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The Book of Akbar 3: INTRODUCTION.

The Akbarnama (H. Beveridge), vols. I–II 3

Language
English

Contents

INTRODUCTION.

3.1.1

What a Word was that whose utterance Unveiled the eighteen thousand! No feast equals it in intoxicating power; No rival comes nigh it in supremacy. It is the initiator in the workshop; It sits enthroned in the palace. Whatever reaches the heart of the wise, The heart utters to the tongue and the tongue rehearses to the ear. Its path is from the adit to the exit of hearts; Expression and audition are its arena. In reason’s observatory the tongue and the ear Are the rising and setting of speech’s moon. We cannot reach its sublime foundation by the ladder of the terial forms must also be combinations of the elements. skies nor can the swift foot of reason plant a step in its nature's mysterious wilderness. Its disposition is fiery, its constitution aerial, its nature earthy but resembling water. Its fount is the fire-temple of the heart; its culmination, the blissful abode of the atmosphere; it is as water in the flow of its traffic; earth’s surface is its place of repose. Judges of precedence in the ranks of glory, have in consonance with their knowledge and insight, recognized Speech as Commander-in-Chief of Truth’s army,—nay, as the true son and heir of the mind. They have felt it to be the Archimage of knowledge, the fire-temple of the heart,—nay, to be the mind’s first birth. Especially preeminent is that Speech which is the ornamented armament of the splendid volume; adorned preface of the sublime code, that is, is the praise of the Lord of heaven and earth;

3.1.2

panegyric of the Distributor of life and Creator of the body; which is at once a stage of exaltation for the beginning and a heart-entrancing ornament for the close; at once caravan-conductor of the eloquent and prince of eloquence; chamber-lamp of the sitters in darkness; solitude-adorning companion of the recluse; pain-increaser of the lovers of the path of God-seeking; ulcer-plaster of the wounded dwellers in the recess of impatience; cordial for the drinkers of sorrow's bitter tears; embalmer of the broken-hearted denizens of the hermitage of silence; marshaller of the brave in the contests of divine love; banquet-lamp of the beloved ones in the palace of peace; thirst-increaser of thirsty-lipped inquirers; hunger-increaser of hungry-hearted ones in the wilderness of search. Hence it is that wakeful-hearted sages,—with all their tumult of love and restless longing,—have stayed the hand of contemplation at the hem of the divine canopy and with thirsty lips, and blistered feet, and the gulping down of thousands of agitations and cries, have set the seal of silence on their lips and—wisely wrapping the foot of respect in the skirt of humility,—have not attempted what has not been vouchsafed to them from the almonry of destiny. Verse.

3.1.3

Letters and dots are the desert sand in Thy perfect path. In the universe of Thy wisdom, the city of speech is but some market-booths. The warders of jealousy at Thy door, smite the understanding, With blows of astonishment in front, and strokes of ignorance from behind. In other words, praise of the incomparable Deity lies outside the field of possibility, and the panegyric of the unequalled God is beyond the field of existence. Verse. Wherever discourse deals with the knowledge of God, Our thoughts' praise becomes dispraise. Behold rashness, how it boils over with daring! Can a drop embrace the ocean? Think not that it is even a single letter of the Book, For the Letter is muslin and the Book moonlight. How long wilt thou be an embroiderer of speech ? Stay thy foot here, with the acknowledgment of humility. So long as there is no link between terrestrials and celestials, and the path of speech between the earthly and the heavenly is closed, what intercourse can there be between the limited and the unlimited, so that an atom of the dust can have any lot in the pure, world-warming Sun ? What goal in the boundless plains of necessity and eternity is possible for a prisoner in the subterraneous vault of accident and modernity ; and what strength can he have to traverse them ? What portion can a bewildered, headless and footless mote have in the beams of the world-lighting Sun ? It can only be tossed about in the wind.

3.1.4

What is a dewdrop to the swelling ocean or to the cloud surcharged with rain? 'Tis but the vaunt of a parched lip. Pity it were that a mote should discourse about the Illuminator of the assemblage of existences and, though it know him not, and cannot address him, yet should speak of him and search for him ! What connection is there between the dark defile and the courts of light; between non-entity and absolute being ? The creature may never attain such knowledge of the Creator, as to be able to draw even a few breaths in the rare atmosphere of the praise of His mysteries (maknitndt) or to plant some steps in the field of the comprehension of the wonders of His store-houses (makhzundt). How then can he be fit to enter the courts of the Creator’s praise? For him who has no right of approach, to speak of the Sultan’s privy chamber, is only to be exposed to ridicule and to make himself a public laughing-stock. Verse. Though the foot of Speech be long of stride, Thy curtain-stone hath shattered it. Though Speech be fat and lusty, It is lean when it reaches Thy table. O Thou! Higher than our imaginary heavens and more exalted than the plane of the elements and than the stars, inasmuch as Thou hast not bestowed on us knowledge of Thy essence and attributes, it is manifest that Thou regardest not thanksgiving as within our powers, and seeing that Thou hast conferred on us mercies which are infinite, it follows that Thou hast not laid upon us the obligation of adequate gratitude!

3.1.5

When I saw that the door of utterance was closed, I perceived that of action open and said to myself in ecstacy;—

3.1.6

“If thou hast not the power of utterance and canst not chaunt panegyrics, be not cast down, for it is the smooth-tongued and empty-handed who, by a fraudulent barter, traffic words at the rate of realities. The praise which is laid upon mankind as a duty, by the commands of the Understanding,—that world-obeyed “sovereign—is that they make the night-illuminating jewel of reason—one of the bountiful Divine Ruler's greatest gifts—into a bright lamp and employ it for sweeping and cleansing the courts of their outer and inner man. Should the taskmasters of fate's workshop have attired a son of Adam in the garb of want and solitude, let him first of all gird up his loins for self-culture and afterward let him endeavour the improvement of others. Should they have brought him into a crowd of associations and contacts—as may be inevitable in the arrangements of this evil world—let him, if a ruler, prefer the betterment of others to his own; for the duty of the shepherd is watching the flock, and the design of sovereignty is universal guardianship. If he be a subject, let him, first of all, show alacrity in obeying the orders of his legitimate ruler, and then let him cleanse the secret chambers of his heart from the dust of heavy-pacing sensuality and nimble-footed wrath, so that, by his life and conversation, he be a teacher and a testimony of the incomparable Giver and Cherisher of his outer and inner man.”

3.1.7

When the communing with my heart had proceeded thus far, a resting-stage showed itself afar off to my bewildered mind, and my thoughts were pleasant for a while. My astonied heart was, it is true, saddened by the length and difficulty of the journey, but was cheered by the sound of the machinery of movement, and by the good tidings of eventual arrival. Suddenly the thoughtful foot of my boding spirit came upon a stone; for the praise of God does not consist in comprehending His perfect attributes and assigning them to His Essence; nor is it the reckoning up of His benefits which are without beginning or end, and by dint of these wares of new-fangled praise, thrusting oneself forward; nor should we regard praise as beyond human comprehension and so, stop short of the porch of thanksgiving; nor should we style self-culture the recital of the Divine praise, and growing weary-hearted at the darkness of the road and the distance of the goal, regard such self-deception as a gain, and with abandonment of thanksgiving, set about whatever the cheatery of the hour represent as our true aim. Rather the note of Praise is to lay this praise-loving, self-adorning, self-auctioning spirit on the threshold of service, at the base of supplication and humiliation and to cast it down from the arch of NOTE. The following passage was accidentally omitted. It should come in at p. 13, 1. 11, at the end of the second paragraph, and immediately after the word “thanksgiving.”

3.2.1

“Inasmuch as my aim was lofty, and my intent majestic, my scheming soul could not extricate herself from confusion and set free the word-framing tongue. My constitution would not allow that, like the ignorant and the imitative, I should enter the Praise-Court of the most glorious God by force of words and ejaculations, and be soothed by borrowed metaphor and hackneyed phrase. Nor yet would my effusive zeal permit that I should, after the manner of feeble-souled sages, refrain from searching after Him, or stay my lips from speech concerning him, and thus by a contradictory confession, disparate from one’s practice in secular matters, proclaim inability and simultaneously hold one’s self forth as a right-thinking utterer of verities.” self-consciousness and self-regard, so that its inward poverty may be adorned by outward submissiveness, and its inner and outer nature be decked with humility and lowliness till fitness grace the bosom of purpose and be turned into praise of the Omnipotent Creator. Now as such wares of thanksgiving are abundant in the booths of men and are especially plentiful in my own stall, why do I withhold myself from Divine praise and why do I delay to laud the Eternal One? Under any circumstances, it is better for me to escape from this deceiving misery of self-pleasing and to address myself to the heights of lofty thanksgiving.

3.2.2

I was a long time in perplexity, having neither ability to speak nor power to remain silent, when suddenly a door of light was opened by the intellect, that glory of life, and my confused heart found the neck of hope fitted with the noose of resolution. This message came to the ear of guidance, “Artist in Truth’s picture gallery! dost thou not compose a book whose frontispiece thou mayest adorn with praise? Thou art inditing the history of the Lord of time and the terrene (zamin u zaman) and Crown-jewel of monarchs, and praise to God will come into the writing, and thanksgiving to the Almighty be part of the picture! praise of praise is not right; the works of the Artificer are the perfect praise of the pure God and acknowledge him with a tongueless tongue.” “They (the works of creation) by conferring this knowledge, grant to the soul-awakened and inwardly-cultured, possession of Light absolute and bring them into the vast shadow of praise which together with its delights, is the highest dignity (mansab) of celestial existences.”

3.2.3

“Now it is manifest that no nobler impress or sublimer jewel is to be seen in the material world, than the exalted presence of powerful princes who by their holy energy, regulate the outer world and knit it together. And assuredly, to make over a world to one man and to consign to him the momentous affairs of a universe is to incorporate in him the world of reality, or rather to make him its soul. Especially if he be a world-adorner seized with the desire of inhaling the fragrant breezes of Truth’s spring-time and is seated on the lofty throne of felicity. Still more if he be the Lord of an Age who in addition to these two endowments, has a heart and mind fed from a hidden fountain. Above all, if he be that altar of the pious who by the Divine aid, has risen above these degrees and has become colourist of the House of Truth, banquet-illuminator of the Hall of Realities, confidant of the Presence Chamber, intimate of the pure palace of unity, and is by auspicious fate seated on the throne of fortune. Sway over the outer and inner world and unravelment of knots, both spiritual and temporal, are conspicuous in him. Therefore is he the adorner of the imperial throne; the uplifter of the banner of God’s shadow in our happy age; aggregation of the artists of thought and wisdom, or rather master-piece of the eternal artificers. With such vast stores of true praise in thy keeping, why remainest thou distraught in search?”

3.2.4

On hearing this soul-refreshing message, the morning breeze of felicity arose; the stock of eternal bliss was collected; the eye of hope grew bright; the outer world became current coin; the inner world exulted; the skirt of success fell into my hand; the wished-for countenance came in sight. Good God! What a strange mystery it is that in historical writings, praise of the pure Giver is introduced as an adornment to the book, whereas here, the book is adorned in order to the praise of the Creator. In the pages of secularists, praise comes in as ancillary to the design of the book, but in this glorious history, the design is subservient to the praise. According to the old method, God’s praise was effected by utterance; in this new rendezvous on Reason’s highway, action is praise. My predecessors relied on speech for God’s praise; in this exordium of rare writing, recourse is had to the perfect man who is a God-worshipping king, viz., that Lord of the World who, by virtue of his God-seeking and God-apprehending, has removed the veil from between the external and the internal and has established love between the sections of the recluse and the layman and has lifted up the curtain from in front of the apparent and the real.

3.2.5

Heedlessness which used to travel on the opposite road to discretion, has retraced his steps and become one of wisdom’s servants. Formalism which had left the regions of inquiry and was stirring up tumults, has now thrown inquiry’s scarf on his shoulder and become a minister at the shrine. Blind self-worship which had abandoned the worship of God and adopted the worship of the creature, has now got eyes to see with and has come, ashamed and downcast, to the temple of divine worship. Blear-eyed envy which had megrim in the head and madness in the brain, and used to strive against the Allwise Lawgiver, has now got wisdom for his guide, and, having become enrolled as one of the pardoned of the shrine of grace, has been ranked among the helpers of the kingdom. Painful longing—the health, indeed. of Eternity—from being cripple has become a courier, and appears both as the runner and the winning-post. And why should this not be when we have, in this enlightened age, the chamber-lamp of the universe, the glory of Adam’s race, the unveiler of hidden secrets, the revealer of faultless forms? Or how should these things appear strange in the eyes of the far-seeing and wise, when he is (at once) composer (nāzim) of the institutes of sovereignty, distributor of the riches of the servants of God, hairsplitting discerner of microscopic subtleties, the great lapidary and assaymaster?

3.2.6

So long as the spiritual supremacy over the recluse which is called Holiness and the sway over laymen which is called Sovereignty, were distinct, there was strife and confusion among the children of Noah (mankind). Now that in virtue of his exaltation, foresight, comprehensive wisdom, universal benevolence, pervading discernment and perfect knowledge of God, these two great offices (mansab) which are the guiding thread of the spiritual and temporal worlds, have been conferred on the opener of the hoards of wisdom and claviger of Divine treasuries, a small portion at least,—if his holy nature grant the necessary faculty,—may be brought from the ambush of concealment to the asylum of publicity. Knowest thou at all who is this world-girdling luminary and radiant spirit? Or whose august advent has bestowed this grace?

3.2.7

'Tis he who by virtue of his enlightenment and truth, is the world-protecting sovereign of our age, to wit, that Lord of the hosts of sciences,—theatre of God's power,—station of infinite bounties,—unique of the eternal temple,—confidant of the dais of unity,—jewel of the imperial mine,—bezel of God’s signet-ring,—glory of the Giirgdn family,—lamp of the tribe of Timur,—lord of incomparable mystery,—heir of Humāyūn’s throne,—origin of the canons of world-government,—author of universal conquest,—shining forehead of the morning of guidance,—focus of the sun of holiness,—sublime concentration of humanity,—heir-apparent of the sun,—anthology of the books of fate and destiny,—protagonist of triumphant armies,—quintessence of the commingling of nights and days,—cream of the progeny of the elements and the heavenly bodies,—world's eye (sun) of benevolence and bounty,—cheek-mole of sovereignty and fortune,—back-bone of the frame of the Khilafat—bosom-joy of justice and mercy,—brightener (farūzanda) of the jewel of fortune and felicity,—exalter (farāzanda) of the throne and crown,—connoisseur of the gem of the wise,—appreciator of the pearl of lofty genius,—opening the knots of those trammeled in business,—balm of ulcerated hearts,—clear-thoughted stoic,—world-adorning life-giver,—a pictured soul, and incarnate reason,—world of life and life of world,—enlightened truth-seer—lover of the way,—truth-chooser,—of discreet gait and constant intelligence,—wakeful, occupant of the throne of morning,—sole tenant of light’s adytum,—illuminating the Presence Chamber,—knowing the boundaries of the paths,—achiever of universal peace,—site of wondrous gifts,—grandmaster of the grades of sanctity,—initiated in the mysteries of light and darkness,—theatre of Divine and secular truths,—perceiver of the links between the visible and invisible worlds,—knowing secrets, spiritual and temporal,—fountain for those athirst for the sweet waters of communion,—goal of the strayed from the path of perfection,—theatre of refined subtleties and exalted sciences,—resting place of infused knowledge and inspired mysteries,—adorning the travelling litter while in his native land,—light of retirement in society,— apprehending quickly,—retaining long,— giving much, getting little,—pilot of the ship of the universe,— ark of the boundless ocean,—keen-sighted guardian of degrees of honour,—subtle distributor of dignities,—of fortunate genius and auspicious glance,—of happy horoscope and exalted star,—bearer of heavy burdens,—brilliant master of lofty understanding,— ornament of wisdom,—cherisher of the wise,—world-adorning conqueror,—supporting friends,— scattering foes,—binding enemies,—opening countries,—exalter of the thrones of majesty and awe,—uplifter of the cushions of pomp and prosperity,— warder of faith and state,—protector of throne and signet,—beautifier of the seven climes,—adorner of throne and diadem,—rank-breaking royal cavalier,—tiger-throwing falcon,—champion of the battle-field of the Holy War,—combatant stalking over the seven worlds,—bulwark builder of travel while yet abiding in his native land,—a lamp for those who gather in privacy.” In a note to the first epithet, Colonel Jarrett adds;

3.2.8

“ that is, preparing for the world to come while yet in this, or facilitating the salvation of others.” of sovereignty and dominion,—base of the columns of instruction and discipline,— holding fast the strong handle of perfect reason,—riveter of the massy chain of universal justice,—all eye in the banquet-hall,—all heart in the battle-field,—in the joyous festival a refreshing cloud,—in the triumphant battle, a blood-drinking sea,—in the fields of bravery, an unsheathed sword,—in the tournament a polished lance,— a billowy ocean in the world of giving,— a lightning-darting cloud in battle,—his breath, a swaying censer at the soul's feast,— his pleasantness, the waving fan of opening morn,—his justice, equable as Farwardin and of minute discernment,— his temper is like the zephyr of Ardibihisht and runs over with smiles,—his nature is experienced and disciplined in the solution of problems,—his flawless intellect is a trusty counsellor in the explication of difficulties,—externally his splendour is that of Jamshid, and his glory that of Faridun,—internally he is Socrates in wisdom, Plato in perception,—he is trained inwardly and outwardly,—his eye and heart are sources of liberality,—he has harmonized tongue and heart, and has made unity partner with plurality,—his vigilance watches over appetite,—his genius treads lust under foot,— his fair-dealing has overturned the petty stalls of fraud and deception, the touchstone of his wisdom has separated the gold-encrusted lump from the solid gold.

3.2.9

He rends the garment of contumacy which wraps the faces of debts, but draws the mantle of forgiveness over the heads of transgressions; the splendour of power streams from the brow of his benevolence; the lightning of benignity draws lambent lights from the tires of his wrath. His fury melts adamantine boldness; his dread turns to water the courage of the iron-souled; the shrinking of the age is the impress of the wrinkling of his brows; its expansion the reflex of his nature's blossoming. Prayers for his permanence have stationed themselves on the tongue of small and great; love and belief in him repose in the hearts of young and old; the loftiness of his fame has lowered the glory of local magnates; the majesty of his dominion has put away the rulers of the quarters of the world; the echo of his fortune has opened the ears of the princes of the horizons; the ensign of his glory has lifted up the eyes of provincial kings; his mighty fame has mingled with the spheres; the sound of his glory has passed from shore to shore; the proclamation of his bounty has transgressed the boundaries of the world; his glorious court has become the native land of the elect of the seven climes; his daily increasing dominion has become the masterpiece of epochs and cycles; his glorious ascension, the auspicious frontispiece of stars and planets. Verse.

3.2.10

That King of Kings, prop of the sky! The umbrella of his fortune is the sky's shadow; Adorning the garden-plot of wisdom and knowledge; Exalting the throne and the diadem;— The seat of his power is rich in liberality; His fortune's shape has an open brow; His presence is the truth-seekers' cynosure; His pity a fountain-head for the thirsty; By a single thought, he has placed under foot

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