His historian[23] relates: "His Majesty
deigned to improve them in a marvelous manner by crossing the races
which had not been done formerly."
[Footnote 23: Abul Fazl in Noer, I, 511.]
Akbar was passionately fond of hunting and pursued the noble sport in
its different forms, especially the tiger hunt and the trapping of
wild elephants,[24] but he also hunted with trained falcons and
leopards, owning no less than nine hundred hunting leopards. He was
not fond of battue; he enjoyed the excitement and exertion of the
actual hunt as a means for exercise and recreation, for training the
eye and quickening the blood. Akbar took pleasure also in games.
Besides chess, cards and other games, fights between animals may
especially be mentioned, of which elephant fights were the most
common, but there were also contests between camels, buffaloes, cocks,
and even frogs, sparrows and spiders.
[Footnote 24: M. Elphinstone, 519]
Usually, however, the whole day was filled up from the first break of
dawn for Akbar with affairs of government and audiences, for every one
who had a request or a grievance to bring forward could have access to
Akbar, and he showed the same interest in the smallest incidents as in
the greatest affairs of state.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48