On whose orders did Veer Singh Bundela kill Abul Fazal ?

In Mughal court politics, succession disputes were often waged not against the reigning emperor directly, but against the emperor's most influential courtiers, since removing an advisor who opposed a prince's claim weakened resistance to that prince's eventual accession.

1. Abul Fazal, author of the Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari, was Akbar's closest advisor and repeatedly warned Akbar against Prince Salim's conduct, opposing Salim's bid to succeed his father.

2. In 1602, while returning to Agra from a campaign in the Deccan, Abul Fazal's route passed through Bundelkhand territory held by Raja Bir Singh Deo Bundela, the chieftain of Orchha.

3. Prince Salim had already instructed Bir Singh Deo Bundela to intercept and kill Abul Fazal before he could reach Akbar's court and further oppose Salim's succession.

4. Bir Singh Deo Bundela ambushed Abul Fazal's party near Antri, in the Narwar region, killed him, and sent his severed head to Salim.

• Akbar was the reigning emperor at the time and, on learning of Abul Fazal's death, grieved deeply and was reportedly angered at Salim's role in it.

• Shahjahan, born in 1592, was about ten years old in 1602 and held no position of authority until his own accession in 1628.

• Bairam Khan had died in 1561, four decades before the 1602 assassination, and so could not have issued any instruction at that time.

After Salim ascended the throne as Jahangir in 1605, he rewarded Bir Singh Deo Bundela with the title of Raja and expanded territorial grants over Orchha; Jahangir's own memoir, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, records that he had sent the instruction to intercept and kill Abul Fazal. The order came from Jahangir.