Abstract

Contrary to the iconicity associated between the original and its translations as conceived in the West, medieval Indian literature provides examples of multiple tellings and renderings (Ramanujan 1992) of texts that are radically different from their so called 'originals', implying an altogether different type of interrelationship among texts. It has been further observed that medieval Indian translations are actually tellings, renderings and cultural transactions. In order to understand these phenomena in medieval India, we need to interrogate the nature of texts, the types of intertextual spaces, the way communities defined the role of such texts based on linguistic, religious, professional (caste) and other criteria, the construction of texts as databases of the community's knowledge and information systems and lastly, the processes of mutually sharing such knowledge and information systems.

Taking instances from medieval Kannada literature, the paper interrogates different modes of tellings, renderings and cultural transactions to map out different models of translation strategies used by communities, in order to translate and culturally transact knowledge and information. A vrat-katha model of cultural transaction has been proposed as one of the models on which medieval Indian texts are rendered from one language to another. It has been suggested that categories such as gender, caste, religion, sect and language not only interconnect each other but at the same time, insulate and protect the communities' rights over their knowledge and information systems and make telling and rendering activities, an exclusively in-group activity meant for the consumption of the rightful owners of knowledge and information systems. Thus despite the fact that different groups share a pluralistic epistemology which enables them to mutually understand each other's knowledge systems, their group-specific right over knowledge and information remains protected through multiple tellings, renderings and transactions on which they could retain their monopolistic control.

         

1. Introduction

            1.1 The issue of what translation meant to traditional civilizations such as India has become the subject matter of two international conferences held recently. If translation is a concept that represents an activity of the age of mechanical reproduction of texts, then how traditional cultures of Asia dealt with transfer of knowledge and information from one language to another in their long literary tradition is not only a matter of curiosity but also a matter of significance for understanding traditional modes of cultural transaction.  The present paper is an attempt to continue the current debate about the dynamics of what is called 'cultural' translation and the diverse translation discourses in Asia .

             1.2 To start with, within the modernistic framework literature and translation are directly connected with literacy, writing systems, creativity, intellectuality, and are individualistic in nature. But literature is radically different if one looks at medieval literatures of India . Literature was typically oral, despite being in a scripto-centric format, and often existed only in performance. In this sense, it was not just a mere text; it also bore medieval knowledge and information systems. In the majority of the cases, literary texts also become a part of ritualistic worship. Thus by being sectarian and ritualistic in nature, different tellings and renderings provided access not only to the legitimate users of such knowledge-base but also prevented them from being accessed freely by others.

1.3 In a recent study (Satyanath forthcoming), taking the specific episode of Kirāta Śiva and Arjuna from the Mahābhārata, from scripto-centric (writing/manuscript tradition), phono-centric (oral tradition) and body-centric (ritual performing tradition) renderings of the episode from medieval Karnataka, it has been pointed out that categories such as gender, caste, religion, sects and language not only interconnect each other but at the same time, protect their exclusive rights over their knowledge and information systems. This makes telling and rendering activities, be they scripto-centric, phono-centric or body-centric, an exclusively in-group activity meant only for the consumption of the rightful owners of knowledge and information systems. Thus despite different groups sharing a pluralistic epistemology, which enabled them to understand each other, their group-specific right over knowledge and information remained protected through multiple telling and rendering systems over which they retained a monopolistic control. In this paper, a further attempt has been made to understand the processes of such cultural transactions and to identify the models through which such tellings and renderings operate in a community.

2. Ritualistic Context Of Tellings And Renderings

             2.1 One of the issues that concern us with regard to medieval tellings and renderings in Karnataka is the religious and ritualistic context in which a majority of the Kannada texts have been set. A survey of Kannada literature during the period from the ninth to nineteenth century C.E. and its links with other Indian literatures clearly suggests that Kannada might have interacted with several literatures, not only with Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit but also with Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. As many medieval Kannada poets have claimed to be poets with bilingual proficiency ('ubhaya-kavis'), the movements of texts, of cultural transactions rather, are of bidirectional nature. It is also interesting to know that these possibilities of translation were made possible because of the multilingual populations that Brahminical Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bhakti religions had encountered among their followers in medieval Karnataka. The multidimensionality of interaction of Kannada with different sectarian and linguistic communities can be schematically conceptualized as shown in Figure 1. Such a complex scheme of cultural transaction is crucial for understanding the processes of telling and rendering in medieval Karnataka.

          

2.2 In order to understand the processes and models that operated behind different sectarian tellings and renderings, we have to look into Jaina, Vīraśaiva, VaiSNava traditions, the commentary (Tīkā) tradition and the folk tradition of tellings and renderings. In a recent paper, Tarakeshwar (2005) has attempted to understand certain issues of translation processes that were prevalent during the ninth-tenth century C.E. in Kannada. This has been further explored here, taking a closer look at the processes and models operating behind the religious and ritualistic aspects of tellings and renderings.

To start with let us consider the text VaDDārādhane  ('The Worship of Elders', Va DDa< vRdda Skt.), a text that has been claimed to have been written by ŚivakōTy āchārya during the early part of the tenth century (c. 920 C.E.). Kannada scholars have pointed out that this is an anthology consisting of nineteen life-stories of legendary Jaina holy men. The text also has an alternative title Upasarga-kēvaligaLa-kathe ('The Story of Holy Men Who Overcame Obstacles'). It has also been noted that the stories in this text are common to the Prakrit Bhagavatī-ārādhanā by BhrājSN u and the Sanskrit BRhatkathā-kośa of HariSēn a. Considering the formulaic gāhes ( gāthā) that appear before the beginning of each story, it has been suggested by scholars that Va DDārādhane might have been based either on a Prakrit commentary (vyākhyāna) of Bhagavatī-ārādhanā, or on Bhagavatī-ārādhanā, also a Prakrit text.¹

It is important to note that the manuscripts of the stories in VaDDārādhane  end with the colophon vaDDāraādhaneya-kavachavu-mangaLam ('the sacred shield of VaDDārādhane, blessings to everyone'), suggesting that the text needs to be considered as a ritualistic shield. Similarly, the beginning of some of the manuscripts starts with the statement kavachārōhayāhi ('the beginning (hoisting) of the shield'), suggesting the Prakrit formulaic gāhe, its commentary in Sanskrit/Prakrit and the subsequent expansion of the formulaic gāhe into a life-story, was probably meant as a story to be recited for the benefit of the Kannada-knowing Jaina laymen as a part of the performance of the ritual. Moreover, the term ārādhane 'worship' which is part of the title of the text and the tradition of the existence of such texts in the Jaina literary tradition further suggests that the reading or recitation of the text might have been intended as the concluding part of a ritual worship similar to the story recitation of a vrata-kathā among the sectarian communities of medieval Hinduism.

Structurally, the stories in VaDDārādhane start with a Prakrit gāhe that tells the story line in a synoptic manner. In certain stories, gāhes could also be found in the middle of the story and occasionally towards the end. In some stories, along with the gāhes, Sanskrit ślokas and Kannada verses could also be found in the narrative part of the story. It has been estimated by scholars that about 142 verses have been thus incorporated into VaDDārādhane. Ignoring the repetition of certain verses, there are in all 62 Prakrit gāhes, 57 Sanskrit ślokas and 10 Kannada verses in the text.

The stories in VaDDārādhane describe the details of the ritual deaths, viz. samādhi-maraNa and sallēkhana that the followers of Jaina holymen observe. This is made clear at the beginning of the text after the implicatory verses:

Having done namaskāra to śrī vīra-vardhamāna-bhatārakar (Mahavira), I narrate the stories of great people who achieved salvation and went to sarvārtha-siddhi, after having won the four upasargas (the agency that causes the obstacles for penance), namely, god (deva), human (manuSya), animal (tirik, tiryaka), non-living (acētana), having tolerated the trouble from the twenty-two body-linked requirements (pariSahas), having won over the five senses (indriyas), having discarded the external temptations, having excelled in twelve types of meditations (tapa), having done the sanyasana (leaving the mortal body) by prāyōpagamana, and having destroyed all the encrusted karma.

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