Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/60

38 AKBAR'S REFORMS anything that has life, and in devising its limbs one after the other, must come to feel that he cannot be- stow personality upon his work, and is thus forced to think of God, the giver of life, and will thus increase in knowledge." He had always been fond of painting, and kept a number of painters at court, whose work "THE TURKISH SULTANA'S HOUSE," FATHPUR - SIKRI. was displayed before him every week. " Hence the art flourishes/' wrote Abu-1-Fazl, " and many painters have obtained great reputations, while masterpieces worthy of [the famous Persian court painter] Bahzad may be placed beside the wonderful works of the Eu- ropean painters who have attained world-wide fame. The minuteness in detail, the general finish, the bold- ness of execution, and the like, now observed in pic- tures, are incomparable. " This was written in Akbar's