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HrSTOI'.V OF INDIA.

[Book I

AT), um. him, l)iit }>y t!i(! king, was an officer, with tlic; title of dewan or diwnn, who had the ■sn[)erintendence of all matters of revenue and finance. The subahs, originally fifteen, were, in consequence of additional conquests, raised to eigh- teen. Of these twelve were in Hindoostan and six in the Deccan. Liberal Among the enactments of Akber which deserve notice for their humane and

spirit of Ak-

bers rule, liberal Spirit, and at the same time throw some reflection on the tardy legisla- tion of the British government on the same subjects, are his prohibition of the burning of Hindoo widows against their will, and his permitting them to marry again, though the Hindoo law expressly forbids it. The same humane and liberal spirit appears in his prohibition of the jezia or capitation tax on infidels, which had placed an enormous, irresponsiVjle, and much-abased power in the hands of fanatical Mahometans ; and in the aboHtion of the practice of making slaves of prisoners taken in war — a practice under the cover of which not only the wives and children captured in camps or fortified places, but the peaceable inhabitants of any hostile country, were seized and earned off into slavery. These enactments gave grievous offence — those affecting the Hindoos beino- odious to the Brahmins, and those which laid restraints on the Mahome- tans being seized upon by the Mollahs, and m-ged as a proof that Akber him.self was an infidel A still stronger proof was supposed to be found in a matter of court etiquette, on which Akber seems to have insisted with more pertinacity than is easily reconcilable with his usual moderation. He had a dLslike to the beard, and would scarcely admit a person who wore it to his presence. Unfor- tunately his feeling in this respect was in direct opposition to an injunction of the Koran ; and several of the more zealous Mahometan chiefs chose rather to

Palace of Akber, Puttipook Sikra. — From an original drawing by Capt. R. Smith, 44th Regiment.

forego the honours and pleasm-es of the court than conform to a regulation, the observance of which seemed incompatible with orthodoxy, works" "^ Among the public works executed dm-ing the reign of Akber, are the walls