Agra fort tour
On our Tajmahal tour with oral Historian we reached at Agra fort after visiting Aram Bagh and Baby Taj. Akbar was the Mughal king who actually established the Mughal empire in North India strongly. His grandfather Babur founded the empire but passed away at age of forty just after four years of his raid to Delhi and Agra. Babur did not enjoy much his victory and he was not able move beyond Delhi and Agra.
This best Tajmahal tour gave us deep insight into the life of Akbar and his character. He was born in the palace of Hindu king called Rana parsad in Umarkot, Pakistan (earlier it was Sindh state), his father took refuge at this hindu king house when he was on run. Later he was transferred to his uncle house in Kabul. He was dyslexic , he could not read and write. He was good in hunting, running and exercises.
At the age of Nine he was appointed as commander of the army of the state Gazni. At age of 14 he got married with a girl called Ruqqya. She was her cousin. This Tajmahal tour package also had detailed knowledge of Mughal traditions. At the age of 14 he was announced the Emperor of Delhi and Agra when his father passed away in a night. The man behind this all fast pacing life of Akbar was Bairam khan. He lead all the wars & administrative policies on the name of Akbar.
He paid too much attention on firearms and artillery. It was called gunpowder empire. Hindu kings of India were brave and talented fighter but their kingdom were small, they had small army and they did not have canons & firearms. Babur and Akbar bought canons and firearms from Ottomans of turkey. I found this best Tajmahal tour package because it had all information which I was looking for. This agra tour was impressive, I will say best agra tour. Even our agra agent was very professional.
The key reason of success of Babur and Akbar was Gun powder in which Hindu kings failed. Akbars military campaigns were large & huge against the miniature Hindu kingdoms. Akbar made a system of hiring military commanders on salary. There were 33 military commanders in his empire. Highest ranking military commander had 10,000 soldiers and lowest had 10 soldiers. Later on it reached to 700 military commanders during the time of sixth Mughal king Aurangzeb.
The Military commanders were small kings. They had many villages under their control and used to collect taxes on name of Mughal Emperor Akbar. Locals were confused and fearful with this new system imposed on them. Earlier there was fair tax collection system which was paid to the Hindu King. Hindu Kings treated the locals as their children. But now new Military commanders were many from foreign lands of Central Asia, Turkmenistan, Arab and Afghanistan. They had no mercy or soft corner for locals. They were here to collect tax at any cost. Each land belonged to the Emporer Akbar now. I will write more which I learnt on this best agra tour.
