The author of the romance of Akbar, Dr. P. A. S. van Limburg-Brouwer, was the son of the Professor of Greek at Groningen. He was born at Liege in 1832, and was a Doctor of Law, residing chiefly at the Hague, and devoting himself to eastern and other studies. He held an appointment in the office of the Royal Archives, and was for a short time a member of the States General for the district of Trenthe.

With reference to his eastern studies, we find them bearing fruit in the periodical literature of Holland during the last ten years of his life. In 1863 Van Limburg-Brouwer contributed an essay on the Ramayana, to the “Gids,” a magazine published at Amsterdam.1 In 1866 a historical sketch from his pen, entitled the “Java Reformers,” appeared in the same periodical.2 In 1867 he contributed three articles, entitled, “The Adventures of an Indian Nobleman”; “The Book of Kings: an Essay of Indian History”; and “The Vedanta: an Essay on Indian Orthodoxy.”3 In 1868 he published articles entitled “Eastern Atheism,” and “A Cure for Beauty.”4 His metaphysical drama, “The Moon of Knowledge,” saw the light in 1869.5 In the following year he seems to have given his attention to Arabian lore, and published two articles entitled “Poetry of the Desert,” and the “Kabbala.”6 Towards the end of his life Van Limburg-Brouwer commenced the study of Chinese, and among the results of his labours in this field of research was his article on “The Sage of the Celestial Empire, and his School.”7 He was a man of extensive and varied learning, endowed with a rich and fertile imagination, and with great powers of expression. In his romance of Akbar, his most carefully drawn character, and that on which he seems to have bestowed most thought, is the Hindu girl Iravati. In her he endeavoured to portray his conception of the class of devoted loving women of whom Damayanti is the type; and Siddha Rama is evidently intended to be the Nala of a later age. But he has bestowed equal care on his treatment of the more difficult part of his subject, and has brought considerable ability and much study and research to the task of presenting to his readers a vivid and at the same time a life-like picture of that remarkable prince round whom the action of the story centres, and of the two brothers who were his devoted friends.

Akbar is the work on which Van Limburg-Brouwer’s literary fame will mainly rest. It was only published in 1872, the year before the author’s death. He died at the Hague, in his forty-first year, on the 13th of February 1873.8