<i>Dharmaśāstra</i>in Aurangzeb’s India: A Persian Translation of the<i>Yājñavalkya Smṛti</i>and<i>Mitākṣarā</i>

Abstract This article explores the use of dharmaśāstra in Mughal India through case a little-known seventeenth-century Persian translation text entitled Aḥkām-i awāmir wa nawāhī-yi mazhab-i hunūd (Legal rulings on commanding [right] and forbidding [wrong] legal school Hindus). The work, apparently completed 1658 by Kāyastha named Lāl Bihārī Bhojpurī, is Yājñavalkya Smṛti together with Mitākṣarā includes lavish praise Aurangzeb ʿĀlamgīr (d. 1707). I investigate broader context which Aḥkām was produced argue that this work represents an effort to delineate boundaries separate space for Hindus from standpoint munshī committed Persianate culture ethos imperial service. translations later came play role British colonial efforts codify Hindu law administration justice. prior engagements language are suggestive more complex background such enterprises than modern scholarship has hitherto identified.