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128 : Śramaņa, Vol 58, No. 1/January-March 2007
him to send forth orders allowing the erection of new temples on the hill.28 At the time of Akbar's death both, Bhanu Chandra and Siddhi Chandra, were present at the court at Agra.29
The long inspiring contact with the Jaina monks, which had begun in 1568 or even earlier, lasted till the death in October 1605 a period of 37 years during which Akbar always had some Jaina scholar or other at his court. There is no doubt that in their company Akbar acquired adequate knowledge of Tapā Gachha and Kharatara Gachha sects. The everlasting influence of Jainism on Akbar can be seen in issuing the royal farmans for the safety of Jaina temples and Jaina monks. The extraction of jeziya was also abolished. The principle of Ahimsā had an abiding effect on his life. There is no doubt that it was under the influence of the great Jaina leader that Akbar practically gave up his favourite sport to which he was deeply attached and gave up non-vegetarian food. Jahangir writes, in his autobiography, about the austerities practised by his revered father. Out of which one was the non-eating the flesh of animals. He writes : "During three months of the year he ate meat, and for the remaining nine contended himself with Sufi food, and was no way pleased with slaughter of animals on many days, and in many months this was forbidden to the people. "30 Badaoni also writes : "His majesty abstained altogether from meat, as a religious penance, gradually extending the several fasts during a year over six months and even more, with the view of eventually discontinuing the use of meat altogether. "31 Abul Fazl also supports this view and says : "If His Majesty had not the burden of the world on his shoulders, he would at once totally abstain from meat. "32 Akbar himself used to say that in his childhood he found that meat preparations were tasteless. "I took this to indicate a necessity for protecting animals, and I refrained from animal food."33 Abul Fazl also gives details of the stringent orders that the Emperor promulgated early in 1581, in which killing of animals were prohibited. He further says that these ordinances were not obligatory, but the
