Last week i had the opportunity to meet a geeta press manager, a very knowledgeable volunteer. from him i learnt about a few curious facts.
Geeta press had printed in 1943, complete Mahabharata with verse by verse translation in hindi. one can imagine the effort taken to coherantly translate 100000 verses! with a team of volunteers the feat was achieved and the set with six huge volumes was printed. until recently the price of the set was a meagre 75 rupees, which has now been revised to Rs 1350. (the volunteers behind the mammoth effort remained unnamed - only name is gita press gorakhpur.)
then with demand for a hindi-only mahabharata they printed a 2-large volume set with over thousand pages in each volume which is presently sold at a price of Rs 220.
can you imagine how much is the demand? answer from the confident official was surprising and assuring. over 2,75,000 sets have been sold sofar, and 30 reprints published.
I have finally managed to finish Ponniyan Selvan and Parthiban Kanavu (in translation) and I would recommend both, but I have to say Ponniyan Selvan is one of the best novels I ever read (on par with the Count of Monte Cristo), it's quite lengthy (2400 pages in all from what i saw on the net and divided into 5 volumes) but I never got bored and as far as I am concerned the author should have kept going, the ending I thought was abrupt and he seems to have realised this himself from the tons of readers letters he got so at the end he answered many of their question's regarding the later life of the characters thus setting the tone for a sequel (Udayar, Kaviri Mainthan have been written as sequels but i don't how good they are).
Parthiban Kanavu is also good, it's quite short (276 pgs) and fast paced, but it's nowhere near PS in my opinion, I am waiting for Sivagamiyin Sabadham to be translated (wish i could to read Tamizh now but I am too lazy and i don't even if it's possible after i am this old).
PS is set during Raja Raja Chozha's time while PK is set in Narasimhavarma Pallava's time.
The 5th volume is divided into 2 separate books and I think Macmillan publishers was the one who undertook the translation so they should be publishing it.
But if there are good libraries near u, look in them, i got mine in my uni library.
I would say read the first 2 online (even though they have been translated by a different person) and if you find it interesting, then lookup the next 3 volumes, i read the first 2 last year but have been looking for the next 3 in public library, but then stumbled upon them in my uni library.
Thanks Bharatvarsh. I just started reading and finished first 3 chapters of part 1. Simply Awesome. promises to be head and shoulders taller than the half-baked 'agenda'-driven pseudo-historical narratives like Jaya Yauddheya of Rahul Sankrityayan.
02-05-2008, 12:05 AM (This post was last modified: 02-05-2008, 03:01 AM by Bharatvarsh.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Simply Awesome. promises to be head and shoulders taller than the half-baked 'agenda'-driven pseudo-historical narratives like Jaya Yauddheya of Rahul Sankrityayan.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Kalki tries to stay close to history as much as possible, many of the characters are actually mentioned in Raja Raja's inscriptions.
Coming to Sankrityayan, he was one of the less anti Hindu commies but a commie nonetheless (obstracised by his fellow comrades for his marginal pride in Bharat's past) so i am not surprised, i haven't read his works yet.
Have you read Shivaji Sawant's Marathi classic Mrityunjaya about Karna, it's supposed to be translated into Hindi, i am planning to read it soon and want to find out if anyone has read it.
<!--QuoteBegin-Bharatvarsh+Feb 5 2008, 12:05 AM-->QUOTE(Bharatvarsh @ Feb 5 2008, 12:05 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Have you read Shivaji Sawant's Marathi classic Mrityunjaya about Karna, it's supposed to be translated into Hindi, i am planning to read it soon and want to find out if anyone has read it.
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The firm Kalpatharu Musical Chants was founded in December 2003 with the sole aim of spreading the awareness and familiarity towards the sacred Vedic chants such as Bhagavad Geeta, and Stothras on different Gods and Goddesses. The endeavor made by us is altogether a new approach, which makes the process of listening, learning and liking most pleasurable.
Some effort is on the making to design a Sanskrit learning course which is versatile, in easy regular English and suitable for different background and levels of aspirants. The learning is hoped to be faster and easier at the own pace and convenience and leisure of the learner. External guide or coaching requirement is kept to a most minimum level.
Dhiraj Kumar Nath retells an old tale of injustice</i>
<b>Book Title: Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh
Living with Vested Property</b>
Abul Barkat, S Zaman, S Khan, A Poddar, S Hoque, and Taher Uddin
Pathak Shamabesh
The title of the book is most meaningful as it relates the stories and events that actually took place to deprive the minority community of its rights and titles of property ownership. <b>A research based book, it is outstanding in nature as it provides an account, with facts and figures, of how the protective security of the minority has been ignored for years together and how the minority community has been unable to enjoy the property handed down to it from one generation to another.</b>
It is perhaps for the first time that such a book has been published, based as it is on <b>authentic findings and in-depth studies of the historical discrimination that has compelled a large number of citizens to leave the country and so leave their ancestral home and belongings behind</b>. Professor Abul Barkat and his co-authors have accurately projected the economic history, lapses in the land laws, willful negligence of the bureaucracy and greed of the politicians for property.
<b>About 1.2 million households and 6 million people belonging to the Hindu community have been directly and severely affected by the Enemy/Vested Property Act. The community has lost 2.6 million acres of its own land in addition to other moveable and immovable property. The approximate money value of such loss (US $ 55 billion) would be equivalent to 75 per cent of the GDP of Bangladesh (at 2007 prices).</b> The EPA/Vested Property Act has compelled Hindus to break family ties. Stress and strain, mental agony and a fuelling of religious fundamentalism have been the offshoot. The deprivation led to the growth of a communal mindset in what had been a historical secular climate and context.
The methodology adopted to collect information is appreciable. With primary and secondary data verified on the basis of documents relating to EPA/VPA and land survey, data from BSS and reports and journals, the work makes compelling reading. Besides, a number of eminent individuals have been interviewed to arrive at an understanding of the extent of the effect of the law on the deprived community. Sample districts taken under the study were sixteen but they covered the whole of Bangladesh in 1997-2006. <b>Assuming the 1961 population share of the Hindu population was 18.4 per cent, the absolute size of this population in 2001 would have been 22.8 million rather than the 11.4 million reported in the census. In other words, the actual current (2001) figure is half the expected size. Thus the missing Hindu population was estimated to be 50 per cent with the mass outward migration from the mid-1960s onward as an effect of the EP/VP Act </b>(elaborated in Chapter 3 of the book).Chapter 6 deals with case studies and Table 21 shows six broad categories of cases relating to loss of Hindu property
One cannot but agree with Justice Mohammad Gholam Rabbani when he observes in the foreword that the authors have done a historical job. The book, in fact, upholds the spirit of liberation and Articles 27 and 28 (1) of the Constitution. It re-emphasises the idea that "All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law."
<i>Dhiraj Kumar Nath is former advisor, caretaker government .</i>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->An insight into Kashmiri literature
By Vaidehi Nathan
<b>The Courtesan's Keeper: A Satire From Ancient Kashmir, Translated by A.N.D. Haksar</b>, Rupa & Co., pp 85, Rs 150.00
By Vaidehi Nathan
Sanskrit literature is today associated only with philosophical writings, hardly making allowances for the mundane and worse on life. So it comes as a refreshing insight that a thousand years ago, a poet in Kashmir, by name <b>Kshemendra wrote a treatise on the life of a courtesan. The work Samaya Matrika has been translated into English by A.N.D. Haksar</b>, well-known translator of Sanskrit classics. Being a courtesan was serious matter then. She has such a short span of life in which to earn for herself to last a lifetime. None of the dirt and filth associated with todayâs flesh trade. The translation of the engaging book, spanning 639 verses, gives a good commentary on the society of the time. Kshemendra, estimated to have lived between 990 and 1070 CE, has spun the story around an older woman, a past courtesan, who lives with the young one to initiate her and educate her on the manners and means of life.
Haksar gives a very comprehensive introduction to both Kshemendra and his works which helps in understanding the work. The older women, whose help the young beautiful maiden seeks to improve her life tells her who to choose for a lover, how she must go about with a single minded purpose of eking out the maximum from him and then having accomplished that how to discard him. The instructions are given in clinical precise details.
In the course of the narration one gleans details on the cloth, jewellery, eating and drinking habits of the society. Women move about freely, both within and outside Kashmir and inherit property and wealth. From the details of various Kashmiri works, 18 of Kshemendraâs works have been found. Sixteen more identified as written by him have not yet been located. Among the found work are the abridged versions of the two great Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata and a collection of Jataka stories. His subjects are varied as also his styles of writing, from satire to poetry to devotional works.
This translation no doubt is a valuable addition to the series of work done by Haksar. The notes and the appendix add value to the work, making reading highly pleasurable.
(Rupa & Co., 7/16 Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 002.)
