The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.58

v4.c16.58

It is difficult to understand precisely what happened to Akbar, but he was evidently overcome by some form of religious ecstasy. He had for some time been working himself into a frame of mind susceptible of such a visitation. Badāūnī says: “A strange ecstasy and a strong sense of attraction to God came upon the emperor, and an unseemly change was exhibited in his manner, in such sort that it was impossible to explain it, and each attempted to explain it in his own way; but that which is secret is with God, and at once he ordered the hunt to be stopped.”³ Abu-’l-Fazl suggests that he was on the point of abdicating, or of dying. “He was near abandoning this state of struggle, and entirely gathering up the skirt of his genius from worldly pomp.” The same author, naturally, represents him as having been singularly favoured, and of having communed with God face to face. "A sublime joy took possession of his bodily frame. The attraction of cognition of God cast its ray." He proceeds: "About this time the primacy of the spiritual world took possession of his holy form, and gave a new aspect to his world-adorning beauty. . . . What the chiefs of purity and deliverance (i.e. *Sūfī* seers) had searched for in vain, was revealed to him." The vision was perhaps preceded or followed by an epileptic fit, for Akbar was subject to that malady.