“In Rabí'ussání 990, Mír Fathullah came from the Dak'hin (vide above p. 33).* * * * As he had been an immediate pupil of Mír Ghiásuddín Mançúr of Shíráz, who had not been overstrict in religious matters, His Majesty thought that Fathullah would only be too glad to enter into his religious scheme. But Fathullah was such a stanch Shí'ah, and at the same time such a worldly office-hunter, and such a worshipper of mammon and of the nobility, that he would not give up a jot of the tittles of bigoted Shí'ism. Even in the statehall he said, with the greatest composure, his Shí'ah prayers—a thing which no one else would have dared to do. His Majesty, therefore, put him among the class of the bigots; but he connived at his practices, because he thought it desirable to encourage a man of such attainments and practical knowledge. Once the emperor, in Fathullah's presence,* said to Bír Baṛ, “I really wonder how any one in his senses can believe that a man, whose body has a certain weight, could, in the space of a moment, leave his bed, go up to heaven, there have 90,000 conversations with God, and yet on his return find his bed still warm?” So also was the splitting of the moon ridiculed. “Why,” said His Majesty, lifting up one foot, “it is really impossible for me to lift up the other foot! What silly stories men will believe.” And that wretch (Bír Baṛ) and some other wretches—whose names be forgotten—said, “Yea, we believe! Yea, we trust!” This great foot-experiment was repeated over and over again. But Fathullah—His Majesty had been every moment looking at him, because he wanted him to say something; for he was a new-comer—looked straight before himself, and did not utter a syllable, though he was all ear.”

Here Badáoní mentions the translations from Sanscrit into Persian, which have been alluded to above, p. 104. It is not quite certain whether the translations were made from Sanscrit, or from Hindí trans­lations, or from both. Badáoní clearly states that for some translations, as as the At'harban, Hindus were used as interpreters. For other works as the Mahabhárat, there may have been Hindí translations or extracts, because Akbar himself (vide p. 105, note 1) translated passages to Naqíb Khán. Abulfazl also states that he was assisted by Pandits when writing the fourth book of the A´ín. Compare Sir H. Elliott's Index to the Historians of India, p. 259.

“In these days (991) new orders were given. The killing of animals on certain days was forbidden, as on Sundays, because this day is sacred to the Sun; during the first eighteen days of the month of Farwardín; the whole month of A´bán (the month in which His Majesty was born); and on several other days, to please the Hindus. This order was extended over the whole realm, and capital punishment was inflicted on every one who acted against the command. Many a family was ruined. During the time of these fasts, His Majesty abstained altogether from meat, as a religious penance, gradually extending the several fasts during a year over six months and even more, with the view of eventually discontinuing the use of meat altogether.

A second order was given that the Sun should be worshipped four times a day, in the morning and evening, and at noon and midnight. His Majesty had also one thousand and one Sanscrit names of the Sun collected, and read them daily, devoutly turning towards the sun; he then used to get hold of both ears, and turning himself quickly round about, used to strike the lower ends of the ears with his fists. He also adopted several other practices connected with sun-worship. He used to wear the Hindu mark on his forehead, and ordered the band to play at midnight and at break of day. Mosques and prayer-rooms were changed into store rooms, or given to Hindu Chaukídárs. For the word jamá'at (public prayer), His Majesty used the term jimá' (copulation), and for hayya* ala, he said yalalá talalá.

The cemetry within the town was ordered to be sequestered.”

“In the same year (991), His Majesty built outside the town two places for feeding poor Hindus and Muhammadans, one of them being called Khairpúrah, and the other Dharmpúrah. Some of Abulfazl's people were put in charge of them. They spent His Majesty's money in feeding the poor. As an immense number of Jogís also flocked to this establishment, a third place was built, which got the name of Jogípúrah. His Majesty also called some of the Jogís, and gave them at night private interviews, enquiring into abstruse truths; their articles of faith; their occupations; the influence of pensiveness; their several practices and usages; the power of being absent from the body; or into alchemy, physiognomy, and the power of omnipresence of the soul. His Majesty even learned alchemy, and shewed in public some of the gold made by him. Once a year also during a night called Sívrát, a great meeting was held of all Jogís of the empire, when the emperor ate and drank with the principal Jogís, who promised him that he should live three and four times as long as ordinary men. His Majesty fully believed it, and connecting their promises with other inferences he had drawn, he got quite convinced of it. Fawning court doctors, wisely enough, found proofs for the longevity of the emperor, and said that the cycle of the moon, during which the lives of men are short, was drawing to its close, and that the cycle of Saturn* was at hand, with which a new cycle of ages, and consequently the original longevity of mankind, would again commence. Thus they said, it was mentioned in some holy books that men used to live up to the age of one thousand years, whilst in Sanscrit books the ages of some men were put down as ten thousand years; and in Thibet, there were even now a class of Lámahs, or Mongolian devotees, and recluses, and hermits, that live two hundred years, and more. For this reason, His Majesty, in imitation of the usages of these Lámahs, limited the time he spent in the Harem, curtailed his food and drink, but especially abstained from meat. He also shaved the hair of the crown of his head, and let the hairs at the sides grow, because he believed that the soul of perfect beings, at the time of death, passes out by the crown (which is the tenth opening* of the human body) under a noise resembling thunder, which the dying man may look upon as a proof of his happiness and salvation from sin, and as a sign that his soul, by metempsychosis, will pass into the body of some grand and mighty king.

His Majesty gave his religious system the name of Tauhíd i Iláhí, or ‘Divine Monotheism.’

He also called, according to the manner of the Jogís, a number of special disciples Chelahs (slaves). A lot of vile, swindling, wicked birds, who were not admitted to the palace, stood every morning opposite to the window, near which His Majesty used to pray to the sun, and declared, they had made vows not to rinse their mouths, nor to eat and drink, before they had seen the blessed countenance of the emperor; and every evening, there was a regular court assembly of needy Hindus and Muhammadans, all sorts of people, men and women, healthy and sick, a queer gathering, and a most terrible crowd. No sooner had His Majesty finished saying the 1001 names of the ‘Greater Luminary’, and stepped out into the balcony, than the whole crowd prostrated themselves. Cheating, thieving Brahmins collected another set of 1001 names of ‘His Majesty the Sun,’ and told the emperor that he was an incarnation, like Rám, Kishn, and other infidel kings; and though Lord of the world, he had assumed his shape, in order to play with the people of our planet. In order to flatter him, they also brought Sanscrit verses, said to have been taken from the sayings of ancient sages, in which it was predicted that a great conqueror would rise up in India, who would honor Brahmins and cows, and govern the earth with justice. They also wrote this nonsense on old looking paper, and shewed it to the emperor, who believed every word of it.