apparently as a meeting-place for the royal Order, the Dīn-Ilāhī, which he founded, Akbar probably had in his mind his great predecessor, Asoka, who united all Aryāvarta in devotion to the saintly Head of the Sangha, the Buddhist religious brotherhood. The Panch Mahall (Pl. XLVIII, a), adjoining Akbar's palace at Fatehpur-Sikri, where most probably the Order met during Akbar's lifetime, is of similar design, the four lower pavilions corresponding to the four grades of the Order, Akbar being enthroned under the domed canopy at the top as Grand Master.
Jahāngīr (1605-27), Akbar's rebellious and unscrupulous son, under whose directions the tomb was completed,[1] altered the original design of the top story where Akbar's cenotaph is placed, omitting the canopy of "curious white and speckled marble, ceiled all within with pure sheet gold richly inwrought," with which, according to William Finch, who visited the mausoleum when it was being built, it was to have been covered.
Akbar kept up a great state ceremonial, but regulated the economy of his public works with great care and exactitude. Jahāngīr, for political reasons, allied himself with the Sunni party, which was bitterly hostile to Akbar's religious views, so that in the buildings of his reign anything which might give offence to orthodox Musalman feeling is studiously avoided. In this he was followed by his son, Shah Jahān; but at the same time both monarchs indulged their luxu-
- ↑ Neither Jahāngīr's inscriptions nor statements in his memoirs can be taken as proof that the tomb was wholly built according to Jahāngīr's instructions after Akbar's death. It is highly improbable that Akbar neglected to make arrangements for perpetuating his work as founder of the Dīn-Ilāhī; or that Jahāngīr, if he had an entirely free hand in the building of his father's tomb, would have permitted a scheme which departed so far from orthodox Sunni tradition.
