Monk and Monarch

Author(s): Vidyavijay
Publisher: Deepchand Banthia

Page 74

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Thus he refrained from meat-eating on Sundays and on lunar and solar eclipses and on some other days. He had prohibited animal-killing on Sundays and on some other days.
Abul Fazl writes in " Ain-i-Akbari" (Vol. I, pp. 61-62 ) thus :
"Now it is his intention to quit it by degrees, conforming, however, a little to the spirit of the age. His Majesty abstained from meat for some time on Fridays, and then on Sundays; now on the first day of every solar month, on Sundays, on solar and lunar eclipses, on days between two fasts, on the Mondays of the month of Rajab, on the feastday of every solar month, during the whole month of Farwardin, and during the month in which His Majesty was born, viz, the month of Aban."
Al-Badaoni also says (Vol. II, P. 331 ).
"At this time His Majesty promulgated some of his newfaugled decrees. The killing of animals on the first day of the week was strictly prohibited, because this day is sacred to the Sun; also during the first eighteen days of the month of Farwardin; the whole of the month of Aban (the month in which His Majesty was born ); and on several other days to please the Hindus. This order was extended over the whole realm, and punishment was inflicted on every one who acted against the command. Many a family was ruined, and its property was confiscated. During the time of those fasts the Emperor abstained altogether from meat as a religious penance, gradually extending the several fasts during a year over six months and even more, with a view to eventually discontinuing the use of meat altogether."
Vincent Smith also writes, “He cared little for flesh-food and gave up the use of it almost entirely in later years of his life, when he came under Jain influence." Again he says, "But the Jain holy men undoubtedly gave Akbar prolonged instruction for years, which largely influenced his actions; and they secured his assent to their doctrines so far that he was reputed to have been converted to Jainism." A Portugese traveller named Pinheiro also carried an impression that Akbar was Jain, for he expressly writes, " He follows the sect of the Jains."