Fwd: [INDOLOGY] Modern scholarly translation of Tulsidas' Ramayana?
Dipak Bhattacharya
From: George Thompson <gth...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 8:26 AM
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Modern scholarly translation of Tulsidas' Ramayana?
To: "indo...@list.indology.info" <INDO...@list.indology.info>
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Nityanand Misra
On Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at 8:45:30 AM UTC+5:30, Dipak Bhattacharya wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: George Thompson <gth...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 8:26 AM
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Modern scholarly translation of Tulsidas' Ramayana?
To: "indo...@list.indology.info" <INDO...@list.indology.info>Forwarded for for kind actionGeorge ThompsonThank you in advance,Can some one of you help me to steer him to a good translation?Dear List,I have been asked by a former student for help in finding a modern, reliable scholarly translation of Tulsidas' Ramayana into English. This is a topic that I know little about.BestDB
I do not have the contact of George Thompson, so the following response may be forwarded to him.
The English translation by Gita Press is by far the most popular.
It is scholarly and reliable, but not ‘modern’ as it dates to 1960s. Originally
published in Kalyāṇa Kalpataru, the monthly English magazine of Gita Press, in
its annual editions 15, 16 and 17, the English translation was first published
as a book in 1968. One of the recent editions is:
The Publisher, Gita Press (2004). Sri Ramacharitamanasa With Hindi Text and English Translation (revised ed.). Gorakhpur, India: Gita Press. ISBN 978-81-293-0146-8.
The latest edition is available free of cost on the website of Gita Press under http://www.gitapress.org/BOOKS/English/1318_Shri_Ramcharitmanas_Web.pdf
The best English translation I am aware of is by Dr. Ram Chandra Prasad, who was a professor of English at the Patna University. He authored both Hindi and English translations of the epic. For the English only translation, please refer:
Prasad, Ram Chandra (1999). Sri Ramacaritamanasa (Illustrated, reprint ed.). Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0762-4. 900 pages.
For the edition with bilingual Hindi and English translation, please refer:
Prasad, Ram Chandra (1989). Sri Ramacaritamanasa or The Holy Lake Of The Acts Of Rama (Illustrated, reprint ed.). Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0443-2. 894 pages.
If I may add, many of Dr. Ram Chandra Prasad's interpretations were drawn from discourses and books by my Guru Ācārya Giridhara Miśra (known in the current Āśrama Jagadguru Rāmānandācārya Svāmi Rāmabhadrācārya). Prasad says the following on page xiv of the 1999 edition: “Acharya Giridhar Mishra is responsible for many of my interpretations of the epic. The meticulousness of his profound scholarship and his extraordinary dedication to all aspects of Rama's story have led to his recognition as one of the greatest authorities on Tulasidasa in India today ... that the Acharya's knowledge of the Ramacharitamanasa is vast and breathtaking and that he is one of those rare scholars who know the text of the epic virtually by heart.”
Dipak Bhattacharya
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Nityanand Misra
On Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at 10:25:55 AM UTC+5:30, Dipak Bhattacharya wrote:
DBMany thanks! The mail is being forwarded with gratitudeBest
Growse: The first English translation of the Rāmacaritamānasa known to me is by Frederic Salmon Growse dating from circa 1880. For a long period of time, this was the de facto standard referred to. The book went through many reprints, two editions published at Allahabad from 1883 (second) and 1914 (sixth) are available online:
https://archive.org/details/rmyanatulsids00growgoog
http://www.archive.org/details/rmyanaoftuls00tulauoft
The book has been revised and reprinted by MLBD.
Frederic Salmon Growse (1987). The Rāmāyaṇa of Tulasīdāsa (revised, reprint ed.). Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0205-6. 719 pages.
Macfie: The
1930 English translation titled The Ramayan Of Tulsidas Or The Bible Of
Northern India by J M Macfie is another classic translation. It is available
for free download on the Digital Library of India website (Barcode
99999990133882). A recent edition is published by Kessinger.
J. M. Macfie (2004). The Ramayan of Tulsidas or the Bible of Northern India. Whitefish: Kessinger. ISBN 978-1-4179-1498-2.
Hill: A
translation by W D P Hill was published in 1952 by OUP.
W. D. P. Hill (1952). The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rāma: An English Translation of Tulasī Dās's Rāmacaritamānasa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. xxxvii, 538 pp.
This work was reviewed by J. Burton-Page in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland.
J. Burton-Page (October 1954). Review of W. D. P. Hill 'The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rāma.' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland (New Series), Volume 86, Issue 3-4, pp 192-193.
Atkins: In
1954, the Hindustan Times Press published a verse translation in two volumes by
A.G. Atkins.
A G Atkins (1954). The Ramayana of Tulsidas Rendered into English Verse by the Reverend A. G. Atkins. Delhi: Hindustan Times Press. Both volumes are available for free download on the Digital Library of India website (Barcodes 99999990316784 and 99999990316785).
Bahadur: Another English translation is by S P Bahadur, originally written in 1952. This translation is also available for free download on the Digital Library of India website (Barcode 99999990338700). The most recent print publication I am aware of is by Munshiram Manoharlal, as the first volume of Complete Works of Goswami Tulsidas.
S P Bahadur (2008). Complete Works of Goswami Tulsidas, Volume I: Ramacharitmanasa (reprint ed). Delhi, India: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. ISBN 978-81-215-0635-9. 414 pages.