An oft-unacknowledged aspect of Mughal rule in India was its royal patronage of Hindu artwork. In the 16th century, under Emperor Akbar, perhaps the finest copy of the ancient epic ‘Mahabharata’ was the Persian one circulating in Mughal courts.
The Razmnama or ‘Book of War’ was completed between 1582-84. It emerged from Akbar’s Maktab Khana (translation bureau) from Fatehpur Sikri, where a team of translators worked hard on converting Indian texts to Persian. There was a political reason for this – Akbar wanted Persian to emerge as the lingua franca of his empire, though his court was multi-lingual. In fact, many Hindus were studying Persian in madrasas in order to raise their chances at a government job.
But there was also the matter of Akbar’s personal views on the universality of religion. As court historian, Mulla Daud recorded Akbar’s command that:
..the rational contents of different religions and faiths, should be translated in the language of each, and that the rose garden of the traditional aspects of each religion, should, as far as possible, be cleared of the thorns of bigotry.
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