Persian Manuscripts : Tarjumah-'i Upnakhatترجمهٔ اپنکهت

Dārā Shikūh, Prince, son of Shahjahan, Emperor of India, 1615–1659دارا شکوه

Persian Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>A complete copy of the <i>Sirr-i-Akbar, Tarjumah-'i Upnakhat</i> (The Greatest Secret translated from the Upanishads), also known as the <i>Sirr-i Asrār</i> (Secret of Secrets), by Prince Dārā Shikūh (1615–1659), eldest son and intended successor of the Mughal ruler Shāhjahān I (b. 1592–1666 r. 1628–58), but then ultimately defeated and executed by his younger brother ‘Awrangzīb, whom would later rule as ‘Alāmgīr I (b. 1618, r. 1658–1707). A Persian translation of fifty Sanskrit <i>Upanishads of the Four Vedas</i>, Dārā completed the work with the help of Hindu pandits in Benares (Varanasi) over the course of six months and finished it on 26 Ramaz̤ān 1067 AH (8 Jul. 1657 CE). A scribe named Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ‘Azīm copied this manuscript from one collated by the Anand Rām Mukhliṣ (ca. 1699–1571) held in the royal library of the Nawwāb in Lucknow, at the behest of British orientalist, linguist, and the first translator of Upanishads into a Western language from Sanskrit, Sir William Jones (d. 1794). While undated, Jones notes that he received it on 3 May 1785, probably in Calcutta.</p>