Note 14 — CHAPTER 11
Reading edition
When Raja Man was commanded to reduce the revolted province of Kabul, he hesitated to cross the Indus, the Rubicon of the Hindu, and which they term Atak, or ‘the barrier,’ as being the limit between their faith and the barbarian. On the Hindu prince assigning this as his reason for not leading his Rajputs to the snowy Caucasus, the accomplished Akbar sent him a couplet in the dialect of Rajasthan:—
“Sabhi bhūmi Gopāl kī
Jā men Atak kaha,
Jā ke man men atak he,
Soī Atak raha.”
“The whole earth is of God,
In which he has placed the Atak.
The mind that admits impediments
Will always find an Atak.”
[Dr. Tessitori, whose version is given, remarks that the popular form of the third line is: Bhītar tāti pāp ki.] This delicate irony succeeded when stronger language would have failed.