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diff --git a/14134-h/14134-h.htm b/14134-h/14134-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f748021 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/14134-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1521 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Akbar, Emperor of India, by Richard von Garbe</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-indent: 1em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + img {border:0;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .fn {text-indent: 0;} + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + hr.full { width: 100%; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14134 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Akbar, Emperor of India, by Richard von +Garbe, Translated by Lydia G. Robinson</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p class="fn"></p> + + +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> +<h1>AKBAR,<br /> +EMPEROR OF INDIA</h1> + +<h4>A PICTURE OF LIFE AND CUSTOMS FROM<br /> +THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY</h4> + +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>DR. RICHARD VON GARBE</h2> +<h5>RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TUBINGEN</h5> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> + +<h4>TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY LYDIA G. ROBINSON</h4> + +<h6>Reprinted from "The Monist" of April, 1909</h6> + +<h6>Chicago<br /> +The Open Court Publishing Company</h6> + +<h4>1909</h4> + +<p><a name="image000" id="image000" /></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/img000.jpg" id="img000"><img src="images/img000s.jpg" width="196" height="292" +alt="AKBAR DIRECTING THE TYING-UP OF A WILD ELEPHANT." title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="center">AKBAR DIRECTING THE TYING-UP OF A WILD ELEPHANT.<br /> +Tempera painting in the Akbar Namahby 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.</p> + +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> + +<h3>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h3> + +<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td align="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> + +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#image000">Akbar Directing the Tying-up of a Wild Elephant</a> (<i>Frontispiece</i>)</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#image007">Akbar, Emperor of India</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#image016">Mausoleum of Akbar's Father, Humâyun</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#image025">View of Fathpur</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#image034">Akbar's Grave</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#image047">Mausoleum of Akbar at Sikandra</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#image049">The Chakra the Indian Emblem of Empire,</a></td></tr> +</table> +</td></tr></table> + +<p><a name="Page1" id="Page1" /></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AKBAR_EMPEROR_OF_INDIAA" id="AKBAR_EMPEROR_OF_INDIAA" />AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1" /><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page2" id="Page2" />sharply +outlined, even though generally unpleasing, personalities.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2" /><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> 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.</p> + +<p><a name="image007" id="image007" /></p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/img007.jpg" id="img007.jpg"><img src="images/img007s.jpg" width="198" height="246" alt="AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA. +From Noer's Kaiser Akbar, (Frontispiece to Vol. II)." title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="center">AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA.<br /> +From Noer's Kaiser Akbar, (Frontispiece to Vol. II).</p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> + +<p>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 <a name="Page3" id="Page3" />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."<a name="FNanchor_2_3" id="FNanchor_2_3" /><a href="#Footnote_2_3" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_3_4" id="FNanchor_3_4" /><a href="#Footnote_3_4" class="fnanchor">[3]</a><a name="Page4" id="Page4" /></p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page5" id="Page5" />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.</p> + +<p>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."<a name="FNanchor_4_5" id="FNanchor_4_5" /><a href="#Footnote_4_5" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_B_6" id="FNanchor_B_6" /><a href="#Footnote_B_6" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> The shape +of the <a name="Page6" id="Page6" />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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page7" id="Page7" />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.<a name="FNanchor_5_7" id="FNanchor_5_7" /><a href="#Footnote_5_7" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page8" id="Page8" />of the youthful Emperor to be secretly +the actual ruler of India.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_6_8" id="FNanchor_6_8" /><a href="#Footnote_6_8" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page9" id="Page9" />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.<a name="FNanchor_7_9" id="FNanchor_7_9" /><a href="#Footnote_7_9" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page10" id="Page10" />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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was an eventful time in which Akbar arrived at manhood in the midst +of all sorts of personal dangers.</p> + +<p><a name="image016" id="image016" /></p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/img016.jpg" id="img016.jpg"><img src="images/img016s.jpg" width="300" height="190" alt="MAUSOLEUM OF AKBAR'S FATHER, HUMÂYUN." title="" /> +</a></div> +<p class="center">MAUSOLEUM OF AKBAR'S FATHER, HUMÂYUN.</p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> + +<p>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 <a name="Page11" id="Page11" />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."<a name="FNanchor_8_10" id="FNanchor_8_10" /><a href="#Footnote_8_10" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_9_11" id="FNanchor_9_11" /><a href="#Footnote_9_11" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_10_12" id="FNanchor_10_12" /><a href="#Footnote_10_12" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page12" id="Page12" />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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page13" id="Page13" />of the native inhabitants by +lifting the hated poll tax which still existed side by side with all +other taxes.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_11_13" id="FNanchor_11_13" /><a href="#Footnote_11_13" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> This was much more than a disgusting +humiliation. When the tax-collector availed himself of this privilege +the Hindu <a name="Page14" id="Page14" />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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Shâitânpura</i> or "Devil's City."<a name="FNanchor_12_14" id="FNanchor_12_14" /><a href="#Footnote_12_14" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>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<a name="Page15" id="Page15" /> Mal, who without possessing the title of vizier or +minister of state had assumed all the functions of such an office.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page16" id="Page16" />at the muster +for worthless material and also to loan them to other knights during +muster.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<a name="FNanchor_13_15" id="FNanchor_13_15" /><a href="#Footnote_13_15" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> but was not able +to make India, a maritime power.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_14_16" id="FNanchor_14_16" /><a href="#Footnote_14_16" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Hence it is probably a sort of <i>mitrailleuse</i>. Akbar <a name="Page17" id="Page17" />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.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>(II, 372) because of the so-called "organ cannons" which were + in use in Europe as early as the 15th century.</p></div> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_15_17" id="FNanchor_15_17" /><a href="#Footnote_15_17" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page18" id="Page18" />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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_16_18" id="FNanchor_16_18" /><a href="#Footnote_16_18" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p><a name="image025" id="image025" /></p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/img025.jpg" id="img025.jpg"><img src="images/img025s.jpg" width="300" height="190" alt="VIEW OF FATHPUR" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="center">VIEW OF FATHPUR</p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> + +<p>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 <a name="Page19" id="Page19" />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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page20" id="Page20" />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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page21" id="Page21" />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.</p> + +<p>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<a name="FNanchor_17_19" id="FNanchor_17_19" /><a href="#Footnote_17_19" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> 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 <a name="Page22" id="Page22" />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.</p> + +<p>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,"<a name="FNanchor_18_20" id="FNanchor_18_20" /><a href="#Footnote_18_20" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> and +that later he forbade the slaughtering of cattle and eating their +flesh.<a name="FNanchor_19_21" id="FNanchor_19_21" /><a href="#Footnote_19_21" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_20_22" id="FNanchor_20_22" /><a href="#Footnote_20_22" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page23" id="Page23" />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.<a name="FNanchor_21_23" id="FNanchor_21_23" /><a href="#Footnote_21_23" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_22_24" id="FNanchor_22_24" /><a href="#Footnote_22_24" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>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<a name="FNanchor_23_25" id="FNanchor_23_25" /><a href="#Footnote_23_25" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> relates: "His Majesty +deigned to improve them in a marvelous manner by crossing the races +which had not been done formerly."</p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_24_26" id="FNanchor_24_26" /><a href="#Footnote_24_26" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> 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 +<a name="Page24" id="Page24" />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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_25_27" id="FNanchor_25_27" /><a href="#Footnote_25_27" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>Not until after sunset did the Emperor's time of recreation begin. +Since he only required three hours of sleep<a name="FNanchor_26_28" id="FNanchor_26_28" /><a href="#Footnote_26_28" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> 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 <i>nom +de plume</i> 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 <a name="Page25" id="Page25" />work is divided in two parts, the first one of +which under the title <i>Akbarnâme</i>, "Akbar Book," contains the complete +history of Akbar's reign, whereas the second part, the <i>Aîn î Akbarî</i>, +"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.<a name="FNanchor_27_29" id="FNanchor_27_29" /><a href="#Footnote_27_29" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_28_30" id="FNanchor_28_30" /><a href="#Footnote_28_30" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> is entirely original.</p> + +<p>Among other ways Akbar betrayed the scientific trend of his mind by +sending out an expedition in search of the <a name="Page26" id="Page26" />sources of the Ganges.<a name="FNanchor_29_31" id="FNanchor_29_31" /><a href="#Footnote_29_31" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> +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.<a name="FNanchor_30_32" id="FNanchor_30_32" /><a href="#Footnote_30_32" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> 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.</p> + +<p><a name="image034" id="image034" /></p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/img034.jpg" id="img034.jpg"><img src="images/img034s.jpg" width="196" height="291" alt="AKBAR'S GRAVE." title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="center">AKBAR'S GRAVE.</p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> + +<p>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<a name="FNanchor_31_33" id="FNanchor_31_33" /><a href="#Footnote_31_33" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> +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<a name="FNanchor_32_34" id="FNanchor_32_34" /><a href="#Footnote_32_34" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +before <a name="Page27" id="Page27" />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,<a name="FNanchor_33_35" id="FNanchor_33_35" /><a href="#Footnote_33_35" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_34_36" id="FNanchor_34_36" /><a href="#Footnote_34_36" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> 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.<a name="Page28" id="Page28" /></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page29" id="Page29" />system of ethics which places the sinful +thought on the same level with the sinful word and act.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page30" id="Page30" />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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page31" id="Page31" />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.<a name="FNanchor_35_37" id="FNanchor_35_37" /><a href="#Footnote_35_37" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Later the +children are said to have learned to speak with extraordinary +difficulty as was to be expected.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_36_38" id="FNanchor_36_38" /><a href="#Footnote_36_38" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> Where formerly according +to ancient tradition had stood the word <i>Bismilâhi</i>, "in the name of +God," there now appeared the old war cry <i>Allâhu akbar</i> "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."</p> + +<p>Before I enter into the Emperor's assumption of this <a name="Page32" id="Page32" />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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_37_39" id="FNanchor_37_39" /><a href="#Footnote_37_39" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>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 <i>Akbarnâme</i> 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 <a name="Page33" id="Page33" />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.<a name="FNanchor_38_40" id="FNanchor_38_40" /><a href="#Footnote_38_40" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> The superiors were +apparently well informed with regard to the intentions of the devil.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."<a name="FNanchor_39_41" id="FNanchor_39_41" /><a href="#Footnote_39_41" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> The <a name="Page34" id="Page34" />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."<a name="FNanchor_40_42" id="FNanchor_40_42" /><a href="#Footnote_40_42" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page35" id="Page35" />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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page36" id="Page36" />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 +<i>Allâhu akbar</i>, "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.</p> + +<p>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."<a name="FNanchor_41_43" id="FNanchor_41_43" /><a href="#Footnote_41_43" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page37" id="Page37" />their +loyal sentiments His Majesty forbids them, for such manifestations of +worship belong to God alone,"<a name="FNanchor_42_44" id="FNanchor_42_44" /><a href="#Footnote_42_44" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> 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<a name="FNanchor_43_45" id="FNanchor_43_45" /><a href="#Footnote_43_45" class="fnanchor">[43]</a>:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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<a name="Page38" id="Page38" /> 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.<a name="FNanchor_44_46" id="FNanchor_44_46" /><a href="#Footnote_44_46" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_45_47" id="FNanchor_45_47" /><a href="#Footnote_45_47" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> By far the greatest number of those who +professed the Dîn i Ilâhi observed only the external forms, privately +remaining alien to it.</p> + +<p><a name="image047" id="image047" /></p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/img047.jpg" id="img047.jpg"><img src="images/img047s.jpg" width="297" height="175" alt="MAUSOLEUM OF AKBAR AT SIKANDRA." title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="center">MAUSOLEUM OF AKBAR AT SIKANDRA.</p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> + +<p>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 <a name="Page39" id="Page39" />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.</p> + +<p>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<a name="Page40" id="Page40" /> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_46_48" id="FNanchor_46_48" /><a href="#Footnote_46_48" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> Under Akbar's rule India +stood upon a much higher plane of civilization in the sixteenth +century than Europe at the same time.</p> + +<p>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, <a name="Page41" id="Page41" />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.<a name="FNanchor_47_49" id="FNanchor_47_49" /><a href="#Footnote_47_49" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> +<a name="Page42" id="Page42" /></p> + +<p><a name="image049" id="image049" /></p> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img049.png" width="408" height="402" alt="The Chakra, the Indian Emblem of Empire" title="" /> +</div> +<div style="height: 1em;"> </div> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> E. Schlagintweit, <i>Indien in Wort und Bild</i>, II, 26 f.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_2_3" id="Footnote_2_3" /><a href="#FNanchor_2_3"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> A. Müller, <i>Der Islam im Morgen-und Abendland</i>, II, 300 +f.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_3_4" id="Footnote_3_4" /><a href="#FNanchor_3_4"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> From the literature on Emperor Akbar the following works +deserve special mention: J. Talboys Wheeler, <i>The History of India +from the Earliest Ages.</i> 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, <i>History of India, +the Hindu and Mahometan Periods</i>, with notes and additions by E.B. +Cowell, 9th ed., London, 1905; G.B. Malleson, <i>Akbar and the Rise of +the Mughal Empire</i>, Oxford, 1890 (in W.W. Hunter's <i>Rulers of India</i>); +A. Müller, <i>Der Islam im Morgen-und Abendland</i>, Vol. II, Berlin, 1887; +but especially Count F.A. von Noer, <i>Kaiser Akbar, ein Versuch über +die Geschichte Indiens im sechzehnten Jahrhundert</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_4_5" id="Footnote_4_5" /><a href="#FNanchor_4_5"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> A. Müller, II, 416.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_B_6" id="Footnote_B_6" /><a href="#FNanchor_B_6"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Noer, II as frontispiece (comp. also pp. 327, 328); A. +Müller, II, 417.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_5_7" id="Footnote_5_7" /><a href="#FNanchor_5_7"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Noer, I, 131.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_6_8" id="Footnote_6_8" /><a href="#FNanchor_6_8"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Noer, I, 141.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_7_9" id="Footnote_7_9" /><a href="#FNanchor_7_9"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 139, 140; Noer, I, 143, 144.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_8_10" id="Footnote_8_10" /><a href="#FNanchor_8_10"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 180.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_9_11" id="Footnote_9_11" /><a href="#FNanchor_9_11"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Noer, II, 8, 390, 423.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_10_12" id="Footnote_10_12" /><a href="#FNanchor_10_12"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> For the following compare Noer I, 391 ff.; M. +Elphinstone, 529 ff.; G.B. Malleson, 172 ff., 185 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_11_13" id="Footnote_11_13" /><a href="#FNanchor_11_13"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Noer, II, 6, 7; G.B. Malleson, 174, 175.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_12_14" id="Footnote_12_14" /><a href="#FNanchor_12_14"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 173; Noer, I, 438 n.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_13_15" id="Footnote_13_15" /><a href="#FNanchor_13_15"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Noer, II, 378.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_14_16" id="Footnote_14_16" /><a href="#FNanchor_14_16"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Noer, I, 429. The second invention, however, is +questioned by Buchwald.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_15_17" id="Footnote_15_17" /><a href="#FNanchor_15_17"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Noer, I, 439.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_16_18" id="Footnote_16_18" /><a href="#FNanchor_16_18"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Noer, I, 224-226</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_17_19" id="Footnote_17_19" /><a href="#FNanchor_17_19"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Badâoni in Noer, II, 320.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_18_20" id="Footnote_18_20" /><a href="#FNanchor_18_20"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Noer, II, 317, 318.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_19_21" id="Footnote_19_21" /><a href="#FNanchor_19_21"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> 376, 317.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_20_22" id="Footnote_20_22" /><a href="#FNanchor_20_22"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 173; M. Elphinstone, 526; G.B. +Malleson, 170.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_21_23" id="Footnote_21_23" /><a href="#FNanchor_21_23"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Noer, II, 355-</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_22_24" id="Footnote_22_24" /><a href="#FNanchor_22_24"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 169, following the old English +geographer Samuel Purchas.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_23_25" id="Footnote_23_25" /><a href="#FNanchor_23_25"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Abul Fazl in Noer, I, 511.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_24_26" id="Footnote_24_26" /><a href="#FNanchor_24_26"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> M. Elphinstone, 519</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_25_27" id="Footnote_25_27" /><a href="#FNanchor_25_27"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 168.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_26_28" id="Footnote_26_28" /><a href="#FNanchor_26_28"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Loc. cit., 169.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_27_29" id="Footnote_27_29" /><a href="#FNanchor_27_29"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Noer, I, 432, 433.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_28_30" id="Footnote_28_30" /><a href="#FNanchor_28_30"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> A. Müller, II, 386.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_29_31" id="Footnote_29_31" /><a href="#FNanchor_29_31"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 174</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_30_32" id="Footnote_30_32" /><a href="#FNanchor_30_32"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, loc. cit., 141; Noer, I, 193; II, 324, +326</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_31_33" id="Footnote_31_33" /><a href="#FNanchor_31_33"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> A. Müller, II, 418</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_32_34" id="Footnote_32_34" /><a href="#FNanchor_32_34"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Noer, I, 262</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_33_35" id="Footnote_33_35" /><a href="#FNanchor_33_35"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Noer, I, 259.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_34_36" id="Footnote_34_36" /><a href="#FNanchor_34_36"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 156.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_35_37" id="Footnote_35_37" /><a href="#FNanchor_35_37"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> 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 βεκὁς [Greek: +bekhos], "bread," which in reality was probably simply an imitation of +the bleating of the goats. Compare Edward B. Tyler, <i>Researches into +the Early History of Mankind</i>. 2nd edition, (London, 1870), page 81: +"It is a very trite remark that there is nothing absolutely incredible +in the story and that <i>Bek, bek</i> is a good imitative word for bleating +as in βληχἁομαι, μηκἁομαι [Greek: blêchhaomai, mêkhaomai,], <i>blöken, meckern</i>, 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_36_38" id="Footnote_36_38" /><a href="#FNanchor_36_38"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_37_39" id="Footnote_37_39" /><a href="#FNanchor_37_39"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I,162; Noer, I, 481.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_38_40" id="Footnote_38_40" /><a href="#FNanchor_38_40"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> J.T. Wheeler, IV, I, 165, note, 47; M. Elphinstone, 523, +note 8; G.B. Malleson, 162.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_39_41" id="Footnote_39_41" /><a href="#FNanchor_39_41"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> In Noer, I, 485.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_40_42" id="Footnote_40_42" /><a href="#FNanchor_40_42"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> A. Müller, II, 420 n.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_41_43" id="Footnote_41_43" /><a href="#FNanchor_41_43"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Noer, II, 314, 355.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_42_44" id="Footnote_42_44" /><a href="#FNanchor_42_44"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> In Noer, II, 409.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_43_45" id="Footnote_43_45" /><a href="#FNanchor_43_45"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> In Noer, II, 347, 348.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_44_46" id="Footnote_44_46" /><a href="#FNanchor_44_46"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> M. Elphinstone, 524.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_45_47" id="Footnote_45_47" /><a href="#FNanchor_45_47"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Noer, I, 503.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_46_48" id="Footnote_46_48" /><a href="#FNanchor_46_48"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Noer, I, 490 n.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="fn"><a name="Footnote_47_49" id="Footnote_47_49" /><a href="#FNanchor_47_49"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Noer, II, 564, 572.</p></div> + +</div> +<p> </p> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14134 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/14134-h/images/img000.jpg b/14134-h/images/img000.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..325ad68 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img000.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img000s.jpg b/14134-h/images/img000s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d978721 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img000s.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img007.jpg b/14134-h/images/img007.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da2d346 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img007.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img007s.jpg b/14134-h/images/img007s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cacef17 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img007s.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img016.jpg b/14134-h/images/img016.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4313ad1 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img016.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img016s.jpg b/14134-h/images/img016s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d5f72f --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img016s.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img025.jpg b/14134-h/images/img025.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..64f49e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img025.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img025s.jpg b/14134-h/images/img025s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b552d75 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img025s.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img034.jpg b/14134-h/images/img034.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..07d08d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img034.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img034s.jpg b/14134-h/images/img034s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..510b816 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img034s.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img047.jpg b/14134-h/images/img047.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d7cccb --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img047.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img047s.jpg b/14134-h/images/img047s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea86773 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img047s.jpg diff --git a/14134-h/images/img049.png b/14134-h/images/img049.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..68033e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/14134-h/images/img049.png |
