A Study of Indian Words in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh

Ferdowsi was an outstanding orator, a messenger of freedom, not one with a sense and spirit to please the rulers of the time, nor a poet laureate composing his poems upon orders of rulers', neither affiliated to any court. This national poet was the creator of the central and basic locus of stories, as well as the founder of national palace of poetic language and philosophic rhetoric. What makes Ferdowsi outstanding among other poets, is his role in dissemination of vitalizing the beam of nationalism within the frameworks of conventional principles and hereditary traditions. Indeed, The Shahnameh is a masterpiece, whose poet has elegantly mixed many sayings with various profound subjects such as method of statesmanship, military organization, freedom, nobility, love of Iran, knowledge of Iran, philosophic and mystic ideas, profound and wonderful thoughts, and ways for living. To know more about the culture, knowledge, overflowing sources of thought and feeling, and mental interests of Iranian people, one must know the Shahnameh and study it deeply. In this article, we are going to discuss the relations between Iran and India, based on a new research on Indian words that the great Ferdosi has used in his grand epic.