groove
whence he had emancipated it, whilst his religious system perished
with him. After the reigns of two successors, Muhammadan but
indifferent, persecution once again asserted her sway to undo all the
good the great and wise Akbar had effected, and to prepare, by the
decadence of the vital principle of the dynasty, for the rule of a
nation which should revive his immortal principle of justice to all
and toleration for all.

In the foregoing remarks I have alluded to the fact that Akbar
allowed liberty of conscience in so far as that liberty did not
endanger the lives of others. He gave a marked example of this in his
dealing with the Hindu rite of Sati. It is not necessary to explain
that the English equivalent for the word 'Sati' is 'chaste or
virtuous,' and that a Sati is a woman who burns herself on her
husband's funeral pile. The custom {165} had been so long prevalent
among Hindu ladies of rank, that not to comply with it had come to be
regarded as a self-inflicted imputation on the chaste life of the
widow. Still, the love of life is strong, and the widow, conscious of
her own virtue, and unwilling to sacrifice herself to an idea, had
occasionally shown a marked disinclination to consent to mount the
pile. It had often happened then that the priests had applied to her
a persuasion, either by threats of the terrors of the hereafter or
the application of moral stimulants, to bring her to the proper pitch
of willingness.

Such deeds were abhorrent to the merciful mind of Akbar, and he
discouraged the practice by all the means in his power. His position
towards the princes of Rajputana, by whom the rite was held in the
highest honour, would not allow him so far to contravene their
time-honoured customs, which had attained all the force of a
religious ordinance, to prohibit the self-sacrifice when the widow
earnestly desired it. Before such a prohibition could be issued time
must be allowed, he felt, for the permeation to the recesses of the
palace of the liberal principles he was inaugurating. But he issued
an order that, in the case of a widow showing the smallest
disinclination to immolate herself, the sacrifice was not to be
permitted.

Nor did he content himself with words only. Once, when in Ajmere,
whilst his confidential agent, Jai Mall, nephew of Raja Bihari Mall
of Ambar, was on a mission to the grandees of Bengal, news reached
{166} him that Jai Mall had died at Chausa. Jai Mall had been a great
f