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Editor: Prof.B.R.DeepakExecutiveEditor:Dr.C.Usha

INSIDETHIS I SSUE

CoverStory….1-3

Faculty…3-5

Volume7Issue26May-Dec2020

CCSEASNEWSLETTER 中國與東南亞研究中心通訊

With the objective of sharing Indian literaturewith the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO) Nations, Sahitya Akademi translated tenIndian literary classics into the SCO languages,Chinese and Russian. The Chinese project wascoordinated by Professor B. R. Deepak, who intandemwithSahityaAkademyconstitutedateamof translators and completed the project wellwithin the time. The project was envisaged in2019andcompletedbythetimetheSCOhelditsNovember2020summitinMoscow.Thelistof10IndianclassicsinHindiandregionallanguagesisasfollowing:

ChinesetranslationofParvabyB.R.DeepakandXuKe

SuryaMukheerSwapna,ArogyaniketanVevishaal,Kavve Aur Kala Pani, Manoj Dasanka Katha O

S.LBhyrappa’sKannadaClassicPARVAtranslatedintoChinese

Kahini,Parva,MarhiDaDiva,SilaNerangalilSilaManithargal,Illu,EkChadarMailiSi.Ofthese, Parva was translated by Prof. B. RDeepak,KavveAurKalaPanibyDayawanti,EkChadarMailiSibyMadhurendraJhaandSuryaMukheerSwapnabySaheliChattaraj,all products of the Centre for Chinese andSoutheastAsianStudies

Parva was the bulkiest running into 950pagesinEnglishandabout600,000Chinesecharacters. The classic is based on theMahabharata,oneofthegreatepicsofIndia.ItsimportanceliesinthefactthattheIndianepicsnotonlyarevaluablecollectionsofthegreatliteratureoftheIndianpeople,butarealsopricelesstreasuresintherepositoryofworldliterature.Thesearenotjustliteraryworks, but at the same time, are religiouscanons, political and ethical texts, and hashad an invariable and immense impact onthe thought, philosophy, culture, art,customs,sociallifeoftheIndiannation.

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Interestingly,disseminationoftheepicsbeyondIndiastartedquiteearly.Inthe6thcenturyAD,astonetabletfoundinCambodiamakesmentionoftheMahabharata.ThisisproofthattheepichadspreadtoCambodiabylate6thcentury.Thedisseminationof theepics intoChinaoccurredat the same time as the eastward spread ofHinduism and Buddhism during the firstcenturyAD.References to this effect could be found inBuddhist sutra translation in China. Forexample, Kumarajiva’s translation of theKalpanamanditikahasaprecisesummarizationofthestorylineoftheMahabharata.Inscroll5ofthistext,itissaidthat:“Ineverykalpa,manyBrahmans,whowereprivytothekinghassaidquotingRamayanaandMahabharatathatthosewho die in battle fieldwill go to heaven afterdeath.”After the9thcenturyAD,countries likeThailand,Myanmar,Java,Malayetc.hadalreadybegun translating the epics in the nativelanguagesoneaftertheother.Templesinmanyplaceshaveartreliefsbasedontheepics.Inthe16th century AD, under the patronage ofEmperorAkbar, the twoepicswere translatedintoPersian.The translation of the two epics in Chinaoccurred after the founding of the People'sRepublicofChina.TheTwoGreatEpicsofIndiawrittenandpublishedbyMiWenkai in1950isprobably the earliest Chinese translation. Thiswas followed by Ramayana andMahabharata(1962) written by Sun Yong. But these weretranslatedfromEnglishtoChinese,andtheyarenotreallyfulltranslations.ThefulltranslationofMahabharatawasinitiatedbyJinKemu,andwascompletedandpublishedin2005byhisstudentHuangBaosheng.What is amazing is that it isdirectly translated from Sanskrit. After thecomplete Chinese translation ofMahabharata,Chinahasmadenewprogressinthestudyofthetwo epics of India, especially the study ofBhagavadGita.ThetwogreatepicsareeternalfountainsoftheIndian literary creation. Since ancient time,there are countless instances of poems, plays,

stories and novels which were written orcomposedonthebasisofthesetwoepics.ParvabyacclaimedKannadawriterDr.S.L.Bhyrappais also based on the story of Mahabharata.TheParvaistheresultofBhyrappa'sstudyandresearchbasedonthetwogreatepicsofIndia,the Vedas, Upanishads and other classics. Theauthor spent nearly thirty years researchingthese classics and conducting fieldinvestigations on thenames of the places thatappearinthetwoepics.Inordertotracesomeof the customs prevalent during the times ofMahabharata,theauthortravelledacrossIndia,eveninremoteareasintheHimalayassoasthetruthisestablished.One of the important characteristics of theParva is that theauthortakesusback intothehistory andnarrates the storiesofwar,peace,love,death, godsandhumans inminutedetailand ingeniously. The story is well written inalmostchronologicalorder,becauseitfaithfullyreproducestheoriginalappearanceofallkindsof characters in society at that time, and hascreated a large number of life size characterswith colourful artistic techniques and richimagination. It could be pronounced as anamalgamation of history, geography, ethnicity,statecraft and literary romanticism. This isvisible in the powerful description andcharacterisation of Kunti, Bhima, Arjuna,Krishna,Karna,Duryodhnaetc.andhasvividlyandskillfullyrevealedtheirpersonalitiesamidstintricate contradictions and conflicts throughmajoreventslikesvayamvarasandbattlescenes.Asregards itsChinese translation, itwasdonefromitsEnglishversion.Itwasn’tdifficultasfarasthestorylineandlargervaluesystemswereconcerned, forIbelievethatthecorevaluesofthe Indian and Chinese civilisations arestrikingly similar. Though MahabharatapredatestheformationofChinesevaluesystemduringtheAxialAgebutcorecomponentssuchasthepriorityofresponsibilitytofreedom,thepriority of duty to individual rights, thecommunity being higher than the individual,and harmony being higher than conflict etc.macro concepts are quite similar.Other facets

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suchasfilialpiety,righteousnessandthespiritofsacrificecouldbeeasilydiscernedthroughoutthe story. If theDharmaYuddha reflects thesevalues in the Mahabharata; the same ismirroredintheRomanceofthethreekingdoms,aMingDynastyvintagenovel that isbasedonwars between the Wei, Shu and Wu of theWarringstateperiodinChina.However, at micro level, it would have beenimpossibletorendertheculturalconceptssuchasniyogatraditionofmarriageandmanyothersintoChinesehadtherenotbeenanydictionaryof these concepts. The Dictionary of IndianCulturecompiledbyProfessorMaoShichang,aProfessor of LanzhouUniversitywho happensto do his doctorate in Indian epics fromJawaharlal Nehru University was extremelyhelpful. In the Dictionary, a large number ofSanskrit/Hindi/Buddhist-Chinese equivalentsandintroductionsofrelevantcharacters,namesoftheplaces,andcustomshavebeenprovided,whichgreatlyhelpedmeinthetranslationwork.Moreover,sinceChinaproducedthetranslationofthecompleteMahabharatain2005,therearevarious annotations and glossaries of propernamesavailableontheinternet.Stillnotallthenamescouldbefound,therefore,atsomeplacesIhavetransliteratedthenamesinlinewiththeChinesepracticeandhaveprovidedtheirIndianvariantsinthebracketsthroughouttheChineseedition.Theonly constraint I facedwas that of time. Iwas approached by Dr. Srinivas Rao of theSahityaAkademy in late February 2020 aboutthis project. He apprised me that SahityaAkademywishes to render ten representativemodern and contemporary Indian works intoChineseandRussian,andthepublicationshouldbe complete before the Shangahi CooperationOrganisation summit in Russia, as PrimeMinisterModiwishestopresenttheseworkstoChina and Russia during the side-line of thesummit. SinceParvawas thebulkiest, runninginto almost 600,000 Chinese characters, heexpectsme to take the responsibility. I was alittlehesitantinthebeginning,however,inviewof the importance of the national project, I

agreedandimmediatelyconstitutedateam.Theteam I selected for Parva was well versed inChinese, Indian culture and philosophy, andsincewehavethedictionaryforreadyreference,the team accepted the assignment. I spentalmost9-10hoursdailytofinishthetaskintime,and by the end of August we handed in themanuscript for peer reviewing in China. Thefeedbackwasexcellentandquiteencouraging.This is perhaps the first time that thegovernment of India has translatedrepresentative Indianworks intoChinese, andBhyrappa’s Parva definitely deservesappreciations for its outstanding plot,characterisation,language,andaesthetics.Asatranslator, I believe the Chinese translation ofParvareflectstruthfulness,expressiveness,andelegance. I hope readers at home and abroadlikethistranslation.Atthesametime,Ihopethistranslationcanplayapositiveroleinenhancingmutual understanding, mutual trust andfriendship, and promotes cultural exchangesbetweenIndiaandChina.Finally,Iexpressmygratitudetoallthepeoplewhowereassociatedwith the translation, proofreading andpublicationofParvaintoChinese.BasicMilitaryChinesefortheIndianArmedForcesbyProf.PriyadarśīMukherji(2019)

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The objective of the handbook is to educatepeopleinIndiahowtocorrectlyreadandwritetheChinesesoundsandsyllables.Cross-culturalcommunication and interactions between thepeopleofIndiaandChinahavegreatlyincreasedinrecentyears.Yeterrorsintransliterationandmisrepresentationsofvarioustypeshavebeennoticed in newspaper reports as well as inacademic and business circles. Therefore, aproperguidelineisbeingofferedsoastoassisttheIndianreaders inpronouncingtheChinesesyllablescorrectly.

The current edition contains Chinese soundsand syllables in eight different languages ofIndia [Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Punjabi,Gujarati, Kannada, Oriya, and Telugu].Readers capable of reading eight differentscripts of India can acquaint themselves withnotonlytheChinesesoundsbutalsowithdailyexpressions in Chinese, along with variedaspectsofknowledgeaboutChina.Thiseditionis focused upon providing a series ofmilitaryterminology used in Chinese for greaterunderstandingamongtheIndianArmedForces.The book would benefit ordinary learners ofChinese in general and the armed forcespersonnelinparticular.

StrayBirdsinChineseTranslationsbyProf.PriyadarśīMukherji(2020)

Stray Birds by Rabindranath Tagore hasinspired many generations of poets in manycountries, especially inChina, sinceaphorismsthatTagorehad createdduringhismid-fifties.The charm of those adages are embedded inTagore’s profound philosophy of life and hisuniquepoeticflavor.TherehasbeenanumberoftranslationsofStrayBirdsinbothChinaandTaiwan.

This edition is an effort to bring out all suchmajorversions intranslationfromtheoriginalEnglishintoChinese—inordertooffertothereaderstheaestheticsaswellastheartistryintrans-lingual renditions. The book alsoincorporates the controversy and criticismsaround a type of translation that shook theChinese academia in the recent times.Annotations have been added wherevernecessary in order to highlight the errors andlacunae that emerged in the course oftranslations. The book presents a variety ofChinese expressions used in translating StrayBirds—spanningacrossacentury.

Facultyparticipationinconferences

Prof.B.R.Deepak

1. “Perception of images in India-China relations” lecture delivered at a webinar on “Salience of History, culture and language in India-China Relations” organized by Central University of Gujarat on 30 September 2020

2. “China’s National Security Policy: Threats and Challenges” invited lecture at a Webinar organized by Indian Institute of Contemporary Studies, Chennai Centre for China Studies and Press Institute of India on 29 September 2020

3. “Know yourself and know your enemy: State of China studies in India” invited lecture at a two day webinar on “National Education Policy 2020: Language teaching, learning and translation” on 11 September 2020

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CCSEASPhone: 911126704240;

Telfax: 911126704243

Mail:ccseassllcs@gmail.comCCSEASNewsletterisabimonthlyhousemagazine of the Centre for Chinese andSoutheast Asian Studies, JawaharlalNehruUniversity,NewDelhi.

Centre for Chinese and Southeast AsianStudies,SchoolofLanguage, Literature and Culture Studies, JawaharlalNehru University, NewDelhi-110067

http://www.jnu.ac.in/SLLCS/CCSEAS

4. “Why do we study China” an invited lecture to Postdoc China study Fellows, Ashoka University on 13 August 2020

5. Deepak, B. R "Sinology and Current State of India-China Relation" in a webinar organized by the Central University of Jharkhand on 17 July 2020

6. “India-China and Nepal” invited online lecture delivered at the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement (NIICE) on June 6 2020

7. “Post Covid -19 India-China relations.” Lecture delivered during a one day Webinar titled “Perspectives on India-China developmental dynamics (1949-2019)” organized by Institute of South Asian Studies, Sichuan University China on 29 May 2020