Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/159

 CiiAP VI.] REIGN OF AKBER. 125

enlightened administration. When he succeeded lie possessed little more than a.d. i56i. the territory aroimd Delhi and Agra, together with an imperfect and precarious hold of the Punjab. During Behram's regency Ajmeer was added to his Akber's

vigorous

dominions without a contest, the strong fort of Gwalior wjis captured, and the ana success- Afghans were driven as far enst as Juanpoor, after being dispossessed of Lucknow and a large tract of country on the Ganges. In loGO, shortly after the dismissal of Behram Khan, Akber, from a desire perhaps to signalize his full assumi)tion of the reins of government, resolved to attempt the contjuest of Malwah, and with that view despatched an army under the connnand of Adam Khan Atka. The princi[)ality was then in the possession of Baz Bahadur, who kept his court at Sarungpoor, where he had become so much the slave of indo- lence and pleasure, that the Moguls were within twenty miles of his capital before he could be roused to action. Even then his resistance was feeble ; and his troops having been routed at the first onset, be fled for Boorhanpoor, leaving his propert}' and family behind. These immediately fell into the hands of Adam Khan. He at once disposed of them as if he had been absolute master, sending only a few elephants to Akber, who was so much dissatisfied that he set out without delay to call liim to account. Adam Khan, if he really entertained treasonable designs, found them completely frustrated by Akber's ex])edition, and hastened to make his peace. He had previously, by the indulgence of unbridled passion, been the cause of an aft'ecting catastrophe.

One of the inmates of the harem wtis a Hindoo of surpassing beauty, highly a tivigiciU accomplished, and celebrated as a poetess. After endeavouring in vain to resist the importunities and violence of Adam Khan, she pretended to yield, and fixed the hour of meeting. When he arrived it Wcis only to behold her corpse. Immediately after the appointment she had retired to lier chamber, put on her most splendid dress, sprinkled the richest perfumes, and taken poison. Her attendants, seeing her lie down on her couch and cover lier face with her mantle, thought she had fallen asleej), and did not become aware of the real fact till, on the khan s a))proach, they attempted to waken her.

Akber retm-ned to Agi-a, and shortly after made Mahomed Khan Atka. Aki>er governor of the Punjab, his prime minister, and confeired the government of niiuioo. Malwah on his old preceptor, Peer Mahomed Khan, whom Behraiu Khan had, in a fit of jealou.sy, driven into exile. In 1561, while on a visit to a celebrated shrine in Ajmeer, Akber married the daughter of Poorunmul, Rajah of Je^qwor, and enrolled botli the rajah and his son among the nobles of his court This is said to be the first instance in which a Hindoo chief was ennobled or ])laced in any position of high ti-ust under the government of the Great Mogul. Akber, before (putting Ajmeer, despatched Mirza Shurf-u-din Hoossein to invest the fort of Merta, belonging to Maldo, Rajah of Marwar; and then set out for Agra with such ex])edition that, by taking only six attendants, and travelling without interruptitni. he pei-foi-med the distance of above 200 miles in three da>'S.