Mythical and Historical Time in the Author Portraits of the Persian Puranic Translator Anandghan ‘Khwush’ (fl. 1790–1795)

Abstract

Between the years 1790 and 1795, the Persian-­educated Brahmin Anandghan ‘Khwush’ translated the Kāśīkhaṇḍa, Gayāmāhātmya, and Adhyātmarāmāyaṇa from Sanskrit into Persian. In addition to these translations, Khwush also composed a Persian mas̠navī in two volumes and produced a dīvān, i.e., a collection of his poetry. All of these manuscripts—­fifteen in total, currently held at the British Library—­include a frontispiece illustration, and at least seven of them portray Khwush himself in various mythical settings. In this article, I examine the author portraits of Anandghan Khwush as paratexts and thus focus on their relationship to the texts they accompany. These portraits, as I show, transport the author to a mythical time and place to offer a fuller image of his persona, not only as a translator but also as a Vaiṣṇava devotee. Furthermore, these author portraits present Khwush as an eyewitness to central mythical events, and thus serve to establish his status as a reliable translator and enhance the authoritativeness of his vision of the past. Anandghan Khwush’s author portraits, I argue, offer a distinct understanding of which moments are worthy of visual commemoration, as well as a unique sense of the relationship between past and present.