Maham Anaga, the lady who fostered one of the greatest Mughal Emperors from the cradle to the throne was a power crazy woman whose influential role in the royal court of Akbar is denoted as “Petticoat Government”. The tutelage of Bairam Khan, the guardian of Akbar was ended up after a coup.
Akbar had shared his secret ploy to make Bairam Khan learn a lesson but Maham Anaga unfurled the plan to Shihabuddin Atka, her son-in-law and the governor of Delhi. Shiahabuddin Atka took a hurried action along with Akbar against Bairam Khan and held the position of Wakil. Bairam Khan offered his submission to Akbar and begged his pardon. Akbar frgave him and sent him to Makkah for pilgrimage but the later was killed on the way to Makkah by one of his past opponents (according to some historians, Akbar made him kill).
After the liberation from the regency of Bairam Khan, Maham Anaga stepped forward to substitute Bairam Khan. Adham Khan, her son proved to be the message of her death when he was sent to Malwa with Pir Mohammad Khan, the general of Akbar. Out of his high-headedness, he sent only a proportion of the booty to Akbar which infuriated the later. Besides this, he killed Sham-ud-Mohammad Ataga Khan, the general of Akbar. Akbar ordered to drop him down twice from the roof of the royal palace brining him to death. The news of the saddest demise to Maham Anaga, the mother of Adham Khan was given by Akbar himself. She could not survive after the murder of his younger son and passed away in 1562 forty days after her son’s death. The “Petticoat Government” met its ultimate end Akbar liberated himself from the clutches of his regents. Her writ was less fierce than that of Bairam’s who turned to be one of the most jolting adversary for Akbar.
