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Razmnāma
Razmnāma (The Book of War), was one of the several literary gems patronized by Akbar in the 1580s. The Razmnāma was a Persian translation of the Sanskrit epic Mahābhārata. The etymology of the Persian word Razmnāma implied Tale or Book of War and is read as “Razm” implying “war” and “nama” implying “book”, “history” or “epic”.
The Mughal Empire during the reign of Emperor Akbar had made mammoth territorial gains, and hence, the Empire consisted of a multitudinous conglomeration of people belonging to diverse faiths, religions, cultures, and languages. Emperor Akbar made numerous attempts and employed myriad ways to incorporate and understand this heterogeneity. His political motivations to create a sense of inclusion and acceptance and, his inquisitive nature prompted him to undertake several experiments and projects. One of the manifestations was the creation of the Maktab Khana or the house of translations in Fatehpur Sikri in 1574, which was inaugurated to translate important Sanskrit texts into Persian.
A leaf from Razmnāma
Bhishma lying on a bed of arrows. He is watched over by Krishna and the Pandava brothers.
The Razmnāma was a product of the Maktab Khana. The illustrated manuscript included all the eighteen books of the epic and the appendix, Harivaṃśa. It is however noteworthy, that although there existed several versions of the epic in diverse regional languages, the Razmnāma was primarily based on the Devanagari version (the northern recension) of the Sanskrit Mahabharata, except the Aśvamedha Parva (Horse Sacrifice Book), which was based on the Jaiminīyāśvamedha (an alternative Sanskrit retelling). The process of translating the epic and compiling the manuscript was an intense project involving several scholars and two teams of translators. They transmitted the epic orally via their knowledge of a shared language of Hindi. A colophon dating back to 1599 lists the names of the Sanskrit interpreters (mu‘abbirān), including Deva Misra, Satavadhana, Madhusudana Misra, Caturbhuja, and Shayh Bhavan. The Persian translators (mutarjimān) involved in this project included Naqib Han, Mulla Shiri, Sultan Thanisiri, and Abdul Qadir Bada’uni. In 1587, Abul Fazl was appointed by the Emperor to compose a preface (Muqaddama) to the text to enumerate the reasons which inspired Emperor Akbar to commission the translation. He mentioned that the reason for the translation was to make the stories and philosophies of the Mahabharata more accessible, as well as invite people from both the Hindu and Muslim faiths to introspect over their traditional beliefs.
The Razmnāma was not produced as a sole copy; multiple versions of the manuscript were made in the subsequent periods, each of which is preserved in several locations around the globe. The first copy of the Razmnāma was completed in the 1580s and is now housed in the Sawai Man Singh II Museum in Jaipur. Thereafter, a second copy of the Razmnāma was made in 1598-1599. This version consisting of 161 paintings, was more intricately illustrated than the previous copy. Abdul Qadir Bada’uni in Muntakhab al-Tawarikh had explicitly mentioned nobles receiving copies of the illustrated manuscript. The final five parvas of this manuscript are preserved in the British Library. The third copy, dated 1605, is now housed in the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata. The fourth copy is a dispersed manuscript that has currently only two known dated pages.
The Razmnāma is a precious testimony of the inter-religious harmony and enlightened environment that prevailed during Akbar’s reign.
Arjun hitting the target
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