KARACHI: The navaratnas of Mughal Emperor Akbar is a myth. He had a wide range of talented men around him, not just nine. This was claimed by author Ira Mukhoty while discussing her book Akbar: The Great Mughal with Aliya Iqbal Naqvi, a professor at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), during an online event hosted by Afkar-i-Taza Thinkfest on Thursday evening.

Ms Mukhoty, who was speaking from across the border in India, said writing books was an act of reinventing herself. The reason she used Akbar as the subject for her third book was that from the time she was writing her first book Heroines: Powerful Indian Women of Myth and History she was skirting around the idea and realised that there were a lot of myths about the Mughals, a lot of folk stories. “We think we know them well, they are part of our culture, we take them for granted, but actually the granular details escape us.”

With reference to women, there was something more important happening at the time of Akbar’s reign. In Babar and Humayun’s periods, women were freer and acted as ambassadors but Akbar had a progressive view of women. He fought against sati, against child marriage, wanted widows to be allowed to remarry; so there was this dichotomy that the author was interested in: his vision for himself and the women around him.

Ms Mukhoty, giving the second reason for writing the book, said when she grew up [in India] it was very normal for her father to begin his day by reading a little bit from the holy books of different religions, and “now there’s this strident narrative of what it means to be Indian, and the definition seems to be getting narrower and narrower. There seems to be a parameter within which you must fall if you’re to be called Indian.” So she thought this was an interesting time to look at one of the great figures of our shared history.

After that Ms Mukhoty gave a detailed account of the sources that she used for her book, mainly focusing on miniature paintings, calling them very important to her work.

Writer dissects the myths surrounding the Mughal emperor

Answering a question the writer said Akbar was heavily influenced by his Timurid past. The Mughals were proud Timurids, and if we looked at Timur, we’d see his pragmatism, and the women travelled with him. Akbar had it and constantly wondered why widowed women couldn’t remarry. The extent to which he pushed the envelope, never doubting his ability or what he set out to do, whether it was the taming of wild elephants or conquering prickly neighbours — that was Akbar’s genius.

He believed he had the power of a divine influence behind him so he must use his time on earth judiciously. As long as the talent was there, he would promote a person without considering their background.

On the myth of Akbar’s navaratnas (nine jewels) Ms Mukhoty pointed out the name navaratnas did not exist at the court. There was no clique of these nine men, one of whom was even invented. “The fact is there were many talented men around Akbar. Maybe the clique [of nine jewels] got confused with the idea of the Deen-i-Ilahi.”

On Akbar’s relationship with the Sufi saint Saleem Chishty, Ms Mukothy said the Timurids had relationships with the Sufis right down the ages in Central Asia, more with the Naqshbandis, but in India the Chishtys served their purpose better because they had a more accepting idea of kingship or did not expect the kings to unnecessarily tax non-Muslims. Akbar did not have a living heir; he was approaching 30 and he only had daughters. So he heard of Saleem Chishty in a village called Sikri. This saint predicted the birth of his son, and soon after he had a son.

On the Deen-i-Ilahi the author said it was more of a pir-murid relationship where Akbar was the pir; an elite cult of likeminded men who were willing to follow Akbar. The more interesting thing was the sulh-i-kul, which was not the blending of religions but the ability to practise your religion safely and freely.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2020