The Razmnma, authorized by Mughal Emperor Akbar, is a Persian version of the Hindu literary tradition Mahabharata. In 1574, Akbar established a Maktab Khana, or institution of translation services, in Fatehpur Sikri, his new city. He delegated the task of translating the Sanskrit works Rajatarangini, Ramayana, and Mahabharata into Persian, the Mughal court's literary dialect, to a few bureaucrats.

The meaning of Akbar's court translations was revealed by Hindu experts, and a first draught was written in Persian by Muslim theologian Naqib Khan, which was then expanded upon by Faizi into graceful prose or verse. 'Razm' signifies 'war' in Persian, while 'nama' signifies 'narrative,' 'history,' or 'epic'; hence, Razmnamah signifies 'war tale.'

One complete Mughal manuscript, made between 1584 and 1586 and now in Jaipur, contains 176 works of art, 147 of which were replicated by Thomas Holbein Hendley in 1884. The ultimate five parts of another, created between 1598 and 1599 and divided up in 1921, make up British Library, MS Or. 12076, with additional pages scattered across North America, Europe, and India. A 3rd manuscript, recognized as the Birla manuscript, dates from 1605 and is kept at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata. A fourth was made around 1616–1617, from which only two or three miniatures have been observed.