Akbar and the Sikhs
Akbar calls on Guru Ji
Abu'l Fazl records the emperor alighting at Guru Ji's house while crossing the Beas.
The Akbarnama gives only a short notice, in Moosvi's translation. The emperor crossed the Beas on an elephant near Goindwal while his troops used a boat bridge. On that day he stopped at Guru Ji's house, accepting the invitation because it came from true devotion. Abu'l Fazl calls Guru Ji the leader of a Brahmanical faith, a slip that the editors explain by noting that he was not in camp at the time.
Sikh writers, as reported in the Encyclopaedia, add that Guru Ji asked for relief for peasants after a failed monsoon, and that Akbar cut the land revenue.
How do we know?
A close source supports this story, and a second independent source agrees.
The dates conflict: 4 November in the Akbarnama translation against 24 November in the Encyclopaedia and Gupta. The translators also point out that the Akbarnama reports the reduction later and as cancelling an earlier increase, and says nothing of a plea by Guru Ji. So the visit is firm, and the revenue link is a later Sikh addition.
- From the timeAbu'l Fazl dates the crossing and the visit to 13 Azar, given as 4 November 1598. (Text 1, p. 55)[(eds)]
- ScholarshipGives 24 November 1598 and says Guru Ji's plea led to remission of the year's revenue.[EoS]
- ScholarshipGives November 1598 and a 10 to 12 per cent reduction in Punjab revenue at Guru Ji's request.[EoS]
- ScholarshipGives 24 November 1598.[Gupta]
