was as faithful to Humayun as himself. Another Ômrah, who ventured to oppose him, was put to death on some slight pretext; and the king's own tutor, Peer Mohammed, narrowly escaped the same fate, and was obliged to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. Akber soon grew weary of the state of pupillage in which he was held. Having concerted his plans with some of his friends, he took occasion, when on a hunting party, to direct his course to Delhi, under the pretext of his mother's illness. When there, and out of Behram's reach, he issued a proclamation, announcing that he had taken the government into his own hands, and forbidding obedience to any orders but his own (1560). Behram was thrown into perplexity; he soon found himself deserted; his overtures to the king were rejected. He had then thoughts of trying to make himself independent in Malwa; but he abandoned them, and set out for Najôr, with the intention of embarking in Gûzerât and making the pilgrimage to Mecca. While at Najôr he received a message from the king, dismissing him from his office, and directing him to proceed on his pilgrimage. He sent his standards, kettledrums, and other ensigns of office to the king, and proceeded to Gûzerât; but meeting there with some further cause of irritation, he assembled some troops and attempted to seize the Punjâb. Akber advanced against him in person, and Behram was defeated and obliged to throw himself on his sovereign's mercy. Akber, who always acted with magnanimity, sent some of his principal nobles to meet him and conduct him to the royal tent. Behram threw himself at the king's feet, and began to sob aloud. Akber raised him, seated him on his right, gave him a dress of honour, and offered him his choice of an extensive government, a high station at court, or an honourable pilgrimage to Mecca. Pride or prudence counselled him to choose the last; an ample pension was assigned him, and he set out for Gûzerât; but as he was preparing to embark he was assassinated by an Afghân, whose father had fallen by his hand in battle. Akber, a youth of only eighteen years of age, had now a difficult task to perform. He had to reduce refractory chiefs to obedience, to recover the dominions of the crown, and to introduce order into the internal administration of the state. To accomplish this, he had only the revenues of the Punjab and of the country about Delhi and Agra, and a mercenary army of adventurers, collected from various quarters, and consequently without affection or attachment to his person and cause. But, like his grandfather Bâber, by the energy of his own character, his talents, and his virtues, he triumphed over difficulties beneath which another would have succumbed. A son of the late sultan Mohammed, having collected troops, advanced to Juanpûr (1560), where he was defeated by one of Akber's generals. But the victor held back the king's part of the spoil, and Akber was obliged to march against him in person. In like manner, when Bâz Bahâdur, the Afghân governor of Mâlwa, had been reduced by Adam Khân, another of Akber's generals, the revolt of the victor was only prevented by the celerity of the monarch, who arrived in his camp before he was aware of his approach. Bâz Bahâdur afterwards entered the service of the emperor, who treated him with great liberality, according to his usual custom. There were many Uzbegs in high command in the army of Akber; and these men, offended by the king's strictness, and also fancying he had a hereditary antipathy to their race, conspired and revolted (1564). They were joined by other chiefs, particularly Asof Khân, who had lately reduced the Hindoo kingdom of Gurrah, on the Nerbudda. This country was governed by a queen, a woman of a high and noble spirit, who had led her own troops to battle, and when she saw them routed and herself wounded, sooner than fall into the hands of the enemy, she ended her life with a dagger. Asof became master of her treasures, which were considerable, and the desire to retain them drove him into rebellion. The war with these rebels lasted for two years, with various success. At length, when Akber had nearly succeeded in reducing them, he was called away to the Punjab, which was invaded by his brother Hakim, who ruled in Câbul. During his absence the rebels recovered their ground; but on his return he marched against them, though it was the rainy season, and drove them over the Ganges; and, while they thought themselves secured by the vast body of waters that river now rolled, Akber swam over it at night-fall, with only 2000 men, on horses and elephants, and, lying concealed for the remainder of the night, fell on them at sunrise. Taken thus unprepared, they were thrown into confusion and routed, and they fled in various directions. When Akber had attained his twenty-fifth year (1567), he had reduced all the rebellious chiefs by force, or attached them by his clemency; and he now was able to turn his thoughts to plans of conquest. The Rajpût states first attracted his attention, and he turned his arms against the Rana of Chitôr, a prince of a feeble character, who instantly fled to Gûzerât, leaving the defence of the fortress to a chief of great courage and ability, named Jy Mal. Akber made his approach by trenches, and ran two mines; but when they were fired, only one of them exploded at once, and it was not till the soldiers were mounting the breach that the fire reached the other, and its explosion did so much injury to the assailants that they were forced to retire, and all the works had to be recommenced. The siege might then have lasted a long time, were it not that, one night, as Akber was visiting the trenches, he happened to see Jy Mal, who was directing the repairs of the works by torch-light. He took aim at him with a firelock, and shot him through the head. The garrison lost heart at the fall of their leader, and, giving up the defence of the place, they prepared to devote themselves in the usual Hindoo manner. The women were all committed to the flames, with the body of Jy Mal, and the men then retired to the temples to await the besiegers, who were now mounting the undefended breach. Akber, aware of their desperation, kept up a distant fire, till he had introduced three hundred war-elephants, in order to trample them to death; and these animals, we are told, trod them under their feet like grasshoppers, or, taking them up in their trunks, tossed them into the air, or dashed them against the walls or the pavement. Between the garrison and the townspeople 30,000 persons, it is said, thus perished. In the course of the following year Akber took the forts of Rintambôr and Câlinjer. But, though he thus employed arms against some of the Rajput princes, he adopted milder and more politic measures with others. Such was that of forming matrimonial alliances with them. Thus he himself was married to the daughters of the rajahs of Jypûr and Mârwâr, and his eldest son to another princess of the house of Jypûr. This connexion with the imperial family, instead of being looked on as a loss of caste, was regarded as an honour by all the Rajpût princes, except the house of Chitor or Oudipûr, which even renounced all affinity with the other rajahs on account of it, affecting to view them as degraded by a connexion with the sovereigns of Delhi. The province of Gûzerât, as we have seen, had been for many years in a state of independence. But now (1572), in consequence of the confusion that prevailed in it, Akber was invited by the minister of the inefficient prince, in whose name the government was carried on, to come and take possession of it. He accepted the invitation; at Patan he was met by the pageant king, who resigned his crown to him, and he thence advanced and laid siege to the sea-port town of Surat. Before it was invested, some of the rebel chiefs who were in it retired from it, with the intention of trying to join the main body of their forces. Akber pursued them with such precipitation, that one day he found himself with only 156 men in presence of a force of at least 1000 men. With the native chivalry of his character he fell on them, and being repulsed, he took his station in a lane between hedges of cactus, where only two horsemen could advance abreast. Here he maintained himself, though he ran imminent risk of his life, fighting like a common soldier, and at last succeeded in driving the enemies off; but his project of preventing their junction with their troops failed. Surat, however, opened its gates, and the whole of Gûzerât submitted. Akber returned to Agra; but he had not been there a month, when he learned that one of the rebel chiefs, named Husun Mîrza, had re-appeared in Gûzerât, and was besieging the royal governor in Ahmedabad, the capital of the province. As it was now the rainy season, and it was therefore impossible to march a large army, Akber sent forward a chosen body of 2000 horse, and then himself and 300 of his nobles and officers, mounting on camels, followed them at the rate of eighty miles a day. At Patan he was joined by another detachment, which raised his force to 3000 horse and 300 camels. With this inconsiderable force he advanced to within four miles of Ahmedabad, where he ordered the imperial drums to beat. This filled the insurgents with such terror, that it was with difficulty their officers restrained them from flight. Husun then leaving 5000 men to watch the town, advanced with 7000 horsemen against the king. Akber, who had now reached the banks of the river on which the town is built, finding himself deceived in his hopes of being joined by the garrison, and seeing that he had only his own troops to depend on, in order to cut off all chance of retreat from his men, boldly crossed the river, and drew them up on the opposite bank. His temerity, as usual, was successful the enemy was repulsed, and Husun was wounded and made a prisoner. As many contended for the honour of having captured him, Akber asked him who had taken him: "No one," he replied, "it was the curse of ingratitude that overtook me." During the pursuit Akber remained with abcut 200 horsemen on an eminence. Suddenly he saw a large body of horse advancing, and on sending to inquire learned that they were the troops left to watch Ahmedabâd. His men began to lose courage and think of retiring; but Akber, ordering the drums to strike up the royal march, charged down upon the enemy, who, thinking that the whole of the royal army must be behind the eminence, turned and fled with precipitation. Their leader fell from his horse and was killed by one of the king's guards; Husun also was assassinated by a Rajpût chief, to whom he had been committed, to avenge a former quarrel; and the two leaders being thus removed the rebellion was at an end. Akber now (1575) deemed the occasion favourable for re-annexing the wealthy provinces of Bahar and Bengal to the empire. These had been independent and governed by Afghân princes for some years; but the present king, named Daûd, was of a feeble, vicious character. Akber had obtained a promise of tribute from him; but the unsteady Daûd in a moment of prosperity had re-asserted his independence. Akber marched from Agra in the height of the rainy season, advanced and took Bahâr without opposition. Leaving then the task of conquering Bengal to his generals, he returned to Agra, and they obliged Daûd to retire to Orissa. The whole of Bahar and Bengal was thus reannexed to the imperial crown (1576), and the last remnant of the Afghân monarchy in Hindûstân was extinguished. But a rebellion, first, of the Mogul chiefs when required to remit the revenues of the province to the court, and then an insurrection of the remaining Afghâns, gave the royal troops occupation for some years; and it was not till 1592 that Bengal was finally reduced to tranquillity. During this time Akber's brother Hakîm, the governor, or rather ruler, of Câbul, invaded the Punjâb. Akber found it necessary to march in person against him. At his approach Hakîm retired, and Akber, following up his success, took possession of Câbul. Hakim fled to the mountains; but on his making his submission, the magnanimous emperor restored him to his government, and he ever after remained in obedience. An insurrection followed in Gûzerât, headed by Mozaffer, the former prince of that country, which gave occupation to Akber's generals for a space of four years. CHAPTER IX. AKBER-Conquest of Cashmire - The Yûsofzyes - And Roushenîa - Recovery of Candahâr - Invasion of the Deckan-Chând Sultâna-Prince Selîm-Death of Akber -His Character-His Religious System-Hindoo VillageSystem-The Revenue-The Army-Royal Magnificence. IN the year 1585 the death of his brother Hakîm made it necessary for Akber to go in person to Câbul. This led to a series of conflicts with the hardy tribes that dwelt in the mountains north of that region. But Akber's first exploit was an unprovoked attack on and conquest of the paradisal vale of Cashmire. This region, which is described as a real paradise, is a valley-plain in the heart of the Himalaya mountains, about half way up them, enclosed on all sides by snowy ranges, and enjoying almost a perpetual spring. The plain and the sides of the hills are covered with various brilliant and fragrant flowers, and filled with trees laden with fruits. Copious rivulets descend from the hills to water the plain, and they there form two lakes, on the surface of which may be seen numerous artificial floating gardens. These waters are the origin of the Jelûm, one of the rivers of the Punjâb, which descends from the vale by a deep ravine. Cashmire can only be entered by difficult mountainpasses. The road crosses rocky ridges, winds through narrow defiles, passes along the face of precipices overhanging rapid streams, and the summit of the mountain when reached is often found impassable from the snow. Cashmire, after having been ruled from time immemorial by a succession of Hindoo princes, fell, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, into the hands of a Mohammedan adventurer, and was thenceforth ruled by a series of Mussulman princes. Dissensions in the reigning family gave Akber the hope of making himself master of the inviting region, and he despatched an army thither from Attock, which he had lately built at the ferry of the Indus. After encountering many difficulties, it at length penetrated through a pass which had been left unguarded; but its supplies had been exhausted, and so many difficulties remained yet to be overcome, that the commanders gladly agreed to a treaty, by which the sovereignty of Akber was acknowledged, but on condition that he should not interfere in the internal concerns of the country. But Akber spurned such limited dominion, and he sent in the next year another army, which reduced the whole country to submission. The king became one of the nobles of the court of Delhi, and was assigned a large estate in Bahâr. Akber paid an immediate visit to his new conquest. He visited it twice more during his reign; and it became the favourite summer residence of his successors. Cashmire being thus reduced, Akber turned his arms against the tribes that occupied the fertile valleys on the north of the plain of Pêshâwer, and those of the Solimân and Khyber ranges on the south of that plain. The ruling tribe in the former were the Yûsofzyes, who, being driven from the neighbourhood of Candahâr about a century before, had come to these mountains, and reduced the original inhabitants beneath their dominion. The religious sect of the Roushenia, or Enlightened, who rejected the Korân, and taught that nothing existed but God, and who despised and rejected all worship and all religious exercises, prevailed in the southern mountains. Akber sent two of his best generals against the Yûsofzyes; but by advancing too far into the mountains, they got entangled in the gorges and defiles, and one of the leaders, a Rajpût rajah and great favourite of the emperor, was slain, and the troops of both destroyed; the other escaped alone and on foot. Akber sent another force, under two other generals, who by prudently not entering the mountains, but fortifying positions in various places, and thus preventing the Yûsofzyes from cultivating their portion of the plain, reduced them to submission. One of them, Mar Sing, then proceeded to act against the Roushenîa of the southern hills. He had some partial success; but the next year (1587), while Mar Sing attacked them from the north, Akber sent a body of troops over the Indus to the south of the Khyber range, who took them in the rear, and their leader Jelala was thus completely defeated. He, however, kept up the contest till his death in 1600; and, in effect, the tribes of the mountains round the plain of Pêshâwer have never been completely conquered by any dynasty of India or Câbul. In consequence of this contest with these mountain tribes, the abode of Akber in these provinces of the Indus was prolonged to a space of fifteen years. It did not however solely engage his attention and his arms, for during that time he established his authority in Sind (1592), and he also recovered Candahår. For during the confusion which prevailed in the commencement of Akber's reign, Shah Tahmasp had succeeded in regaining that city, of which Humâyun had so treacherously deprived him, and Akber now, by taking advantage of the disturbances in Persia, on the accession of Tahmasp's son Abbas, recovered it without a blow. The rule of Akber now extended from the frontiers of Persia to the eastern limit of Bengal, from the sea and the Vindhya range to the lofty Himalaya, the most extensive dominion that had been as yet held by any Mohammedan sovereign of India. It was also the most completely subject to the royal authority, for with the exception of the Rana of Oudipûr, and the mountain tribes of Afghanistan, all, Hindoo and Moslem alike, were submissive and faithful subjects or tributaries. It only now remained for Akber to extend his dominion over the Deckan, and here, as is generally the case in the East, the way was prepared for him by civil dissension. In the year 1595 there were in arms no less than four claimants of the throne of Ahmednugur. One of them called in the aid of the imperial forces; and one army from Gûzerât, led by the emperor's son Morâd, and another from Malwa, entered the Deckan and rendezvoused near Ahmednugur, of which city the chief who invited them had been in possession, but while they were advancing he had been obliged to abandon it, and it was now held by the princess Chând Sultâna, or Chând Bîbî, as guardian of her infant nephew. She immediately called on the king of Bejapûr, who was her relation, and on the chiefs of the three rival parties, to lay aside their enmity for a time, and unite against the invaders. They attended to her call; one of the chiefs, an Abyssinian named Nehang, cut his way through the imperial troops and entered Ahmednugur, while the other two joined their forces with the king of Bejapûr, who 4 "It is mentioned," says Elphinstone, (ii. 261,) "in the Akbernâmeh, that the chief of Sind employed Portuguese soldiers in this war, and had also 200 natives dressed as Europeans. These were, therefore, the first Sepoys in India. The same chief is also said to have had a fort, defended by an Arab garrison, the first instance in which I have observed any mention of that description of mercenaries, afterwards so much esteemed." A. D. 1596-1603. WAR IN THE DECKAN-DEATH OF AKBER. was marching to its relief. Meantime, Chând Bîbî defended the town heroically; she directed the works and encouraged the workmen, shunning no exposure to danger. Prince Morâd having run three mines under the ramparts, she countermined two of them, but the third was successful, and effected a large breach in the walls. The storming party advanced, and the soldiers were retiring in dismay, when Chând Bîbî in full armour, a naked sword in her hand, and a veil on her face, flew to the breach and checked the assailants. The garrison then hastened to the spot, every kind of missile was employed; the contest lasted till the evening, when the Moguls retired, intending to renew the assault in the morning. But at dawn they beheld the breach repaired so, that without the aid of new mines it could not be mounted. Meantime, the confederated army was approaching, and though the Moguls were superior in numbers, they deemed it more prudent to listen to the terms which Chând Bîbî proposed, which were that the king of Ahmednugur should surrender to the emperor his claims on Berâr, which he had recently conquered (1596). The parties however were at war again in the course of the year. Chând Bîbî's prime minister formed a plot against her, and called on the Moguls for aid. Morâd, who was still in the Deckan, agreed to give it, and he was joined by the king of Candêsh; on the other hand, the king of Golconda joined the allies of Chând Bîbî. The armies encountered on the banks of the Godâveri, and the engagement lasted for two days. Though the Moguls claimed the victory, they made little effort to follow it up, and Akber saw that his own presence was requisite in the Deckan. On his reaching the Nerbudda (1559), he found that Douletabâd and other places had been taken by his troops; and from the banks of the Tapti he sent a force under his son, prince Dâniâl, to invest Ahmednugur, in which Chând Bîbî was now besieged by Nehang the Abassinian Chief. Nehong retired at the approach of the Moguls; but while Chând Bîbî, seeing that under the actual state of things in the town defence was hopeless, was negotiating a treaty, the soldiers, instigated by her opponents, burst into the women's apartments, and murdered her. She thus perished, like almost every woman of superior talent in the East, but her death was not unavenged; in a few days a breach being practicable, the Moguls stormed and gave no quarter to the fighting men. The young king was sent a prisoner to the fort of Gwaliôr; but another was set up, and the contest was continued for some years. Akber returned to Agra, leaving prince Dâniâl, who had married a daughter of the king of Bejapûr, viceroy of Berâr and Candêsh, which he had annexed to the empire, and committing the prosecution of the war in the Deckan to his celebrated vizir, the able Abûl Fazl (1601). The departure of Akber from the Deckan, was caused by the undutiful conduct of his eldest son, prince Selîm. This prince, who was now past thirty years of age, was a man naturally not devoid of talent; but he had impaired his faculties by the immoderate use of wine and opium. Akber, on setting out for the Deckan, had declared him his successor, and made him viceroy of Ajmeer, but Selîm, not content with the prospect of the succession, thought to seize at once on the whole of Hin 27 dûstân. He failed in his attempt on Agra, but having made himself master of Bahâr and Óude, he assumed the title of king. Akber wrote to remonstrate with him, warning him of the danger of the course he was pursuing; at the same time assuring him of forgiveness if he returned to his duty. When the emperor returned to Agra, a kind of reconciliation was effected, and Bengal and Orissa were granted to Selîm. Shortly after Abûl Fâzl, who had been recalled from the Deckan, was fallen on, as he was on his way to Gwaliôr, by a Hindoo rajah, and he and his attendants were slain. His head was cut off and sent to Selîm, who was his mortal enemy, and at whose instigation the rajah had acted. Akber was deeply affected by the fate of his minister; he shed abundance of tears, and passed two days and nights without sleep. He either was ignorant or dissembled his knowledge of his son's share in the murder; but he made, though to no purpose, every effort to take vengeance on the rajah. Selîm soon after (1603) came to court, where his father gave him permission to use the insignia of royalty. He soon, however, relapsed into disobedience, and returning to his residence at Allahabâd, gave himself up to debauchery, and to the practice of the most horrid cruelty He now also exhibited the utmost antipathy to his own son, prince Khusru, a young man of a light mind and a violent temper, and whom he fancied Akber designed for his successor. After some time Selîm returned to court, where he was at first placed in confinement, but was speedily restored to favour. Akber's second son Morâd had been dead some years; he now received intelligence of the death of his third son, prince Dâniâl. Intemperance, the vice of his family, had also caused the death of this prince. He had pledged his word to his father to abstain from the use of wine, and he was so surrounded by persons belonging to the emperor that he could not openly indulge in it. His resource then was to have wine secretly conveyed to him in the barrel of a fowling-piece, and he thus soon brought his days to a termination. His death greatly affected the feeling heart of the emperor, whose own health, in consequence probably of his domestic afflictions, now began to give way. Intrigues with respect to the succession were instantly set on foot, as there were many persons who thought it for their advantage that Khusru should occupy the throne. Akber, however, having in the most explicit terms declared Selîm his lawful successor, all opposition to him ceased, and at the desire of the dying monarch, Selîm and all the principal Ômrahs assembled in his chamber. He there addressed them, praying them to forgive him any offences he might have committed against them. Selîm in a flood of tears threw himself at his feet; Akber pointing to his favourite scimitar, made signs to him to gird it on him in his presence. He commended to his care the ladies of his harem, and charged him not to neglect his old friends and dependents. Having then repeated the Moslem confession of faith in the 5 This city, at the confluence of the Jumna and Ganges, was built by Akber. 6 On one occasion he caused a man to be flayed alive. Akber was horrified when he heard of it. He said he wondered how the son of a man, who could not even see a dead beast flayed without feeling pain, could commit such an act. presence of a minister of religion, the truly great emperor Akber breathed his last (Oct. 13, 1605), in the fiftieth year of his reign. Akber was in person strong-built and handsome, and very fair, owing to his northern origin. In his youth he indulged in wine and good living, but afterwards become sober and abstemious. He delighted in the chase, especially where there was hazard and danger, as in that of the tiger and the elephant. He was fond of making long journeys on horseback, and would even sometimes walk thirty or forty miles a day. His valour was chivalrous, like that of Alexander the Great; yet he was not fond of war for its own sake, and carried it on chiefly from an idea that he had a right to restore the limits of the empire. In temper, Akber was mild and magnanimous, humane and generous. He was fond of religious and philosophical disquisitions, and was most perfectly tolerant of all who differed from him in opinion. Akber was a reformer in religion, in the revenue, and in the army. The religious views to which Akber seems to have finally come were either pure deism, or a Mohammedanism so modified as to differ little from that system. The way in which he proceeded was to examine and hear the arguments in favour of every form of religion. His assistants in these inquiries were two brothers, named Feizi and Abûl-Fazl, sons of a man who had taught law and divinity at Agra; but who had been obliged to leave that place on account of the freedom of his religious sentiments, which had drawn on him persecution. Feizi was the first Mussulman who applied himself to Hindoo literature. He learned the Sanscrit language, and by himself or by others under his direction, translations were made of the two great epic poems, of one of the Vedas, and of several other works. Akber was also anxious to have versions made from the Greek, and a Portuguese priest, who is called Padre Farâbatûm, was invited to come from Goa, and instruct some youths, who were then to be employed in making translations from the Greek language. Feizi himself was directed to translate the Gospels. The other brother, Abûl-Fazl, though also a man of letters, and author of the Akbernâmeh, or History of Akber, which is still extant, was a statesman and a general. Akber raised him to the office of vizir, and we have seen his unhappy fate. Beside his confidential discussions with Feizi and Abûl-Fazl, Akber used to hold meetings on Fridays, which were attended by the learned men of his court, and he often sent for Bramins and for Mohammedan Sûfees, and heard them explain their different tenets. He invited Catholic priests from Goa, and caused them to dispute with the Mohammedan doctors in his presence. He manifested a great respect for Christianity, and it is not unlikely that, had he known it in its purity, he would have embraced it. with months bearing Persian names, and commencing from the vernal equinox nearest to his accession. With respect to the Hindoos, his regulations were more of a political cast. He forbade the trial by ordeal, the burning of widows against their will, and marriage before the age of puberty. He allowed Hindoo widows to marry a second time, contrary to the preceding usage. He abolished all taxes on Hindoo pilgrims, as, in his tolerant eyes, every one had a right to serve the Deity in the manner most agreeable to his own views. He also abolished the Jezeeah, or poll-tax, which, in all Mohammedan states, is imposed on those whom the Moslems term infidels. It was the aim of Akber to make all his subjects equal, and from the very commencement of his reign he had employed Hindoos and Mussulmans alike in his service. These innovations of the emperor naturally gave great offence to the bigoted Moslems. His religious system was besides of too pure and spiritual a character to make much progress, and it died away on the death of its founder. It, however, had some effect in promoting the progress of liberal inquiry in India. In the revenue department of the government, Akber made great improvements in the mode of assessing and collecting the land-tax. As this is intimately connected with the village-system of India, this is perhaps the best place for giving a view of that ancient and celebrated institution. The property in the soil in India, from the most remote ages, seems not, as in some countries, to have lain in the sovereign, or, as in others, in the occupant; but to have been a joint-possession, a certain portion of the produce belonging to the former and all the remainder to the latter, whose title to his share was as indefeasible as that of the sovereign to his portion. But these proprietors did not stand singly; union in the East is of absolute necessity for mutual defence and protection. The land, therefore, was in certain determinate and welllimited proportions, and all the proprietors belonging to it were collected into one town or village, generally about the centre of the land. Each, accordingly, formed a little republic in itself, and the aggregate of these republics formed the state; and whether this last was ruled by a Hindoo or a Mohammedan prince was a matter of comparative unimportance to the village-republic, which had only to render to it its share of the annual produce. The village collects the revenue it has to pay to the crown and the sums required for local purposes; it maintains its own police, and it administers justice in a variety of cases among its members. For these and for other purposes various officers are required, and the following are therefore to be found in a Hindoo village. The Headman (called in the greater part of India Patil), is, as his name denotes, the head of the village, and is its representative in all transactions with the government. He apportions and collects the revenue, lets the lands that happen to have no occupants, and acts in general as a magistrate. The Accountant, or Patwari, keeps the records, which contain an account of all the lands and their The creed of Akber was, as we have stated, a kind of modified deism. He endeavoured to do away with some of the Mohammedan peculiarities, and most of the peculiar obligations of that religion, such as circumcision, fasting, pilgrimage, and public worship he made to be optional. He dis-occupants. He also keeps the private accounts of couraged the study of the Arabic language, and for the lunar year, the months with Arabic names, and the era of the Hijra, he introduced a solar year, the villagers, and acts in general as a notary. The Watchman, or Pyk, &c., whose duty it is to attend to all the boundaries, both public and private, to |