w
represented by the Mahi Kantha and Rewa Kantha agencies, the Panch
Mahas, Palanpur, Radhanpur, Balisna, Cambay, Khandeah, and the great
peninsula of Kathiawar. This agglomeration of territories had for a
long time had no legitimate master. Parcelled out into districts,
each of which was ruled by a Muhammadan noble alien to the great bulk
of the population, it had been for years the scene of constant civil
war, the chiefs grinding the peasantry to obtain the means wherewith
to obtain the supreme mastery. Sometimes, fired by information of the
weakness of an adjoining province, the chiefs would combine to make
temporary raids. The result was that Gujarat had become the focus of
disorder. The people were oppressed, and the petty tyrants who ruled
over them were bent only on seeking advantages at the expense of
others. Akbar had long felt the results of this anarchy, and he
resolved now to put an end to it for ever.

{109} The expedition of Akbar to Gujarat is the most famous military
exploit of his reign. He was resolved that there should be no mistake
either in its plan or in its execution. For the first time since he
had become ruler of the greater part of India he felt secure as to
the behaviour, during the probable duration of the expedition, of the
conduct of his nobles and his vassals. He set out from Fatehpur-Sikri
at the head of his army in September, 1572, and marching by Sanganer,
eighteen miles south of Jaipur, reached Ajmere the middle of October.
There he stayed two days to visit the mausoleum of the saint, then,
having sent an advanced guard of ten thousand horse to feel the way,
followed with the bulk of the army, and marched on Nagaur,
seventy-five miles to the north-east of Jodhpur. On reaching Nagaur a
courier arrived with the information that a son, later known as
Prince Danyal, had been born to him. He spent there fourteen days in
arranging for the supplies of his army, then pushing on, reached
Patan, on the Saraswati, in November, and Ahmadabad early in the
following month. In the march between the two places he had received
the submission of the chief who claimed to be supreme lord of
Gujarat, but whose authority was barely nominal. At Ahmadabad, then
the first city in Gujarat, Akbar was proclaimed Emperor of Western
India.

There remained, however, to be dealt with many of the chieftains, all
unwilling to renounce the authority they possessed. Amongst these
were the rulers of Broach, of Baroda,