Akbar
Akbar is proclaimed Mughal emperor at Kalanaur
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The thirteen-year-old emperor was enthroned not in a palace but on a low masonry platform in a Punjab garden.
14 February 1556, at Kalanaur
Akbar was officially proclaimed emperor at Kalanaur in Punjab on 14 February 1556, following the death of his father Humayun.
The enthronement was conducted on a masonry platform now called Takht-i-Akbar, roughly 22 km from Gurdaspur and maintained as a protected archaeological site.
Humayun had died in Delhi in January 1556 while Akbar and Bairam Khan were in Punjab confronting the surviving Sur challenge. A prompt proclamation was necessary to prevent a contested succession.
An emperor without the empire in hand
Bairam Khan enthroned the young Akbar, assumed the regency, and became the effective head of government.
The proclamation transferred the Mughal imperial title but not secure possession of northern India. Sikandar Sur still threatened Punjab, and other Afghan leaders held much of the Gangetic plain.
Thirteen, not fourteen
By elapsed age Akbar was 13 years and about 3 months old. Contemporary age conventions sometimes call him fourteen because he had entered his fourteenth year.
Modern authorities agree on 14 February 1556, although consulted sources differ by a day when expressing the corresponding Islamic-calendar date.
Sources use "accession," "enthronement," "proclamation" and "coronation" somewhat interchangeably. "Proclaimed emperor" is the least misleading description of the day's act.
Sources
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What the sources leave uncertain
- Modern authorities agree on 14 February 1556, although consulted sources differ by one day when expressing the corresponding date in the Islamic calendar.
- Contemporary age conventions sometimes call Akbar a fourteen-year-old because he was in his fourteenth year. By elapsed age, he was thirteen.
- Sources use 'accession,' 'enthronement,' 'proclamation,' and 'coronation' somewhat interchangeably; 'proclaimed emperor' is the least misleading description of the day's act.