We begin with verse five, in which Sita reacts to Rama’s hurtful reproach. Monkey and The Ramayana Ramayana: D’harma in the 21st Century Domination - The Power Shift from Women to Men Through Ancient Literature Leadership in Epic Literature: Rama and. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Ramayana by Valmiki. These are taken from Ralph TH Griffith’s colonial-era retelling in rhymed verse, published in the 1870s, Manmatha Nath Dutt’s prose version of 1893, Arshia Sattar’s widely read Penguin edition, from 1996, and a recent annotated translation, completed in 2017, by a team led by Robert Goldman. The Ramayana essays are academic essays for citation. Further, I have collated four English translations spanning more than a century’s range of translation styles and idioms, so that readers may clearly see the variations in translation-sometimes subtle, sometimes gross-from a comparative perspective. The verses- shloka numbers 5, 7 and 14 from the Yuddha Kanda (Book Four), sarga (section) 104-capture Sita’s response to Rama’s characterisation of her chastity during her imprisonment in Lanka. This Ramayana of Valmiki is an English translation of the original Sanskrit epic poem depicting the life of Rama, an embodiment of supreme truth and virtue. In that spirit, I present below the three relevant verses from Valmiki’s Ramayana in Sanskrit, along with literal, word-for-word English glosses. The irony of the situation seemed to have been lost in translation, so to speak.Īs a translator and student of classical Indian literature, I believe it is critical to return to original sources.
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Sadly, many of her detractors exhibited a poor understanding of the material in question, and, even worse, a deplorable tone that, as Truschke pointed out in a piece in this magazine, reinforced the very misogyny they could not tolerate to see Rama accused of. He submitted to the apex court Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that at least in three places in Valmiki Ramayana, it is mentioned. The tweet elicited serious backlash from the Hindu right.
#THE RAMAYANA OF VALMIKI TRIAL#
As such, to translate in today’s polarised political climate is delicate work, especially when translating the Indian epics.Īudrey Truschke, a professor of South Asian history, tweeted in April that in Valmiki’s Ramayana, “(I’m loosely translating here): During the agnipariksha, Sita basically tells Rama he’s a misogynist pig and uncouth.” Later, writing for The Wire, she described this characterisation as a “colloquial summary of Sita’s admonishment of Rama” during her trial by fire. Every act of translation encodes something political, and, regardless of whether we like it or are even aware of it, all translators are political commentators.