Kanakadasa's works to be featured in 15 languages

In an effort to bring out the richness of 'Dasa' literature in other languages, National Saint Poet Kanakadasa Study and ResearchCentre, Bengaluru has taken up a massive project of transliterating the works of the saint poet into 14 Indian languages including English.

The work is in full swing and will be completed in a couple of months, said National Saint Poet Kanakadasa Study and ResearchCentre Programme Coordinator Ka Ta Chikkanna. Speaking to DH, he said that the project was started in October 2014 and the transliteration to 10 languages is already done.

The project comprises of the transliteration of poetry (Kavya) 'Mohana Tarangini', 'Nalacharite', 'Haribhaktisara', 'Ramadhanya Charite' and 316 songs (keerthane) penned by the Saint poet.

The languages in which the saint poet works will be transliterated are: Sanskrit, English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Assamese, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Tulu, Kodava, Konkani and Beary.

Transferring cultural values

Ka Ta Chikkanna said that as a Saint Poet, Kanakadasa has a special place among Indian poet-composers, because his perspective of devotion was not confined to a feeling, but transcended to social reform and the propagation of knowledge.

"He dealt with social reforms through his works and this made his works remarkable," Chikkanna said.

Acknowledging the cultural significance of the works, the Research Centre felt for a need to take Kanakadasa's literature to other languages and submitted a proposal to the state government. The government accepted the proposal and released and a fund of Rs 1.80 crore.

Asserting that every best literary work should be taken or brought to all other languages, Ka Ta Chikkanna said that the works of Kanakadasa have the potential to strengthen human relations, which was the main purpose for the Research Centre to take up the project.

The transliteration of Kanakadasa's works is the second largest project of its kind in Kannada poetry after the project carried out by Prof M M Kalburgi, under the aegis of the State government and Basava Bhavana. Around 2000 'vachanas' have been translated to 22 languages, he recalled.

Tedious task

Translation of Dasa compositions is not easy as they reflect many dimensions--social, spiritual and psychological. The whole process of transliteration requires a lot of dedication and grasp of the subject.

A workshop was conducted for the language editors and translators to acquaint them with the terminology. A technical glossary was also brought out by the Research Centre for this cause. When it came to transliteration of the works to languages such as Assami and Punjabi, the translators were provided with the Hindi translations.

"About 125 people have been working for the ambitious project. Each language has one language editor and eight to 10 translators. The project is being funded by the government fund of Rs 12 lakh," Ka Ta Chikkanna said.

Some of the language editors are: Prof Srinivasamurthy (Sansrkit), Prof Nataraj Huliyar (English), Prof Ramaswamy (Tamil), Dr Geeta Shenoy (Konkani), Nagesh Kaluru (Kodava), A V Navada (Tulu) and B M Hanif (Beary).

The translated works are reviewed by a team of six experts.

Karnataka Pustaka Pradhikara will do the printing and marketing work of the transliterated volumes.

DH News Service