PERSIANIZING SANSKRIT: THE MUGHAL EXPERIMENT

‘nthe great cities of medieval Asia, rulers spun strands of knowledge into threads of empire.

- RUCHIRA TALAPATRA

This illustrated leaf (1224) from an Arabic translation of Dioscorides' Materia Medica shows a physician preparing a medicinal syrup. Executed in colours and gold on paper, it was produced by the Baghdad School during the Abbasid period and demonstrates the earlier Graeco-Arabic translation movement that inspired later Indian courts. The folio measures 31.8 x 21.6 cm and now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 9th-century Baghdad, the Abbasid caliphs set out to collect Greek and Persian learning under Islam. Over in Mughal India 700 years later, Emperor Akbar similarly marshalled Sanskrit wisdom into his Persian court.In both cases, state-sponsored translation projects were not mere scholarship but instruments of soft power - a way toassert cultural unity and authority, Underlying these grand designs are vivid human stories: scholars chasing lost manuscripts, court poets toiling at desks, and illustrated books that fused Hinduand Muslim traditions.