The Maktab Khana (meaning "House of Translation") was a bureau of records and translation established by the Mughal

Emperor Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

Fatehpur Sikri Fatehpur Sikri () is a town in the Agra District of Uttar Pradesh, India. Situated 35.7 kilometres from the district headquarters of Agra, Fatehpur Sikri itself was founded as the capital of Mughal Empire in 1571 by Emperor Akbar, serving th ...

around 1574. Emperor Akbar commissioned his most talented scribes and secretaries to translate the major texts of India from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

into

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and to illustrate the manuscripts in the royal workshops. Of these texts included the ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

'' into the ''

Razmnāma 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 Fatehpu ...

'' (

: رزم نامہ, lit. ''Book of War''), the ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

'', and the ''

Rajatarangini ''Rajatarangini'' ("The River of Kings") is a metrical legendary and historical chronicle of the north-western part of India, particularly the kings of Kashmir. It was written in Sanskrit by Kashmiri historian Kalhana in the 12th century CE. The ...

''. Various Arabic encyclopedias and histories were also translated, as well as the entirety of the ''

Baburnama The ''Bāburnāma'' ( chg, ; literally: ''"History of Babur"'' or ''"Letters of Babur"''; alternatively known as ''Tuzk-e Babri'') is the memoirs of Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muhammad Bābur (1483–1530), founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great- ...

'', the memoirs of Akbar's grandfather and founder of the Mughal dynasty,

Babur Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his ...

. With this bureau, Akbar aspired to "form a basis for a united search for truth" and "enable the people to understand the true spirit of their religion."

References

{{coord missing, Uttar Pradesh 16th-century establishments in Asia Mughal Court Fatehpur Sikri Libraries in Uttar Pradesh Emperors of India

See also

References