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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14134 ***
+
+This book was produced from images scanned by the State Central
+Library, Hyderabad, and hosted by the Million Book Project at
+http://www.archive.org/
+
+
+
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+      or
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+
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+
+
+
+AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA
+
+A Picture of Life and Customs from the Sixteenth Century
+
+by
+
+DR. RICHARD VON GARBE
+Rector of the University of Tubingen
+
+Translated from the German by Lydia G. Robinson
+
+Reprinted From "The Monist" Of April, 1909
+Chicago
+The Open Court Publishing Company
+
+1909
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AKBAR DIRECTING THE TYING-UP OF A WILD ELEPHANT.
+Tempera painting in the _bar Namah_ by Abu'l Fazl. Photographed
+from the original in the India Museum for _The Place of Animals in
+Human Thought_ by the Countess Evelyn Martinengo Cesaresco.]
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+Akbar Directing the Tying-up of a Wild Elephant (Frontispiece)
+
+Akbar, Emperor of India
+
+Mausoleum of Akbar's Father, Humâyun
+
+View of Fathpur
+
+Akbar's Grave
+
+Mausoleum of Akbar at Sikandra
+
+The Chakra, the Indian Emblem of Empire
+
+
+
+
+AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA.[A]
+
+
+The student of India who would at the same time be an historian,
+discovers to his sorrow that the land of his researches is lamentably
+poor in historical sources. And if within the realm of historical
+investigation, a more seductive charm lies for him in the analysis of
+great personalities than in ascertaining the course of historical
+development, then verily may he look about in vain for such
+personalities in the antiquity and middle ages of India. Not that the
+princely thrones were wanting in great men in ancient India, for we
+find abundant traces of them in Hindu folk-lore and poetry, but these
+sources do not extend to establishing the realistic element in details
+and furnishing life-like portraits of the men themselves. That the
+Hindu has ever been but little interested in historical matters is a
+generally recognized fact. Religious and philosophical speculations,
+dreams of other worlds, of previous and future existences, have
+claimed the attention of thoughtful minds to a much greater degree
+than has historical reality.
+
+  [Footnote A: This essay is art enlarged form of an address delivered
+  on the occasion of the birthday of King Wilhelm II of Württemberg, on
+  February 25, 1909.]
+
+The misty myth-woven veil which hangs over persons and events of
+earlier times, vanishes at the beginning of the modern era which in
+India starts with the Mohammedan conquest, for henceforth the history
+of India is written by foreigners. Now we meet with men who take a
+decisive part in the fate of India, and they appear as sharply
+outlined, even though generally unpleasing, personalities.
+
+Islam has justly been characterized as the caricature of a religion.
+Fanaticism and fatalism are two conspicuously irreligious emotions,
+and it is exactly these two emotions, which Islam understands how to
+arouse in savage peoples, to which it owes the part it has played in
+the history of the world, and the almost unprecedented success of its
+diffusion in Asia, Africa and Europe.
+
+About 1000 A.D. India was invaded by the Sultan Mahmud of Ghasna.
+"With Mahmud's expedition into India begins one of the most horrible
+periods of the history of Hindustan. One monarch dethrones another, no
+dynasty continues in power, every accession to the throne is
+accompanied by the murder of kinsmen, plundering of cities,
+devastation of the lowlands and the slaughter of thousands of men,
+women and children of the predecessor's adherents; for five centuries
+northwest and northern India literally reeked with the blood of
+multitudes."[1] Mohammedan dynasties of Afghan, Turkish and Mongolian
+origin follow that of Ghasna. This entire period is filled with an
+almost boundless series of battles, intrigues, imbroglios and
+political revolutions; nearly all events had the one characteristic in
+common, that they took place amid murder, pillage and fire.
+
+  [Footnote 1: E. Schlagintweit, _Indien in Wort und Bild_, II, 26 f.]
+
+[Illustration: AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA.
+  From Noer's _Kaiser Akbar_, (Frontispiece to Vol. II).]
+
+The most frightful spectacle throughout these reeking centuries is the
+terrible Mongolian prince Timur, a successor of Genghis-Khan, who fell
+upon India with his band of assassins in the year 1398 and before his
+entry into Delhi the capital, in which he was proclaimed Emperor of
+India, caused the hundred thousand prisoners whom he had captured in
+his previous battles in the Punjab, to be slaughtered in one single
+day, because it was too inconvenient to drag them around with him. So
+says Timur himself with shameless frankness in his account of the
+expedition, and he further relates that after his entry into Delhi,
+all three districts of the city were plundered "according to the will
+of God."[2] In 1526 Baber, a descendant of Timur, made his entry into
+Delhi and there founded the dominion of the Grand Moguls (i.e., of the
+great Mongols). The overthrow of this dynasty was brought about by the
+disastrous reign of Baber's successor Aurungzeb, a cruel, crafty and
+treacherous despot, who following the example of his ancestor Timur,
+spread terror and alarm around him in the second half of the
+seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. Even to-day
+Hindus may be seen to tremble when they meet the sinister fanatical
+glance of a Mohammedan.
+
+  [Footnote 2: A. Müller, _Der Islam im Morgen-und Abendland_, II, 300
+  f.]
+
+Princes with sympathetic qualities were not entirely lacking in the
+seven centuries of Mohammedan dominion in India, and they shine forth
+as points of light from the gloomy horror of this time, but they fade
+out completely before the luminous picture of the man who governed
+India for half a century (1556-1605) and by a wise, gentle and just
+reign brought about a season of prosperity such as the land had never
+experienced in the millenniums of its history. This man, whose memory
+even to-day is revered by the Hindus, was a descendant of Baber, Abul
+Fath Jelâleddin Muhammed, known by the surname Akbar "the Great,"
+which was conferred upon the child even when he was named, and
+completely supplanted the name that properly belonged to him. And
+truly he justified the epithet, for great, fabulously great, was Akbar
+as man, general, statesman and ruler,--all in all a prince who
+deserves to be known by every one whose heart is moved by the
+spectacle of true human greatness.[3]
+
+  [Footnote 3: From the literature on Emperor Akbar the following works
+  deserve special mention: J. Talboys Wheeler, _The History of India
+  from the Earliest Ages._ Vol. IV, Pt. I, "Mussulman Rule," London,
+  1876 (judges Akbar very unfairly in many places, but declares at the
+  bottom of page 135, "The reign of Akbar is one of the most important
+  in the history of India; it is one of the most important in the
+  history of the world"); Mountstuart Elphinstone, _History of India,
+  the Hindu and Mahometan Periods_, with notes and additions by E.B.
+  Cowell, 9th ed., London, 1905; G.B. Malleson, _Akbar and the Rise of
+  the Mughal Empire_, Oxford, 1890 (in W.W. Hunter's _Rulers of India_);
+  A. Müller, _Der Islam im Morgen-und Abendland_, Vol. II, Berlin, 1887;
+  but especially Count F.A. von Noer, _Kaiser Akbar, ein Versuch über
+  die Geschichte Indiens im sechzehnten Jahrhundert_, Vol. I, Leyden,
+  1880; Vol. II, revised from the author's manuscript by Dr. Gustav von
+  Buchwald, Leyden, 1885. In the preface to this work the original
+  sources are listed and described; compare also M. Elphinstone, pp.
+  536, 537, note 45.]
+
+When we wish to understand a personality we are in the habit of
+ascertaining the inherited characteristics, and investigating the
+influences exercised upon it by religion, family, environment,
+education, youthful impressions, experience, and so forth. Most men
+are easily comprehensible as the products of these factors. The more
+independent of all such influences, or the more in opposition to them,
+a personality develops, the more attractive and interesting will it
+appear to us. At the first glance it looks as if the Emperor Akbar had
+developed his entire character from himself and by his own efforts in
+total independence of all influences which in other cases are thought
+to determine the character and nature of a man. A Mohammedan, a
+Mongol, a descendant of the monster Timur, the son of a weak incapable
+father, born in exile, called when but a lad to the government of a
+disintegrated and almost annihilated realm in the India of the
+sixteenth century,--which means in an age of perfidy, treachery,
+avarice, and self-seeking,--Akbar appears before us as a noble man,
+susceptible to all grand and beautiful impressions, conscientious,
+unprejudiced, and energetic, who knew how to bring peace and order out
+of the confusion of the times, who throughout his reign desired the
+furtherance of his subjects' and not of his own interest, who while
+increasing the privileges of the Mohammedans, not only also declared
+equality of rights for the Hindus but even actualized that equality,
+who in every conceivable way sought to conciliate his subjects so
+widely at variance with each other in race, customs, and religion, and
+who finally when the narrow dogmas of his religion no longer satisfied
+him, attained to a purified faith in God, which was independent of all
+formulated religions.
+
+A closer observation, however, shows that the contrast is not quite so
+harsh between what according to our hypotheses Akbar should have been
+as a result of the forces which build up man, and what he actually
+became. His predilection for science and art Akbar had inherited from
+his grandfather Baber and his father Humâyun. His youth, which was
+passed among dangers and privations, in flight and in prison, was
+certainly not without a beneficial influence upon Akbar's development
+into a man of unusual power and energy. And of significance for his
+spiritual development was the circumstance that after his accession to
+the throne his guardian put him in the charge of a most excellent
+tutor, the enlightened and liberal minded Persian Mir Abdullatîf, who
+laid the foundation for Akbar's later religious and ethical views.
+Still, however high we may value the influence of this teacher, the
+main point lay in Akbar's own endowments, his susceptibility for such
+teaching as never before had struck root with any Mohammedan prince.
+Akbar had not his equal in the history of Islam. "He is the only
+prince grown up in the Mohammedan creed whose endeavor it was to
+ennoble the limitation of this most separatistic of all religions into
+a true religion of humanity."[4]
+
+  [Footnote 4: A. Müller, II, 416.]
+
+Even the external appearance of Akbar appeals to us sympathetically.
+We sometimes find reproduced a miniature from Delhi which pictures
+Akbar as seated; in this the characteristic features of the Mongolian
+race appear softened and refined to a remarkable degree.[B] The shape
+of the head is rather round, the outlines are softened, the black
+eyes large, thoughtful, almost dreamy, and only very slightly
+slanting, the brows full and bushy, the lips somewhat prominent and
+the nose a tiny bit hooked. The face is beardless except for the
+rather thin closely cut moustache which falls down over the curve of
+the month in soft waves. According to the description of his son, the
+Emperor Jehângir, Akbar's complexion is said to have been the yellow
+of wheat; the Portuguese Jesuits who came to his court called it
+plainly white. Although not exactly beautiful, Akbar seemed beautiful
+to many of his contemporaries, including Europeans, probably because
+of the august and at the same time kind and winsome expression which
+his countenance bore. Akbar was rather tall, broad-shouldered,
+strongly built and had long arms and hands.
+
+  [Footnote B: Noer, II as frontispiece (comp. also pp. 327, 328); A.
+  Müller, II, 417.]
+
+Akbar, the son of the dethroned Emperor Humâyun, was born on October
+14, 1542, at Amarkot in Sindh, two years after his father had been
+deprived of his kingdom by the usurper Shêr Chân. After an exile of
+fifteen years, or rather after an aimless wandering and flight of that
+length, the indolent pleasure-and opium-loving Humâyun was again
+permitted to return to his capital in 1555,--not through his own merit
+but that of his energetic general Bairâm Chân, a Turk who in one
+decisive battle had overcome the Afghans, at that time in possession
+of the dominion. But Humâyun was not long to enjoy his regained
+throne; half a year later he fell down a stairway in his palace and
+died. In January 1556 Akbar, then thirteen years of age, ascended the
+throne. Because of his youthful years Bairâm Chân assumed the regency
+as guardian of the realm or "prince-father" as it is expressed in
+Hindî, and guided the wavering ship of state with a strong hand. He
+overthrew various insurgents and disposed of them with cold cruelty.
+But after a few years he so aroused the illwill of Akbar by deeds of
+partiality, selfishness and violence that in March 1560 Akbar, then 17
+years of age, decided to take the reins of government into his own
+hand. Deprived of his office and influence Bairâm Chân hastened to the
+Punjab and took arms against his Imperial Master. Akbar led his troops
+in person against the rebel and overcame him. When barefooted, his
+turban thrown around his neck, Bairâm Chân appeared before Akbar and
+prostrated himself before the throne, Akbar did not do the thing which
+was customary under such circumstances in the Orient in all ages. The
+magnanimous youth did not sentence the humiliated rebel to a painful
+death but bade him arise in memory of the great services which Bairâm
+Chân had rendered to his father and later to himself, and again assume
+his old place of honor at the right of the throne. Before the
+assembled nobility he gave him the choice whether he would take the
+governorship of a province, or would enjoy the favor of his master at
+court as a benefactor of the imperial family, or whether, accompanied
+by an escort befitting his rank, he would prefer to undertake a
+pilgrimage to Mecca.[5] Bairâm Chân was wise enough to choose the
+last, but on the way to Mecca he was killed by an Afghan and the news
+caused Akbar sincere grief and led him to take the four year old son
+of Bairâm Chân under his special protection.
+
+  [Footnote 5: Noer, I, 131.]
+
+Mâhum Anâga, the Emperor's nurse, for whom he felt a warm attachment
+and gratitude, a woman revengeful and ambitious but loyal and devoted
+to Akbar, had contributed in bringing about the fall of the regent.
+She had cared for the Emperor from his birth to his accession and amid
+the confusion of his youth had guarded him from danger; but for this
+service she expected her reward. She sought nothing less than in the
+rôle of an intimate confidante of the youthful Emperor to be secretly
+the actual ruler of India.
+
+Mâhum Anâga had a son, Adham Chân by name, to whom at her suggestion
+Akbar assigned the task of reconquering and governing the province of
+Mâlwâ. Adham Chân was a passionate and violent man, as ambitious and
+avaricious as his mother, and behaved himself in Mâlwâ as if he were
+an independent prince. As soon as Akbar learned this he advanced by
+forced marches to Mâlwâ and surprised his disconcerted foster-brother
+before the latter could be warned by his mother. But Adham Chân had no
+difficulty in obtaining Akbar's forgiveness for his infringements.
+
+On the way back to Agra, where the Emperor at that time was holding
+court, a noteworthy incident happened. Akbar had ridden alone in
+advance of his escort and suddenly found himself face to face with a
+powerful tigress who with her five cubs came out from the shrubbery
+across his path. His approaching attendants found the nineteen year
+old Emperor standing quietly by the side of the slaughtered beast
+which he had struck to the ground with a single blow of his sword. To
+how much bodily strength, intrepidity, cold-blooded courage and
+sure-sightedness this blow of the sword testified which dared not come
+the fraction of a second too late, may be judged by every one who has
+any conception of the spring of a raging tigress anxious for the
+welfare of her young. And we may easily surmise the thoughts which the
+sight aroused in the minds of the Mohammedan nobles in Akbar's train.
+At that moment many ambitious wishes and designs may have been carried
+to their grave.[6]
+
+  [Footnote 6: Noer, I, 141.]
+
+The Emperor soon summoned his hot-headed foster-brother Adham Chân to
+court in order to keep him well in sight for he had counted often
+enough on Akbar's affection for his mother Mâhum Anâga to save him
+from the consequences of his sins. Now Mâhum Anâga, her son and her
+adherents, hated the grand vizier with a deadly hatred because they
+perceived that they were being deprived of their former influence in
+matters of state. This hatred finally impelled Adham Chân to a
+senseless undertaking. The embittered man hatched up a conspiracy
+against the grand vizier and when one night in the year 1562 the
+latter was attending a meeting of political dignitaries on affairs of
+state in the audience hall of the Imperial palace, Adham Chân with his
+conspirators suddenly broke in and stabbed the grand vizier in the
+breast, whereupon his companions slew the wounded man with their
+swords. Even now the deluded Adham Chân counted still upon the
+Emperor's forbearance and upon the influence of his mother. Akbar was
+aroused by the noise and leaving his apartments learned what had
+happened. Adham Chân rushed to the Emperor, seized his arm and begged
+him to listen to his explanations. But the Emperor was beside himself
+with rage, struck the murderer with his fist so that he fell to the
+floor and commanded the terrified servants to bind him with fetters
+and throw him head over heels from the terrace of the palace to the
+courtyard below. The horrible deed was done but the wretch was not
+dead. Then the Emperor commanded the shattered body of the dying man
+to be dragged up the stairs again by the hair and to be flung once
+more to the ground.[7]
+
+  [Footnote 7: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 139, 140; Noer, I, 143, 144.]
+
+I have related this horrible incident in order to give Akbar's picture
+with the utmost possible faithfulness and without idealization. Akbar
+was a rough, strong-nerved man, who was seldom angry but whose wrath
+when once aroused was fearful. It is a blemish on his character that
+in some cases he permitted himself to be carried away to such cruel
+death sentences, but we must not forget that he was then dealing with
+the punishment of particularly desperate criminals, and that such
+severe judgments had always been considered in the Orient to be
+righteous and sensible. Not only in the Orient unfortunately,--even in
+Europe 200 years after Akbar's time tortures and the rack were applied
+at the behest of courts of law.
+
+Mahum Anâga came too late to save her son. Akbar sought with tender
+care to console her for his dreadful end but the heart-broken woman
+survived the fearful blow of fate only about forty days. The Emperor
+caused her body to be buried with that of her son in one common grave
+at Delhi, and he himself accompanied the funeral procession. At his
+command a stately monument was erected above this grave which still
+stands to-day. His generosity and clemency were also shown in the fact
+that he extended complete pardon to the accomplices in the murder of
+the grand vizier and even permitted them to retain their offices and
+dignities because he was convinced that they had been drawn into the
+crime by the violent Adham Chân. In other ways too Akbar showed
+himself to be ready to grant pardon to an almost incomprehensible
+extent. Again and again when an insubordinate viceroy in the provinces
+would surrender after an unsuccessful uprising Akbar would let him off
+without any penalty, thus giving him the opportunity of revolting
+again after a short time.
+
+It was an eventful time in which Akbar arrived at manhood in the midst
+of all sorts of personal dangers.
+
+[Illustration: MAUSOLEUM OF AKBAR'S FATHER, HUMÂYUN.]
+
+I will pass over with but few comments his military expeditions which
+can have no interest for the general public. When Akbar ascended the
+throne his realm comprised only a very small portion of the
+possessions which had been subject to his predecessors. With the
+energy which was a fundamental characteristic of his nature he once
+more took possession of the provinces which had been torn from the
+empire, at the same time undertaking the conquest of new lands, and
+accomplished this task with such good fortune that in the fortieth
+year of his reign the empire of India covered more territory than ever
+before; that is to say, not only the whole of Hindustan including the
+peninsula Gujerat, the lands of the Indus and Kashmir but also
+Afghanistan and a larger part of the Dekkhan than had ever been
+subject to any former Padishah of Delhi. At this time while the
+Emperor had his residence at Lahore the phrase was current in India,
+"As lucky as Akbar."[8]
+
+  [Footnote 8: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 180.]
+
+It was apparent often enough in the military expeditions that Akbar
+far surpassed his contemporaries in generalship. But it was not the
+love of war and conquest which drove him each time anew to battle; a
+sincere desire inspired by a mystical spirit impelled him to bring to
+an end the ceaseless strife between the small states of India by
+joining them to his realm, and thus to found a great united empire.[9]
+
+  [Footnote 9: Noer, II, 8, 390, 423.]
+
+More worthy of admiration than the subjugation of such large
+territories in which of course many others have also been successful,
+is the fact that Akbar succeeded in establishing order, peace, and
+prosperity in the regained and newly subjugated provinces. This he
+brought about by the introduction of a model administration, an
+excellent police, a regulated post service, and especially a just
+division of taxes.[10] Up to Akbar's time corruption had been a matter
+of course in the entire official service and enormous sums in the
+treasury were lost by peculation on the part of tax collectors.
+
+  [Footnote 10: For the following compare Noer I, 391 ff.; M.
+  Elphinstone, 529 ff.; G.B. Malleson, 172 ff., 185 ff.]
+
+Akbar first divided the whole realm into twelve and later into fifteen
+viceregencies, and these into provinces, administrative districts and
+lesser subdivisions, and governed the revenues of the empire on the
+basis of a uniformly exact survey of the land. He introduced a
+standard of measurement, replacing the hitherto customary land measure
+(a leather strap which was easily lengthened or shortened according to
+the need of the measuring officer) by a new instrument of measurement
+in the form of a bamboo staff which was provided with iron rings at
+definite intervals. For purposes of assessment land was divided into
+four classes according to the kind of cultivation practiced upon it.
+The first class comprised arable land with a constant rotation of
+crops; the second, that which had to lie fallow for from one to two
+years in order to be productive; the third from three to four years;
+the fourth that land which was uncultivated for five years and longer
+or was not arable at all. The first two classes of acreage were taxed
+one-third of the crop, which according to our present ideas seems an
+exorbitantly high rate, and it was left to the one assessed whether he
+would pay the tax in kind or in cash. Only in the case of luxuries or
+manufactured articles, that is to say, where the use of a circulating
+medium could be assumed, was cash payment required. Whoever cultivated
+unreclaimed land was assisted by the government by the grant of a free
+supply of seed and by a considerable reduction in his taxes for the
+first four years.
+
+Akbar also introduced a new uniform standard of coinage, but
+stipulated that the older coins which were still current should be
+accepted from peasants for their full face value. From all this the
+Indian peasants could see that Emperor Akbar not only desired strict
+justice to rule but also wished to further their interests, and the
+peasants had always comprised the greatest part of the inhabitants,
+(even according to the latest census in 1903, vol. I, p. 3, 50 to 84
+percent of the inhabitants of India live by agriculture). But Akbar
+succeeded best in winning the hearts of the native inhabitants by
+lifting the hated poll tax which still existed side by side with all
+other taxes.
+
+The founder of Islam had given the philanthropical command to
+exterminate from the face of the earth all followers of other faiths
+who were not converted to Islam, but he had already convinced himself
+that it was impossible to execute this law. And, indeed, if the
+Mohammedans had followed out this precept, how would they have been
+able to overthrow land upon land and finally even thickly populated
+India where the so-called unbelievers comprised an overwhelming
+majority? Therefore in place of complete extermination the more
+practical arrangement of the poll tax was instituted, and this was to
+be paid by all unbelievers in order to be a constant reminder to them
+of the loss of their independence. This humiliating burden which was
+still executed in the strictest, most inconsiderate manner, Akbar
+removed in the year 1565 without regard to the very considerable loss
+to the state's treasury. Nine years later followed the removal of the
+tax upon religious assemblies and pilgrimages, the execution of which
+had likewise kept the Hindus in constant bitterness towards their
+Mohammedan rulers.
+
+Sometime previous to these reforms Akbar had abolished a custom so
+disgusting that we can hardly comprehend that it ever could have
+legally existed. At any rate it alone is sufficient to brand Islam and
+its supreme contempt for followers of other faiths, with one of the
+greatest stains in the history of humanity. When a tax-collector
+gathered the taxes of the Hindus and the payment had been made, the
+Hindu was required "without the slightest sign of fear of defilement"
+to open his mouth in order that the tax collector might spit in it if
+he wished to do so.[11] This was much more than a disgusting
+humiliation. When the tax-collector availed himself of this privilege
+the Hindu lost thereby his greatest possession, his caste, and was
+shut out from any intercourse with his equals. Accordingly he was
+compelled to pass his whole life trembling in terror before this
+horrible evil which threatened him. That a man of Akbar's nobility of
+character should remove such an atrocious, yes devilish, decree seems
+to us a matter of course; but for the Hindus it was an enormous
+beneficence.
+
+  [Footnote 11: Noer, II, 6, 7; G.B. Malleson, 174, 175.]
+
+Akbar sought also to advance trade and commerce in every possible way.
+He regulated the harbor and toll duties, removed the oppressive taxes
+on cattle, trees, grain and other produce as well as the customary
+fees of subjects at every possible appointment or office. In the year
+1574 it was decreed that the loss which agriculture suffered by the
+passage of royal troops through the fields should be carefully
+calculated and scrupulously replaced.
+
+Besides these practical regulations for the advancement of the
+material welfare, Akbar's efforts for the ethical uplift of his
+subjects are noteworthy. Drunkenness and debauchery were punished and
+he sought to restrain prostitution by confining dancing girls and
+abandoned women in one quarter set apart for them outside of his
+residence which received the name _âitânpura_ or "Devil's City."[12]
+
+  [Footnote 12: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 173; Noer, I, 438 n.]
+
+The existing corruption in the finance and customs department was
+abolished by means of a complicated and punctilious system of
+supervision (the bureaus of receipts and expenditures were kept
+entirely separated from each other in the treasury department,) and
+Akbar himself carefully examined the accounts handed in each month
+from every district, just as he gave his personal attention with
+tireless industry and painstaking care to every detail in the widely
+ramified domain of the administration of government. Moreover the
+Emperor was fortunate in having at the head of the finance department
+a prudent, energetic, perfectly honorable and incorruptible man, the
+Hindu Todar Mal, who without possessing the title of vizier or
+minister of state had assumed all the functions of such an office.
+
+It is easily understood that many of the higher tax officials did not
+grasp the sudden break of a new day but continued to oppress and
+impoverish the peasants in the traditional way, but the system
+established by Akbar succeeded admirably and soon brought all such
+transgressions to light. Todar Mal held a firm rein, and by throwing
+hundreds of these faithless officers into prison and by making ample
+use of bastinado and torture, spread abroad such a wholesome terror
+that Akbar's reforms were soon victorious.
+
+How essential it was to exercise the strictest control over men
+occupying the highest positions may be seen by the example of the
+feudal nobility whose members bore the title "Jâgîrdâr." Such a
+Jâgîrdâr had to provide a contingent of men and horses for the
+imperial army corresponding to the size of the estate which was given
+him in fief. Now it had been a universal custom for the Jâgîrdârs to
+provide themselves with fewer soldiers and horses on a military
+expedition than at the regular muster. Then too the men and horses
+often proved useless for severe service. When the reserves were
+mustered the knights dressed up harmless private citizens as soldiers
+or hired them for the occasion and after the muster was over, let them
+go again. In the same way the horses brought forward for the muster
+were taken back into private service immediately afterwards and were
+replaced by worthless animals for the imperial service. This evil too
+was abolished at one stroke, by taking an exact personal description
+of the soldiers presented and by branding the heads of horses,
+elephants and camels with certain marks. By this simple expedient it
+became impossible to exchange men and animals presented at the muster
+for worthless material and also to loan them to other knights during
+muster.
+
+The number of men able to bear arms in Akbar's realm has been given as
+about four and a half millions but the standing army which was held at
+the expense of the state was small in proportion. It contained only
+about twenty-five thousand men, one-half of whom comprised the cavalry
+and the rest musketry and artillery; Since India does not produce
+first class horses, Akbar at once provided for the importation of
+noble steeds from other lands of the Orient which were famed for horse
+breeding and was accustomed to pay more for such animals than the
+price which was demanded. In the same way no expense was too great for
+him to spend on the breeding and nurture of elephants, for they were
+very valuable animals for the warfare of that day. His stables
+contained from five to six thousand well-trained elephants. The
+breeding of camels and mules he also advanced with a practical
+foresight and understood how to overcome the widespread prejudice in
+India against the use of mules.
+
+Untiringly did Akbar inspect stables, arsenals, military armories, and
+shipyards, and insisted on perfect order in all departments. He called
+the encouragement of seamanship an act of worship[13] but was not able
+to make India, a maritime power.
+
+  [Footnote 13: Noer, II, 378.]
+
+Akbar had an especial interest in artillery, and with it a particular
+gift for the technique and great skill in mechanical matters. He
+invented a cannon which could be taken apart to be carried more easily
+on the march and could be put up quickly, apparently for use in
+mountain batteries. By another invention he united seventeen cannons
+in such a way that they could be shot off simultaneously by one
+fuse.[14] Hence it is probably a sort of _mitrailleuse_. Akbar is
+also said to have invented a mill cart which served as a mill as well
+as for carrying freight. With regard to these inventions we must take
+into consideration the possibility that the real inventor may have
+been some one else, but that the flatterers at the court ascribed them
+to the Emperor because the initiative may have originated with him.
+
+  [Footnote 14: Noer, I, 429. The second invention, however, is
+  questioned by Buchwald.]
+
+    (II, 372) because of the so-called "organ cannons" which were
+    in use in Europe as early as the 15th century.
+
+The details which I have given will suffice to show what perfection
+the military and civil administration attained through Akbar's
+efforts. Throughout his empire order and justice reigned and a
+prosperity hitherto unknown. Although taxes were never less oppressive
+in India than under Akbar's reign, the imperial income for one year
+amounted to more than $120,000,000, a sum at which contemporary Europe
+marveled, and which we must consider in the light of the much greater
+purchasing power of money in the sixteenth century.[15] A large part
+of Akbar's income was used in the erection of benevolent institutions,
+of inns along country roads in which travelers were entertained at the
+imperial expense, in the support of the poor, in gifts for pilgrims,
+in granting loans whose payment was never demanded, and many similar
+ways. To his encouragement of schools, of literature, art and science
+I will refer later.
+
+  [Footnote 15: Noer, I, 439.]
+
+Of decided significance for Akbar's success was his patronage of the
+native population. He did not limit his efforts to lightening the lot
+of the subjugated Hindus and relieving them of oppressive burdens; his
+efforts went deeper. He wished to educate the Mohammedans and Hindus
+to a feeling of mutual good-will and confidence, and in doing so he
+was obliged to contend in the one case against haughtiness and
+inordinate ambition, and in the other against hate and distrustful
+reserve. If with this end in view he actually favored the Hindus by
+keeping certain ones close to him and advancing them to the most
+influential positions in the state, he did it because he found
+characteristics in the Hindus (especially in their noblest race, the
+Rajputs) which seemed to him most valuable for the stability of the
+empire and for the promotion of the general welfare. He had seen
+enough faithlessness in the Mohammedan nobles and in his own
+relatives. Besides, Akbar was born in the house of a small Rajput
+prince who had shown hospitality to Akbar's parents on their flight
+and had given them his protection.
+
+The Rajputs are the descendants of the ancient Indian warrior race and
+are a brave, chivalrous, trustworthy people who possess a love of
+freedom and pride of race quite different in character from the rest
+of the Hindus. Even to-day every traveler in India thinks he has been
+set down in another world when he treads the ground of Rajputâna and
+sees around him in place of the weak effeminate servile inhabitants of
+other parts of the country powerful upright men, splendid warlike
+figures with blazing defiant eyes and long waving beards.
+
+While Akbar valued the Rajputs very highly his own personality was
+entirely fitted to please these proud manly warriors. An incident
+which took place before the end of the first year of Akbar's reign is
+characteristic of the relations which existed on the basis of this
+intrinsic relationship.[16]
+
+  [Footnote 16: Noer, I, 224-226]
+
+[Illustration: VIEW OF FATHPUR]
+
+Bihâri Mal was a prince of the small Rajput state Ambir, and possessed
+sufficient political comprehension to understand after Akbar's first
+great successes that his own insignificant power and the nearness of
+Delhi made it advisable to voluntarily recognize the Emperor as his
+liege lord. Therefore he came with son, grandson and retainers to
+swear allegiance to Akbar. Upon his arrival at the imperial camp
+before Delhi, a most surprising sight met his eyes. Men were running
+in every direction, fleeing wildly before a raging elephant who
+wrought destruction to everything that came within his reach. Upon the
+neck of this enraged brute sat a young man in perfect calmness
+belaboring the animal's head with the iron prong which is used
+universally in India for guiding elephants. The Rajputs sprang from
+their horses and came up perfectly unconcerned to observe the
+interesting spectacle, and broke out in loud applause when the
+conquered elephant knelt down in exhaustion. The young man sprang from
+its back and cordially greeted the Rajput princes (who now for the
+first time recognized Akbar in the elephant-tamer) bidding them
+welcome to his red imperial tent. From this occurrence dates the
+friendship of the two men. In later years Bihâri Mai's son and
+grandson occupied high places in the imperial service, and Akbar
+married a daughter of the Rajput chief who became the mother of his
+son and successor Selim, afterwards the Emperor Jehângir. Later on
+Akbar received a number of other Rajput women in his harem.
+
+Not all of Akbar's relations to the Rajputs however were of such a
+friendly kind. As his grandfather Baber before him, he had many bitter
+battles with them, for no other Indian people had opposed him so
+vigorously as they. Their domain blocked the way to the south, and
+from their rugged mountains and strongly fortified cities the Rajputs
+harassed the surrounding country by many invasions and destroyed
+order, commerce and communication quite after the manner of the German
+robber barons of the Middle Ages. Their overthrow was accordingly a
+public necessity.
+
+The most powerful of these Rajput chiefs was the Prince of Mewâr who
+had particularly attracted the attention of the Emperor by his support
+of the rebels. The control of Mewâr rested upon the possession of the
+fortress Chitor which was built on a monstrous cliff one hundred and
+twenty meters high, rising abruptly from the plain and was equipped
+with every means of defence that could be contrived by the military
+skill of that time for an incomparably strong bulwark. On the plain at
+its summit which measured over twelve kilometers in circumference a
+city well supplied with water lay within the fortification walls.
+There an experienced general, Jaymal, "the Lion of Chitor," was in
+command. I have not time to relate the particulars of the siege, the
+laying of ditches and mines and the uninterrupted battles which
+preceded the fall of Chitor in February, 1568. According to Akbar's
+usual custom he exposed himself to showers of bullets without once
+being hit (the superstition of his soldiers considered him
+invulnerable) and finally the critical shot was one in which Akbar
+with his own hand laid low the brave commander of Chitor. Then the
+defenders considered their cause lost, and the next night saw a
+barbarous sight, peculiarly Indian in character: the so-called Jauhar
+demanded his offering according to an old Rajput custom. Many great
+fires gleamed weirdly in the fortress. To escape imprisonment and to
+save their honor from the horrors of captivity, the women mounted the
+solemnly arranged funeral pyres, while all the men, clad in saffron
+hued garments, consecrated themselves to death. When the victors
+entered the city on the next morning a battle began which raged until
+the third evening, when there was no one left to kill. Eight thousand
+warriors had fallen, besides thirty thousand inhabitants of Chitor who
+had participated in the fight.
+
+With the conquest of Chitor which I have treated at considerable
+length because it ended in a typically Indian manner, the resistance
+of the Rajputs broke down. After Akbar had attained his purpose he was
+on the friendliest terms with the vanquished. It testifies to his
+nobility of character as well as to his political wisdom that after
+this complete success he not only did not celebrate a triumph, but on
+the contrary proclaimed the renown of the vanquished throughout all
+India by erecting before the gate of the imperial palace at Delhi two
+immense stone elephants with the statues of Jaymal, the "Lion of
+Chitor," and of the noble youth Pata who had performed the most heroic
+deeds in the defense of Chitor. By thus honoring his conquered foes in
+such a magnanimous manner Akbar found the right way to the heart of
+the Rajputs. By constant bestowal of favors he gradually succeeded in
+so reconciling the noble Rajputs to the loss of their independence
+that they were finally glad and proud to devote themselves to his
+service, and, under the leadership of their own princes, proved
+themselves to be the best and truest soldiers of the imperial army,
+even far from their home in the farthest limits of the realm.
+
+The great masses of the Hindu people Akbar won over by lowering the
+taxes as we have previously related, and by all the other successful
+expedients for the prosperity of the country, but especially by the
+concession of perfect liberty of faith and worship and by the
+benevolent interest with which he regarded the religious practices of
+the Hindus. A people in whom religion is the ruling motive of life,
+after enduring all the dreadful sufferings of previous centuries for
+its religion's sake, must have been brought to a state; of boundless
+reverence by Akbar's attitude. And since the Hindus were accustomed to
+look upon the great heroes and benefactors of humanity as incarnations
+of deity we shall not be surprised to read from an author of that
+time[17] that every morning before sunrise great numbers of Hindus
+crowded together in front of the palace to await the appearance of
+Akbar and to prostrate themselves as soon as he was seen at a window,
+at the same time singing religious hymns. This fanatical enthusiasm of
+the Hindus for his person Akbar knew how to retain not only by actual
+benefits but also by small, well calculated devices.
+
+  [Footnote 17: Badâoni in Noer, II, 320.]
+
+It is a familiar fact that the Hindus considered the Ganges to be a
+holy river and that cows were sacred animals. Accordingly we can
+easily understand Akbar's purpose when we learn that at every meal he
+drank regularly of water from the Ganges (carefully filtered and
+purified to be sure) calling it "the water of immortality,"[18] and
+that later he forbade the slaughtering of cattle and eating their
+flesh.[19] But Akbar did not go so far in his connivance with the
+Hindus that he considered all their customs good or took them under
+his protection. For instance he forbade child marriages among the
+Hindus, that is to say the marriage of boys under sixteen and of girls
+under fourteen years, and he permitted the remarriage of widows. The
+barbaric customs of Brahmanism were repugnant to his very soul. He
+therefore most strictly forbade the slaughtering of animals for
+purposes of sacrifice, the use of ordeals for the execution of
+justice, and the burning of widows against their will, which indeed
+was not established according to Brahman law but was constantly
+practiced according to traditional custom.[20] To be sure neither
+Akbar nor his successor Jehângir were permanently successful in their
+efforts to put an end to the burning of widows. Not until the year
+1829 was the horrible custom practically done away with through the
+efforts of the English.
+
+  [Footnote 18: Noer, II, 317, 318.]
+
+  [Footnote 19: _Ibid._ 376, 317.]
+
+  [Footnote 20: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 173; M. Elphinstone, 526; G.B.
+  Malleson, 170.]
+
+Throughout his entire life Akbar was a tirelessly industrious,
+restlessly active man. By means of ceaseless activity he struggled
+successfully against his natural tendency to melancholy and in this
+way kept his mind wholesome, which is most deserving of admiration in
+an Oriental monarch who was brought in contact day by day with
+immoderate flattery and idolatrous veneration. Well did Akbar know
+that no Oriental nation can be governed without a display of dazzling
+splendor; but in the midst of the fabulous luxury with which Akbar's
+court was fitted out and his camp on the march, in the possession of
+an incomparably rich harem which accompanied the Emperor on his
+expeditions and journeys in large palatial tents, Akbar always showed
+a remarkable moderation. It is true that he abolished the prohibition
+of wine which Islam had inaugurated and had a court cellar in his
+palace, but he himself drank only a little wine and only ate once a
+day and then did not fully satisfy his hunger at this one meal which
+he ate alone and not at any definite time.[21] Though he was not
+strictly a vegetarian yet he lived mainly on rice, milk, fruits and
+sweets, and meat was repulsive to him. He is said to have eaten meat
+hardly more than four times a year.[22]
+
+  [Footnote 21: Noer, II, 355-]
+
+  [Footnote 22: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 169, following the old English
+  geographer Samuel Purchas.]
+
+Akbar was very fond of flowers and perfumes and especially enjoyed
+blooded doves whose care he well understood. About twenty thousand of
+these peaceful birds are said to have made their home on the
+battlements of his palace. His historian[23] relates: "His Majesty
+deigned to improve them in a marvelous manner by crossing the races
+which had not been done formerly."
+
+  [Footnote 23: Abul Fazl in Noer, I, 511.]
+
+Akbar was passionately fond of hunting and pursued the noble sport in
+its different forms, especially the tiger hunt and the trapping of
+wild elephants,[24] but he also hunted with trained falcons and
+leopards, owning no less than nine hundred hunting leopards. He was
+not fond of battue; he enjoyed the excitement and exertion of the
+actual hunt as a means for exercise and recreation, for training the
+eye and quickening the blood. Akbar took pleasure also in games.
+Besides chess, cards and other games, fights between animals may
+especially be mentioned, of which elephant fights were the most
+common, but there were also contests between camels, buffaloes, cocks,
+and even frogs, sparrows and spiders.
+
+  [Footnote 24: M. Elphinstone, 519]
+
+Usually, however, the whole day was filled up from the first break of
+dawn for Akbar with affairs of government and audiences, for every one
+who had a request or a grievance to bring forward could have access to
+Akbar, and he showed the same interest in the smallest incidents as in
+the greatest affairs of state. He also held courts of justice wherever
+he happened to be residing. No criminal could be punished there
+without his knowledge and no sentence of death executed until Akbar
+had given the command three times.[25]
+
+  [Footnote 25: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 168.]
+
+Not until after sunset did the Emperor's time of recreation begin.
+Since he only required three hours of sleep[26] he devoted most of the
+night to literary, artistic and scientific occupations. Especially
+poetry and music delighted his heart. He collected a large library in
+his palace and drew the most famous scholars and poets to his court.
+The most important of these were the brothers Abul Faiz (with the _nom
+de plume_ Faizî) and Abul Fazl who have made Akbar's fame known to the
+whole world through their works. The former at Akbar's behest
+translated a series of Sanskrit works into Persian, and Abul Fazl, the
+highly gifted minister and historian of Akbar's court (who to be sure
+can not be exonerated from the charge of flattery) likewise composed
+in the Persian language a large historical work written in the most
+flowery style which is the main source of our knowledge of that
+period. This famous work is divided in two parts, the first one of
+which under the title _Akbarnâme_, "Akbar Book," contains the complete
+history of Akbar's reign, whereas the second part, the _Aîn î Akbarî_,
+"The Institutions of Akbar," gives a presentation of the political and
+religious constitution and administration of India under Akbar's
+reign. It is also deserving of mention in this connection that Akbar
+instituted a board for contemporary chronicles, whose duty it was to
+compose the official record of all events relating to the Emperor and
+the government as well as to collect all laws and decrees.[27]
+
+  [Footnote 26: Loc. cit., 169.]
+
+  [Footnote 27: Noer, I, 432, 433.]
+
+When Akbar's recreation hours had come in the night the poets of his
+court brought their verses. Translations of famous works in Sanskrit
+literature, of the New Testament and of other interesting books were
+read aloud, all of which captivated the vivacious mind of the Emperor
+from which nothing was farther removed than onesidedness and
+narrow-mindedness. Akbar had also a discriminating appreciation for
+art and industries. He himself designed the plans for some extremely
+beautiful candelabra, and the manufacture of tapestry reached such a
+state of perfection in India under his personal supervision that in
+those days fabrics were produced in the great imperial factories which
+in beauty and value excelled the famous rugs of Persia. With still
+more important results Akbar influenced the realm of architecture in
+that he discovered how to combine two completely different styles. For
+indeed, the union of Mohammedan and Indian motives in the buildings of
+Akbar (who here as in all other departments strove to perfect the
+complete elevation of national and religious details) to form an
+improved third style,[28] is entirely original.
+
+  [Footnote 28: A. Müller, II, 386.]
+
+Among other ways Akbar betrayed the scientific trend of his mind by
+sending out an expedition in search of the sources of the Ganges.[29]
+That a man of such a wonderful degree of versatility should have
+recognized the value of general education and have devoted himself to
+its improvement, we would simply take for granted. Akbar caused
+schools to be erected throughout his whole kingdom for the children of
+Hindus and Mohammedans, whereas he himself did not know how to read or
+write.[30] This remarkable fact would seem incredible to us after
+considering all the above mentioned facts if it was not confirmed by
+the express testimony of his son, the Emperor Jehângir. At any rate
+for an illiterate man Akbar certainly accomplished an astonishing
+amount. The universal character of the endowments of this man could
+not have been increased by the learning of the schools.
+
+  [Footnote 29: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 174]
+
+  [Footnote 30: J.T. Wheeler, loc. cit., 141; Noer, I, 193; II, 324,
+  326]
+
+[Illustration: AKBAR'S GRAVE.]
+
+I have now come to the point which arouses most strongly the universal
+human interest in Akbar, namely, to his religious development and his
+relation to the religions, or better to religion. But first I must
+protest against the position maintained by a competent scholar[31]
+that Akbar himself was just as indifferent to religious matters as was
+the house of Timur as a whole. Against this view we have the testimony
+of the conscientiousness with which he daily performed his morning and
+evening devotions, the value which he placed upon fasting and prayer
+as a means of self-discipline, and the regularity with which he made
+yearly pilgrimages to the graves of Mohammedan saints. A better
+insight into Akbar's heart than these regular observances of worship
+which might easily be explained by the force of custom is given by the
+extraordinary manifestations of a devout disposition. When we learn
+that Akbar invariably prayed at the grave of his father in Delhi[32]
+before starting upon any important undertaking, or that during the
+siege of Chitor he made a vow to make a pilgrimage to a shrine in
+Ajmir after the fall of the fortress, and that after Chitor was in his
+power he performed this journey in the simplest pilgrim garb, tramping
+barefooted over the glowing sand,[33] it is impossible for us to look
+upon Akbar as irreligious. On the contrary nothing moved the Emperor
+so strongly and insistently as the striving after religious truth.
+This effort led to a struggle against the most destructive power in
+his kingdom, against the Mohammedan priesthood. That Akbar, the
+conqueror in all domains, should also have been victorious in the
+struggle against the encroachments of the Church (the bitterest
+struggle which a ruler can undertake), this alone should insure him a
+place among the greatest of humanity.
+
+  [Footnote 31: A. Müller, II, 418]
+
+  [Footnote 32: Noer, I, 262]
+
+  [Footnote 33: Noer, I, 259.]
+
+The Mohammedan priesthood, the community of the Ulemâs in whose hands
+lay also the execution of justice according to the dictates of Islam,
+had attained great prosperity in India by countless large bequests.
+Its distinguished membership formed an influential party at court.
+This party naturally represented the Islam of the stricter observance,
+the so-called Sunnitic Islam, and displayed the greatest severity and
+intolerance towards the representatives of every more liberal
+interpretation and towards unbelievers. The chief judge of Agra
+sentenced men to death because they were Shiites, that is to say they
+belonged to the other branch of Islam, and the Ulemâs urged Akbar to
+proceed likewise against the heretics.[34] That arrogance and vanity,
+selfishness and avarice, also belonged to the character of the Ulemâs
+is so plainly to be taken for granted according to all analogies that
+it need hardly be mentioned. The judicature was everywhere utilized by
+the Ulemâs as a means for illegitimate enrichment.
+
+  [Footnote 34: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 156.]
+
+This ecclesiastical party which in its narrow-minded folly considered
+itself in possession of the whole truth, stands opposed to the noble
+skeptic Akbar, whose doubt of the divine origin of the Koran and of
+the truth of its dogmas began so to torment him that he would pass
+entire nights sitting out of doors on a stone lost in contemplation.
+The above mentioned brothers Faizî and Abul Fazl introduced to his
+impressionable spirit the exalted teaching of Sûfism, the Mohammedan
+mysticism whose spiritual pantheism had its origin in, or at least was
+strongly influenced by, the doctrine of the All-One, held by the
+Brahman Vedânta system. The Sûfi doctrine teaches religious tolerance
+and has apparently strengthened Akbar in his repugnance towards the
+intolerant exclusiveness of Sunnitic Islam.
+
+The Ulemâs must have been horror-stricken when they found out that
+Akbar even sought religious instruction from the hated Brahmans. We
+hear especially of two, Purushottama and Debî by name, the first of
+whom taught Sanskrit and Brahman philosophy to the Emperor in his
+palace, whereas the second was drawn up on a platform to the wall of
+the palace in the dead of the night and there, suspended in midair,
+gave lessons on profound esoteric doctrines of the Upanishads to the
+emperor as he sat by the window. A characteristic bit of Indian local
+color! The proud Padishah of India, one of the most powerful rulers of
+his time, listening in the silence of night to the words of the
+Brahman suspended there outside, who himself as proud as the Emperor
+would not set foot inside the dwelling of one who in his eyes was
+unclean, but who would not refuse his wisdom to a sincere seeker after
+truth.
+
+Akbar left no means untried to broaden his religious outlook. From
+Gujerat he summoned some Parsees, followers of the religion of
+Zarathustra, and through them informed himself of their faith and
+their highly developed system of ethics which places the sinful
+thought on the same level with the sinful word and act.
+
+From olden times the inhabitants of India have had a predisposition
+for religious and philosophical disputations. So Akbar, too, was
+convinced of the utility of free discussion on religious dogmas. Based
+upon this idea, and perhaps also in the hope that the Ulemâs would be
+discomfited Akbar founded at Fathpur Sikrî, his favorite residence in
+the vicinity of Agra, the famous Ibâdat Khâna, literally the "house of
+worship," but in reality the house of controversy. This was a splendid
+structure composed of four halls in which scholars and religious men
+of all sects gathered together every Thursday evening and were given
+an opportunity to defend their creeds in the presence and with the
+cooperation of the Emperor. Akbar placed the discussion in charge of
+the wise and liberal minded Abul Fazl. How badly the Ulemâs, the
+representatives of Mohammedan orthodoxy, came off on these
+controversial evenings was to be foreseen. Since they had no success
+with their futile arguments they soon resorted to cries of fury,
+insults for their opponents and even to personal violence, often
+turning against each other and hurling curses upon their own number.
+In these discussions the inferiority of the Ulemâs, who nevertheless
+had always put forth such great claims, was so plainly betrayed that
+Akbar learned to have a profound contempt for them.
+
+In addition to this, the fraud and machinations by means of which the
+Ulemâs had unlawfully enriched themselves became known to the Emperor.
+At any rate there was sufficient ground for the chastisement which
+Akbar now visited upon the high clergy. In the year 1579 a decree was
+issued which assigned to the Emperor the final decision in matters of
+faith, and this was subscribed to by the chiefs of the Ulemâs,--with
+what personal feelings we can well imagine. For by this act the Ulemâs
+were deprived of their ecclesiastical authority which was transferred
+to the Emperor. That the Orient too possesses its particular official
+manner of expression in administrative matters is very prettily shown
+by a decree in which Akbar "granted the long cherished wish" of these
+same chiefs of the Ulemâs to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca, which
+of course really meant a banishment of several years. Other unworthy
+Ulemâs were displaced from their positions or deprived of their
+sinecures; others who in their bitterness had caused rebellion or
+incited or supported mutiny were condemned for high treason. The rich
+property of the churches was for the most part confiscated and
+appropriated for the general weal. In short, the power and influence
+of the Ulemâs was completely broken down, the mosques stood empty and
+were transformed into stables and warehouses.
+
+Akbar had long ceased to be a faithful Moslem. Now after the fall of
+the Ulemâs he came forward openly with his conviction, declared the
+Koran to be a human compilation and its commands folly, disputed the
+miracles of Mohammed and also the value of his prophecies, and denied
+the doctrine of recompense after death. He professed the Brahman and
+Sûfistic doctrine that the soul migrates through countless existences
+and finally attains divinity after complete purification.
+
+The assertion of the Ulemâs that every person came into the world
+predisposed towards Islam and that the natural language of mankind was
+Arabic (the Jews made the same claim for Hebrew and the Brahmans for
+Sanskrit), Akbar refuted by a drastic experiment which does not
+correspond with his usual benevolence, but still is characteristic of
+the tendency of his mind. In this case a convincing demonstration
+appeared to him so necessary that some individuals would have to
+suffer for it. Accordingly in the year 1579 he caused twenty infants
+to be taken from their parents in return for a compensation and
+brought up under the care of silent nurses in a remote spot in which
+no word should be spoken. After four years it was proved that as many
+of these unhappy children as were still alive were entirely dumb and
+possessed no trace of a predisposition for Islam.[35] Later the
+children are said to have learned to speak with extraordinary
+difficulty as was to be expected.
+
+  [Footnote 35: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 174; Noer, I, 511, 512. A familiar
+  classical parallel to this incident is the experiment recorded by
+  Herodotus (II, 2) which the Egyptian king Psammetich is said to have
+  performed with two infants. It is related that after being shut up in
+  a goat's stable for two years separated from all human intercourse
+  these children repeatedly cried out the alleged Phrygian word [Greek:
+  bekhos], "bread," which in reality was probably simply an imitation of
+  the bleating of the goats. Compare Edward B. Tyler, _Researches into
+  the Early History of Mankind_. 2nd edition, (London, 1870), page 81:
+  "It is a very trite remark that there is nothing absolutely incredible
+  in the story and that _Bek, bek_ is a good imitative word for bleating
+  as in [Greek: blêchhaomai, mêkhaomai], _blöken, meckern_, etc."
+  Farther on we find the account of a similar attempt made by James IV
+  of Scotland as well as the literature with regard to other historical
+  and legendary precedents of this sort in both Orient and Occident.]
+
+Akbar's repugnance to Islam developed into a complete revulsion
+against every thing connected with this narrow religion and made the
+great Emperor petty-souled in this particular. The decrees were dated
+from the death of Mohammed and no longer from the Hejra (the flight
+from Mecca to Medina). Books written in Arabic, the language of the
+Koran were given the lowest place in the imperial library. The
+knowledge of Arabic was prohibited, even the sounds characteristically
+belonging to this language were avoided.[36] Where formerly according
+to ancient tradition had stood the word _Bismilâhi_, "in the name of
+God," there now appeared the old war cry _Allâhu akbar_ "God is
+great," which came into use the more generally--on coins, documents,
+etc.--the more the courtiers came to reverse the sense of the slogan
+and to apply to it the meaning, "Akbar is God."
+
+  [Footnote 36: Noer, II, 324, 325. Beards which the Koran commanded to
+  be worn Akbar even refused to allow in his presence. M. Elphinstone,
+  525; G.B. Malleson, 177.]
+
+Before I enter into the Emperor's assumption of this flattery and his
+conception of the imperial dignity as conferred by the grace of God, I
+must speak of the interesting attempts of the Jesuits to win over to
+Christianity the most powerful ruler of the Orient.
+
+As early as in the spring of 1578 a Portuguese Jesuit who worked among
+the Bengals as a missionary appeared at the imperial court and pleased
+Akbar especially because he got the better of the Ulemâs in
+controversy. Two years later Akbar sent a very polite letter to the
+Provincial of the Jesuit order in Goa, requesting him to send two
+Fathers in order that Akbar himself might be instructed "in their
+faith and its perfection." It is easy to imagine how gladly the
+Provincial assented to this demand and how carefully he proceeded with
+the selection of the fathers who were to be sent away with such great
+expectations. As gifts to the Emperor the Jesuits brought a Bible in
+four languages and pictures of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and to
+their great delight when Akbar received them he laid the Bible upon
+his head and kissed the two pictures as a sign of reverence.[37]
+
+  [Footnote 37: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I,162; Noer, I, 481.]
+
+In the interesting work of the French Jesuit Du Jarric, published in
+1611, we possess very detailed accounts of the operations of these
+missionaries who were honorably received at Akbar's court and who were
+invited to take up their residence in the imperial palace. The evening
+assemblies in the 'Ibâdat Khâna' in Fathpur Sikrî at once gave the
+shrewd Jesuits who were schooled in dialectics, an opportunity to
+distinguish themselves before the Emperor who himself presided over
+this Religious Parliament in which Christians, Jews, Mohammedans,
+Brahmans, Buddhists and Parsees debated with each other. Abul Fazl
+speaks with enthusiasm in the _Akbarnâme_ of the wisdom and zealous
+faith of Father Aquaviva, the leader of this Jesuit mission, and
+relates how he offered to walk into a fiery furnace with a New
+Testament in his hand if the Mullahs would do the same with the Koran
+in their hand, but that the Mohammedan priests withdrew in terror
+before this test by fire. It is noteworthy in this connection that the
+Jesuits at Akbar's court received a warning from their superiors not
+to risk such rash experiments which might be induced by the devil with
+the view of bringing shame upon Christianity.[38] The superiors were
+apparently well informed with regard to the intentions of the devil.
+
+  [Footnote 38: J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 165, note, 47; M. Elphinstone, 523,
+  note 8; G.B. Malleson, 162.]
+
+In conversation with the Jesuits Akbar proved to be favorably inclined
+towards many of the Christian doctrines and met his guests half way in
+every manner possible. They had permission to erect a hospital and a
+chapel and to establish Christian worship in the latter for the
+benefit of the Portuguese in that vicinity. Akbar himself occasionally
+took part in this service kneeling with bared head, which, however,
+did not hinder him from joining also in the Mohammedan ritual or even
+the Brahman religious practices of the Rajput women in his harem. He
+had his second son Murâd instructed by the Jesuits in the Portuguese
+language and in the Christian faith.
+
+The Jesuits on their side pushed energetically toward their goal and
+did not scorn to employ flattery in so far as to draw a parallel
+between the Emperor and Christ, but no matter how slyly the fathers
+proceeded in the accomplishment of their plans Akbar was always a
+match for them. In spite of all concessions with regard to the
+excellence and credibility of the Christian doctrines the Emperor
+never seemed to be entirely satisfied. Du Jarric "complains bitterly
+of his obstinacy and remarks that the restless intellect of this man
+could never be quieted by one answer but must constantly make further
+inquiry."[39] The clever historian of Islam makes the following
+comment: "Bad, very bad;--perhaps he would not even be satisfied with
+the seven riddles of the universe of the latest natural science."[40]
+
+  [Footnote 39: In Noer, I, 485.]
+
+  [Footnote 40: A. Müller, II, 420 n.]
+
+To every petition and importunity of the Jesuits to turn to
+Christianity Akbar maintained a firm opposition. A second and third
+embassy which the order at Goa sent out in the nineties of the
+sixteenth century, also labored in vain for Akbar's conversion in
+spite of the many evidences of favor shown by the Emperor. One of the
+last Jesuits to come, Jerome Xavier of Navarre, is said to have been
+induced by the Emperor to translate the four Gospels into Persian
+which was the language of the Mohammedan court of India. But Akbar
+never thought of allowing himself to be baptized, nor could he
+consider it seriously from political motives as well as from reasons
+of personal conviction. A man who ordered himself to be officially
+declared the highest authority in matters of faith--to be sure not so
+much in order to found an imperial papacy in his country as to guard
+his empire from an impending religious war--at any rate a man who saw
+how the prosperity of his reign proceeded from his own personal
+initiative in every respect, such a man could countenance no will
+above his own nor subject himself to any pangs of conscience. To
+recognize the Pope as highest authority and simply to recognize as
+objective truth a finally determined system in the realm in which he
+had spent day and night in a hot pursuit after a clearer vision, was
+for Akbar an absolute impossibility.
+
+Then too Akbar could not but see through the Jesuits although he
+appreciated and admired many points about them. Their rigid dogmatism,
+their intolerance and inordinate ambition could leave him no doubt
+that if they once arose to power the activity of the Ulemâs, once by
+good fortune overthrown, would be again resumed by them to a stronger
+and more dangerous degree. It is also probable that Akbar, who saw and
+heard everything, had learned of the horrors of the Inquisition at
+Goa. Moreover, the clearness of Akbar's vision for the realities of
+national life had too often put him on his guard to permit him to look
+upon the introduction of Christianity, however highly esteemed by him
+personally, as a blessing for India. He had broken the power of Islam
+in India; to overthrow in like manner the second great religion of his
+empire, Brahmanism, to which the great majority of his subjects clung
+with body and soul, and then in place of both existing religions to
+introduce a third foreign religion inimically opposed to them--such a
+procedure would have hurled India into an irremediable confusion and
+destroyed at one blow the prosperity of the land which had been
+brought about by the ceaseless efforts of a lifetime. For of course it
+was not the aim of the Jesuits simply to win Akbar personally to
+Christianity but they wished to see their religion made the state
+religion of this great empire.
+
+As has been already suggested, submission to Christianity would also
+have been opposed to Akbar's inmost conviction. He had climbed far
+enough up the stony path toward truth to recognize all religions as
+historically developed and as the products of their time and the land
+of their origin. All the nobler religions seemed to him to be
+radiations from the one eternal truth. That he thought he had found
+the truth with regard to the fate of the soul in the Sûfi-Vedântic
+doctrine of its migration through countless existences and its final
+ascension to deity has been previously mentioned. With such views
+Akbar could not become a Catholic Christian.
+
+The conviction of the final reabsorption into deity, conditions also
+the belief in the emanation of the ego from deity. But Akbar's
+relation to God is not sufficiently identified with this belief. Akbar
+was convinced that he stood nearer to God than other people. This is
+already apparent in the title "The Shadow of God" which he had
+assumed. The reversed, or rather the double, meaning of the sentence
+_Allâhu akbar_, "Akbar is God," was not displeasing to the Emperor as
+we know. And when the Hindus declared him to be an incarnation of a
+divinity he did not disclaim this homage. Such a conception was
+nothing unusual with the Hindus and did not signify a complete
+apotheosis. Although Akbar took great pains he was not able to
+permanently prevent the people from considering him a healer and a
+worker of miracles. But Akbar had too clear a head not to know that he
+was a man,--a man subject to mistakes and frailties; for when he
+permitted himself to be led into a deed of violence he had always
+experienced the bitterest remorse. Not the slightest symptom of
+Cæsaromania can be discovered in Akbar.
+
+Akbar felt that he was a mediator between God and man and believed
+"that the deity revealed itself to him in the mystical illumination of
+his soul."[41] This conviction Akbar held in common with many rulers
+of the Occident who were much smaller than he. Idolatrous marks of
+veneration he permitted only to a very limited degree. He was not
+always quite consistent in this respect however, and we must realize
+how infinitely hard it was to be consistent in this matter at an
+Oriental court when the customary servility, combined with sincere
+admiration and reverence, longed to actively manifest itself.
+
+  [Footnote 41: Noer, II, 314, 355.]
+
+Akbar, as we have already seen, suffered the Hindu custom of
+prostration, but on the other hand we have the express testimony to
+the contrary from the author Faizî, the trusted friend of the Emperor,
+who on the occasion of an exaggerated homage literally says: "The
+commands of His Majesty expressly forbid such devout reverence and as
+often as the courtiers offer homage of this kind because of their
+loyal sentiments His Majesty forbids them, for such manifestations of
+worship belong to God alone,"[42] Finally however Akbar felt himself
+moved to forbid prostration publicly, yet to permit it in a private
+manner, as appears in the following words of Abul Fazl[43]:
+
+  [Footnote 42: In Noer, II, 409.]
+
+  [Footnote 43: In Noer, II, 347, 348.]
+
+"But since obscurantists consider prostration to be a blasphemous
+adoration of man, His Majesty in his practical wisdom has commanded
+that it be put an end to with ignorant people of all stations and also
+that it shall not be practiced even by his trusted servants on public
+court days. Nevertheless if people upon whom the star of good fortune
+has shone are in attendance at private assemblies and receive
+permission to be seated, they may perform the prostration of gratitude
+by bowing their foreheads to the earth and so share in the rays of
+good fortune. So forbidding prostration to the people at large and
+granting it to the select the Emperor fulfils the wishes of both and
+gives the world an example of practical wisdom."
+
+The desire to unite his subjects as much as possible finally impelled
+Akbar to the attempt to equalize religious differences as well.
+Convinced that religions did not differ from each other in their
+innermost essence, he combined what in his opinion were the essential
+elements and about the year 1580 founded a new religion, the famous
+Dîn i Ilâhi, the "religion of God." This religion recognizes only one
+God, a purely spiritual universally efficient being from whom the
+human soul is derived and towards which it tends. The ethics of this
+religion comprises the high moral requirements of Sufism and Parsism:
+complete toleration, equality of rights among all men, purity in
+thought, word and deed. The demand of monogamy, too, was added later.
+Priests, images and temples,--Akbar would have none of these in his
+new religion, but from the Parsees he took the worship of the fire
+and of the sun as to him light and its heat seemed the most beautiful
+symbol of the divine spirit.[44] He also adopted the holy cord of the
+Hindus and wore upon his forehead the colored token customary among
+them. In this eclectic manner he accommodated himself in a few
+externalities to the different religious communities existing in his
+kingdom.
+
+  [Footnote 44: M. Elphinstone, 524.]
+
+Doubtless in the foundation of his Dîn i Ilâhi Akbar was not pursuing
+merely ideal ends but probably political ones as well, for the
+adoption of the new religion signified an increased loyalty to the
+Emperor. The novice had to declare himself ready to yield to the
+Emperor his property, his life, his honor, and his former faith, and
+in reality the adherents of the Dîn i Ilâhi formed a clan of the
+truest and most devoted servitors of the Emperor. It may not be
+without significance that soon after the establishment of the Dîn i
+Ilâhi a new computation of time was introduced which dated from the
+accession of Akbar to the throne in 1556.
+
+After the new religion had been in existence perhaps five years the
+number of converts began to grow by the thousands but we can say with
+certainty that the greater portion of these changed sides not from
+conviction but on account of worldly advantage, since they saw that
+membership in the new religion was very advantageous to a career in
+the service of the state.[45] By far the greatest number of those who
+professed the Dîn i Ilâhi observed only the external forms, privately
+remaining alien to it.
+
+  [Footnote 45: Noer, I, 503.]
+
+[Illustration: MAUSOLEUM OF AKBAR AT SIKANDRA.]
+
+In reality the new religion did not extend outside of Akbar's court
+and died out at his death. Hence if failure here can be charged to the
+account of the great Emperor, yet this very failure redounds to his
+honor. Must it not be counted as a great honor to Akbar that he
+considered it possible to win over his people to a spiritual
+imageless worship of God? Had he known that the religious requirements
+of the masses can only be satisfied by concrete objects of worship and
+by miracles (the more startling the better), that a spiritualized
+faith can never be the possession of any but a few chosen souls, he
+would not have proceeded with the founding of the Dîn i Ilâhi. And
+still we cannot call its establishment an absolute failure, for the
+spirit of tolerance which flowed out from Akbar's religion
+accomplished infinite good and certainly contributed just as much to
+lessening the antagonisms in India as did Akbar's social and
+industrial reforms.
+
+A man who accomplished such great things and desired to accomplish
+greater, deserves a better fortune than was Akbar's towards the end of
+life. He had provided for his sons the most careful education, giving
+them at the same time Christian and orthodox Mohammedan instructors in
+order to lead them in their early years to the attainment of
+independent views by means of a comparison between contrasts; but he
+was never to have pleasure in his sons. It seems that he lacked the
+necessary severity. The two younger boys of this exceedingly temperate
+Emperor, Murâd and Daniâl, died of delirium tremens in their youth
+even before their father. The oldest son, Selim, later the Emperor
+Jehângir, was also a drunkard and was saved from destruction through
+this inherited vice of the Timur dynasty only by the wisdom and
+determination of his wife. But he remained a wild uncontrolled cruel
+man (as different as possible from his father and apparently so by
+intention) who took sides with the party of the vanquished Ulemâs and
+stepped forth as the restorer of Islam. In frequent open rebellion
+against his magnanimous father who was only too ready to pardon him,
+he brought upon this father the bitterest sorrow; and especially by
+having the trustworthy minister and friend of his father, Abul Fazl,
+murdered while on a journey. Very close to Akbar also was the loss of
+his old mother to whom he had clung his whole life long with a
+touching love and whom he outlived only a short time.
+
+Akbar lost his best friends and his most faithful servants before he
+finally succumbed to a very painful abdominal illness, which at the
+last changed him also mentally to a very sad extent, and finally
+carried him off on the night of the fifteenth of October, 1605. He was
+buried at Sikandra near Agra in a splendid mausoleum of enormous
+proportions which he himself had caused to be built and which even
+to-day stands almost uninjured.
+
+This in short is a picture of the life and activities of the greatest
+ruler which the Orient has ever produced. In order to rightly
+appreciate Akbar's greatness we must bear in mind that in his empire
+he placed all men on an equality without regard to race or religion,
+and granted universal freedom of worship at a time when the Jews were
+still outlaws in the Occident and many bloody persecutions occurred
+from time to time; when in the Occident men were imprisoned, executed
+or burnt at the stake for the sake of their faith or their doubts; at
+a time when Europe was polluted by the horrors of witch-persecution
+and the massacre of St. Bartholemew.[46] Under Akbar's rule India
+stood upon a much higher plane of civilization in the sixteenth
+century than Europe at the same time.
+
+  [Footnote 46: Noer, I, 490 n.]
+
+Germany should be proud that the personality of Akbar who according to
+his own words "desired to live at peace with all humanity, with every
+creature of God," has so inspired a noble German of princely blood in
+the last century that he consecrated the work of his life to the
+biography of Akbar. This man is the Prince Friedrich August of
+Schleswig-Holstein, Count of Noer, who wandered through the whole of
+Northern India on the track of Akbar's activities, and on the basis
+of the most careful investigation of sources has given us in his large
+two-volumed work the best and most extensive information which has
+been written in Europe about the Emperor Akbar. How much his work has
+been a labor of love can be recognized at every step in his book but
+especially may be seen in a touching letter from Agra written on the
+24th of April, 1868, in which he relates that he utilized the early
+hours of this day for an excursion to lay a bunch of fresh roses on
+Akbar's grave and that no visit to any other grave had ever moved him
+so much as this.[47]
+
+  [Footnote 47: Noer, II, 564, 572.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14134 ***