The Sanskrit of Solomon Caesar Malan: An Anglican savant reads the Mahābhārata

Hegarty, James M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4769-2449 2023. The Sanskrit of Solomon Caesar Malan: An Anglican savant reads the Mahābhārata. Pfister, Lauren F., ed. Polyglot from the Far Side of the Moon: The Life and Works of Solomon Caesar Malan (1812-1894), Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 207-228.

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Abstract

In this chapter, I will take up the rich and extended engagement between Solomon Caesar Malan (henceforth SCM) and the Sanskrit Mahābhārata (henceforth Mbh), as it is reflected in his work. I will consider, first of all, the range and extent of SCM’s knowledge of Sanskrit literature. I will then focus on the editions and translations of the Mbh that would have been available to him during the course of the nineteenth century. I will also consider the form and extent of Sanskrit Studies in Europe in that period and the range and extent of grammatical and lexicographical works that would have aided SCM in his studies. The main body of this chapter will consider, in detail, a representative selection of SCM’s translations from the Mbh. I will show that SCM’s competence in Sanskrit should not be in doubt, but that his goals as a translator, and his overarching hermeneutical orientation to the Mbh lead, inevitably, to the distortion of his source material. I will show that there is a conflict between SCM’s theological agenda and the complexity of the Mbh’s ideological agenda and narrative structure.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BR Christianity B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BS The Bible P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PI Oriental languages and literatures
Publisher:	Routledge
ISBN:	9781032136868
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2024 09:29
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/170911

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