38 | K. D. Maclagan—Jeswit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. [No. 1, 
The Jesuit Missions to the Emperor Akbar.—By EL. D. Maclagan, C.S., 
from notes recorded by the late GennRaL R. Mactacay, R.E. 
[Read April 1896. | 
Almost all the historians of the reign of Akbar have discussed in 
some form or other his religious views, and in histories written by 
Europeans attention has naturally been paid to the attitude which he 
assumed towards Christianity, as put before him by the Jesuit Mis- 
sionaries at his Court. The records of these Jesuit Missions are not, 
however, very easy of access, and few of the published histories do more 
than refer in the briefest terms to the remarkable incidents which 
these records set forth and the interesting picture of the times which 
they present to us. In order to supply this defect it was the inten- 
tion of the late General Maclagan R.E., to prepare a sketch of the 
religious views of the Emperor Akbar, which should have special re- 
ference to the history of his attitude towards Christianity, and the 
present writer has come into possession of the notes and references 
which General Maclagan from time to time recorded with this object 
in view. It is unfortunately impossible to prepare from these notes any 
complete sketch of the nature originally contemplated, but it may be 
of some interest to reproduce in one place the substance of the chief 
original authorities on the subject of the Jesuit Missions at Akbar’s 
Court, and the scope of the present paper is limited to this. 
What the general histories tell us is shortly as follows. That 
from about A.D. 1580, till his death, or at any rate till the year 1596, 
the Emperor Akbar held the most unorthodox opinions, culminating for 
a time in the promulgation of a form of natural religion entitled 
the Tauhid-i-llahi or Divine Monotheism, in which the worship of the 
Sun and of the Hmperor himself formed a prominent part. That 
during this period he assumed a tolerant attitude towards all religions 
and made constant enquiries into the tenets and customs of the Hindis, 
Parsis and Christians; and that at his invitation three separate special 
missions were equipped and despatched to his Court by the Jesuit 
authorities at Goa. The first of these missions was sent in 1080, under 
