WHEN EMPEROR AKBAR ISSUED A DIKTAT “NO HANUMAN/RAM DEVOTEE SHOULD BE HARMED IN THE MUGHAL EMPIRE”
🌹For the record Emperor Akbar (same guy played by Prithviraj Kapoor in K Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam) had issued a firman that “no devotee of Shri Ram or Hanuman should ever be harmed by anyone in the Empire” (From The Din e Illahi or The Religion Of Akbar By Makhan Lal Roy Choudhary, Oriental Reprint, 1985)
🌹Some Brahmins of Varanasi hated Sant Tulsidas (and Akbar for having shown so much favour to this “Tulsidas”) for having composed the Sri Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi sent two thieves to steal the manuscript.
🌹The thieves tried to break into the Ashram of Tulsidas, but were confronted by two very good looking guards with bows and arrows
🌹One was slightly dark and taller of the two, the other was very fair!
🌹The thieves found their limbs had lost all movement in front of the two and in fact they fainted right there at the entrance to Tulsidas’ ashram!
🌹In the morning the two thugs came to Tulsidas to ask who the two guards were after confessing they had been sent by some of the Brahmins to steal the manuscript of The Ramcharitmanas
🌹Believing that the two guards could be none other than Rama and Lakshmana, Tulsidas was distraught at the thought of the two divinities being forced to guard his home at night
🌹Tulsidas sent the manuscript of Ramcharitmanas to his friend Raja Todar Mal, the finance minister of Emperor Akbar, and donated all of his money to charity
🌹The Emperor’s spies told him that a Brahmin Boy had come from Banaras with a “pothi” (Book) for Raja Todar Mal
🌹Akbar waited and waited for his Finance Minister to tell him what he had received from one of the wealthiest principalities of the Empire and when nothing was forthcoming asked himself “so what was in the Book you received last night?”
🌹Raja Todar Mal smiled and bowed saying “that’s for the eyes of the Emperor only”
🌹Emperor Akbar waited for the Court to be over after which Raja Todar Mal explained what the Book was
🌹Akbar being Akbar wanted him to read excerpts from The Sri Ramcharitmanas
♦️Raja Todar Mal read out the #Sunderkand to Emperor Akbar after giving him a short summary of The Ramayana
♦️He also told the Emperor that whosoever listens to the Sunderkand with all his heart can never be defeated in battle
♦️The Emperor wanted to hear it again; and then Akbar started asking questions, and they were so many questions that finally Raja Todar Mal said “Your Majesty I shall ask that mad Brahmin to come here and he will be able to answer whatever you want to know about Hanuman, Sunderkand, Shri Ram and Lakshman “
♦️The Emperor was not quite finished with Todar Mal yet. He asked “ why do you call Tulsidas mad?”
♦️Todar Mal replied “ that’s because he lives, breathes, dreams only of Shri Ram”
♦️There is no record of Sant Tulsidas ever having met Akbar The Great, but after that the Emperor issued a firman that “ no devotee of Hanuman or Shri Ram is to be harmed in any way by any official of the Empire”
♦️The thieves, by the way, were reformed and became devotees of Shri Ram!
♦️However the Brahmins never forgave Tulsidas
♦️Some haven’t forgiven him still; notice the recent rabid opposition to a Muslim teaching Sanskrit at Banaras Hindu University
