Akbar
- 1. AKBAR Dear class today I would like to share the story of a great ruler "Akbar" India was ruled by Mughal Emperors from1526 to 1707. Abu'l-Fath Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar, also known as Akbar the Great was Mughal Emperor from1556 until 1605. Hewas the third and one of the greatest rulers of the Mughal Dynasty in India. A strong personality and a successfulgeneral, enlarged the Mughal Empire with his power and influence. Akbar himself was a patron of art and culture. He was fond of literature, and created a library of over 24,000 volumes. Heremoved all individual distinctions based on religion, castand creed and ruled for fifty years. This respectfulMuslim ruler, had lots of respects for other religions and encouraged Hinduism. Akbar had nine gems as his courtiers and Birbal was his minister as well as an adviser. They solved many disputes to maintain peace in the kingdom. They had great bonding. I will tell you one shortstory of their time:
- 2. AKBAR The Akbar palace One day Birbal came to the courtvery late. When the emperor Akbar wanted to know the reason, he said "Whatcan I do your majesty? My children started crying today and they were insisting that I should not go to the court. Itwas with great difficulty that I managed to explain to them it was important for me to go to and attend the court. I had to wastea lot of time in the process, and hence I am late." The Emperor wasn'tsatisfied with Birbal's excuse and said "Birbal, I don't agree with you. Itis not difficult to pacify a child and so there is no reason why it should take such a long time!" Birbal laughed and said "Your highness, it is easy to scold children. But to explain to them something is very difficult." The Emperor said "OK. Your majesty, I shall act and behavelike a child and you, considering yourself to be my father, try to pacify me. And let us see" Then Birbal started behaving like a small child. He made funny gestures at the Emperor and ran aboutin the court playing like a small child. He threw way his 'Turban'. Finally, he sat on the Emperor's lap and started pulling his moustache.
- 3. AKBAR The Emperor said, "No, my child! Don¡¯tdo this. Be a good boy." But Birbal started crying loudly. Then, the Emperor ordered some sweets. But, Birbal still kept on crying. The Emperor became irritated, but trying to maintain his cool, he said, "Do you want to play with toys. Here, take these toys." But Birbal said crying, "I wanta sugarcane!"
- 4. AKBAR The Emperor smiled and ordered a sugarcane. Soon the guards broughta stack of Sugarcanes. But, Birbal didn't stop crying. "I wanta big sugarcanechopped into small pieces!¡± Then the Emperor asked the guards to chop up the Sugarcane into small pieces. Crying even more loudly, Birbal said, "No, not the guards; you yourself chop it up into pieces." The Emperor was highly upset by this time. But he had no alternative to chop the sugarcane. Then he placed sugarcanein frontof Birbal and said, "Now eat this quickly my boy!" But Birbal continued with his childish demands and said "I wanted the whole sugarcane!" The Emperor pulled out one whole cane from the stack and giving it to Birbal, said, "Here take this and stop crying!" But Birbal cried, "No, not that, I wanta wholesugarcaneout of these small pieces!" "Oh you silly child! It is not possible!" The Emperor was highly annoyed. But Birbal kept on crying. At last the Emperor lost cool and said "Now if you don't stop crying I will slap you really hard!" Now Birbal got up and said laughing, "Oh, no! Do not beat me, your Majesty. Do you realise, how difficult it is to satisfy the whims of a child?" The Emperor agreed with the views of Birbal and said, "Yes, it is certainly not a child's play to pacify a crying child!" With help of Birbal in making decisions,
- 5. AKBAR Akbar ruled the kingdomwith fairness, loyalty, bravery and wisdom. Akbar was one of the greatest Mughal Emperors whosenameis taken with High regard till today.