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Chapter 12 – Akbar’s Religious Views, as Described by Badauni

Sixteenth Century A.D.

Akbar the Great was a reformer and innovator, as has been fully shown in the preceding volume.

Among the detailed accounts of his reign is a record by Abd-al-Kadir Badauni, who lived and wrote at the great emperor’s court and died in 1615 A.D., ten years after his royal patron’s death.

The selection here chosen from Badauni’s work illustrates the well-known latitudinarianism of Akbar in religious matters and shows how little favour they met with in orthodox Mohammedan eyes like those of Badauni:–

In the year 983 A.H. (1575 A.D.), the buildings of the Ibadat-Khanah, or “Hall of Worship,” were completed. The cause of their erection was as follows. In

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the course of the last few years the emperor had gained many great and remarkable victories, and his dominion had grown in extent from day to day, so that not an enemy was left in the world. He had taken a liking for the society of ascetics and the disciples of the celebrated Mu’iniyyah, and spent much time in discussing the Word of God and the sayings of the Prophet, likewise devoting his attention to problems of Sufism, science, philosophy, law, and similar matters. He passed whole nights in meditation upon God and upon the modes of addressing Him, ‘and reverence for the great Giver filled his heart. In order to show his gratitude for his blessings, he would sit many a morning alone in prayer and mortification upon the stone bench of an old cell in a lonely spot near the palace. Thus engaged in meditation, he gathered the bliss of the early hours of dawn.

Having completed the construction of the “Hall of Worship,” he made a large chamber in each of its four divisions and also finished the construction of the tank called anuptalao. After prayers on Fridays he would go from the monastery of the Shaikh-al-Islam and hold a meeting in this new building. Shaikhs, learned and pious men, and a few of his own companions and attendants were the only people who were invited, and discussions were carried on upon all kinds of instructive and useful topics. Every Sabbath evening he invited Sayyids, shaikhs, theologians, and nobles, but ill feeling arose in the company about the order of precedence, so that his Majesty commanded that the nobles should

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Gold coins of Akbar

sit on the east side, the Sayyids on the west, the theologians on the south, and the shaikhs on the north. His Majesty would go to these various parties from time to time and converse with them to ascertain their thoughts.

Quantities of perfume were used and large sums of money were distributed as rewards of merit and ability among the worthy people who obtained an entry through the favour of the emperor’s attendants Many fine books which had belonged to Itmad Khan Gujarati and had been acquired in the conquest of

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Akbar’s Tomb, Sikandra

Gujarat were placed in the royal library, but were subsequently brought out and distributed by the emperor A among learned and pious men. One night the vein ^ of the neck of the chief theologian of the age swelled

up in anger and a great outcry and tumult arose. This annoyed his Majesty, and he said to the humble writer of these lines: “In future, report any one of the assembly whom you find speaking improperly, and I will have him turned out.” Thereupon I said quietly to Asaf Khan: “According to this, a good many would be expelled.” His Majesty asked what I had said, and when I told him, he was much amused, and repeated my saying to those who were near him.

In the year 983 A.H. (1575–1576 A.D.), Hakim Abu-l-Fath Gilani, Hakim Humayun (who subsequently changed his name to Humayun Kuli and finally to Hakim Humam), and Nur-ad-din, who is known as a poet under the name of Karari, arrived at the imperial court. These three were brothers and came from Gilan near the Caspian. The eldest of them obtained an extraordinary ascendency over the emperor by his subserviency, flattering him openly and adapting himself to every change in the religious ideas of his Majesty, so that, by thus pushing forward, he soon became one of Akbar’s most intimate friends. Shortly afterward, Mulla Mohammad of Yazd came to court, whom they nicknamed Yazidi [“devil-worshipper”]. He attached himself to the emperor and concocted the most extravagant censures against the Companions of the Prophet (the peace of God be upon them!). He told extraordinary

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stories about them and tried hard to make the emperor a heretic. This man was far distanced by Birbal, Shaikh Abu-l-Fazl, and Hakim Abu-l-Fath, who turned the emperor from the Faith of the Prophet and made him a perfect sceptic of inspiration, the prophetic office, the miracles, and the law. They carried matters to such an extent that I, the author, could no longer bear them company.

About the same time, his Majesty ordered Kazi Jalal-ad-din and several other learned men to write a commentary upon the Koran, but they fell to squabbling about it. As history was read from day to day, his Majesty’s faith in the Companions of the Prophet began to be shaken and the breach grew broader, so that daily prayers, fasts, and prophecies were all pronounced to be delusions opposed to sense. Reason, not revelation, was declared to be the basis of religion. Europeans also paid visits to him and he adopted some of their rationalistic tenets.

His Majesty used frequently to go to the “Hall of Worship” and converse with the theologians and shaikhs, especially on Sabbath evenings, and would sometimes pass the whole night there. The discussions always turned upon the principles and divergencies of religion, and the disputants used to exercise the sword of their tongues upon each other with such sharpness and animosity that the various sects at length took to calling each other infidels and renegades. Innovators and schismatics artfully started their doubts and sophistries, making right appear to be wrong and wrong to

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be right, and thus his Majesty, who had an excellent understanding and sought after the truth, but was surrounded by low irreligious persons to whom he gave his confidence, was plunged into scepticism. Doubt accumulated upon doubt and the object of his search was lost. The ramparts of the law and of the true faith were broken down, and in the course of five or six years not a single trace of Islam was left in him.

There were many reasons for this, but I shall mention only a few. Learned men of various kinds and from every country, as well as adherents of many different religions and creeds, assembled at his court and were admitted to converse with him. Night and day people did nothing but inquire and investigate. Profound points of science, the subtleties of revelation, the curiosities of history, and the wonders of nature were the continual themes of discussion. His Majesty collected the opinions of every one, especially of those who were not Mohammedans, retaining whatever he approved and rejecting everything which was against his disposition and ran counter to his wishes. From his earliest childhood to his manhood, and from his manhood to old age, his Majesty passed through the most diverse phases and through all sorts of religious practices and sectarian beliefs, and collected everything which people can find in books, with a talent of selection peculiar to him and a spirit of inquiry opposed to every Islamitic principle.

Thus a faith, based on some elementary principles, traced itself on the mirror of his heart, and as the result

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Akbra’s tomb at Sikandra

of all the influences which were brought to bear upon him, there grew (as gradually as the outline on a stone) the conviction in his heart that there were sensible men in all religions, and abstemious thinkers and men endowed with miraculous powers among all nations.

If some true knowledge was thus to be found everywhere, why should truth be confined to one religion or to a creed like Islam, which was comparatively new and scarcely a thousand years old? Why should one sect assert what another denies, and why should one claim a preference without having superiority conferred on itself?

Moreover, Hindu ascetics and Brahmans managed to get frequent private interviews with his Majesty.

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As they surpass all other learned men in their treatises on morals and on physical and religious sciences, and since they attain a high degree of knowledge of the future and of spiritual power and human perfection, they brought proofs based on reason and testimony for the truth of their own religion and the falsity of other faiths, and inculcated their doctrines so firmly, and so skilfully represented things as quite self-evident which require consideration, that no man, by expressing his doubts, could now raise a doubt in his Majesty, even though the mountains should crumble to dust or the heavens be torn asunder.

Hence his Majesty cast aside the Islamitic revelations regarding the resurrection, the Day of Judgment, and the details connected with it, together with all ordinances based on the tradition of our Prophet. He listened to every insult which the courtiers heaped on our pure and glorious faith, which can so easily be followed; and eagerly seizing such opportunities, his words and gestures showed his satisfaction at the treatment which his original religion received at the hands of these apostates.

In 986 A.H. (1578 A.D.), the missionaries of Europe, who are termed Padris, and whose chief pontiff, called Papa (Pope), promulgates his interpretations for the use of the people and issues mandates that even kings dare not disobey, brought their Gospel to the king’s notice, advanced proofs of the Trinity, affirmed the truth of the Christian faith, and spread abroad the knowledge of the religion of Jesus. The king ordered

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House of Akbar’s Hindu Minister, Birbal,at Fathpur-Sikri

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Prince Murad to learn a few lessons from the Gospel and to treat it with all due respect, while Shaikh Abu-l-Fazl was directed to translate it.

On the other hand, Birbal the Hindu tried to persuade the king that since the sun gives light to all, and ripens all grain, fruits, and products of the earth, and supports the life of mankind, that luminary should be the object of worship and veneration; that the face should be turned toward the rising, not toward the setting, sun; that man should venerate fire, water, stones, trees, and all natural objects, even down to cows and their dung; and that he should adopt the frontal mark and the Brahmanical cord. Several wise men at court confirmed what he said by representing that the sun was the chief light of the world and the benefactor of its inhabitants, that it was a friend to kings and that monarchs established periods and eras in conformity with its motions. This was the cause of the worship paid to the sun on the New Year of the Persian emperor Jalal-ad-din, and the reason why he had been induced to adopt that festival for the celebration of his accession to the throne. Every day, therefore, Akbar used to put on clothes of the particular colour which accorded with that of the regent planet of the day. He began also, at midnight and at early dawn, to mutter the spells which the Hindus taught him for the purpose of subduing the sun to his wishes. He prohibited the slaughter of cows and the eating of their flesh, because the Hindus devoutly worship them and esteem their dung as pure. He likewise declared

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that physicians had represented the flesh of kine to be productive of sundry kinds of sickness and to be difficult to digest.

Fire-worshippers also came from Nausari in Gujarat, proclaiming the religion of Zardusht [Zoroaster] as the true one and asserting that reverence to fire is superior to every other kind of worship. They attracted the king’s regard and taught him the peculiar terms, ordinances, rites, and ceremonies of the ancient Persians; so that at last he directed that the sacred fire should be made over to the charge of Abu-l-Fazl, and that, according to the fashion of the Kings of Iran, in whose temples blazed perpetual fires, he should take care that it was never extinguished either by night or day – for that it is one of the emblems of God and one light from among the many lights of His creation.

From his earliest youth, in compliment to his wives, the daughters of the Rajas of Hind, Akbar had, within the female apartments, continued to burn the hom, which is a ceremony derived from fire-worship; but on the New Year festival of the twenty-fifth year after his accession (987 A.H., 1579 A.D.) he prostrated himself both before the sun and before the fire in public, and in the evening the whole court were required to rise up respectfully when the lamps and candles were lighted.

On the festival of the eighth day after the sun’s entrance into Virgo in this year, Akbar came forth to the public audience-chamber with his forehead marked like a Hindu’ and with jewelled strings tied on his wrist by Brahmans as a blessing. The chiefs and nobles

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The Emperor Akbar

adopted the same practice in imitation of him and on that day presented pearls and precious stones suitable to their respective wealth and station. It also became the current custom to wear on the wrist the rakhi, an amulet formed of twisted linen rags. In defiance and contempt of the true faith, he treated as manifest and decisive every precept which was enjoined by the doctors of other religions. The teachings of Islam, on the contrary, were esteemed follies, innovations, and inventions of indigent beggars, rebels, and highway robbers; and those who professed that religion were set down as contemptible idiots. These sentiments had long been growing up in his Majesty’s mind, and gradually ripened into a firm conviction of their truth.

In this same year, a declaration was issued over the signatures and seals of Makhdum-al-Mulk, Shaikh Abd-an-Nabi, the chief judge, Jalal-ad-din Multani, the chief justice, Sadr-i Jahan, the chief expounder of the law, Shaikh Mubarak, the most learned man of the age, and Ghazi Khan Badakhshi, who had no rival iri the science of metaphysics. The object of

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this document was to establish the complete superiority of the just leader over the chief lawyer and to make the judgment and choice of the latter so preponderating an authority on divers questions that no one could possibly reject his commands; either in religious or political matters.

This declaration ran, in part, as follows: “We have determined and do decree that the rank of a just ruler is higher in the eyes of God than the rank of a chief lawyer. Further, we declare that the Sultan of Islam, the refuge of mankind, the leader of the faithful, and the shadow of God on earth – Abu-l-Fath Jalal-ad-din Mohammad Akbar Padshah-i Ghazi (whose kingdom may God perpetuate!) – is a most just, wise, and God-fearing king. If, therefore, there should be a variance of opinion among the chief lawyers upon questions of religion, and if his Majesty, in his penetrating understanding and unerring judgment, should incline to one opinion and give his decree for the benefit of mankind and for the due regulation of the world, we do hereby agree that such a decree is binding on us and on the whole nation. Furthermore, we declare that should his Majesty, in his unerring judgment, issue an order which is not in opposition to the Koran and which is for the benefit of the nation, it shall be binding and imperative on every man. Opposition to it shall involve damnation in the world to come and loss of religion and property in this life. This document has been written with honest intentions for the glory of God and the propagation of Islam, and is signed by us, the principal

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divines and lawyers, in the month of Rajab, 987 A.H. (1579 A.D.).”

The draft of this document was in the handwriting of Shaikh Mubarak. The others had signed it against their will, but the Shaikh of his own accord added at the bottom that he had most willingly signed his name, for it was a matter to which he had been anxiously looking forward for several years.

After his Majesty had obtained this legal opinion, the road of deciding religious questions was opened, the superiority of the judgment of the Imam was established, and opposition was rendered impossible. The legal distinction between lawful and unlawful was set aside, the judgment of the Imam became paramount over the dogmas of the law, and Islam was called a counterfeit. His Majesty had now determined publicly to use the formula: “There is no god but God, and Akbar is the representative of God; “but as he found that the extravagance of this phrase led to commotions, he restricted its use to a few people in the harem.

In 990 A.H. (1582 A.D.), his Majesty was firmly convinced that a period of one thousand years from the mission of the Prophet was the extent of the duration of the religion of Islam, and that this period was now accomplished. There was no longer any obstacle to promulgating the designs which he secretly held, for now he was free from the respect and reverence due to the shaikhs and divines and from the deference owing to their authority. To his entire satisfaction, he was

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Akbar’s tombstone at Sikandra.

able to carry out his project of overturning the dogmas and principles of Islam, to set up his novel, absurd, and dangerous regulations, and to give currency to his own vicious beliefs.

In 991 A.H. (1583 A: D.) the King erected two buildings outside the city where he might feed holy men, both Mussulman and Hindu.

Some of Abu-l-Fazl’s people were in charge and used to spend the king’s money in procuring food. As Hindu ascetics also used to flock there in great numbers, a separate house was built for them and called Jogipura. Nightly sessions were held in private with some of these men, and they used to employ themselves in various follies and extravagancies, in contemplations, gestures, addresses, abstractions, and reveries, and in alchemy, incantation,

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and magic. The king himself studied alchemy and used to exhibit the gold which he made. One night in the year, called Shiv-rat (“the night of Siva”), was appointed for a grand assembly of ascetics from all parts of the country, and on this occasion his Majesty would eat and drink with the best of them, being especially gratified by their assurances that he was destined to live three or four times longer than the natural life of man.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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