Yājñasenī (1): A living Sanskrit translation
On my current literary distractions list is another book I picked up in Satya Narayan Dasji's basement. This is again a translation, but this time from Orissan into Sanskrit. The author, Pratibha Ray , has won numerous awards and the original version of Yājñasenī (1984) was also a prize winner, winning the Moorti Devi Award,1991 and Sarala Award, 1990, and most recently, the prestigious Bharatiya Jnanapith award in 2011. It was made into a popular Hindi teleseries and the famous film-actress Hemamalini also made a stage ballet adaptation of it. Hemamalini is currently involved in politics for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which perhaps sheds a little light on the underlying ethos of the author. And this is something that I will return to. Hemamalini, the BJP candidate, waving to crowds. This translation was done by Bhagirathi Nanda and published by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan , which is an Indian government undertaking. As the title indicates, Yājñasenī is the a...