Emperor Akbar. Fatehpur Sikri.

Emperor Akbar. Fatehpur Sikri.

January 26, 2010

The Mughal emperor’s Pachisi Courtyard. In front of the Ibadat Khana, House of Worship.

Akbar’s court poets Faizi and Urfi receive the Persona. Rabindranath Tagore, Amir Khosrow, Kabir, Bulleh Shah, Lalan, and Sarmad, the wild Persian-Jewish convert to Sufism, dressed like a Jain. The mystics and Sufis of India mix and consult. Vyasa, Valmiki, and Tulsidas look on. Persuaded by Tagore, given the trials of the time, Rahman Baba, an Afgani Pashtun, comes down from his mountain village to confer with the poet from the moon. Satya Pir, Dihlawi, Fani Kashmiri, Brahman, Panapati. Evoking the majesty of human history, Lord Alfred Tennyson extols Akbar’s dream.

The many oceans mingle. The dancing girls on the Pachisi Courtyard.

Frederick Glaysher

The Lesser and Greater Vehicles

Beyond in medias res, the Persona traveled on through India, from the field of Kurukshetra to Shiva Nataraja, Kabir, and the epic struggles of the Ramayana. Hanuman has guided me now to Angkor Wat. From there the Persona shall walk with the elders and ride the greater ferry to Dunhuang and China, on to Korea and Japan.

Though daunted by the immensity of the trip before me, I trust my guides shall sustain me through the jungles and mountains and deserts. They have brought me thus far, cannot fail me now.

Frederick Glaysher