AKBAR THE GREAT-4

एक दुखी परिवार – २4

Akbar weds Salima Begum, the widow of Akbar's since asasinated Regent, friend, philosopher and guide, Bairam.

Akbar had wedded Bairam's Widow Salima Begum, after Bairam was assassinated en route his pilgrimage, to which Akbar dispatched him, following his (Akbar's disenchantenment with his said God Father, also his friend, philosopher and guide, Bairam, without whom Babur would have felt inadequacies, Humayu would not have got reinstated after his ouster by Sher Shah (who had defeated him twice but to Humayu's good luck, died within five years) and without whom Akbar might have faced not just upbringing issue, but even dethroning, if not by the likes of Bairam, by the detractirs of Humayu whose oppositions had never abated).

Salima's wedding with Bairam.

It was in December of 1557, at the age of eighteen, Salima Begum was married to the considerably older Bairam Khan, (who was thrice er age, in his fifties) at Jalandhar, Punjab. 

Bairam was the Military Commander of the Mughal Empire and a powerful statesman at the Mughal Court.

 It is said that the marriage evoked great excitement and interest at Court, because it united two streams of descent, one  from Ali Shukr Beg, i.e. the Blacksheep Turkomans from Bairam Khan's side and Timur , from Salima's side , as Salima was a Timurid through her maternal grandfather, Emperor Babur, and through Mahmud, one of her great-grandfathers. 

 Salima had been betrothed to Bairam Khan by her maternal uncle, Emperor Humayun, during his reign. 

At the material time royal marriages happened  to bear political implications, bride becoming family's ambassador in the royal family she was wedded, strengthening bonds on which great reliance used to be placed in those days that were mostly vitiated and plagued by deceit and political foul play.

Salima became Bairam's second wife, after the daughter of Jamal Khan of Mewat, who was the mother to his son, Abdul Rahim. Salima and Bairam Khan's short-lived marriage did not produce any child.

After only three years of marriage, Bairam Khan died in 1561 as a result of the intrigues against him , which culminated in his assassination. 

Historians have no account of how Akbar reacted on learning how the move initiated by him to send his mentor on pilgrimage, without proper security cover, led to Bairam Khan's 

murder. It is also not known whether Akbar felt any need to pay the assailant bsck in his coin, as thoigh Bairam had got materially snd dubstantially denigrsted in Akbar's estimation as a non entity, deserving the destiny  he actually met.

All that history accounts for is about Salima Begum , the widow whom Bairam had left behind besides a son born out of another marriage.

Akbar took the widow  into his wedlock, thereby honouring the lady by confering  on her the status of one amongst the three chief consorts, which was a status equivalant to a present time ministerial berth, so to say.

Bairam's son was likewise given an important berth in his Darbar, on that he constituted one of the nine Navratnas.

This attitude of Akbar may be seen as a policy of his to win the hearts even in highly adverse circumstances.

(Cont.  .)