Skip to main content
3 of 3
added 551 characters in body
Pradip Gangopadhyay
  • 38.1k
  • 3
  • 56
  • 125

This is a good question. Yes, it is not easy to understand the Vedas.

It is unfortunate that a complete translation of the Vedas in Bengali is still not available. We are grateful for the help offered for this translation by the honorable West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bandopadhyay. In doing this work we are finding that there is currently no Vedic expert with profound traditional knowledge. It is already very late. The few who do have some knowledge of the Vedas are very old. So we are having problem in trying to translate the Vedas.

Free English translation of Publisher's Note in the Bengali Rig Veda by Swami Suparnananda

The translator, Professor Nilanjana Sikdardutta, acknowledges that she is having difficulty in translating the Vedas in Bengali.

Sayanacharya's 14th century commentary of the Rig Veda is well known. However, Sayana's commentary is from the point of view of Purva Mimansa. Modern scholars do not fully accept Sayanacharya's commentary since the Rig Veda was composed long before the appearance of Purva Mimansa. ....Thus one has to know the history, sociology, anthropology, dharma, darsana etc in order to understand the Rig Vedic mantras. We have in addition to Sayanacharya's commentary tried to interpret according to the meaning of the Rig Vedic words.

Foreign scholars have translated many times in English and German. Of these translations in English, Ralph T. H. Griffith (1973 edi), Wilson (1866 edi) and S. W.Jamison and J. P. Brereton (2014), have been used. ..........

.... I have tried to translate Sanskrit tatsama words and the complicated sentence structure of Rig Veda in simplified Bengali. Still lack of knowledge of traditional understanding of the Vedas has made it impossible for me to translate some Rig Vedic verses with the necessary clarity. I apologize for this shortcoming.

Free English translation of Introduction to Bengali Rig Veda by Professor Nilanajan Sikdardutta

Prof NS is an expert in Sanskrit and Bengali. Otherwise she would have not been asked to translate the Sanskrit Vedas into Bengali. She is having trouble in translating the Vedas because the archaic Sanskrit used in the earliest layer of the Vedas is different from the Sanskrit of Mahabharata. Languages change over time and makes the job of scholars difficult. We are fortunate that Goudapada and Sankara have written commentaries of the Upanishads. Neelkantha's commentary on the Mahabharata makes understanding the Mahabharata relatively easy.

Pradip Gangopadhyay
  • 38.1k
  • 3
  • 56
  • 125