Question
Q94) “Yogavasistha” was translated into Persian by Nizamuddin Panipati during the reign of:
- Akbar
- Humayun
- Shahjahan
- Aurangzeb
Answer: 1
Detailed Explanation
- Yoga Vasistha (also known as Vasistha’s Yoga) is a Hindu spiritual text traditionally attributed to Valmiki. It recounts a discourse of the sage Vasistha to a young Prince Rama, during a period when the latter is in a dejected state. The contents of Vasistha’s teaching to Rama is associated with Advaita Vedanta, the illusory nature of the manifest world and the principle of non-duality.
- The book has been dated between the 11th and 14th century AD) and is generally regarded as one of the longest texts in Sanskrit (after the Mahabharata) and an important text of Yoga.
- The book consists of about 32,000 shlokas (lines), including numerous short stories and anecdotes used to help illustrate its content.
- Originally written in Sanskrit, the Yoga Vasistha has been translated into most Indian languages, and the stories are told to children in various forms. The number of Muslim scholars who collaborated with Hindu pandits in making Sanskrit works available was considerable.
- During the Moghul Dynasty the text was translated into Persian several times, as ordered by Akbar, Jahangir and Darah Shikoh.
- Nizam al-Din Panipati rendered the widely influential Yoga Vasistha into Persian late in the sixteenth century at the behest of the Mughal ruler Jahangir while he was still a crown prince. The translation, known as the Jug-Basisht, has since became popular in Persia among intellectuals interested in Indo-Persian culture.
- Hence option (a) is the correct answer.