The Shikshapatri (Devanagari: शिक्षापत्री) is a text of two hundred and twelve verses, written in Sanskrit by Bhagwan Swaminarayan. The Shikshapatri is a key scripture to all followers of the Swaminarayan faith and is considered the basis of the faith.

The Shikshapatri was written in Vadtal on February 11 1826. It is a dharma text, providing detailed instructions on how to live.

Languages

Swaminarayan later instructed Nityanand Swami to translate Shikshapatri from Sanskrit into Gujarati. It has since been translated numerous times into other languages. It has been translated to Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Udiya, Urdu, Vraj, Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Modern Hebrew, North Sotho, Portuguese, Russian, South Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Xhosa, and Zulu,

Governor Sir John Malcolm

On February 26 1830 an historic meeting took place between Swaminarayan and Sir John Malcolm, the then Governor of Bombay. At this meeting, Swaminarayan presented a Shikshapatri to Sir John Malcolm. This copy is now housed at the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford.

Notes

External links

• An English translation of the Shikshapatri with further analysis - Swaminarayan Sampraday
• English version of the Shikshapatri with images
• BAPS - Pictorial Shikshapatri for Children
• Digital Shikshapatri Provides a wide variety of online resources which set the Shikshapatri in its historical, cultural and religious context - The oldest copy of the Shikshapatri in the world today is shown, in digital form.