Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/68

 The Religion of the Veda present we may content ourselves with some facts in the literary history of these extraordinary composi tions. As regards their date we can say at least this much, that the older Upanishads antedate Buddha and Buddhism. The production of after-born Upan- ishads continued, however, many centuries after Buddhism, into very modern times. Next to the Rig-Veda the Upanishads are decidedly the most important literary document of early India. For the history of religion they are even more important. In the year 1656 the Mogul (Mussalman) Prince Mohammed Dara Shukoh invited several Hindu Pandits from Benares to Delhi, and induced them to translate the Upanishads into Persian. Därä Shukoh was the oldest son of that Mogul Emperor Shah Jehān, who built at Agra, as a mausoleum for his favourite Sultana, the Taj Mahal, perhaps the most beautiful edifice on earth. He was afterwards de- posed from the throne by another son of his, the bloody and powerful Emperor Aurengzeb. Därä Shukoh was a man of another sort. He was the spiritual follower of the famous liberal Emperor Akbar, and wrote a book intended to reconcile the religious doctrines of the Hindus and Mohammedans. Hence his extraordinary desire to spread the know- ledge of infidel writings. Three years after the accomplishment of the Upanishad translation he was 52