Naheed Abidi is an Indian scholar of Sanskrit and writer. She was honoured by the Government of India, in 2014, by bestowing on her the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her contributions to the field of literature. Ahe was born on 1961, in a Muslim zamindari family at Mirzapur, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. In 2005, Abidi started working as a lecturer without any pay at Banaras Hindu University. Soon after, she joined the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith to work as a part-time lecturer on a daily wage scheme. However, the Sanskrit scholar,known as the first Muslim female to have worked as a lecturer in Sanskrit, had difficulties finding a regular job. Her first book was published in 2008 and was titled Sanskrit Sahitya Mein Rahim - which is an account of the Sanskrit leanings of the renowned poet, Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana. This was followed by Devalayasya Deepa, a translation of Chairag-e-Dair, written by poet, Mirza Ghalib. The third book was Sirr-e-Akbar, a Hindi translation of 50 Upanishads, earlier translated by the Mughal prince, Dara Shikoh into Persian. She has published a Hindi translation of Vedanta, translated into Persian by Dara Shikoh and also the Sufi texts by the prince.