The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c15.30

v4.c15.30

At Āgra Bairam Khān’s chief anxiety was the education of his ward, who was devoted to manly exercises and field sports but, in spite of having been endowed with a vigorous intellect, could not be brought to pay any attention to what the ablest of his biographers calls “the usual apparatus of learning”. In short, he was an idle boy who would not learn to read and write and he never acquired either of these arts. His father had urged him to mend his ways but it is doubtful whether Bairam Khān received any support from the harem party or “the foster-father cohort”, whose interest lay in retarding the boy’s progress as much as possible. After reaching man’s estate Akbar atoned, as far as he could, for his boyish idleness by listening diligently to the reading of works on history, theology and philosophy, but it is unfortunate that in this respect he never rendered himself independent of the services of others, for the memory, however it may be cultivated, and Akbar's powers of memory, naturally immense, were developed by his illiteracy, can never supply the power of reference, and had he been able to use his eyes he might perhaps have been saved from the religious absurdities of his later years, which had their origin in his delight in listening to religious and philosophical discussions and found their expression in his confused recollections of these disputes.