THE SPELL OF GRAND MONARCHY 363

temporaries of Louis XIV, even as the earlier Mughal Em-
perors were the contemporaries of the Tudor and Stuart
sovereigns of England. Akbar died two years after Queen
Elizabeth (1605). The Mughal Grand Monarchy was, how-
ever, at its best only from Akbar to Aurangzeb > 1557-1707),
a period of hundred and fifty years. But that was a period
which does not compare ill with the splendours of the Grand
Monarchy in Europe. In some respects it was certainly more
enlightened than its European contemporaries. We do not
find Akbar's religious toleration paralleled anywhere in the
Europe of his days, nor his zeal for social reform until long
.after. Jehangir tried to abolish drink and Akbar sati, while,
for the most part, all the Mughals tried to follow the states-
manlike ideals laid down by Sher Shah, the great Afghan
administrator, who laid the foundations of the system which
was improved upon by his Mughal successors : * justice',
declared Sher Shah, * is the most excellent of religious rites,
and it is approved alike by the kings of infidels and of the
faithful/ He also realised that * the cultivators are the source
•of prosperity/ and that' if a ruler cannot protect the humble
peasantry from the lawless, it is tyranny to exact revenue
from them/ In the field of architecture and art the Mughals
achieved marvels which are appreciated by all even to this
day. As I have said elsewhere,' The Empire of the Mughals
has vanished forever, but their personality endures in a
thousand forms, visible and invisible. In our dress, speech,
etiquette, thought, literature, music, painting, and architecture
the impress of the Mughal is ever present/1

The Mughals, of course, shared in the autocracy and vices
of the Grand Monarchy of Europe no less than its splendours.
But as the late Mr. S. M. Edwardes wrote : " Yet they

1. S. R. Sharma, Mughal Empire m India, p. 866.