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NOVEMBER, 1915)
THE DATE OF AKBAR'S BIRTH
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Now, the first of these with which we are immediately concerned, is still strictly observed by well-to-do Hindûs, of whom only 10 per cent. of enlightened views would ever dare to lay aside this rule. The annual birthday festivals are in most cases held a day or two previous to or after the actual birthday, and if the date is published in this way, the year of birth is kept a profound secret. Horoscopes of the nobility and gentry are always entrusted to confidential family-priests, who never betray their charge. or are at least expected not to do so.
The writer has personally observed people sometimes acousing their enemies of practising witchcraft against the life of some person; and to confirm the charge brought by them, the accusers try to produce fabricated horoscopes bearing special symbols, and a puppet figure of the proposed victim, from the houses of the parties accused. The Mughals borrowed those superstitious potions from the Hindas.'
The author proceeds to give instances of superstitions which were regarded by Babur, Humâyûn, and Akbar, The list might be largely extended.
He goes on to argue that Hamida Bêgam probably reported the faise date, Rajab 5 in order to preserve her child from danger, and that horoscopes were prepared accordingly. It is also possible, he observes, that the court historians themselves may have deliberately published a falser date, from the same motive.
That explanation in either form is perfectly adequate. Akbar, as everybody knows, was exposed to constant danger of many kinds during his childhood, so that his mother and her male friends must have been terribly anxious lest harm should befall him. No harm could be more deadly in their estimation than that wrought by witchcraft, ard their beliefs being such as they were, they lay under an obligation to protect the helpless child by every possible means. Nobody knew anything about the existence of Jauhar's private notes, which remained hidden for nearly half a century, and there was nothing to prevent the family from agreeing on a date for public use. The selection of Rajab 5, and the consequent change of name may have taken place in 1545, when Akbar then aged about three, was restored to his father and circumcised with great ceremony. There is some reason to suppose that, as the Kavi Raj points out, he bore the title Jalâl-ud-din long before his accession. The fort at Jalâlâbâd was named after him and given him in jdgir when he was about ten years of age and his father was still in Kabul. Naturally, therefore, the title Jalal-ud-din appears on his coinage from the first year of the reign, 1556-7,20
Sir Beveridge's noto 2, A. N., Vol. I, p. 112; Revuty, Notes on Afghanistan, p. 51. There is no doubt that after the death of Hindal in Nov. 1551, his domain of Ghazni with its dependencies was conferred upon Akbar, then in his tenth year, But it is not clear when the name of Jalalabad was given to the new fort at Jof-BhAht, which was the old name of the place. According to I. G. (1908) 8. Jalalabad was founded by Akbar in 1670, somo four years after his accension, Humkyn loft Kabul in January 1566. Ravuty says that "Bayazid, the Byat, says that Humlyn BadshAh built a fort at JOf ShAht, where in after years another fort was built, and called after that Badshah's son-Jalal-ud-din - Muhammad. Akbar BadshAhhy the name of Jalalabad. Humayan, he also says, built this fort in Rajab, 950 H. (June, 1662, A.D.)." Raverty's words "in after years" support the Gazetteer dato, Abu-1-Fazl distinctly states that it was Munim Khan who gavo Jat ShAht its holy appellation and solonized it. As he was governor of Kabul from 1555 to 1500, the bastowal of the name Jalalibåd should be referred to that period (4. N. I 566).
