The third series of releases from the Murty Classical Library of India (MCLI), an ambitious project to bring the greatest literary works from Indian languages into English, has a special relevance for Karnataka.
The poetic masterpiece of Raghavanka, Harishchandra Kavyam (The life of Harishchandra), translated by Vanamala Viswanatha, is among the four new releases. The 13th century text is the first Kannada work to be published by the MCLI and is slated for an official launch in Bengaluru on January 16. This gains significance at a time when little is being done by the government to make the ‘classical language’ tag of Kannada relevant through scholarly translation works.
- ‘The History of Akbar’, Volume 3 (Abu’l-Fazl, edited and translated by Wheeler M. Thackston)
- ‘The Killing of Shishupala’ (Magha, edited and translated by Paul Dundas)
- ‘In Praise of Annada’, Volume 1
- (Bharatchandra Ray, translated by France Bhattacharya)
- ‘The Life of
- Harishchandra’ (Raghavanka, translated by Vanamala Viswanatha)
Rohan Murty, son of Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, who made a grant of 5.2 million dollar to found MCLI at Harvard University, said he was “eagerly awaiting” his first copy of Kavyam. “I am excited about how the project is expanding the notion of the classic,” he told The Hindu .
Besides Sanskrit, books have come out in Pali, Prakrit, Urdu, Bangla, Punjabi, Hindi, Marathi, and Telugu, among others, in the series totalling 13 so far.
Dual-language volume
The dual-language volume of Kavyam brings all the 728 verses from the chosen edition into English. Describing it as a work that has “thrived both as a pundit’s delight and people’s narrative”, popularised through various textual and performative traditions, Ms. Viswanatha said she had to “walk the tightrope between a commitment to the integrity of the text and its communicability to a modern readership”. This meant, for example, choosing three modes in translation — the narrative, the lyrical, and the dramatic — while the Kannada text employs mostly the six-line shatpadi metre.
Question of caste
Though divided by centuries, Ms. Viswanatha believes that the work speaks intimately to the present-day reader. For instance, the way the poet deals with the question of caste — a burning issue today — is testimony to it. When protagonist Harishchandra — regarded as an icon of truthfulness — refuses to marry two “lower” caste women trying to woo him, they question and mock the practice of untouchability. Ms. Viswanatha says in her introduction to the work, “... what comes across unambiguously is the text’s power to speak of the burning issues of power, caste, and gender not only of his times, but equally of contemporary India.”
The kind of response that the project has been receiving, perhaps, further testifies to the contemporaneity of these classic texts. Mr. Rohan Murty said he received about 13,000 emails over the last year on the books, mostly from those below 40. He calls these texts “time machines” that offer a glimpse into the past through different perspectives and languages.
