Akbar and the conditions of his empire cannot be separated from each other, so strong and visible was his presence upon the India which he created, consolidated and ruled for almost 50 years.

India developed a distinct cultural identity, a recognisable economic stability and a higher degree of political institutionalisation covering a larger geographical area and population than had been attempted hitherto. Akbar was the first and the final one of all the Mughal rulers who possessed a definite and tangible idea of India as a nation that could be unified by its laws, by an economic direction and through administration by a central governing authority, in this case his kingship. Akbar created a state that resembled most closely the India of today and it is in this context that Akbar can be called 'The First Indian'. No ruler of India had so far tied the destiny of his rule with the idea of creating a sustainable and singular 'nation', as did Akbar. He created what became the greatest, most dynamic and most durable Empire that India has ever seen.

Architects of modern India, such as George Nathaniel Curzon, the 19^th century Viceroy of India, based their systems of modernity on the foundations created by Akbar. In Akbar's shadow, succeeding rulers, though they may have been grand like Shahjehan, or mystical like Aurangzeb, all appeared as pale and humbled recasts of his established ideal. If his mantle finally came to settle it would be on the shoulders of a Nehru and if his soul passed into antiquity it would enter the life of Ashoka. Between them lies the creation of Indianness, a creation that was constructed by their individual experiences and ideals and by their actions, dreams, victories and setbacks.

There is a noticeable absence of any modern or contemporary account of Akbar's life. At the same time Akbar's is perhaps the most documented and written about life we come across among the lives of India's rulers.. How do we explain this dichotomy? Akbar has largely been researched and written about in order to provide an illustration or ancillary for various intellectual positions, ideologies and historical expostulations. Alternatively, his story is merely a part, albeit magnified, of the larger story of Mughal and Muslim rule in India.