Akbar

Akbar was declared emperor at the age of 13, after his father Humayun's accidental death. The chapter sums up his reign in one phrase: a mix of brutality and tolerance, shaped by ambition and strategy.

Both halves are told fully, and the brutality comes first because it came first in his life.

At Chittorgarh he besieged the fort for more than five months against determined Rajput resistance. When it finally fell, the defenders died fighting in large numbers, and hundreds of women performed jauhar: jumping into mass fires to avoid capture and enslavement, seen as a heroic act of final resistance.

Akbar then ordered the massacre of some 30,000 civilians, and the surviving women and children were enslaved. He was 25. His message of victory boasted of destroying temples "all over Hindustan".

He also held the view of earlier rulers: "A monarch should be ever intent on conquest, otherwise his enemies rise in arms against him."

Then his methods changed. As the empire grew, he used political strategies to keep it stable:

• marriage alliances with princesses of neighbouring kingdoms;
• welcoming Rajput and regional leaders into his court;
• abolishing the jizya;
• promoting sulh-i-kul, literally 'peace with all': tolerance of all faiths. (It was a policy, not a new religion.)

His court historian Abul Fazl recorded him saying: "Formerly I persecuted men into conformity with my faith … As I grew in knowledge, I was overwhelmed with shame … What constancy is to be expected from proselytes on compulsion?" In plain words: what loyalty can you expect from people forced to convert?

His reign lasted almost 50 years, from 1556 to 1605. Though he could not read or write, he explored Persian and Indian texts through scholars he invited to court, and set up a 'house of translation' at Fatehpur Sikri, where these were translated into Persian:

• the Mahābhārata (as the Razmnama, the 'Book of War');
• the Rāmāyaṇa, with 176 miniature paintings;
• the Bhagavad Gītā;
• the Pañchatantra.