Why Was Dara Shikoh known as the prince who loves books?
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Answer:
The eldest and most beloved among Shah Jahan’s sons, he was a true scholar. Like Humayun, Dara Shikoh also had his own library. A true mystic, he spent long hours studying and discussing philosophy with saints and scholars belonging to different religions. Dara Shikoh mixed with them freely, trying to understand their ideas and concepts. He had learnt Sanskrit and studied the Hindu scriptures in the original. He had just completed translating the 52 Upanishads into Persian directly from Sanskrit and called it Sirr-e-Akbar (The Great Mystery). It came to be considered his most significant and controversial work in later years.
Dara Shikoh not only collected books but also wrote several books himself. What is even more remarkable, he knew how to value books in an age when they were rare. He also got a large number of Sanskrit classics translated into Persian by scholars. They included the Yoga Vasishta and the Bhagavad Gita.
The most important book written by Dara Shikoh, however, was Majmua-ul-Baharain. It is a comparative study of Islam and Hinduism and is a plea for the “mingling of two oceans”. In this masterly work he explained his theory and conviction that the two faiths were not contradictory because both arrived at the same truth. The book is a living example of Dara Shikoh’s breadth of mind and his liberal views on religion
Dara Shikoh’s library near the Kashmiri Gate contained invaluable tomes, both from India and abroad, especially Turkey, Greece, Egypt and Iran. Dara Shikoh’s love of learning was probably inherited from Babar and his daughter Gulbadan Begum, whose Memoirs are famous to this day. Akbar too had the best collection of books in his time.
This are the reasons why he was known as the prince who loves books,