Examine the status of Sanskrit in Mughal India.

Answer:

Although Persian was the official language of the Mughal empire, Sanskrit retained a vigorous life as the language of learning, ritual and regional court culture, and it enjoyed a remarkable degree of imperial patronage, especially under Akbar and Dara Shikoh.

Continued vitality

• Sanskrit remained the vehicle of philosophy, law, astronomy, medicine and grammar.
• Brahmanical learning continued at Banaras, Mithila and Navadvipa.
• Jain and Hindu scholars produced substantial new Sanskrit works throughout the period.
• Regional and Rajput courts patronised Sanskrit poets and pandits.

Mughal patronage and interaction

• Akbar maintained Sanskrit scholars and had the Mahabharata and Ramayana rendered into Persian.
• Sanskrit pandits worked with Persian scholars in the maktab khana.
• Dara Shikoh translated the Upanishads as the Sirr-i-Akbar, seeking a common ground of faiths.
• Sanskrit texts on music and astronomy were absorbed into Mughal courtly knowledge.
• Some Sanskrit works were even composed in praise of Mughal rulers.

Limits and change

• Persian's role as the language of administration and advancement restricted Sanskrit's public use.
• The vernaculars, Braj, Awadhi and Bengali, increasingly took over creative literature.
• Sanskrit therefore became more the language of scholarship than of living letters.

Sanskrit in Mughal India thus retained high prestige and considerable creative energy, sustained both by traditional centres and by imperial curiosity. As scholars like Sheldon Pollock note, this was nonetheless a period of gradual retreat, as Persian took the public sphere and the vernaculars captured the literary imagination.