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existence, even to cows and their dung, to the mark on the forehead and the Brahminical thread.
Philosophers and learned men who had been at Court, but were in disgrace, made themselves busy in bringing proofs. They said, the sun was 'the greatest light,' the origin of royal power
Fire-worshippers also had come from Nausárí in Gujrát, and proved to His Majesty the truth of Zoroaster's doctrines. They called fire-worship the great worship,' and impressed the emperor so favourably, that he learned from them the religious terms and rites of the old Pársís, and ordered Abulfazl to make arrangements, that sacred fire should be kept burning at Court by day and by night, according to the custom of the ancient Persian kings, in whose fire-temples it had been continually burning; for fire was one of the mani. festations of God, and a ray of His rays.'
His Majesty, from his youth, had also been accustomed to celebrate the IIom (a kind of fire-worship), from his affection towards the Hindu princesses of his Harem.
From the New Year's day of the twenty-fifth year of his reign (988), His Majesty openly worshipped the sun and the fire by prostrations; and the courtiers were ordered to rise, when the candles and lamps were lighted in the palace. On the festival of the eighth day of Virgo, he put on the mark on the forehead, like a Hindu, and appeared in the Audience Hall, when several Brahmins tied, by way of auspiciousness, a string with jewels on it round his hands, whilst the grandees countenanced these proceedings by bringing, according to their circumstances, pearls and jewels as presents. The custom of Rákhí (or tying pieces of clothes round the wrists as amulets) became quite common.
When orders, in opposition to the Islám, were quoted by people of other religions, they were looked upon by His Majesty as convincing, whilst Hinduism is in reality a religion in which every order is nonsense. The Originator of
