Not 'Om', But 'Bismillah': This 300-Year-Old Ramayana Doesn't Begin Like The Others

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Rampur's Raza Library holds a unique Persian Ramayana, translated in 1713 under Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar, blending Hindu and Islamic traditions with Mughal miniatures
In the quiet halls of Rampur's historic Raza Library, a remarkable manuscript has been silently defying time – and expectations. It's the Ramayana, but unlike any you've heard before. Instead of the familiar invocations of Lord Ganesha or Sanskrit shlokas, this ancient epic opens with the Islamic phrase 'Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim' (In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful)."
This is no accident, but a deliberate act of cultural synthesis dating back over three centuries. Preserved with care since 1713, the Persian Ramayana was translated under the patronage of Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar. The task of rendering Valmiki's Sanskrit verses into Persian was undertaken by Sumer Chand, a scholar whose name now quietly bridges two great traditions, Hindu and Islamic.
What makes this manuscript even more exceptional is its visual splendour. Each of its 258 pages is adorned with vivid Mughal miniature paintings, turning the story into a gallery of devotion and drama. Lord Rama's exile, Sita's abduction, Hanuman's leap across the ocean, each iconic moment is rendered in brush and colour with painstaking detail. One striking image shows Ravana with a donkey drawn atop his crown, a symbolic nod to his sin of abducting Sita.
Dr Pushkar Mishra, Director of the Raza Library, calls the manuscript 'a monument of shared heritage". 'It's not just the language that's unusual. The very spirit of this Ramayana lies in its fusion of faiths, where reverence transcends religious lines," he added.
In recent years, efforts have been made to make this cultural gem accessible to a wider audience. A Hindi translation was undertaken by Professor Shah Abdussalman and Dr Waqarul Hasan Siddiqui, aiming to ensure that the Ramayana's essence is not lost in linguistic barriers. Their work has opened this once esoteric text to the common reader, while preserving its original intent – a literary offering of devotion and artistry.
First Published:
June 19, 2025, 20:34 IST

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I use India in the title and throughout most of the book, until the last couple of chapters, in its historic sense of the subcontinent. It is a geographical designation, and it very much includes Bangladesh, Pakistan, and southern parts of Afghanistan. I realise that is going to be a little uncomfortable for a lot of readers who are really used to India being the modern nation state with militarised borders, an army, and a set of nationalist symbols. The second way in which I address nationalism—and I think this will be particularly important for younger readers, under the age of about 30 or 35—is by giving a fair amount of the history of Hindu nationalism. I think Hindu nationalists do not like talking about their own history. There are some dark parts of that history, the Nazi loving stuff, the fascist stuff, the fact that it is largely a European import, and the fact that it was unpopular for most of its existence. Forty years ago, no respectable Indian would touch Hindu nationalism. I think that is very hard to understand if you are 30 years old and living in Hyderabad or Bombay or Delhi or Ahmedabad or wherever, and Hindutva is what you know. My book charts that history, among many other facets of Indian and South Asian histories. Adrija Roychowdhury leads the research section at She writes long features on history, culture and politics. She uses a unique form of journalism to make academic research available and appealing to a wide audience. She has mastered skills of archival research, conducting interviews with historians and social scientists, oral history interviews and secondary research. During her free time she loves to read, especially historical fiction. ... Read More