Persian MS 340 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)
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Summary of Contents: A complete copy of the Sirr-i-Akbar, Tarjumah-'i Upnakhat (The Greatest Secret translated from the Upanishads), also known as the Sirr-i Asrār (Secret of Secrets), by Prince Dārā Shikūh (1615–1659), eldest son and intended successor of the Mughal ruler Shāhjahān I (b. 1592–1666 r. 1628–58), but then ultimately defeated and executed by his younger brother ‘Awrangzīb, whom would later rule as ‘Alāmgīr I (b. 1618, r. 1658–1707). A Persian translation of fifty Sanskrit Upanishads of the Four Vedas, Dārā completed the work with the help of Hindu pandits in Benares (Varanasi) over the course of six months and finished it on 26 Ramaz̤ān 1067 AH (8 Jul. 1657 CE). A scribe named Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ‘Azīm copied this manuscript from one collated by the Anand Rām Mukhliṣ (ca. 1699–1571) held in the royal library of the Nawwāb in Lucknow, at the behest of British orientalist, linguist, and the first translator of Upanishads into a Western language from Sanskrit, Sir William Jones (d. 1794). While undated, Jones notes that he received it on 3 May 1785, probably in Calcutta.Author and Translator: Dārā Shikūh, Prince, son of Shahjahan, Emperor of India, 1615–1659
دارا شکوهPatron, Former owner, Inscriber and Glossator: Sir William Jones, 1746–1794Title: Sirr-i Akbar
سر اکبرTitle: Sirr-i Asrār
سر اسرارRubric: برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): ربی یسر و تمام بالخیرIncipit: (beginning) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): حمد ذاتی را که لفظه بای بسم الله در جمیع سماوی از اسرار قدم او والم ذلک الکتاب که در قران محید است اشاره باسم اعظماوست و جمیع ملایکهو کتب سماوی و انبا و اولیا مندرج درین اسمست و صلی الله علیه و سلام علی خیر خلقه محمد و آله واصحابه اجمعین. ما بعد چون فقیر بی اندوه محمد دارا شكوه در سنه یکهزار و پنجاه و یک هجری که بکشمیر...Explicit: برگ ۳۲۶ر (folio 329a): ...بهستی خقیقی رسده رستگار جاودید کردندColophon: برگ ۳۲۶ر (folio 329a): تمت الکتاب بعون الملک العزیز الوهاب فی علم التوحید و التصوّف المسمی سر اکبر بید احقر الاضعف العباد الراجی الی رحمت الله الکریم حافظ محمد عظیم فی بلدة لکنو علی سبیل التعجیل و العجلة. تمام شدColophon: Completed by Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ‘Aẓīm in Lucknow.Language(s): PersianWhile the scribe does not indicate the exact date of completion, a note by the colophon in Jones' hand states that he received it from Antoine Polier (1741–1795) on 3 May 1785 CE. Translated into Latin by Antuqueil Duperron in 1801–1802 and critical editions published in 1957 and 1961 by Chand and Na'īnī. For analyses of the text, see Chand, Hasrat, D’Onofrio, and Gandhi. Translated into Latin by Antuqueil Duperron in 1801–1802. For two copies of a chronicle composed by the same author that recounts the lives of various saints and holy men, see Rylands Persian MS 164 and 193. For other volumes that Jones formerly owned now held in the Rylands, see Persian MS 10, Persian MS 133, 187, 192, 219, 240, and 265.
Physical Description
Form: codexSupport: Textblock of straight and cross-grained, externally sized and polished, ivoury-coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent, with ~8 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.Extent: 330 folios, 18 flyleaves (ff. ix + 329 + ix).Dimensions (leaf): 223 × 192 mm.Dimensions (written): 174 × 114 mm.Foliation: Pencilled Arabic numerals added to the upper-left corners of the a sides when catalogued, which omit 117, hence under by one.Collation
Undetermined, probably quaternions throughout. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.Condition
Text in good condition.Layout
Written in 1 column with 15 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.
Hand(s)
Copied in clear black nasta‘līq script with red subheaders by Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ‘Azīm.
Additions:
Marginalia: Copious notes throughout in the hand of Sir William Jones.
Inscriptions:- The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) signed:
‘S. H. Lewin, 1831
Bot at the sale of
Lady Jones's books’ by former owner Samuel Hawtayne Lewin, who adds:
‘Sir W.m Jones mentions this MS. in Works 8.vo Ed.n Vol. 13 p. 366
and gives Extracts—’.
Another inscribed in Jones' hand serves as a half-title: ‘The Upanishad or Chapters or the Véda, on the Being and Attributes of GOD translated by the Prince Dárá Shucúh, Y.H. 1067 Y.C. 1656 compared with the original. W. Jones.’ - Folio 329a, by the colophon, bears three dated notes in Sir William Jones's hand:
‘Negligently Ccollated amd corrected by Rájá Anandrám,
a learned Pandit, agent for the Minster
of the Vazeír 'Asafuddaulah, at Lac'hnaú,
whence it was sent by Col. Polier,
and recevied by me at Ra∫sapaágla,
3 May
1785’
A second note underneath adds: ‘Góverdhana informs me that He
Po∫se∫es the Sanscrĭt Original
of Ten of this work, called Upanishads
21 Dec. 1786 ’
adding ‘So do I
and more 1793’
In miniscule pencile, Samuel Hawtayne Lewin adds:
‘See Sir W. Jones Works
Vol. 13th 8.vop. 366’.
Binding
Probably rebound in Britain, possibly for subsequent owner Samuel Hawtayne Lewin.
Sewn on three raise cords, with endpapers of British-made laid paper with ~8 laid lines per cm and ~28 mm between chain lines, applied over the right flyleaves that commence the volume, but added as a folio surrrounding the left flyleaves, evidently to reattach them after becoming loose. Laced into pasteboards, edges trimmed and coloured bright yellow, with single-core decorative front-bead endbands sewn at head and tail. Boards covered in full reverse calfskin leather.
Twisted impressions by the spine bands reflect the binder tying up the volume in a lying press, not hand-tooling. The second panel down bears the title ‘UPANISHAD’ paletted in gold.
232 × 204 × 50 mm.
Handle binding with caution. In fair, but stable condition, with abrasion to the exterior, bumped lower corners, and broken tailcap.
History
Origin: Completed for Sir William Jones in Lucknow; undated, but before 3 May 1785 CE, when Jones, in a note by the colophon on 329a, states that he received the volume from his friend Antoine Polier (1741–1795).Provenance and Acquisition
After Jones death, his wife Lady Anna Maria Jones (1748–1829) inherited the volume, then after her death, the London firm of R. H. Evans (1778–1857) sold it on 20 May 1831 (lot 436), to bookseller John George Cochrane (1781–1852), who likely acted as an agent on behalf of Chancery Court Clerk and Royal Asiatic Society member Samuel Hawtayne Lewin (1795–1840), for whom he evidently also obtained other ex-Jones volumes (e.g. Rylands Persian MS 187 and 240; see Lawrence, 'Building a Library', pp. 34, 70, Appendix 3).
After Lewin's death, his family evidently sold his manuscripts, largely then obtained by scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) for his library at Randalls Park, Leatherhead.
After Bland's death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in June, 1866, paid in two instalments of £450 and £400, and then moved to Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan.
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).
Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library.
Record Sources
Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript handlist by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s and his Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.
Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2023 with reference to the volume in hand.
Availability
To book an in-person or online appointment to consult the manuscript, visit Using the Special Collections Reading Rooms. For any other enquiries please email uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk.
Digital Images
Manchester Digital Collections (full digital facsimile)
Bibliography
Supriya Gandhi, The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020), pp. 204–213.J. Lawrence, 'Building a Library: The Arabic and Persian Manuscript Collection of Sir William Jones', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan. 2021): pp. 1–70.D. N. Marshall, Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1962), p. 127, no. 402(viii).S. D’Onofrio, 'A Persian commentary to the Upaniṣads: Dārā Šikōh’s «Sirr-i akbar»'. Muslim Cultures in the Indo-Iranian World during the Early-Modern and Modern Periods, edited by F. Speziale and D. Hermann (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2020), pp. 533–564.E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), cols. 817–818, nos. 1329–1331 [Bodleian Ouseley 368 &c.].Muḥammad Dārā Shikūh ibn Shāh Jahān, Ūpānīshād: Sirr-i-Akbar (Sirr-ul-Asrar): The oldest translation of the Upanishads from Sanskrit into Persian. Edited by T. Chand and M. R. Jalālī Nāʼīnī. Tehran: Taban, 1340 SH (1961 CE).Muḥammad Dārā Shikūh ibn Shāh Jahān, Oupnek’hat (id est, Secretum tegendum). opus ipsa in India rarissimum, continens antiquam et arcanam, seu theologicam et philosophicam, doctrinam … ad verbum, e persico idiomate, samskreticis vocabulis intermixto, in latinum conversum, dissertationibus illustratum. studio et opera Anquetil Duperron. (2 Vols) Strasbourg, Typis et impensis Fratrum Levrault, Argentorati, 1801–1802.S. H. Qāsimī, A Descriptive Catalogue of Persian Translations of Indian Works (New Delhi: National Mission for Manuscripts: 2014, pp. 111–112, nos. 1305–1325.C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 54–55 [British Library Add. 5616, &c.].C. A. Storey [Online] (2021), Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. IV, Pt. 8 Translations from Sanskrit, Hindi, and other Indian Languages no. 797.Funding of Cataloguing
Iran Heritage Foundation
The John Rylands Research Institute
The Persian Heritage Foundation
The Soudavar Memorial Foundation
- The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) signed:
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