The Book of Akbar 354.3

354.3

Do you not know that in former times flatterers have, owing to the insouciance of rulers, ruined houses and families, and what other evils they have done? Doubtless it is in accordance with eternal decrees that there should be flatterers in the workshop of governments, but so also is it that there should be foreseeing wisdom. And this consists in not letting them interfere with root-questions, and not letting go altogether the Reason which unravels difficulties and is the Sultān of the material world. Verse. There’s both road and well, an eye to see, and the sun, So that man may look in front of his feet, He has so many lights and yet goes the wrong road ! Let him fall and see his own punishment Enemies do not work to one another the ill That folly and passion do to oneself. Of the improper acts which were done by Bairām Khān in consequence of bad company there was the putting to death of the Shāhinshāh’s own elephant-driver. The succinct account of this warning-giving occurrence is as follows: The royal elephant became mast and beyond the control of the driver and attacked one of Bairām Khān’s elephants. It struck the other elephant so severely that the entrails came out. Bairām Khān was so enraged that he put the driver to death. By such an act as this, which was beyond all bounds, and transgressed both loyalty and respect, he made himself an object of disgust to men of experience.