Mughal Administration c12.s3: § 3. Akbar claims to be a divine agent.
Mughal Administration c12.s3
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§ 3. Akbar claims to be a divine agent.
c12.s3.1
While earnest believers were expectant for such a superman *guru* or Lord of the Age (*Sahib-i-zaman*), it would be in accordance with human nature to find that there was a vast number of interested people who wished to secure material gain by professing religious adoration to the sovereign, as the cynical Al Badayuni has pointed out.
c12.s3.2
The religious atmosphere of India was quivering with electricity in the first half of the 16th century. Chaitanya and Nanak preached and converted during this period, and their new creeds, by supplying the exact spiritual needs of the age, became realm-conquering movements within India. Other movements, deviating from the old orthodox faith, also arose in India, as has been clearly shown by Blochmann in the Introduction to his translation of the *Ain-i-Akbari*, Vol. I, particularly the Mahdavi sect, *i.e.*, men on the look out for a new Mahdi or Supreme spiritual guide. [The Mahdavi sect lingered in Bijapur well beyond the middle of the 17th century and still flourishes in Gujrat.] *Ency. Isl.* iii. 111.
c12.s3.3
The Emperor Akbar was led to claim this position, partly by his natural vanity, but more by the flattery of his favourites, as Al Badayuni has pointed out.
c12.s3.4
Though illiterate, he secured his own recognition as the *mujtahid* or infallible interpreter of the Quran and of all disputed points of Islamic theology (1579). His coquetry with Hinduism, his long and secret conversations with famous Hindu sannyasis and pandits, his edict of toleration for all Hindu practices, and finally his adoption of several Hindu rules of conduct and ceremonies, led the Hindus to regard him as one of themselves. They styled him *Jagat-guru*, or the spiritual guide of the universe, while the coterie of his Muslim adorers (mostly Persians) called him the *Insan-i-kamil* and the *Sahib-i-zaman*.
c12.s3.5
As the religious guide of his subjects, Akbar adopted, at first secretly and cautiously, many of the attributes and prerogatives of a prophet and even of an incarnation. It excited the intense disgust of his orthodox Muslim subjects and was often checked by the fear of a revolt of the Muslim soldiery at the call of the old-type Mullas.