| Razmnāma | |
|---|---|
| رزم نامہ | |
.jpg) Leaf of the Razmnama, c. 1598-1599 | |
| Information | |
| Author | Faizi Vyasa (traditionally) |
| Language | Classical Persian |
| Period | Reign of Emperor Akbar |
The Razmnāma (Book of War) (رزم نامہ) is a Persian translation of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Akbar. In 1574, Akbar started a Maktab Khana or "House of Translation" in his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri. He assigned a group to translate the Sanskrit books Rajatarangini, Ramayana and Mahabharata into the Persian language, the literary language of the Mughal court.[1]
Akbar's court translations were made in several steps: the meaning was explained by Hindu scholars and a first draft was made by the Muslim theologian Naqib Khan into Persian and this was then improved upon by Faizi into elegant prose or verse. In Persian, “Razm” means “war” and "nama" means "tale", "history", or "epic"; the name Razmnamah, therefore, means a tale of war.
Four illustrated Mughal manuscripts are known, one complete, made between 1584 and 1586, and now in Jaipur, with 176 paintings of which 147 were reproduced in 1884 by Thomas Holbein Hendley. The final five parts (of 18) from another, made between 1598 and 1599 and split up in 1921, form British Library, MS Or. 12076 and has other pages spread out in collections across North America, Europe and India. A third, known as the Birla manuscript, is in the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata and in dated 1605. A fourth, from which only two or more miniatures are currently identified, was made around 1616–1617.[2]
- ^ Rice, Yael (28 May 2010). "A Persian Mahabharata: The 1598-1599 Razmnama". Manoa. 22 (1): 125–131. doi:10.1353/man.0.0090. S2CID 145323296. Project MUSE 381860.
- ^ Seyller, 37