The great Mughal Emperor Akbar, who ruled India in the late 16th century, had a temple built in his great capital Fatephur Sikri called the House of New Worship. The House of New Worship was a place where ideas could be debated without fear. Philosophers and religious leaders could argue and attack each others ideas and even critique the rule of the all powerful emperor in the safety of the House of New Worship. Missionaries from western Europe could debate the merits of Christianity, monks from Cathay (China) could espouse the virtues of Buddhism and so on and so forth.
But the House of New Worship was not a permanent structure. It was a gigantic tent. It was a grand and beautiful tent, but a tent nonetheless. Akbar believed that all ideas are impermanent. He believed that ideas wash up on the shore like great tides that possess great strength and fury and then ebb and recede with the passing of time. Akbar even knew the impermanent nature of the mighty Mughal Dynasty. He therefore decreed that a house for ideas should be as impermanent as ideas themselves.
