Pig'Sticking 7 



bequeathing to his successors a united empire, and 

 a land revenue of twenty and three-quarter millions 

 sterling. 



One of Akbar's wives was a Christian ; and he 

 promulgated a new State religion, broader in its views 

 than the Musalman faith : he himself worshipped the 

 sun every morning as a representative of the Divine 

 Soul which animates the Universe. At any rate, he 

 has been a force in the Indian world which lives even 

 to-day as strongly as ever. Under his grandson Shah 

 Jehan, the Mogul Empire attained its highest union 

 of strength with magnificence. He enriched his 

 grandfather's capital with the exquisite Moti Masjid 

 (Pearl Mosque) ; he built the Taj, the Jama 

 Masjid (Great Mosque) at Delhi, and the Palace, 

 which covers a vast parallelogram of 1,600 feet by 

 3,200 feet, and includes the most sumptuous buildings 

 in marble most beautiful of all, the Diwan-i-Khas, 

 or Court of Private Audience, upon the inlaid walls of 

 which is inscribed, " If there is an Elysium on earth, 

 it is this, it is this." Shah Jehan's Peacock Throne, 

 its tail blazing in the shifting colours of rubies, 

 sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds, was valued at six 

 and a half millions sterling. 



In spite of their magnificence, the reigns of the 

 Mogul emperors tell a tale of tragic drama, darkened 

 by mutiny, jealousy, and intrigue. Akbar had rendered 

 a great empire possible in India by conciliating the 

 native Hindu races ; but his great-grandson Aurangzeb 

 gave up this policy, and after his death the decline 



