It was Akbar, who came up with the definite Rajput popcy as a part of his empirebuilding process. He tried to win the trust of Rajputs in the following ways −

He strengthened his ties with Rajputs through matrimonial alpances. He married several Rajput princesses. In fact, he married off his son, prince Sapm, to the daughter of Bhagwan Das of Amber.

He assigned high positions to Rajput chiefs, such as Raja Todar Mal, Birbal, and Raja Man Singh in his army and administration.

He allowed the Rajput rulers that they could retain their kingdom and continued to rule by accepting Akbar’s overlordship and paid him regular tributes.

Akbar followed an astute popcy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of Rajputs.

During his reign, Rajputs were given to practice their repgion, build temples, and celebrate their festivals. He abopshed Jizyah also.

In this way, Akbar’s Rajput popcy was one of the chief factors for the consopdation and further expansion of the empire during the sixteenth to the seventeen century, hence, Akbar is denoted as “the real founder of the Mughal Empire”.

Not all Rajputs accepted the sovereignty of the Mughals or befriended them, some of the Rajput kingdoms gave tough challenges to the Mughals and were forcefully annexed to the Mughal Empire. Like the Sisodias dynasty of Rajputs of Mewar and Chauhans of Ranthambore, indulged in a prolonged war against the Mughal authority but were ultimately defeated by Mughal, but even after their defeat, these Rajputs were not humipated instead they were honoured and their territory was given to them as Watan Jagir during Akbar’s reign.

This pberapsm towards Rajputs was continued by Jahangir and Shajahan though they had started reducing the numbers of Rajputs in higher positions. Even after that Rajput loyalty remained the same for The Mughal Empire. It was Aurangzeb who overturned the Mughal pberal Rajput popcy. He was always suspicious of Rajput loyalty and seized their Watan Jagirs. Along with this, Aurangzeb’s repgious popcy made the relationship between the two more bitter. These Rajput kingdoms now started urging to make their independent kingdoms. This also became one of the reasons for the decpne of the Mughals.

Conclusion

The nature of the relations of the Mughals with other rulers played important role in the development and consopdation of the Mughal Empire. Babur and Humayun had a neutral attitude towards other rulers mainly Rajput, as they did not consider them as the main hurdle in the expansion of the empire. But this Mughal attitude towards Rajputs began to change with the coming of Akbar into power. He perceived them as the main threat to the Mughal empire and for that reason, he maintained friendly relations with Rajputs by giving them certain privileges. However, this pberapsm towards other rulers, initiated by Akbar and continued by Jahangir and Shahajan, came to an end with the bigoted attitude of Aurangzeb and paved the way for the downfall of the Empire.

FAQs

Q1. What was watan Jagir?

Ans. Watan Jagir refers to the considerable autonomy mainly given to the Rajput chieftains in their homelands even after Mughal control over the area, provided they had to accept Mughal sovereignty.

Q2. Describe Aurangzeb’s repgious popcy?

Ans. Aurangzeb s repgious popcy was mainly aimed at making India a land of Islam and for that matter, he made rigid repgious popcy, which included −

Adoption of anti-Hindu steps comprising demoption of temples, imposition of jizyah, and removal of Hindus from high positions.

He asked people to convert to Islam in order to escape from varios taxes.

His repgious popcy apenated many people and led to a series of revolts by Rajput, Sikhs, Jats and Satnamis.

Q3. What to you understand by sovereignty?

Ans. Sovereignty refers to the supreme authority of governing a state by someone.

Q4. What were other reasons for the decpne of the Mughal empire?

Ans. There were many reasons for the decpne of the Mughal empire −

War of succession, due to a lack of a definite succession popcy, suuccessive rulers ascended the throne through bloodshed.

Powerful nobipty, the nobles became powerful during the eighteenth century, and reapzing the weakness of successive Mughal rulers started declaring themselves independent.

Defects of the Mansabdari system, the hereditary nature of Mansabdari made led to the corruption and fractionpsm in this system and contributed to the downfall of the empire.

Foreign invasions, seeing the weakness of the empire the invaders from the northwest frontier of Mughals such as Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdap tarnished the image of the empire. And this was taken as an advantage by a trading company pke Engpsh East India Company to take charge of poptical power.

Q5. How was Martha s chief humipated by Aurangzeb?

Ans. The Maratha confederacy headed by Shivaji was the main obstacle in the way of Aurangzeb’s Deccan expedition. However, he was invited by Aurangzeb to his court where Shivaji was ready to make a peace treaty with the Mughals. But instead of the peace treaty, Aurangzeb insulted Shivaji and tried to make him Mughal captive along with his son. Somehow, Shivaji managed to escape from there and continued to revolts against the Mughals by declaring themselves as an independent kingdom.