"but in his heart, he makes a present." Under the eyes of men such as Todar Mall and Muzaffar Khán the most exemplary order prevailed. Dishonesty and

embezzlement could not but subsist in an institution of such colossal dimensions, nevertheless unexpected inspections and verification of the cash balances, documents, etc., gave evidence that the mass of the employés were both scrupulous and capable.

The coinage formed an important item in the administration of the finances. It was of gold, silver, and copper : there were 42 mints, in four of which coins were struck in the three metals; there were 10 in which silver and copper were coined, and 28 in which copper alone. The seat of government for the time being had, as such, the right to coin money; besides this, the principal mints were at Ahmadábád, Alláhábád, Agrah, Ujjain, Súrát, Dihlí, Patnah, Lahore, Audh, Ajmír and Patan.

The art of coining and of refining had already reached a state of high perfection, and it received every encouragement from Akbar. Following the example of Sher Shah, he aimed at obtaining the greatest possible purity in the metals employed. The monetary system was simple and homogeneous throughout Hindústán; its bases were the muhur and rápí. It would lead us too far to enumerate the individual gold coins; three only as being struck regularly, month by month, need be, mentioned viz. the quadrangular jalálí, of the value of 10 rúpís; the d'han, or half jalálí; and the man, or quarter. Special permission had to be obtained before stamping the remaining 23 gold coins.

Mention must be made of a few of the many institutions which Akbar called into existence for the social and political advantage of his people.

So early as 1573 he prohibited the practice of enslaving prisoners of war; in the year following he abolished all taxes on pilgrims: these had been levied on religious assemblies and other such undertakings and their amount had varied at the pleasure of the sovereign, depending on his greater or less zeal for the Prophet and his own pecuniary needs. It is evident that by these reforms Akbar would increase the attachment of the Hindú population to himself.

Familiar to us already are Akbar's pilgrimages to Ajmír; in 1584, he built a palace at each station along the road between that city and Agrah and sank a well and placed a pillar, adorned with the horns of antelopes which he had himself killed, at each kos. His kindness was shown to all, irrespective of faith; he built asylums for the poor and for travellers, and placed persons in charge who were empowered to provide meat and drink and viaticum at his expense. It happened in 1580, that as he sat at table, the thought occurred to him that possibly some hungry persons had looked at his viands with longing eyes. "How, therefore," asks Nizamuddín Ahmad, "could he eat it while the hungry were debarred from it? He therefore gave orders that every day some hungry persons should be fed with some of the food prepared for himself, and that afterwards he should be served." According to the same authority, he caused a large reservoir in the court-yard at Fathpúr to be filled to the brim with coins of all values, which were gradually distributed to the amírs, the poor, the holy and the learned; it was three years before the treasure basin was exhausted. In 1583, Akbar built two houses outside Fathpúr for the use of faqirs, both

991.

Hindú and Moslim; to the first he gave the name of Dharmpúra; to the second, that of Khairpúra from the usual expressions for charity, dharmma among the Hindús and khair among Moslims. As many Jógis (Hindú mendicants) used to flock to the neighbourhood of the capital a special house was built for their accommodation, called Jogípúra.* The expediency of such establishments will be recognized upon consideration of the prominent part played in the East by these two great religious systems. Akbar's daily gifts to the poor and the presents made on his pilgrimages must have consumed a very considerable portion of his revenues. Edward Thomas has estimated Akbar's annual gross income at £32,000,000. Taking into consideration the change in the value of gold, this sum would represent at the present time a much more considerable sum: Europeans of Akbar's time were moved to wonder at his revenues.†

This sketch of the internal administration of Hindústán under Akbar will go far to prove our main point; it shows him to have been a statesman of noble thoughts, high aims and genial character. Blochmann rightly apprehends his political dealings when he says that the secret of Akbar's success was the care with whch he entered into the details of a subject in order to arrive at the understanding of the whole--a rare trait in a sovereign of those days.

* As a curiosity, should be mentioned Shaitánpura, i.e., Satan'sville, a quarter lying outside the town proper, and in which nátch girls, etc., were compelled to live. Fuller details are to be found in Badaoni Elliot V, 575, and Rehatsek 1. c, p. 49.

+ Purchas 1. c. pp. 36 et seq.

CHAPTER VI.

DÍN ILAHI.*

DOWNFALL OF THE ULAMÁS.

AKBAR was great as a general, as a statesman creative, and down to the present day he is unsurpassed as a practical exponent of genuine humanity.

* Abul Fazl's Akbarnámah. (Chalmers,) vol. II. passim. Abul Fazl's Aín i Akbarí. (Blochmann.) p. 159 et, sq.

Of

Shaikh Núrul Hakk's Zubdatut Tawáríkh Elliot, vol. VI, p. 89. special importance are Badáoní in Elliot, vol. v, 517 et seq, and in Bloch. mann, p. 167 et seq. Also E. Rehatsek's translation of the Emperor Akbar's repudiation of Esllám, Bombay, 1866; Dabistán ul Muzáhib. Anon. trans. by David Shea and Anthony Troyer, Paris, 1843. vol. III.

Prolégoménes historiques d'Ibn, Khaldoun, in the Notices et Extraits des manuscrits, Paris 1862, vol. XIX p. 364 et seq.

a

L'Histoire des choses plus memorables advenuës tant aux Indes Orientales qu'autres pays, de la decouverte des Portugais, en l'établissement et progrez de la foy Chrestienne et Catholique. Et principalement de ce que les Religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus y ont faict, et enduré pour la mesme fin depuis qu'ils y sont entrez jusques l'an 1600. Par le P. Pierre Du Jarric, Tolosain, de la mesme Compagnie, A Valenchienne, Chez Jean Vervliet, MDCXI. My attention was drawn to this valuable work, as well as to several other rare European writings referring to Akbar, by my learned friend A. C. Burnell. It is an inestimable mine for the relations of Akbar to the Jesuits, to Christianity and for his religious theories. At the same time it represents the life and doings at the emperor's court from an impartial and European stand-point. Especially consult p. 599 et seq.

Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay vol. I., Lon. 1819; J. W. Graham's Treatise on Sufism, Lon. 1820.

Akbar; some Notice respecting the religion introduced by the Emperor Vans Kennedy, account of Mahummud Mehdi.

Hugh Murray's Historical account of discoveries in Asia vol. II, p. 82 et seq. Lon. 1820. (Not altogether trustworthy; on p. 82 Akbar is called the successor of Aurungzib, although the latter,was born 14 years after the death of Akbar.)

At the time to which we have traced the story of his life, he had received the homage of the free princes of Hindústán and had curbed his refractory feudatories; he now challenged a conflict the most hazardous into which a sovereign can adventure, let him rule in what land soever a conflict against the servants of the Church; the old but ever renewed struggle of free thought against slavish dogma, between the might of the state and the influence of the priesthood. History has recorded numerous instances of the grapple of these two forces, the mightiest in the life of nations. Often enough has the temporal power leagued itself with the hierarchy, often made it concessions, but few indeed have been the sovereigns, who have possessed at once the courage and the ability to throw down to it the gauntlet of defiance. To attack institutions and traditions which centuries had transmitted as sacred

H. H. Wilson's Account of the religious innovations of Akbar, vol. II pp. 379 et seq. Post. Works Lon. 1862.

Blochmann's Badáoní and the religious views of the Emperor Akbár. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. March 1869.

Blochmann's Biography of Abul Fazl prefixed to the A'ín i Akbarí.

Dozy's Essai sur l'histoire d'Islamisme, trans, by Chauvin, Paris, 1879 A. V. Kremer's Geschichte der herrschende Ideen etc. and Culturgeschichte. des Orientes unter den Khalifen, 2 vols. Vienna, 1875. Dugat's Histoire des philosophes musulmans Paris, 1878.

Garcin de Tassy's L'Islamisme. Paris 1874. 3rd ed.

Garcin de Tassy's Poésie philosophique et religieuse chez les Persans. Paris 1875. 2nd ed.

A. V. Kremer's Molla-Schah et le Spirituallsme, Oriental, Journal Asiatique, Feb. 1869.

Morganländische Mystik. Tholuck's is Berlin. 1825.

Berolini's Ssufismus. 1831.

Palmer's Oriental Mysticism. Cambridge. 1867.

Ethé's Morgenländische Studien. Leipzig. 1870.

Brown's Dervishes or Oriental Spiritualism. Lon. 1868.

Theodor Goldstücker's Literary Remains. Lon, 1879.

Max Müller's Introduction to the Science of Religion, Lon. 1873.