Muntakhab al-tawarikh 32: Worship of the Sun.

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[Text, vol. ii. p. 260.] The accursed Birbal tried to persuade the King, that since the sun gives light to all, and ripens all grain, fruits and products of the earth, and supports the life of mankind, that luminary should be the object of worship and veneration; that the face should be turned towards the rising, not towards the setting, sun; that man should venerate fire, water, stones and trees, and all natural objects, even down to cows and their dung; that he should adopt the frontal mark and the Brahminical cord. Several wise men at Court confirmed what he said, by representing that the sun was the chief light of the world, and the benefactor of its inhabitants, that it was a friend to kings, and that kings established periods and eras in conformity with its motions. This was the cause of the worship paid to the sun on the Nau-roz Jalali, and of his being induced to adopt that festival for the celebration of his accession to the throne. Every day he used to put on clothes of that particular colour which accords with that of the regent-planet of the day. He began also, at midnight and at early dawn, to mutter the spells, which the Hindus taught him, for the purpose of subduing the sun to his wishes. He prohibited the slaughter of cows, and the eating of their flesh, because the Hindus devoutly worship them, and esteem their dung as pure. Instead of cows, they sacrifice good men. The reason was also assigned, that physicians have represented their flesh to be productive of sundry kinds of sickness, and to be difficult of digestion.