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Download Complete Volume - National Translation Mission

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36 Translating Medieval Orissaliterary and theological canon. These scholars, however, have notidentified the translational strategies adopted by Jagannath Das, thefirst Brahmin among the early translators in the Oriya language.Probably because of his caste affiliation, Jagannath Dasdemonstrates fidelity to the essence of the original, hitherto not seenin the earlier translations. In a manner of speaking, he was trying toreplicate the Brahminic ideology within the broader spectrum of theBhakti cult, as is evident from his repeated assertion of Brahminidentity. Moreover, the translation is directed by the commentary onBhagabata by Sridhara Swami, a great Sanskrit scholar. The text ofJagannath has become at the same time, a translation, an explicationand a commentary. While Balalram’s translation tended to omitabstract philosophical concepts due to the unavailability of parallelterms in Oriya, Jagannath Das naturalized those Sanskrit terms inOriya language. This translation transformed Oriya language into ameta-language parallel to Sanskrit, which was also a meta-languagewith a pan-Indian acceptance. Subsequently, the written literature inOriya language tended to minimize the use of colloquial expressionsresulting in a stagnation of the standard Oriya language and can beseen in the Oriya ornate poetry tradition. Another translationalpractice followed by Jagannath Das is the juxtaposition of theoriginal Sanskrit verses with the Oriya rendering as has been done inthe eleventh book of Bhagabata. It is well known that the eleventhbook contains the most abstract philosophical ideas in the wholePurana. It seems as if Jagannath Das is apprehensive that the targetlanguage is not competent enough to internalize those densephilosophical formulations. Therefore, Jagannath Das on the onehand accepts the superior status of Sanskrit and is apologetic aboutthe people’s language, and on the other uses the people’s languageas a parallel to and alternative to the original language Sanskrit. Thiscomplex practice became one of the norms for subsequenttranslations into Oriya. 4

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