There is a lore told by Hindu yogis about Akbar, also documented in the Bhavisya Purana. Long ago, there was a very holy man living in Prayagraj (greatest of river confluences), leading a simple life and consuming only one cup of milk a day. However, one day he realised that he had accidentally swallowed a single hair of a cow. To him, this was equivalent to consuming beef. Overcome with guilt, he decided to end his life by drowning himself in the river, hoping that in his next life he would be born as a Mlechchha (a barbarian) to atone for the crime of eating beef.
He was reborn as Akbar, who went on to build the city of llahabas or Illahabad (abode of all gods), which later came to be known as Allahabad (abode of one true god i.e., God). Akbar constructed a fort at the site where the Ganga and Yamuna rivers converge. The walls kept falling and oracles said that unless a Brahmin was buried under the walls, this wall would not stand. The Brahmin who sacrificed himself was promised his family would forever have first right to perform rituals for pilgrims at the sites. These Brahmins lost their high position when the British Company came to power.
The fortress at the river confluence enclosed the sacred Ashvattha Tree, associated with Dattatreya and Rishabh Muni from the Jain tradition. It is said that Rishabh Muni gave his first discourse at this site. This is also the site where Queen Marudevi, mother of Rishab-dev, attained moksha when she saw her son in a state of liberation. The site also marked the establishment of the fourfold Jain congregation of monks, nuns, Jain householders and laywomen.
A different story is told by the Malang fakirs who also visit the Kumbh Mela. They recount that a Siddha Yogi once wanted to travel from the Himalayas to Jagannath Puri. He decided to fly and kept a bit of quicksilver in his mouth to enable his flight. On his journey, he passed over Fatehpur Sikri and decided to rest on the roof of the royal palace. Unfortunately, while he was sleeping, the quicksilver slipped out of his mouth. Upon waking, he realised he had lost the ability to fly. The palace guards caught him and brought him before Emperor Akbar, who doubted his story. To prove his powers, the yogi claimed he could transfer his soul into the body of a deer. Using his powers, he also transferred Akbar’s soul into the deer’s body. When Akbar’s soul returned to his human form, he was horrified by the experience. Terrified and angry, Akbar ordered his guards to behead the ascetic.
After this incident, people began to notice a dramatic change in Akbar’s behaviour. He stopped eating meat, ceased hunting, rarely visited the royal harem, and lived a life of simplicity and contemplation until his death. Many believed that the yogi had transferred his own soul into Akbar’s body while Akbar’s soul had been lost in the body of the ascetic. According to this version, it was Akbar’s original soul that was killed when the soldiers executed the sorcerer.
Both these stories are attempts to explain the enigmatic behaviour of Emperor Akbar. Despite being of Mongol origin and a practising Muslim, Akbar had a profound fondness for Indian culture and traditions. He collaborated with Rajputs, married their daughters, funded temples and engaged in discussions with fakirs, saints, sorcerers, tantriks and yogis on a variety of subjects. His deep interest in mysticism and the occult was highly unusual for a Muslim king.
Akbar also adopted several Hindu practices, such as weighing himself against gold and diamonds, giving darshan at the royal window at regular intervals, banning hunting on certain days, practising vegetarianism and admiring Jain scholars, yogis, Vaishnavas and Shaivites. These actions greatly irritated the Muslim orthodoxy.
Depending on the perspective, Akbar’s behaviour was explained as either the result of his being a Hindu sage in a previous life or as the outcome of him being tricked and brainwashed by sorcerers, or being a pragmatic king who saw the value of collaboration and communal harmony. Akbar descended from Mongol kings who were pagans, who looked at religion, be it Islam or Buddhism, as a tool of governance. Genghis Khan invited scholars to debate before him, to see whose ideas had the most practical value. Akbar, a dyslexic himself, was perhaps no different.
None of these stories are verifiable; they are simply part of the great legend of Akbar. It was he who established one of the world’s richest pre-Industrial empires. And towards the end of his life, he saw himself as a religious guru, and only select courtiers were part of his secret mystic society.
