Shakespeare in Sanskrit?

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

Dear Colleagues,
The follwoing does not inform about Sanskrit translation but may be of interest. The earliest translation of Shakespeare into an Indian language is perhaps the Bengali translation Bhrānti-vilās (Comedy of Errors) by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891) published around 1860 at Calcutta. Vidyasagar’s contemporaries like like Michael Madhusudan Dutta imitated Shakespeare and Ramnarayan Tarkaratna followed the Sanskrit dramaturgy in dramas written by himself. Before them Gerasim Lebedev (1749-1817) translated some European/English farces into Bengali. I miss the exact details. I wonder if he had translated Shakespeare.
Best
DB
 


--- On Tue, 25/1/11, Mahadevan, Thennilapuram <tmahadevan at HOWARD.EDU> wrote:


From: Mahadevan, Thennilapuram <tmahadevan at HOWARD.EDU>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Shakespeare in Sanskrit?
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Date: Tuesday, 25 January, 2011, 8:03 PM


Into Malayalam?

________________________________________
From: Indology [INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Peter Wyzlic [pwyzlic at UNI-BONN.DE]
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 2:35 PM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Shakespeare in Sanskrit?

Am 25.01.2011 um 20:06 schrieb Richard Salomon:

> I know of the following two translations of Shakespeare into Sanskrit:
>
> 1. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Krishnamachari,R. "Vasantikaswapnam: An Adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream" (Madras, 1892).
>
> 2. Hamlet: Sukhamoy Mukhopadhyay, Dīnārkarājakumāra-Hemalekham (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971).
>
> Does anyone know of other examples?


There is a Sanskrit "adaptation" of Hamlet by S. D. Joshi and V. Deo:
Candrasenaḥ Durgadeśasya Yuvarājaḥ : Sanskrit adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the prince of Denmark / by S.D. Joshi and Vighnahari Deo. - Pune : University of Poona, 1980. - (Publications of the Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit., Class G ; no. 1)

Macbetht:
Meghavedham : Mahākaveḥ Śeksapīyaramahodayasya 'Maikabaith' iti nāṭakamadhikr̥tya praṇītam / praṇetā, Mohanaguptaḥ. - Dillī, Bhārata : Jñānabhāratī Pabl., 2009. - xvi, 110 p.

The Merchant of Venice:
Veṇīśa sārthavāha = Merchant of Venice / by William Shakespeare [sic] ; anuvādaka Ananda Tripāṭhī Śarmā. - Gañjāmamaṇḍalam : Śarmmā, 1969. - 3, 2, 115 p. - (Śikṣāpriya granthamālāyā[ḥ], puṣpam 3)

As you like it (by the same translator):
Yathā te rocate = As you like it / by William Shakespeare ; anuvādaka Ananta Tripāthi Śarmā. - Brahmapurama : Śiromaṇi Mudrāśālā, 1969. - 114 p. - (Śikṣāpriyagranthamālāyā, puṣpam 4)

Romeo and Juliet
Ūthikā : Shakespeare Romeo-Julietāśritā Saṃskṛitanāṭikā / sanātanasya Śrī-Revāprasāda-Dvivedinaḥ. - Vārāṇasī : Chaukhambhā Orientalia, 1978. - 74 p. - (Gokuladāsa Saṃskr̥ta granthamālā, 31)

I remember that I have seen a Sanskrit version of Lamb's Shakespeare's tales somewhere. But that is not the original, of course.

This collective volume contains some informations on Shakespeare in Indian translations:
India's Shakespeare : translation, interpretation, and performance / ed. by Poonam Trivedi and Dennis Bartholomeusz. - Delhi, India : Pearson Longman, 2005. - 270 p. ISBN 8177581317

Hope it helps
Peter Wyzlic

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