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Jahangir
Jul 18 2007 | Views 88 |
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In his memoirs, the Mughal Emperor Jahangir informs us that his favourite holy man/God man, with whom he would spend hours discussing the 'science of Vedanta', was the hindu monk Jadrup.
Here is a nice painting of Jahangir and Jadrup discussing philosophy:
< a href = "http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1600_1699/jahangir/jadrup/jadrup.html">Jahangir and Jadrup </a>
It is understandable that Akbar's attitude towards religions and religious matters must have rubbed off on his son Jahangir. Sir Thomas Roe, British ambassador at the court of Jahangir, informs us that 'all kinds of religions are welcome and free for the king[Jahangir] is of none'.
On another note:
In his autobiography, Jahangir informs us that as a young man he had fallen into frivolous company whereupon he had started drinking twenty cups of double distilled spirits every day. It had reached a stage where his hands used to shake and somebody had to help him gulp down the liquor. The family doctor had subsequently adviced Jahangir that if he did not change his ways, he would die within six months. This had the necessary effect on Jahangir, and he decided to cut down on his alcohol intake to eight cups of a mixture of wine and spirit taken on alternate days. This clearly shows that Jahangir was a man of will power and the assumption in some quarters that he was a habitual drunkard is a mistaken notion.
CH poster Carvaka suggested that consuming eight cups of a cocktail of wine and distilled spirit make Jahangir a drunkard but i disagree.
Without knowing the size of the cups, the precise composition of the cocktail, and Jahangir's capacity to hold alcohol, it is unfair to label him a 'drunkard'.
One must remember in this connection that the Jesuit missionaries, and also the British Ambassador to Jahangir's court, Sir Thomas Roe, have written very highly of Jahangir and have not alluded to his alcoholism at all. This would not have been the case if Jahangir would have become drunk on alternate days.
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