Translation - Page 2

No Man’s Land: Reading Travel Accounts In Pilgrimage Sites in Shanku Maharaj’s Bigalito Karuna Jahnabi Jamuna

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Smitasri Joy Sarma

Research Scholar, Tezpur University, Assam. Email: smitasrijoy05@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.07

Abstract

India is the land of 330 million deities, where religious establishments serve as landmarks for postal addresses, where people unite and divide on the pretext of religion, where every milestone involves religious ceremonies, where every birth, marriage or death undergoes holy rituals, or as Bengal endorses the nation’s spirit as “Baro Mashe Tero Parbon” (13 festivals in 12 months). Though the nation speaks of religious diversities, India in the common psyche upholds Hinduism and its practices. In the Western literary bank, India is marked with sacred heritage that draws people to stimulate their spiritual, pursuing solace and the surreal. The legend of Shravan Kumar echoes the existing and common affair of pilgrimages in India that today proves as commercial, in fact as a lucrative sector. This paper endeavors to explore an Indian travel narrative in a pilgrim site through a close textual analysis of Khagendra Narayan Dutta Baruah’s Assamese translation of Shanku Maharaj’s Bigalito Karuna Jahnabi Jamuna (1962), originally written in Bengali in 1959. The text, though woven as a travelogue in a pilgrim site ventures to celebrate the humane, along with the divine. It evokes the reiterated statement of the journey as primal to the destination. The voice while capturing the ethos of India with all its nuances simultaneously dismantles and in fact challenges the conventional and romanticized vista of travelling, particularly in precarious sites. In India, treading the holy spaces despite usually accompanying itineraries can unravel into adventure as the lines blur between such accounts and otherwise.

Keywords: travel, pilgrim, pilgrimage, journey, nature

 

Beyond the Boundaries of Kochi: a Study of Raja Veera Keralavarma’s Travel Narrative to Kashi

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Niveditha Kalarikkal

Centre for Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. kunjikavu@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.05

Abstract

Pilgrim narratives constitute a significant number of travel narratives which appeared in Sanskrit, English and various Indian bhashas in the 18th and 19th centuries. Raja Veera Kerala Varma IV, who ruled the erstwhile princely state of Kochi (Cochin) in South Western India, wrote an account of his pilgrimage to Kashi (Benares) during the years 1852-53. This travelogue in English was later translated into Malayalam by M. Raman Namboothiri and was published as Kochirajavinte Kashiyatra (The Cochin Raja’s travel to Kashi) in 2013. The ‘travel notes of the Raja of Kochi’ which was available in the form of his personal journal describes his meetings with many British officials and common people on the way, in addition to sketching the varied geographies and religious places that he visited during the 220 days long pilgrimage. The Raja who started his pilgrimage from Trippunithura was accompanied by a royal retinue which included his tour manager, a white medical doctor named Bingle and a few other servants. Veera Kerala Varma, later referred to as the ‘Maharaja who passed away in Kashi’ had an untimely death due to smallpox and his travel narrative reached Kochi along with his physical remains. This paper attempts to do a close reading of the travelogue to reveal the inquisitiveness of a Raja who had close associations with the British administrators, as one who attempted to step out of the boundaries of his kingdom with an ethnographic intent. The description of people and their cultural practices that were different from his own ‘country’ can also throw light on how a member of the 19th C English educated Indian elites looked upon newly evolving territorial identities, scientific advancements and public institutions that were being established through colonization.

Keywords: pilgrim narrative, cultural boundaries, writing home, territorial identities, colonialism and technology, modern self

First Travel Narrative in Telugu: A Study of Yenugula Veeraswamaiyya’s Kasi Yatra Charitra

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M. G. Prasuna

Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, ORCID: 0000-0001-5034-0992. Email: prasuna@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.04

Abstract

Yenugula Veeraswamaiyya’s Kasi Yatra Charitra(1838) is considered the first book written in the genre of travel writing in Telugu. A seminal work, it faithfully reflects and records the social, religious, political and economic life of people in those times, along with aspects of tradition and culture. A well-recognised scholar of his times, Veeraswamaiyya embarked on his journey to Kasi (Varanasi) in May 1830 from Chennapatnam (Chennai). He travelled for 15 months and 15 days and returned to Chennapatnam on September 3rd, 1831. He wrote about his experiences of travelling through Tirupati, Kadapa, Kurnool, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Jabalpur and Allahabad to reach Kasi. On his return journey, he travelled across Patna, Gaya, Calcutta, Puri, Ganjam, Simhachalam, Machilipatnam and Nellore, and finally reached Chennapatnam. His journey was unique because he took along with him, nearly 100 people consisting of his family, friends and servants. A travel of this scale needed meticulous planning. It could have been extremely challenging and adventurous to travel through unknown territories. These journeys had to be made by walking on foot and sometimes in a palanquin, carried by servants.  According to Hindu belief, Kasi is the place where one attains moksha or liberation, and freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth. Hence, it is considered an important spiritual destination. This work is a storehouse of information and reflects the author’s keen observation. This paper will explore the historical, cultural, social, economic and religious significance of Veeraswamaiyya’s Kasi Yatra Charitra.

Keywords: Travel writing, Kasi yatra, pilgrimage, Telugu

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