88 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [March, 



and prostrated themselves on his appearance. The time of the four 

 prayers was announced by bells and gongs, and the imperial band 

 played hymns, a large number of which Akbar had himself com- 

 posed. The emperor also appeared in public with the mark which 

 Hindus put on the forehead. 



The mosques being now useless, were changed into store-rooms, 

 and into houses for Hindu chaukidars. The cemetries within the 

 towns were sequestered, as tending to give offence to the Hindus. 

 Several eating-houses were erected for poor Hindus and Muham- 

 madans, and another for Jogis, who promised Akbar that he should live 

 three or four times as long as ordinary men. The Brahmins per- 

 suaded the emperor, that he was an incarnated deity, and said that 

 he only played with the people of the world by delaying to assume 

 his real form. They brought at the same time proofs from antique 

 looking manuscripts, containing prophecies regarding a great king 

 who would honour cows and Brahmins, and the courtiers brought pre- 

 dictions of the man of the Millenium, which they said they had 

 found among the poems of Nacir-i-Khusrau, a free-thinking Persian 

 poet of the sixth century. 



In 1585, the conversions to the Divine Faith were numerous. In 

 1587, Akbar ordered, that his disciples should only marry one wife, 

 except in cases of barrenness. Widows were allowed to marry again. 

 Disciples, on meeting each other, should not use old salutations as 

 8aldm i taslim, handag'i, &c, but one should say, ' 'Allahu Akbar,' and 

 the other reply, ' Jalla Jalaluhu' (great is his glory). This was to remind 

 people of God and of Akbar, whose full name was Jalaluddin Akbar. 

 Hindu judges were also appointed to hear all cases between Hindus. 

 People should be buried with their feet placed towards the west, and the 

 courtiers commenced even to sleep with their feet towards the west, a 

 position which every Muhanimadan in India considers highly im- 

 proper, as Makkah lies west of India. In the same year the study of 

 Arabic was prohibited throughout the empire. In 1590, the meat 

 of buffaloes, sheep, horses and camels was forbidden. Hindu women 

 should not be burnt together with their dead husbands, except they 

 did so freely ; but soon after Suttee was again permitted without 

 restriction. Circumcision was forbidden before the age of twelve, 

 and boys were then to decide for themselves. No member of the 



