The Mughal Empire saw its optimum progress during the reign of Akbar. Akbar`s name is true to his mettle.The meaning of the Persian word "Akbar" is the "Greatest One". He is certainly Akbar, the Great, the greatest of the Mughals.

Jalaluddin Akbar, (1556-1605) the thirteen year old boy , emerged as the "Padshah"(ruler of the empire). He had inherited from his father , Humayun, a Mughal Empire , which consists of only Kabul, Kandahar, and portions of Punjab and Delhi. He faced numerous odds with the sudden death of his father. Still, he received immense mental strength and insurmountable courage under the genuine care, intensive guidance and tutelage of his regent and fatherly figure, Bairam Khan.

Hemchandra(Hemu),the commander-in-chief of the Afghan king , Muhammad Adil Shah of Bengal hatched a conspiracy to banish the Mughals from India. Hemu annexed Agra and Delhi and became its ruler under the title "Raja Vikramaditya". Bairam Khan reached Delhi to oppose this move. The counter reactions culminated into the Second Battle of Panipat. The huge army of Hemu with an aggressive cavalry and artillery would have vanquished the Mughals, had not an arrow penetrated the vigorous Hemu in the eye. The subsequent pandemonium amidst Hemu`s side led the traumatized soldiers to fly away from the battlefield. And the poor, unconscious Hemu was captured and beheaded .The success in the Second Battle of Panipat premonitioned that Akbar was fated to rise to the zenith of fame and achievement.

Ties with Bairam Khan was bound to severe. The authoritative Bairam revolted against Akbar`s full assumption of imperial powers.However, the grateful Akbar remembering his immense contribution in times of need, reined his plot-movements, and freed him from captivity. Bairam fled, finally.

However, Akbar`s treatment of his rival half-brother Adham Khan was different. Adham, who instigated the other chiefs, like the Uzbegs to rise into rebellion were squelched by Akbar. Adham had seized Malwa before under Akbar`s instructions in 1561 ,but its ruler Baz Bahadur again recovered it. Akbar sent Asaf Khan in 1564 to plant there his flag of imperialism. The neighbouring kingdom of Malwa, Garah Katunga in Gondwana delivered a strong resistance under the valour of Rani Durgavati,the mother of its minor king Bir Narayan. But nothing could forbid the Mughals.

During the first fifty years of his rule, Akbar concentrated upon the consolidation and extension of the Mughal holdings. By 1605 Akbar had given shape to a vast expanse of royal territory bordered by Kabul in the northwest, by Kashmir in the north, by Bengal(the Indo-Gangetic Basin) in the east ,by the Narmada river, the Gujarat and the Sindh in the central part of India and portion of the Deccan to the Godavari river in the south .

Administrative excellence attained through institutional innovation was the hallmark of Akbar`s reign.The order was akin to that of Sher Shah Suri in few respects. He had a well-organized bureaucracy and a controlled autonomy to ensure good governance of the imperial states. Unique was the pattern of his Mansabdari system . A mansabdar or a military governor was the provincial,military head of a state. And in an Ottoman state he was the man answerable for everything to the Mughal headquarters. Allegations of cruelty to the poor, or of acts of corruption, against a Mansab ,if found true , invited serious penalties. The emperor could recruit or dismiss a mansab in service,anytime he willed.

Tax-collection was an important feature of bureaucratic function. Tax-accumulation had a fixed reasonable amount. It was one-third of the total crop-production in a year. Taxation policy was justly followed for all,irrespective of caste and creed.

Akbar, the tolerant Muslim was much ahead of his age. He wisely abolished the condescending malpractice of extracting taxes or Jiziya, from non-Muslims on the basis of religious differences. The extraction of pilgrimage taxes was also rendered null and void. This wonderful initiative drew the cynical Rajputs close to him. Akbar was a witty diplomat. He won over the hearts of the orthodox Rajputs ,who never before had accepted the embrace of friendship from any other Mughal.

Development of this new Hindu-Muslim alliance changed the course of Indian History. In 1562, Raja Bihari Mal of Amber(Jaipur) submitted before Akbar with an intention of friendship . His son,Bhagwan Das, and grandson, Man Singh also befriended Akbar. The growing relationship got cemented when Akbar married Man Singh`s sister, Jodhabai, his favourite wife. Hindu aristrocrats like Raja Todar Mal and Birbal enjoyed high positions in Mughal administration ,conferred on them by the emperor himself.

But the quintessence of Rajput spirit , Mewar, discarded all amibiality extended by Akbar.Udai Singh ,son of the noble Rana Sangram Singh of Mewar, fled, keeping staunch followers like Jaimal and Patta to defend the fort of Chitor. Eventually,both died,and the Mughals besieged the fort in 1567`s October. This victory made the other terrorized Rajputs,Raja Surana Hara of Ranthambor, and Ramchand, the chief of Kalinjar in Bundelkhand, who previously defied Akbar, to surrender to his suzerainty in 1569 .Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur were aalso added to the Mughal map in 1570.

However Chitor continued to be a source of concern. Udai Singh`s brave warrior son , Rana Pratap evolved to be a peril.This committed patriot disturbed Mughal peace to the utmost. But to Pratap`s utter despair a body of troops commanded by Raja Man Singh of Amber exploded into a furious battle against Pratap`s army at the pass in Haldighat. This defeat quelled Pratap , who somehow saved his life ,in such a way that he could never make any comeback.

In 1569,Gujrat with rich commercial prospect was included into Mughal property.Then Bengal in 1575, Bihar in 1572,Kabul, Kandahar,Baluchistan,Sindh were the next set of occupations.

He was the first of the Mughals to obtain foothold in the Deccan region.Khandesh which offered vestive opposition was conquered finally by 1601.

Certainly, Akbar`s reign was the "Golden Age" of the Mughal Empire. A forthright reformer of social, religious,cultural norms, he magnanimously presided over a Hindu- Muslim happy harmony. His was the mantra of love, compassion, tolerance, peace . In 1575 he built a house of worship at Fatehpur Shikri. He cordially welcomed Hindu, Muslim, Christian,Jain and Parsi theologians to a religious discussion held there.

He sorted out the essential principles of every religious belief. This influenced the genesis of the new religion, he promulgated, the Din-i-illahi or the "Religion of God" in 1582.This newly founded religion was a splendid synthesis of Hinduism, Zoroastrianism,Islam, Christianity and Jainism. Din-i-illahi propagated the concept of God being the unified ,singular, omnipotence pervading all existence.To this was attached the core idea of this religion-"the unity of the Real" or the unity of the Supreme Truth i.e. the Almighty with everything around.The cosmic creation is a manifestation of the Creator,was what Wadath -al-wujut meant. Din-i-illahi taught a fundamental respect for all forms of life. This theory of Divine Universality promoted the flowering of tolerance.

The immortal truth that "All are but branches of the same tree, of one God"- established by Akbar, long back in the sixteenth century, can create a Paradise of Harmony, which is the pursuit of today"s world also.