Sirr-i-Akbar

Sirr-i-Akbar
	Shahzadaof theMughals,Dara Shukoh,seated with threeSufimasters,c. 1650.
Author	Dara Shukoh
Language	Classical Persian
Published	c. 1657

TheSirr-i-Akbar(Persian:سرِ اکبر,“The Greatest Mystery” or “The Greatest Secret” ) is a version of theUpanishadsauthored by theMughal-Shahzada Dara Shukoh,translated fromSanskritintoPersian,c. 1657. After years ofSufilearning, Dara Shukoh sought to uncover acommon mystical languagebetweenIslamandHinduism,boldly stating that theKitab al-Maknun,or "Hidden Book", mentioned in theQur'an(56:78) is none other than the Upanishads.^[1]

Background

During his reign,Mughal Emperor Akbarcommissioned his bureau of translation,Maktab Khana,to begin translating the Upanishads from Sanskrit into Persian in an effort to "form a basis for a united search for truth" and "enable the people to understand the true spirit of their religion."^[2]In his youth, Shahzada Dara Shukoh exhibited a deep enthrallment with mysticism, causing him to spend much of his life in research and study. After a spiritual tutelage of theQadiri-Sufi saint,Mian Mir,Dara published ahagiographicalcompendium of the lives of variousIslamic saints.After encountering aDharmic-Gnosticsaint,Baba Lal Dayal,Dara Shukoh's interests extended to the local mystical thought of the Vedantic tradition while also befriendingHindus,Christians,andSikhs,including the seventhSikh Guru,Guru Har Rai,^[3]and theArmenian-bornmystic-atheistpoet,Sarmad Kashani.^[4]

Legacy

Over a century after the execution of Dara Shukoh, theSirr-i-Akbarwas translated into a mix ofLatin,Greek,andPersianby the French travelingIndologist Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperronin 1796, titling his version theOupnek'hator theUpanischada.The translation was then published inStrasbourg,c. 1801–1802, and represented the firstEuropean languagetranslation of amajor Hindu textwhile also causing a revival in Upanishadic studies in India. In the spring of 1814, the Latin translation by Anquetil-Duperron caught the eye of German philosopherArthur Schopenhauer,who heralded the ancient text in two of his books,The World as Will and Representation(1819) andParerga and Paralipomena(1851), stating:

From every sentence deep original andsublimethoughts arise, and a high and holy and earnest spirit pervades the whole. In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life. It will be the solace of my death. [...] They are destined sooner or later to become the faith of the people.^[5]

The impact of the Upanishads onGerman idealistphilosophers such as Schopenhauer and his contemporaryFriedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schellingechoed into the United States with theTranscendentalists.Members of the movement such asEmersonandThoreauembraced various aspects of theNaturphilosophieinvented by Schelling, along with the exotic mysticism found in the Upanishads. The praise of these Americans further spread the fame of the Upanishads across the Western world.^[6]Irish poetW. B. Yeatsread the Anquetil-Duperron rendition of theSirr-i-Akbarand found the Latinized translation lofty and inaccessible; after meetingShri Purohit Swami,Yeats endeavored to collaborate with him in translating the Upanishads into common English, resulting in their version:The Ten Principal Upanishads,published in 1938.^[7]

In the bookThe Argumentative Indian,Indian economistAmartya Sennotes thatAnglo-Welshscholar-philologist William Jones(who is credited for coining the term "Indo-European") first read the Upanishads via theSirr-i-Akbar.^[8]

References

^Shikuh, Dara (1998).The Mingling of the Two Oceans(PDF).Calcutta: The Asiatic Society.
^Müller, Friedrich Max (1900),The Upanishads Sacred books of the East The Upanishads, Friedrich Max Müller,Oxford University Press
^Mini Krishnan."Hanged For Trying To Bridge the Gap between Islam and Hinduism: Remembering Dara Shikoh, a Sufi-Prince, Scholar and Translator, On His 350th Death Anniversary".NewAgeIslam.Com.New Age Islam.Retrieved30 October2020.
^Katz, N. (2000)'The Identity of a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad, a Jewish-Yogi-Sufi Courtier of the Mughalsin: Numen 47: 142–160.
^App, Urs (2014),Schopenhauer's Compass. An Introduction to Schopenhauer's Philosophy and its Origins,Wil: UniversityMedia,ISBN 978-3-906000-03-9
^Versluis, Arthur (1993),American transcendentalism and Asian religions,Oxford University Press US,ISBN 978-0-19-507658-5
^Yeats, W.B. (2003).The Ten Principal Upanishads.New Delhi: Rupa Publications.ISBN 9789386869487.
^Sen, Amartya (2005-10-05).The Argumentative Indian.

[1] Shikuh, Dara (1998).The Mingling of the Two Oceans(PDF).Calcutta: The Asiatic Society.

[2] Müller, Friedrich Max (1900),The Upanishads Sacred books of the East The Upanishads, Friedrich Max Müller,Oxford University Press

[3] Mini Krishnan."Hanged For Trying To Bridge the Gap between Islam and Hinduism: Remembering Dara Shikoh, a Sufi-Prince, Scholar and Translator, On His 350th Death Anniversary".NewAgeIslam.Com.New Age Islam.Retrieved30 October2020.

[4] Katz, N. (2000)'The Identity of a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad, a Jewish-Yogi-Sufi Courtier of the Mughalsin: Numen 47: 142–160.

[5] App, Urs (2014),Schopenhauer's Compass. An Introduction to Schopenhauer's Philosophy and its Origins,Wil: UniversityMedia,ISBN 978-3-906000-03-9

[6] Versluis, Arthur (1993),American transcendentalism and Asian religions,Oxford University Press US,ISBN 978-0-19-507658-5

[7] Yeats, W.B. (2003).The Ten Principal Upanishads.New Delhi: Rupa Publications.ISBN 9789386869487.

[8] Sen, Amartya (2005-10-05).The Argumentative Indian.

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Background

Legacy

See also

References