Kisari Mohan Ganguli
Indian translator of the complete Mahabharata into English
- Nationality
- Indian (Bengal)
- Known for
- First complete English translation of the Mahabharata
- Published
- 1883–1896, Calcutta
- Publisher
- Pratap Chandra Roy
Bengali scholar who made the first complete English Mahabharata, published 1883–1896, still the only complete one in the public domain.
What is Kisari Mohan Ganguli known for?
Kisari Mohan Ganguli was an Indian scholar who produced the first complete English translation of the Mahabharata, the vast Sanskrit epic of the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. It was published in Calcutta in instalments between 1883 and 1896 by the bookseller and printer Pratap Chandra Roy.
Ganguli at first asked to stay anonymous, partly because he doubted one person could finish such a huge task. His name was left off the early volumes, which led many readers, and later librarians, to credit the translation to Roy. His name was restored only after all eighteen books were complete, and modern scholars have worked to correct the attribution.
The Ganguli translation is still the only complete English Mahabharata in the public domain, so it is the version most online quotations claim to come from. It is useful for checking famous 'ancient nuclear war' quotes: several of them, including a line about the light of ten thousand suns, do not appear in it.
The site checks viral Mahabharata 'atomic weapon' quotes against Ganguli's translation and notes which lines are not in it.
Mentioned on these pages
Sources
- Internet Sacred Text Archive, 'The Mahabharata', tr. Kisari Mohan GanguliPrimary text
- Wikipedia, 'Kisari Mohan Ganguli'Reference
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