None of his reforms are more notable than the revenue system carried out by his Hindu minister, Todar Mal, itself a development of a system initiated by Shir Shah.  His empire was divided into fifteen provinces, each under a viceroy under the control of the king himself.  Great as a warrior and great as an administrator Akber always enjoyed abundant leisure for study and amusement.  He excelled in all exercises of strength and skill; his history is filled with instances of romantic courage, and he had a positive enjoyment of danger.  Yet he had no fondness for war, which he neither sought nor continued without good reason.

IV.—­The Mogul Empire

Akber died in 1605 and was succeeded by his son Selim, who took the title of Jehan Gir.  The Deckan, hardly subdued, achieved something like independence under a great soldier and administrator of Abyssinian origin, named Malik Amber.  In the sixth year of his reign Jehan Gir married the beautiful Nur Jehan, by whose influence the emperor’s natural brutality was greatly modified in practice.  His son, Prince Khurram, later known as Shah Jehan, distinguished himself in war with the Rajputs, displaying a character not unworthy of his grandfather.  In 1616 the embassy of Sir Thomas Roe from James I visited the Court of the Great Mogul.  Sir Thomas was received with great honour, and is full of admiration of Jehan Gir’s splendour.  It is clear, however, that the high standards set up by Akber were fast losing their efficacy.

Jehan Gir died in 1627 and was succeeded by Shah Jehan.  Much of his reign was largely occupied with wars in the Deckan and beyond the northwest frontier on which the emperor’s son Aurangzib was employed.  Most of the Deckan was brought into subjection, but Candahar was finally lost.  Shah Jehan was the most magnificent of all the Moguls.  In spite of his wars, Hindustan itself enjoyed uninterrupted tranquillity, and on the whole, a good Government.  It was he who constructed the fabulously magnificent peacock throne, built Delhi anew, and raised the most exquisite of all Indian buildings, the Taj Mahal or Pearl Mosque, at Agre.  After a reign of thirty years he was deposed by his son Aurangzib, known also as Alam Gir.

Aurangzib had considerable difficulty in securing his position by the suppression of rivals; but our interest now centres in the Deckan, where the Maratta people were organised into a new power by the redoubtable Sivaji.  Though some of the Marattas claim Rajput descent, they are of low caste.  They have none of the pride or dignity of the Rajput, and they care nothing for the point of honour; but they are active, hardy, persevering, and cunning.  Sivaji was the son of a distinguished soldier named Shahji, in the service of the King of Bijapur.  By various artifices young Sivaji brought a large area under his control.  Then he revolted against Bijapur, posing as a Hindu leader.  He wrung for himself a sort of independence