The Institutes of Akbar 135.3.1

135.3.1

The ringing of bells as in use with the Christians, and the showing of the figure of the cross, and ........, and other childish playthings of theirs, were daily in practice. The words Kufr shai' shud, or 'heresy became common’, express the Tárikh (985). Ten or twelve years after the commencement of these doings, matters had gone so far that wretches like Mirzá Jáni, chief of Tattah, and other apostates, wrote their confessions on paper as follows:—‘I, such a one, son of such a one, have willingly and cheerfully renounced and rejected the Islam in all its phases, whether low or high, as I have witnessed it in my ancestors, and have joined the ‘Divine Faith’ of Shah Akbar, and declare myself willing to sacrifice to him my property and life, my honor and religion.’ And these papers—there could be no more effective letters of damnation—were handed over to the Mujtahid (Abulfazl) of the new Creed, and were considered a source of confidence or promotion. The Heavens might have parted asunder, and earth might have opened her abyss, and the mountains have crumbled to dust! In opposition to the Islam, pigs and dogs were no longer looked upon as unclean. A large number of these animals was kept in the Harem, and in the vaults of the castle, and to inspect them daily, was considered a religious exercise. The Hindus, who believe in incarnations, said that the boar belonged to the ten forms which God Almighty had once assumed. ‘God is indeed Almighty—but not what they say.’