The Adyar Library and Re-search Centre situated in the sylvan gardens of the Theosophical Society in Adyar is a well-known repository of rare books and manuscripts. Few know that this library, founded in 1886 by Col. Olcott, also has a long list of its own publications, including a pamphlet series.

One among these pamphlets is a very interesting one titled ‘A Sanskrit Letter of Mohamed Dara Shukoh’ and published in 1943. Interesting, indeed, for it is a letter in Sanskrit written by a Muslim prince of the 17th Century. He was the favourite of his father, the Mughal ruler, and chosen heir-apparent, but destined not to become the next Emperor.

Dara Shukoh, also spelt Dara Shikoh (1615-1659 A.D.), was the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal monarch Shah Jahan. He was an erudite scholar and a strong advocate of the harmonious co existence of the different traditions in India at that time and held liberal religious views. Fond of painting, architecture and the performing arts, Dara  was defeated by his younger brother, Prince Muhi­uddin (later Emperor Aurang­zeb), and subsequently put to death.

This letter by Prince Dara Shukoh was addressed to Goswami Nrisimha Saraswati, a great scholar and saint and identified with Brahmendra Saraswati, a resident of Benares and a contemporary of Shah Jahan. In a way, it is more of an address than a letter, praising this great personage.

The introduction to this pamphlet, penned by Prof. C. Kunhan Raja, a Sanskrit scholar, prolific writer and ­curator of the Adyar Library for several years, mentions that the manuscript of this letter was deposited in the Adyar Library and mentioned in the Library catalogue of 1928. It was first published in three instalments in Brahmavidya, the Bulletin of the Adyar Library and later issued as a separate pamphlet “in the belief that having regard to the position held by the author of the letter in the field of ­Sanskrit learning during the Mughul period, this publication will be of great interest to the  students of Sanskrit literature.”

A copy of this letter is also in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal and the India Office Library in the U.K.

This manuscript is dated 1805 Samvat (1748 A.D.), but this, as Dr. Kunhan Raja states, cannot be the correct date of the letter since Dara Shukoh died almost a century earlier. It is either the date of the transcription of this manuscript or else the date should have actually been 1705 Samvat (1648 A.D.) when Dara Shukoh was alive.

About this letter, Kunhan Raja says, “If Dara Shukoh had the command of Sanskrit to draft such an address, then certainly his equipment must have been of a very high order; and there is no reason to believe that he had it drafted by someone else.”

This rare manuscript (picture above) in the Adyar ­Library and Research Centre is just one of the many precious possessions in its priceless ­collection.