Internet Sacred Text Archive

Post by dartharva » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 3:03 PM UTC

jaldhar wrote: post #21

qart wrote: post #12

Be careful with this. I am an atheist, and by no means am I adamantly defending Hinduism. But the translated Hindu scriptures are mostly over a hundred years old. Most such translations carry heavy biases. Quite a lot of of the time, the translation says what the translator wants it to say. If you have a personal affinity for some of the translators at sacred-texts.com, or if you want a historical perspective of tran…

"to transparently convey what the original scriptures say" All translations are lossy. So why not read the original? Granted, Sanskrit is not easy. But it's not insurmountably difficult either especially for a person of Indian origin. And the language of the epics (of which the Gita is a part) is generally a lot simpler than in e.g. kavyas or technical shastras. A few months is long enough to pick up enough understan…

Are the "original" Sanskrit texts floating around really original? Modern Sanskrit is significantly different that Vedic-era Sanskrit, or so I am told. Won't you be picking up just another translation if you try that?

Post by jaldhar » Sat, Jan 01, 2022, 4:22 AM UTC

dartharva wrote: post #51

jaldhar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"to transparently convey what the original scriptures say" All translations are lossy. So why not read the original? Granted, Sanskrit is not easy. But it's not insurmountably difficult either especially for a person of Indian origin. And the language of the epics (of which the Gita is a part) is generally a lot simpler than in e.g. kavyas or technical shastras. A few months is long enough to pick up enough understan…

Are the "original" Sanskrit texts floating around really original? Modern Sanskrit is significantly different that Vedic-era Sanskrit, or so I am told. Won't you be picking up just another translation if you try that?

Sorry only just saw this. We do not know 100% for sure but the historical consensus is the Gita is several hundred years younger than the latest stratum of Vedic texts, well within the era of classical Sanskrit. And the Vedic language (which technically is not Sanskrit as properly that refers to the language codified by Panini, Katyayana and Patanjali.) is somewhat different but not that different. I learned the parts of the Veda that I know the traditional way just memorizing the recitation without the meaning but based on my knowledge of grammar and vocabulary I can understand about 75% and a commentary takes care of the rest.

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive