Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah has stated that Mughal emperor Akbar never used the term Din-e-Elahi and that he never intended to create his new religion. He said that his understanding of who Akbar was as an emperor and a person has evolved over the years and that misinformation is being spread about Akbar that he was a ruler who wanted to start his own religion.
In an exclusive interview with Indian Express, Shah said, “The picture drawn of Akbar was always that of a benevolent, kind-hearted, broad-minded, progressive ruler. The one fly in the ointment is his desire to start a new religion. We read about this in history books, which is absolute nonsense. I have checked this with authoritative historians and Akbar never did attempt to start a new religion. This is a fact which was in our history books called the Din-e Elahi. But Akbar never used the word Din-e Elahi, ever.”
He said Akbar used the term Wahdat-e Elahi which means oneness of the creator. “You may worship a stone, you may worship a crucifix, you may bow your head to the Kaaba, you may worship the rising sun and do what you like, but you are worshipping one and the same thing. That was his belief. This is what I found out,” he added.
Shah said that he tracked down the source of the ‘rumour’ and discovered that historian Abul Fazal, who disliked Akbar, was responsible for the term Din-e Elahi’s creation. It was referred to in his writings as the ‘divine faith’ in English, he noted.
According to the actor, the word ‘divine faith’ (din-e elahi), which Akbar never used, was later translated into Persian. “It’s similar to those South Indian movies that get remakes in both Hindi and the South! I had to talk to the writers about this significant revelation I had discovered regarding Akbar. Fortunately, my objections were upheld,” he said.
He meanwhile also showered praises for the Mughal emperor and said that he was a soft-hearted, vulnerable man and he was also a very passionate, sexually driven, ferocious, merciless warrior. “He must have been a great lover. I mean, he had hundreds of concubines and to keep each of them happy must have been some job! I don’t know if all of them were happy though. But I played him, to find the human being within this grandeur,” he was quoted as saying during the interview.
According to the popular, mainstream ‘history’ reports, Mughal emperor Akbar founded a new religion named Din-e-Elahi in 1582. There were only 19 followers of this religion which encouraged Suryapuja, Havan, and Murtipuja as well. The Mughal king attempted to build religious tolerance but made it mandatory for the followers of the new religion to worship him as the Prophet.
His faith was neither adopted by those outside of his court, nor did his own children adopt his new religion. It was also severely criticized by Sunni officials who had asked him to limit his wives from around 5000 to 4 as per Islam. The Sunni officials also criticized the new religion as it attempted to ban beef. The religion died with Akbar’s death. However, Shah claims that Akbar ever used the term Din-e-Elahi and that he never formed a new religion.
The actor will be seen portraying Mughal Emperor Akbar in the upcoming ZEE5 original series named Taj: Divided By Blood. The series aims to reveal the internal workings backed by the sensational drama of the Mughal empire.
Aditi Rao Hydari plays Anarkali in the ensemble cast of the show, which also stars Aashim Gulati as Prince Salim, Taha Shah as Prince Murad, Shubham Kumar Mehra as Prince Daniyal, Sandhya Mridul as Queen Jodha Bai, Zareena Wahab as Queen Salima, Sauraseni Maitra as Mehr un Nisa, Rahul Bose as Mirza Hakim, and Dharmendra as Sheikh Salim Chisti. The series will stream on ZEE5 from March 3.
