The ethics of this
religion comprises the high moral requirements of Sufism and Parsism:
complete toleration, equality of rights among all men, purity in
thought, word and deed. The demand of monogamy, too, was added later.
Priests, images and temples,--Akbar would have none of these in his
new religion, but from the Parsees he took the worship of the fire
and of the sun as to him light and its heat seemed the most beautiful
symbol of the divine spirit.[44] He also adopted the holy cord of the
Hindus and wore upon his forehead the colored token customary among
them. In this eclectic manner he accommodated himself in a few
externalities to the different religious communities existing in his
kingdom.
[Footnote 44: M. Elphinstone, 524.]
Doubtless in the foundation of his Din i Ilahi Akbar was not pursuing
merely ideal ends but probably political ones as well, for the
adoption of the new religion signified an increased loyalty to the
Emperor. The novice had to declare himself ready to yield to the
Emperor his property, his life, his honor, and his former faith, and
in reality the adherents of the Din i Ilahi formed a clan of the
truest and most devoted servitors of the Emperor. It may not be
without significance that soon after the establishment of the Din i
Ilahi a new computation of time was introduced which dated from the
accession of Akbar to the throne in 1556.
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