| [[233]] The elephant Hawa'i [captured
from Hemu] was a mighty animal and reckoned among the special elephants.
In choler, passionateness, fierceness, and wickedness he was a match for
the world. Strong and experienced drivers who had spent a long life in
riding similar elephants mounted him with difficulty, so what could they
do in the way of making him fight? That royal cavalier of bravery's plain
and tiger-hunter of audacity's forest one day without hesitation mounted
this elephant, in the very height of its ferocity, on the polo-ground which
he had made for his pleasure outside of the fort of Agra, and executed
wonderful maneuvers. After that he pitted him against the elephant Ran
Bagha, which nearly approached Hawai in its qualities. The loyal and the
experienced who were present were in a state such as had never happened
to them before....
[[234]] Some ill-thoughted, short-sighted ones imagined that perhaps there was some drunkenness in the brain of the Ruler of time and terrestrials, and that this performance was the result thereof. They immediately recoiled from this baseless idea and perceived that His Majesty was a wondrous portrayer of the arts of reason, who was bringing into evidence a specimen from the wondrous inner gallery, and was summoning those astray in the wilderness of ignorance to the king's highway of knowledge. He was giving eyes to the blind, and was anointing the eyes of the seeing with impearled collyrium. Several times when this fortunate writer has had the privilege of private conversation with His Majesty the Shahinshah, he has heard from his holy lips that "our knowingly and intentionally mounting on mast [rutting], murderous elephants when they have a moment previous brought their drivers under their feet and killed them, and when they have slain many a man, has this for its cause and motive: that if I have knowingly taken a step which is displeasing to God or have knowingly made an aspiration which was not [[235]] according to His pleasure, may that elephant finish us, for we cannot support the burden of life under God's displeasure." Good God, what an insight is this! and what a calculation with oneself!.... [[236]] In virtue of the Divine purposes, and the irresistible decrees of the incomparable Deity, many of the world-adorning excellencies of this spiritual and temporal prince were concealed even from his own acuteness. I have heard this many times in the days of my childhood from my honoured father when I was engaged in acquiring knowledge. He (too) was a fountain of blessings and an assemblage of spiritual and material perfections, and one who spent his days in the hermitage of retirement. And I learnt this also by myself when I came to have the bliss of serving him who is the elixir of the capabilities of the masters of wisdom. By reason of this fact, to wit, that his world-illuminating spiritual beauty was hidden from himself, he would seek from others what he should have sought for in himself and which he should have brought for the use of mankind and so been a guide to those wandering in the wilderness of error. Continually he made the pain of seeking after God, which is also capable of becoming perfect health, the hem of his heart, and kept the mobility of his holy soul. Hunting, which is a bracelet on the arm of joy, was made by him a constituent of the pain of search and made him traverse alone city and country. In his abundant carefulness he sought for truth among the dust-stained denizens of the fields of irreflection-- and most of the really great study it under this disguise-- and consorted with every sort of wearers of patched garments, such as jogis, sanyasis, and qalandars, and other solitary sitters in the dust, and insouciant recluses.... [[237]] One night His Majesty went off to Fathpur to hunt and passed near by Mandhakar which is a village on the way from Agra to Fathpur. A number of Indian minstrels were singing enchanting ditties about the glories and virtues of the great Khwaja, Khwaja Mu-inu-d-din, may his grave be hallowed! who sleeps in Hazrat Ajmir. Often had his perfections and miracles been the theme of discourse in the holy assemblies. His Majesty who was a seeker after Truth and who in his zealous quests sought for union with travellers on the road of holiness, and showed a desire for enlightenment, conceived a strong inclination to visit the Khwaja's shrine. The attraction of a pilgrimage thither seized his collar. ===========
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== Akbar-nama
vol. 2 == Abu'l-Fazl == Glossary
== fwp's main page ==