The Ain I Akbari, Volume 1

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Page 105 - His Majesty, from his earliest youth has shown a great predilection for this art, and gives it every encouragement, as he looks upon it as a means, both of study and amusement. Hence the art flourishes, and many painters have obtained great reputation.
Page 161 - ... the time arrives that a nation learns to understand how to worship truth, the people will naturally look to their King, on account of the high position which he occupies, and expect him to be their spiritual leader as well; for a King possesses independent of men, the ray of Divine wisdom which banishes from his heart everything that is conflicting. A King will, therefore, sometimes observe the element of harmony in a multitude of things, or sometimes reversely, a multitude of things in that...
Page xxx - If it be a mosque people murmur the holy prayer, and if it be a Christian Church, people ring the bell from love to Thee. Sometimes I frequent the Christian cloister, and sometimes the mosque. But it is thou whom I search from temple to temple.
Page 106 - There are many that hate painting ; but such men I dislike. It appears to me as if a painter had quite peculiar means of recognising God ; for a painter in sketching anything that has life, and in devising its limbs, one after the other, must come to feel that he cannot bestow individuality upon his work, and is thus forced to think of God, the giver of life, and will thus increase in knowledge.
Page 203 - No man should be interfered with on account of his religion, and every one should be allowed to change his religion, if he liked. If a Hindu woman...
Page 254 - Keeping records is an excellent thing for a government ; it is even necessary for every rank of society. Though a trace of this office may have existed in ancient times, its higher objects were but recognised in the present reign. His Majesty has appointed fourteen zealous, experienced and impartial clerks, two of whom do daily duty in rotation, so that the turn of each comes after a fortnight.
Page 105 - More than a hundred painters have become famous masters of the art, while the number of those who approach perfection, or of those who are middling, is very large. This is especially true of the Hindus; their pictures surpass our conception of things; few indeed in the whole world are found equal to them.
Page 218 - His Majesty plans splendid edifices and dresses the work of his mind and heart in the garment of stone and clay.
Page 182 - Hindustan has now become the centre of security and peace, and the land of justice and beneficence, a large number of people, especially learned men and lawyers, have immigrated and chosen this country for their home. "Now we, the principal Ulama, who are not only well-versed in the several departments of the law and in the principles of jurisprudence, and well acquainted...
Page 177 - ... principle. Thus a faith based on some elementary principles traced itself on the mirror of his heart, and as the result of all the influences which were brought to bear on His Majesty, there grew, gradually as the outline on a stone, the conviction in his heart that there were sensible "men in all religions, and abstemious thinkers, and men endowed with miraculous powers, among all nations.

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