Translating wisdom : Hindu-Muslim intellectual interactions in early modern South Asia / Shankar Nair.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nair, Shankar, 1983- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Yogavāsiṣṭha--Translating--History.

Yogavāsiṣṭha.

Hinduism--Sacred books--Translating--History.

Hinduism.

Hinduism--Sacred books.

History.

Islam--Relations--Hinduism.

Islam.

Relations.

Hinduism--Relations--Islam.

Mughal Empire--Intellectual life.

Mughal Empire.

Intellectual life.

Interfaith relations.

India--Mughal Empire.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 259 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2020]

Summary:

"During the height of Muslim power in South Asia, Muslim nobles of the Mughal Empire (1526-1857) patronized the translation of a large body of Hindu Sanskrit texts into the Persian language, including the Upaniṣads, the Bhagavad Gītā, and numerous other works. In Translating Wisdom, Shankar Nair reconstructs the intellectual processes that underlay these translations, traversing an exceptional linguistic scope including Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian materials. Using the 1597 Persian rendition of the Sanskrit Yoga Vāsiṣṭha as a case study, Nair traces the intellectual exchanges by which teams of Muslim and Hindu translators, working collaboratively and drawing upon their respective religio-philosophical traditions, crafted a novel lexicon with which to express Hindu philosophical wisdom in an Islamic Persian idiom. How did these translators find a vocabulary through which to convey Hindu, Sanskrit articulations of God, conceptions of salvation and the afterlife, Hindu ritual notions, etc., in Islamic Persian terms? How did these two communities of scholars devise a shared language with which to communicate and to render one another's religious and philosophical views mutually comprehensible? Translating Wisdom illustrates how these early modern Muslim and Hindu scholars found the words and the means to put their traditions into conversation with one another, achieving a nuanced inter-religious and cross-philosophical dialogue significant not only to South Asia's past, but also its present"-- Provided by publisher.

"During the height of Muslim power in South Asia, Muslim nobles of the Mughal Empire (1526-1857) patronized the translation of a large body of Hindu Sanskrit texts into the Persian language, including the Upani�sads, the Bhagavad G�it�a, and numerous other works. In Translating Wisdom, Shankar Nair reconstructs the intellectual processes that underlay these translations, traversing an exceptional linguistic scope including Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian materials. Using the 1597 Persian rendition of the Sanskrit Yoga V�asi�s�tha as a case study, Nair traces the intellectual exchanges by which teams of Muslim and Hindu translators, working collaboratively and drawing upon their respective religio-philosophical traditions, crafted a novel lexicon with which to express Hindu philosophical wisdom in an Islamic Persian idiom. How did these translators find a vocabulary through which to convey Hindu, Sanskrit articulations of God, conceptions of salvation and the afterlife, Hindu ritual notions, etc., in Islamic Persian terms? How did these two communities of scholars devise a shared language with which to communicate and to render one another's religious and philosophical views mutually comprehensible? Translating Wisdom illustrates how these early modern Muslim and Hindu scholars found the words and the means to put their traditions into conversation with one another, achieving a nuanced inter-religious and cross-philosophical dialogue significant not only to South Asia's past, but also its present"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The Laghu-Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha and its Persian translation

Madhusūdana Sarasvatī and the Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha

Muḥibb Allāh Ilāhābādī and an Islamic framework for religious diversity

Mīr Findiriskī and the Jūg Bāsisht

A confluence of traditions: the Jūg Bāsisht revisited

Conclusion: from history to theory? Possibilities for the academic study of religion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license. To view a copy of the license, visit. http://creativecommons.org/licenses.

Other Format:

Online version: Nair, Shankar, 1983- Translating wisdom

ISBN:

9780520345683

0520345681

OCLC:

1119062068

Publisher Number:

99984752920