10 
widow to the pile, he mounted his horse, and rode post to the 
spot, to prevent the intended sacrifice. 
Among other reforms, he abolished the Capitation Tax on 
infidels, and also all taxes on pilgrims; observing that “although 
the tax fell on a vain superstition, yet, as all modes of worship 
were designed for one great Being, it was wrong to throw an 
obstacle in the way of the devout, and to cut them off from their 
mode of intercourse with their Maker.” He also prohibited the 
making slaves of prisoners taken in war. 
Akber’s religion was too spiritual and abstracted to be successful 
with the bulk of mankind. It seems never to have gone beyond 
a few philosophers, and some interested priests and courtiers ; and, 
on Akber’s death, it expired of itself, and the Mussulman forms 
were quickly and almost silently restored by Jehanger. 
Akber’s revenue system, so celebrated for the benefits it 
conferred on India, is the same now in force under Queen 
Victoria ; which we shall probably consider the highest praise it 
could obtain. The objects of it were :—1. To obtain a correct 
measurement of the land. 2. To ascertain the amount of the 
produce of each begah of land, and to fix the proportion of that 
amount that each ought to pay to the government. 3. To settle 
an equivalent for the proportion so fixed, in money. For the first 
purpose, Akber established a uniform standard to supersede the 
various measures formerly employed even by public officers. He 
also improved the instruments of mensuration, and he then deputed 
persons to make a complete measurement of all the lands capable 
of cultivation within the empire. 
As lands of equal fertility might be differently circumstanced in 
other respects, the following classification was formed for modifying 
that first mentioned. Land which never required a fallow, paid 
the full demand after every harvest. Land which required fallows, 
only paid when under cultivation. Land which had suffered from 
inundation, etc., or which had been three years out of cultivation, 
and required some expense to reclaim it, paid only two-fifths for 
the first year, but went on increasing till the fifth year, when it 
paid the full demand. 
