Tulsi Prajna 2005 04

SR No.: 524623
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shanta Jain, Jagatram Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 2005
Total Pages: 122
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 6 MB

Page 114

encaging of birds and animals. (Vide p. 406, “A Short History of Muslim Rule in India”, 1* Ed., pp. 406-7, by Prof. Ishvarprasad).
Pinheiro, a Portuguese priest, stated in a letter from Lāhore dated 3rd December 1595, “He (Akbar) follows the sect of the Vertei (Sk. VratisJainas)."
Mr. Vincent Smith rightly states:-“Akbar never came under Buddhist influence in any degree whatsoever. No Buddhist took part in the debates on religion held at Fatehpūr Sikri, and Abul Fazl never met any learned Buddhist. Consequently, his knowledge of Buddhism was extremely slight. Certain persons who took part in the debates and who have been supposed erroneously to have been Buddhists, were really Jains from Gujarāt. Many Jains visited the Imperial Court or resided there at various times during at least twenty years from 1578 to 1597 A.D. and enjoyed ample facilities for access to the Emperor (“Jain Teachers of Akbar”, Bhandārkar Com. Vol. p. 275).
“The potency of the influence exercised by Jaina teachers on the ideas and policy of Akbar has not been recognised by historians. No reader of the works of Elphinstone, Von Noer or Malleson would suspect that he listened to the sermons of the Jain holy men so attentively that he is reckoned by Jain writers among the converts to their religion, or that many of his acts from 1582 A.D. onwards were the direct outcome of his partial acceptance of the Jain gospel. Even Blochman failed to perceive that three of the most learned men of the time, enumerated in Abul Fazl's long list, were eminent Jain gurus or religious teachers, namely Hīravijaya Sūri, Vijayasena Sūri, and Bhānucandra Upādhyāya. The first of them the most distinguished of the three, and credited by Jain authors with the honour of having converted Akbar (to Jainism), is placed by Abul-Fazl along with twenty others, including Saikh Mubaraka in the first of the five classes of the learned-among the select few who understand the mystery of both the worlds." The other two also were the most influential persons who initiated the Emperor into the significance of Jain doctrines.
“Akbar's action in abstaining almost wholly from eating meat and in issuing stringent prohibitions resembling those of Asoka, restricting to the narrowest possible limits the destructions of animal life, certainly was taken in obedience to the doctrine of his Jain teachers."
"The Emperor granted various favours to the Jain community. Abul Fazl made use of his opportunities (of coming into close contact with jain
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