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ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGION
fore undermined, rather than assaulted, and its subversion aimed at by throwing it into contempt and disrepute. And whilst all its leading dogmas were denied, its observances contemned, and its laws counteracted by opposing regulations, many enactments apparently of an insignificant nature are not, with advertence to the general object, without importance.
Akbar was probably aware of the necessity of a popular system for the maintenance of religious impressions; and with this view, he may have endeavoured to give currency to the adoration of the planets, and especially of the sun. How far he concurred in this worship, except as symbolical, since he professed to inculcate the unity of the Deity, and called his faith, according to our author, the Tauhid lláhí, is doubtful. That he did incline to the moral and metaphysical notions of the Hindus, is very probable; and he may have been tempted to attach more importance to their mysticism than became an intelligent mind. At the same time, the following anecdote, related by Abd ul Kider, shews he was not so readily the dupe of credulity, as might be inferred from the interest he is said to have taken in the acquirement of the Yoga.
In the thirty-fifth year of Akbar's reign, it was said of Sheikh Kamál Biábání, that he was endowed with the miraculous power of transporting himself instantly to a distance, so that a person who had taken leave of him on one side of the river would, upon crossing to the other, be again saluted by his voice. Akbar went to see him, and begged him to communicate his
