Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c17.190

c17.190

a unique position in the Indian literary world of his times. His reign is distinguished from that of other Muhammadan sovereigns who preceded or succeeded him by the broad principles of toleration and catholicity which governed every branch of his administration, political, religious, or literary. His complete identification with the interests of his subject peoples, irrespective of their faith or creed, was very well demonstrated in the entirely new attitude which he took up towards the learning and culture of the Hindus—an attitude of which the first early signs were seen in Fīrūz Shāh Tughlaq, who in some instances replaced 'Alāuddīn's vandalism by the care he bestowed on such monuments of ancient civilization as the Library at Jawālāmukhī and the Asoka pillars transported from their original locations.¹ Akbar's, however, was a systematic and deliberate policy of protection of Hindu learning, which showed itself, as we have already seen, in the generous provisions he made for the education of Hindu youths in their own culture in the madrasahs, along with the Muhammadan boys; in the discussions, which he initiated in the 'Ibādat Khāna with the orthodox Hindu learned men; in the translations of Hindu classics and scriptures exhibiting his profound appreciation of the value of Hindu culture as well as its zeal for its propagation; and