“Shared Epic Worlds: The Shahnameh, the Mahabharata, and the Indo-Persian Imagination,” currently on view at Sunder Nursery, is not simply an exhibition about two great epics. It is about movement—of stories, manuscripts, images, languages, and ideas across centuries of interaction between Iran and India. Against the backdrop of current geopolitical tensions, the Iran Culture House and the Noor International Microfilm Centre, in collaboration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, organised the exhibition. It offers a compelling reminder that civilisations are rarely self-contained. They emerge through dialogue, translation, adaptation, and exchange.
The eighteen panels in the exhibition, held in Sunder Nursery‘s public area, present an ambitious intellectual proposition in a succinct form. The central theme is that the Indian Mahabharata and the Persian Shahnameh are not only distinct literary works but components of a broader, interwoven cultural imagination developed throughout the Indo-Iranian civilisation. The exhibition shows how epic traditions preserved collective memory and promoted cross-cultural interactions through manuscript reproductions, artworks, historical narratives, and comparative readings.
The Shahnameh of Abul-Qasim Ferdowsi, a massive Persian epic written around the turn of the eleventh century, is arguably the exhibition’s greatest draw. The composition, comprising around 60,000 couplets, holds a place in Iranian tradition similar to the Mahabharata in India. It has a legacy and significance comparable to India’s Mahabharata, a vast collection of mythology, history, morality, kingship, and national memory. However, the show emphasises these epics’ interconnections rather than portraying them as standalone accomplishments. The story focuses more on cultural translation than literary comparison.
The exhibition’s best sections focus on the Razmnama, the Mughal Persian translation of the Mahabharata. The material describes how Sanskrit scholars, Persian intellectuals, Jain thinkers, and court historians worked together at the Maktab Khana, or House of Translation, under the patronage of the Mughal emperor Akbar. The exhibition’s larger thesis—that cultural knowledge advances through collaboration rather than separation—is embodied in an illustrated folio showing Muslim and Hindu experts working on translations. Reminding audiences that translation was not just linguistic but also civilisational, the image serves as a visual manifesto for intellectual interaction.
Similarities between myths and heroes from the two faiths are used throughout the show to offer an approachable framework for understanding deeper historical ties. Perhaps the most remarkable case is Rustam and Arjuna. Both play pivotal roles in their epic realms, are warriors with moral obligations, and face significant personal trauma. The exhibition contrasts Arjuna’s involvement in a catastrophic war against his own family with Rustam’s unintentional killing of his son Sohrab. These stories share concerns about responsibility, fate, kinship, and ethical conflict despite their distinct cultural contexts.
Crucially, the exhibition refrains from reducing these similarities to crude analogies. Instead, it shows how comparative reading preserves cultural individuality while illuminating common human worries. The panel on life-restoring treatments demonstrates this strategy. Babruvahana’s successful hunt for Sanjivani to resuscitate Arjuna is juxtaposed with Rustam’s frantic search for Nush-Daru after fatally wounding Sohrab. Although healing and familial ties are central to both tales, their outcomes differ—one sad, the other redemptive. These comparisons highlight the unique moral universes each epic tradition inhabits and their commonalities.
When the show delves further into mythological systems beyond narrative comparison, it is especially powerful. One instructive example is the pairing of Simurgh and Garuda. According to Iranian folklore, the Simurgh helps the remarkable birth of Rustam after nurturing the abandoned Zal. According to Indian tradition, Garuda uses bravery and divine resolve to free his mother. Despite geographic and religious differences, both characters serve as intermediaries between cosmic power and earthly reality. The analogy alludes to the common Indo-Iranian mythology that existed before later cultural and theological divisions.
The panel discussing Yama and Jamshid emphasises this broader historical perspective. Here, the varied evolution of a common Indo-Iranian mythological figure is traced. In Iranian stories, Jamshid appears as an ideal king connected to wealth, civilisation, and rebirth, whereas Yama in Vedic tradition becomes the ruler of the hereafter. The exhibition places the Shahnameh and the Mahabharata within a much older continuity of cultural memory by emphasising such linguistic and mythical correspondences.
An additional layer of richness comes from the visual content. Reproductions from well-known Persian manuscripts show the intricacy of manuscript painting traditions. Kingship is depicted as a picture of a civilised society in the folio illustrating “The Court of Jamshid.” Around the enthroned sovereign, artisans create material culture by weaving fabrics and forging metal. The picture serves as a political allegory, showing the connection among social structure, wealth, and authority.
“The Ship of Salvation” from the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp shows how manuscript painting combines religious symbolism with epic text. The glowing ship transporting holy figures across a turbulent ocean symbolises spiritual guidance amid uncertainty in this life. By including such pieces, the exhibition shows how epic narratives were continuously reworked through visual culture, beyond literary comparison.
The exhibition’s focus on Mughal interpretations of Persian epic traditions is especially intriguing. The Jahangiri Shahnameh section shows how Persian literature permeated the Mughal court’s artistic life. The hybrid visual culture that flourished in early modern South Asia is embodied in the manuscript’s illustrations, created by Hindu and Muslim artists collaborating. Similarly, the panel tracing ownership markings of Babur, Humayun, and Shah Jahan on a Shahnameh manuscript turns a single book into a record of imperial history. These resources show that Persian literary culture was incorporated into South Asian intellectual and artistic life rather than brought to India as a foreign influence. All ownership is further complicated by the exhibition’s inclusion of a Ramayana folio depicting Ravana’s court. Here, Persianate artistic conventions are used to depict Indian epic themes. Safavid divs are reminiscent of demonic entities, and Persian decorative traditions are evoked by architectural elements. The picture shows that artistic interaction was a dynamic, reciprocal occurrence rather than a one-way one.
The exhibition’s allusions to other means of cultural transmission beyond literature are equally important. The panel on Chogan, or polo, shows how an ancient Iranian horse sport spread over decades and regions, ultimately influencing contemporary polo. Meanwhile, the tale of Borzuya and Kalila wa Dimna reminds us of the significance of cultural exchange between India and Iran. The exhibition’s recurrent theme—that knowledge travels—is symbolised by Borzuya’s quest for wisdom. stands out for not treating cultural history as a tale of discrete national customs. Rather, it portrays the Indo-Iranian world as an arena of interaction in which artists transcended aesthetic norms, translators transcended linguistic barriers, and manuscripts transcended national boundaries. The exhibition presents a compelling alternative vision—one in which cultural traditions are enhanced rather than diminished by exchange—in a modern era frequently dominated by inflexible narratives of identity and legacy.
Although the show is small, its significance is wide-ranging. “Shared Epic Worlds” shows how closely related the histories of Iran and India are by combining the Shahnameh, the Mahabharata, Mughal translations, Persian manuscripts, and comparative mythology. It is more than an exhibition about two epics; it reflects on shared memory itself—the ways stories endure, move, change, and continue to influence collective imagination across time and geographical boundaries.
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