mbition had
inflicted, and received from millions that meed of praise which no
other of his race ever obtained.' I need not add that if to render
happiness to millions is one of the first objects of kingship, and if
to obtain that end union has to be cemented by conquest, the means
sanction {184} the end. Akbar did not conquer in Rajputana to rule in
Rajputana. He conquered that all the Rajput princes, each in his own
dominions, might enjoy that peace and prosperity which his
predominance, never felt aggressively, secured for the whole empire.

From the Raja of Jodhpur, Udai Singh, at the time the most powerful
of the Rajput princes, Akbar obtained the hand of his daughter for
his son Salim. The princess became the mother of a son who succeeded
his father as the Emperor Shah Jahan. In him the Rajput blood
acquired a position theretofore unknown in India. Of this marriage,
so happy in its results, Colonel Tod writes that Akbar obtained it by
a bribe, the gift of four provinces which doubled the fisc of Marwar
(Jodhpur). He adds: 'With such examples as Amber and Marwar, and with
less power to resist temptation, the minor chiefs of Rajast'han, with
a brave and numerous vassalage, were transformed into satraps of
Delhi, and the importance of most of them was increased by the
change.' Truly did the Mughal historian designate them as 'at once
the props and ornaments of the throne.'

There surely could not be a greater justification of the policy of
Akbar with respect to Rajputana and its princes than is contained in
the testimony of this writer, all of whose sympathies were strongly
with the Rajputs.

Whilst on the subject of the imperial marriages, I may mention that
Akbar had many wives, but of these eight only are authoritatively
mentioned. His {185} first wife was his cousin, a daughter of his
uncle, Hindal Mirza. She bore him no children, and survived him,
living to the age of eighty-four. His second wife was also a cousin,
being the daughter of a daughter of Babar, who had married Mirza
Nuruddin Muhammad. She was a poetess, and wrote under the _nom de
plume_, Makhfi (the concealed). His third wife was the daughter of
Raja Bihari Mall and sister of Raja Bhagwan Das. He married her in
1560. The fourth wife was famed for her beauty: she had been
previously married to Abul Wasi. The fifth wife, mother of Jahangir,
was a Jodhpur princess, Jodh Baei. As mother of the heir apparent,
she held the first place in the harem. T