Indian tradition

Ramesh Krishnamurthy

Duarte Silva - Elena Larred

Index

1. Introduction
2. The ancient period (c.2500-800 BC)
3. The pre-classical period (c.800 BC-AD 100)
4. The classical period (c.100-1000)
5. The medieval period (c.1000-1750)
6. The European period (c.1750-1947)
7. The modern period (1947-present)
8. Conclusion
9. Bibliography

Introduction

• Indo-European → Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, Nepali
• Dravidian languages → Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam
• Others → Austric, Tibeto-Burman, Dardic
• Oral tradition, climatic conditions, pests and human agency → limited material

SRI LANKA

BANGLADESH

The ancient period (c.2500-800 BC)

• Interlanguage communication → trade
• The oldest linguistic evidence → Indus Valley → seals
• Dated from 2500 to 1500 BC
• 2000 years after → no material linguistic evidence → Aryans
• Nomadic herders

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The ancient period (c.2500-800 BC)

• Aryans → Sanskrit
• Rigveda → “hymns of wisdom”
• Notes found in late medieval times
• No translations until 19th century

The pre-classical period

(c.800 BC-AD 100)

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• As the Aryans spread out:

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• Sanskrit began to fragment into dialectal or regional forms known as Prakrits

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• A scientific attitude became evident in their culture (Sanskrit texts composed on law, astronomy, etymology, prosody, grammar)

• Contact with Persians, Greeks, etc. → translation of names of places and rulers; cultural interchange

The pre-classical period (c.800 BC-AD 100)

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• Scribes → low rank (earning 500 panas, whereas the highest rank - high priests/military commanders - would earn 48,000 panas)

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• Buddhism and Jainism propagated vernacular languages → accessible to the masses
• Emperor Ashoka → pillars with edicts in the local languages → require some translation-type activities from scribes
• From Prakrits to Sanskrit as well

they may not be, strictly speaking, translations → but parallel texts with a common source

The classical period (c.100-1000)

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The Hindu Epics

• The Mahabharata (c.300 BC to AD 300)
• The Ramayana (c.200 BC to AD 200)
• Sanskrit versions translated from Prakrit

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• Greek influence → not proven
• Allowed characters who were not kings or Hindu priests to speak in Prakrit in Sanskrit plays

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• Animal fables' collection: the Pancatantra or “Five Treatises”
• 6th century → Sanskrit into Pahlavi
• 1750 → The Morall Philosophie of Doni

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Fable

Drama

Epic

The classical period (c.100-1000)

Medical texts

• Sanskrit treatises → Pali, Bengali and Nepali
• Caliph Al-Mansour → translation bureau
• Translations of Sanskrit texts

Caliph Al-Mansour (c.710-775)

The classical period (c.100-1000)

• Literature → not religious
• Prakrit and Sanskrit replaced by Tamil
• Tamil literature → Jain influences or Sanskrit style (Manimekalai)
• Bhakti movement → oral instruction in Tamil
• Sanskrit works → Telugu

• Mahayana vs. Hinayana
• University of Nalanda → training translators
• Kumarajiva → Life of Nagarjuna into Chinese
• Nalanda scholars’ works → Tibetan

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Southern India and the Dravidian Languages

Later Buddhism

The medieval period

(c.1000-1750)

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• Islamic sultanate
• Persian was used at court
• Vernacular languages flourished
• 1291 → Bhagavad Gita in Marathi
• 1357 → translation of Sanskrit texts on Hinduism to Persian and Arabic
• Telugu and Tamil versions of the Puranas
• 16th century → Bhagavata Purana in Kannada

Krishna (blue) and Arjuna

The medieval period

(c.1000-1750)

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• Moghul/Mughal Empire
• Hindus, Jains, Portuguese Christians and Zoroastrians as advisers
• Religion → 50 Upanishads translated into Persian between 1640-57
• Science → translation into Sanskrit of classical Greek texts on mathematics, recent European and Arabic works on trigonometry and astronomy

5th Mughal Emperor

Shah Jahan (1592-1666)

The European period (c.1750-1947)

• 1600 → British East India Company
• Indian scholars reluctant to teach Sanskrit
• Sir William Jones → translated the play Sakuntala by Kalidasa in 1789
• Change in the flow of translation → from European to Indian languages
• 18th century → Christian teachings' translation
• William Carrey → translation of the Bible into Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese and Sanskrit

Sir William Jones (1746-1794)

The European period (c.1750-1947)

• Charter Act → promote literature and knowledge
• English → official state language
• Writing in local languages → Ram Mohan Roy
• Ramakrishna Mission → published Hindu texts in Sanskrit with English glosses
• Production of translations → Royal Asiatic Society, Pali Text Society…
• Independence Movement → linguistic activity in local languages and English
• Rabrindanath Tagore → Nobel Prize of Literature (1913) for English ver. Gitanjali

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The modern period

(1947-present)

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• Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi → important intermediaries in the translation process
• Translation of religious texts still flourishes
• Penguin → Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Rigveda
• Tibetan spiritual leaders in exile
• Indian publishing houses → old translations; pedagogic commentaries

The modern period

(1947-present)

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• Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies → training programme

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• “Translation and Translation Studies hitherto have remained a marginalised affair”

• Centre for Literary Translation; Indian Scientific Translators Association

Conclusion

• Translation and religion are tightly connected in India’s history of translation
• India’s linguistic variety → conditions for the development of translation activities
• Cultural interchange between civilizations and religions → need for translators

Bibliography

Main source: Krishnamurthy, Ramesh. (1997). Translation: The Indian Tradition. Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. Mona Baker.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/RRbS0YxzQQa88y_xkV1ADg

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/vernacular_1?q=vernacular

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/William_Jones_(philologist)

https://www.tajmahal.gov.in/maker-of-the-taj-mahal.aspx

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Late_Vedic_Culture_(1100-500_BCE).png

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