The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.56

v4.c16.56

Akbar was now meditating deeply on spiritual matters. At Shādīwāl,² which he reached on 30 January, 1578, he addressed his courtiers on his abhorrence of flesh as food, regretting that the demands which his duties made upon his strength compelled him to indulge in it, and assuring them that he proposed in future to abstain from it on Fridays. On 20 April he was at Bhera, on the bank of the Jhelum, where he organised a vast *battue* similar to the hunt of 1567 at Lahore. The barbarous sport had been in progress for four days, much game had already been killed, and the ring of beaters had almost closed in for the final slaughter when all engaged in it were surprised by a sudden order that the hunt was to cease, the beaters were to disperse, and no living creature was to be injured.