elephants. Babur died only four years after his India conquest. Barely thirteen years after his son Humayun had been on the throne in Delhi, it looked liked the Mughals would have to return to their nomadic lives on horseback because Humayun’s army was devastatingly defeated by the Afghan, Sher Shah, at Kanauj.The Mughals had been surrounded and driven towards the river. Thousands jumped in, along with their armour and sank to their death. Humayun himself was saved when he leapt into the Ganga and one of Babur’s old elephants ferried him to safety to the opposite shore—shoeless, crownless but alive. But once across the river, it was back to horses for the Mughals, who then raced all the way to Agra and on to Lahore, evading Sher Shah’s army.
2 The Girl Who Refused to be Queen
So how ha