Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/20

 2 AKBAK THE GREAT the process was incomplete. There was no sudden and miraculous submission to the boy of thirteen who found himself called to an as yet unconquered throne by the accident that ended his father's ineffectual life in the beginning of 1556. A hard struggle was before him ere he could call himself king even of Delhi. He was fortunate, no doubt, in the divisions of his adversaries, and after the crushing defeat of Himu at Panipat he was never called upon to meet a general muster of Indian troops; but the process of reducing usurper after usurper, and suppressing one rebellion after an- other, was tedious and harassing, and in spite of a wise statesmanship matured by experience, and a clemency and toleration which grew with advancing years, to the day of his death Akbar seldom knew what it was to enjoy a year's freedom from war. At the time of his accession the only parts of India that he possessed were the Panjab and Delhi in the north, which were the fruits of the victory at Sirhind in 1555. The Afghan dynasty still held Bengal and the Ganges valley; the Rajputs were independent in West- ern Hindustan, and there were innumerable chiefs in possession of separate principalities all over the coun- try. It was not till the third year of his reign that Akbar was able to occupy Ajmir. Gwalior fell in 1558, and by 1561 he had driven the Afghans back from Lurknow and Jaunpur. The Moghul empire so far was almost restricted to the Panjab and the Northwest Provinces, though Malwa was partly overrun in 1561, and Bnrhanpur in Khandesh was raptured a year later.