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2 M. Asaduddinof middle eastern fables, including parts of the Thousandand One Nights. The stories were handed on to the Slaviclanguages through Greek, then from Hebrew to Latin, aversion in the latter appearing in 1270. Through Latinthey passed into German and Italian. …[T]hese storiesleft their mark on collections as different as those of LaFontaine and the Grimm brothers, and today they areinseparably part of a global heritage.” 1Moments of significant change in the history and civilizationof any people can be seen to be characterised by increased activity inthe field of translation. The European Renaissance was madepossible through the massive translation by Arab Muslims from thework of the Hellenic tradition. In the case of India, though there isno consensus about the originary moment of Indian Renaissance –whether there was an Indian Renaissance at all in the Europeansense, and if there was one, whether it happened simultaneously indifferent languages and literatures of India or at different times, thereis no disagreement about the fact that there was a kind of generalawakening throughout India in the nineteenth century and that wasmade possible through extensive translation of European and mainlyEnglish works in different languages, not only of literature but alsoof social sciences, philosophy, ethics and morality etc. Translationhas a special meaning for the people of north-east India because insome literatures of the north east, the originary moment of literatureis the moment of translation too. For example, in the case of Mizo itdid not have a script before the European missionaries devised ascript to translate evangelical literature into Mizo. Raymond Schwab(1984) in his book, The Oriental Renaissance, has shown how a newkind of awareness took place and curiosity about the Orient arousedin the West through the translation of Persian texts from Sadi, Rumi,Omar Khayyam and others on the one hand, and Vedic and Sanskrittexts from India on the other.