Atharva Veda, Mahabharata, Ramayana and Gita were translated into Persian during Akbar's regime

Question

Consider the following statements:

Assertion (A): Atharva Veda, Mahabharata, Ramayana and Gita were translated into Persian during Akbar's regime

Reason (R): Jahangir set up a translation bureau to translate works in Sanskrit, Arabic, Greek etc. Choose the correct answer:

1. A. Both A & R are true, R is the correct explanation of A
2. B. Both A & R are true, R is NOT the correct explanation of A
3. C. A is true but R is false (Correct answer)
4. D. R is true but A is false

Correct Answer

Option C — A is true but R is false

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is A is true but R is false.

Key Points

• Assertion (A) is true. The Atharva Veda, Mahabharata, Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita were translated into Persian during Akbar's reign. The *Mahabharata* became the *Razmnama* ("Book of War"), and the *Ramayana* was also rendered into Persian.
• Reason (R) is false. The **translation bureau — the *Maktab Khana* — was established by Akbar**, not Jahangir. Jahangir did not set it up.
• Since A is true and R is false, the answer is option C.

Additional Information

• The Maktab Khana at Fatehpur Sikri brought together Sanskrit pandits and Persian scholars, who worked jointly — the pandits explaining the text in Hindavi and the Persian scholars rendering it into literary Persian.
• Other works translated under Akbar: the *Rajatarangini*, the *Panchatantra* (as *Ayar Danish*), the *Lilavati* on mathematics, the *Atharva Veda*, and the *Yoga Vasishtha*.
• Akbar's religious policy context: he abolished the jizya (1564) and the pilgrimage tax, set up the Ibadat Khana at Fatehpur Sikri (1575) for inter-faith debate, issued the Mahzar (1579), and propounded Din-i-Ilahi (1582) and the policy of Sulh-i-Kul (universal peace).
• Court chronicles: Abul Fazl wrote the *Akbarnama*, whose third volume is the *Ain-i-Akbari*; Badauni, a critic of Akbar's policies, wrote the *Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh* and himself worked on translations.
• Jahangir's own contribution was the memoir *Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri*, and his reign is better known for painting — Ustad Mansur's naturalistic studies of birds and animals — than for translation.