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AKBAR,
EMPEROR OF INDIA
A PICTURE OF LIFE AND CUSTOMS FROM
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
BY
DR. RICHARD VON GARBE
RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TUBINGEN
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY LYDIA G. ROBINSON
Reprinted from "The Monist" of April, 1909
Chicago
The Open Court Publishing Company
1909
AKBAR DIRECTING THE TYING-UP OF A WILD ELEPHANT.
Tempera painting in the Akbar Namahby Abu'l Fazl. Photographedfrom the original in the India Museum for The Place of Animals inHuman Thought by the Countess Evelyn Martinengo Cesaresco.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA.[A]
The student of India who would at the same time be an historian,discovers to his sorrow that the land of his researches is lamentablypoor in historical sources. And if within the realm of historicalinvestigation, a more seductive charm lies for him in the analysis ofgreat personalities than in ascertaining the course of historicaldevelopment, then verily may he look about in vain for suchpersonalities in the antiquity and middle ages of India. Not that theprincely thrones were wanting in great men in ancient India, for wefind abundant traces of them in Hindu folk-lore and poetry, but thesesources do not extend to establishing the realistic element in detailsand furnishing life-like portraits of the men themselves. That theHindu has ever been but little interested in historical matters is agenerally recognized fact. Religious and philosophical speculations,dreams of other worlds, of previous and future existences, haveclaimed the attention of thoughtful minds to a much greater degreethan has historical reality.
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