Akbar: The Great Mughal

by Ira Mukhoty

Rafiuddin Shirazi, the Persian merchant, too decided to try and see the Padshah and he was standing in a tent with a crowd of spectators when all of a sudden loud shouts of ‘Badshah Salaamat!’ rang out. The Padshah had arrived, clearly, ‘but however much left and right I looked, I did not see anyone who by appearance gave any signs or marks of royalty’ wrote the puzzled Shirazi. ‘When I looked behind,’ he added, ‘I saw that a youth of twenty years was leaning on a favourite, with his hand resting on the other’s shoulder.’ This nonchalant youth, Shirazi realized, was the emperor of Hindustan but he was astonished to see that no one prostrated themselves or gave the Padshah any special treatment whatsoever. Shirazi, taken aback, asked the crowds whether this casualness was normal in Hindustani courts to which he was told, ‘the etiquette for courtiers and salutations at this Court is much more elaborate than those of other rulers: but the King himself is more informal. Often he comes out in ordinary dress and mixes with his confidants and makes no distinction between companions and strangers.’ Shirazi ruminated over this strange explanation but agreed that he had himself seen Akbar flying a kite on the roof of his palace at Agra. On that occasion, he noted that ‘his head was bare and he was wearing a lungi.