Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c17.192

c17.192

finally, in the State patronage bestowed on distinguished Hindus for their proficiency in such fine arts as music and painting. We have also seen how Akbar was qualified to exercise his potent and beneficent influence on the literary world by his intellectual tastes (with which he must be credited to the rejection of the theory of his illiteracy) which led him to associate largely with learned men, some of whom, like Abul Faẓl, Faiẓī, 'Abdul Qādir and others, were even his best friends, thus establishing the difficult concord between wealth and learning. To the same intellectual tastes we also owe the debates and discussions in the 'Ibādat Khāna, which was Akbar's special innovation, and where representatives of the different religions of the land—Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians and Muhamadans—met on a common platform, inaugurating a new era of religious toleration, and quickening the intellectual life of the country. Among other notable features of Akbar's reign should also be remembered the lavish patronage of learned men by stipends and rewards, the foundation of educational institutions and the creation of educational endowments, and, lastly, the abundance of literary men who were drawn to the capital by these educational facilities as also by the favourable imperial influence, so that the seats of Government became also centres of culture and enlightenment.