Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/15

Rh throughout India. On the death of the Bengal saint in the fifteenth century, the Muhammadans and Hindús contended for his body. The saint suddenly appeared in their midst, and, commanding them to look under the shroud, vanished. This they did: but under the winding-sheet they found only a heap of beautiful flowers, one half of which the Hindús burned with holy rites, while the other half was buried with pomp by the Musalmáns. In Akbar's time many sacred places had become common shrines for the two faiths: the Muhammadans venerating the same impression on the rocks as the footprint of their prophet, which the Hindús revered as the footprint of their god .'

The inscription written by the Emperor's friend and counsellor Abu-l-Fazl, for a temple in Kashmír, might serve as a motto for Akbar's creed:

O God, in every temple I see people that see thee, and in every language I hear spoken, people praise thee.

Polytheism and Islám feel after thee.

Each religion says, 'Thou art one, without equal.'

If it be a mosque, people murmur the holy prayer; and if it be a Christian Church, people ring the bell from love to thee.

Sometimes I frequent the Christian cloister, and sometimes the mosque.

But it is thou whom I seek from temple to temple.

Thy elect have no dealings with heresy or with orthodoxy: for neither of them stands behind the screen of thy truth.

Heresy to the heretic, and religion to the orthodox,

But the dust of the rose-petal belongs to the heart of the perfume-seller.

He discarded the rigid tenets of Islám, and adopted