Previous Year Question

The correct answer is Abdul Qadir Badauni.

Mughal emperor Akbar initiated a broad project for translating important Sanskrit religious and literary texts into Persian. The purpose was to make different religious and intellectual traditions accessible to the Persian-speaking Mughal elite.

For this translation activity, a Maktab Khana or Translation Department developed at Akbar's court. Scholars who knew Sanskrit explained the original texts, while Persian scholars rendered them into Persian.

As part of this project, Abdul Qadir Badauni translated the Ramayana into Persian. IGNOU material on Indo-Persian historiography explicitly states that Badauni translated the Ramayana and that the project was completed in 1591 CE.

The process was not simply a solitary direct translation from Sanskrit by Badauni. Under the normal court procedure of the time, Sanskrit scholars first explained the meaning of the text in contemporary ‘Hindi’, after which it was rendered into Persian. It was therefore a collaborative court process, but the Persian translator asked for in the question is Badauni.

Badauni was also an important historian. His celebrated work is the Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh. He was critical of several of Akbar's religious policies and experiments, even though he participated in Akbar's translation programme.

Akbar commissioned Persian translations not only of the Ramayana but also of the Mahabharata, Harivamsa and other Sanskrit works. The Persian version of the Mahabharata became known as the Razmnama.

It is useful to distinguish the other options. Abul Fazl was the author of the Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari; Faizi was also an important scholar and translator at Akbar's court; and Abdur-Rahim Khan-i-Khana was associated with literature and translation. However, the Persian translation of the Ramayana referred to in this question is specifically associated with Abdul Qadir Badauni.