Рамаяна: Том 1: Балаканда и Айодхьяканда · Часть 2
Полный четырёхтомник Манматхи Натха Датта, английский, Калькутта, 1891–1894. Все четыре тома конкретного перевода М. Н. Датта: Балаканда, Айодхьяканда, Араньяканда, Кишкиндхаканда, Сундараканда, Юддхаканда и Уттараканда. Полный текст выбранного четырёхтомного издания; это не собрание всех версий Рамаяны.
Все четыре тома конкретного перевода М. Н. Датта: Балаканда, Айодхьяканда, Араньяканда, Кишкиндхаканда, Сундараканда, Юддхаканда и Уттараканда. Полный текст выбранного четырёхтомного издания; это не собрание всех версий Рамаяны.
Project Gutenberg identifies each of the four ebooks as public domain in the USA. Translator Manmatha Nath Dutt lived 1855–1912; historical editions 1891, 1891, 1893, 1894. CRLF normalized to LF, outside whitespace trimmed, complete body split at paragraph boundaries for the reader. No text within the selected body dropped. Полные сведения об издании и лицензия
To the antiquary and the student of oriental literature and manners, a
knowledge of the Ramayana is simply indispensable. Together with the
Mahabharata with which it is joined in popular parlance, and with which
it goes hand in hand in compass and variety of information, but to which
its superiority is pronounced in point of epic excellence and
consistency and uniformity of execution, the Ramayana constitutes the
great repository of wisdom and learning, the manners and customs of the
ancient Hindus. Indeed, the adage current in our socity with regard to
the Mahabharata, "What is not in _Bharat_ (Mahabharat), is not in
_Bharat_ (India)" applies to Ihe Ramayana as well. In it, cosmogony and
theogony, the genealogies of kings and princes,--of human and
extra-human beings, of _Ashuras_ and _Danavas_, of _Yakshas_ and
_Gandharvas_, and _Shiddhas_ and _Charanas_; folklore and anecdotes and
legends, and stories half- mythical and half-historical; descriptions of
cities existing at a period long anterior to the age of Troy and
Memphis, and the chronicles of kings that reigned before Priam and
Busiris,--all these with others too numerous to enumerate, have been
woven into the mighty web and woof of the magic drapery evolved by the
so potent art of Valmiki.
Nor is the poem less interesting in a political point of view. It can
hardly be questioned that all progress to be real and intrinsic must be
developed out of the inherent tendencies of a nation--the feelings and
sentiments and idiosyncracies into which it is born as well as those
which have been stamped on its life and mind by the stress and
exigencies of circumstances, social and political. For a nation,
therefore, to govern another with such an object as that with which
England has taken upon herself the Government of this country--namely,
the progress and advancement of the children of the soil--a close and
wide study of its laws, and institutions manners and customs, modes of
thought and emotional proclivities becomes a thing of paramount
interest. It is clear, hence, that to our rulers an acquaintance with
such works as the Mahabharata and Ramayana is most important for wise
and beneficient adminstration. Nor can it avail one to advance the
seemingly unanswerable objection that treating of as they do a state of
society divided from the real present by a huge and abyssmal gulf of
time, such works can by no means serve as useful and faithful guides to
the life and manners of Hindu society existing at this day. "In India,"
as Professor Monier Williams justly remarks, "the lapse of centuries is
powerless in effecting radical changes in the foundation and
constitution of Hindu society." The conservative character of the Hindu
nation is proverbial. In India usages and observances, the rituals
prescribed by the scriptures and the customs sanctioned by hoary age,
are clung to with a tenacity that is proof against time and innovation;
and those who think that England has materially swayed and influnced the
social life of the people, labour, we make bold to say, under a
lamentable delusion.
Having regard alike to the surpassing and matchless excellence of the
poem itself both in its dramatic and lyric character, the extreme
interest it possesses for antiquaries and students of oriental
literature, and the importance with which its study is fraught
politically to Englishmen, it is most desirable that the Ramayana should
be presented before the public in an English garb. In consequence of its
being composed originally in Sanskrit, it literally remains a sealed
book to the majority of students. Few are the persons that can devote
their time and energies to master Sanskrit--a language which of all
languages existing on earth, is, in consequence of its highly complex
and complicated grammar, as well as the indefiniteness which
characterises it on account of its possessing countless synonyms, most
difficult to master by a foreigner. Nay, we can perhaps safely go so far
as to assert that very few amongst those Western scholars who have
devoted their lives to the study of Sanskrit literature, have been able
to enter into the spirit of that part of its vocabulary in which are
couched those peculiarly Hindu ideas and sentiments that constitute the
unique genius of the people. To translate, therefore, such a work as the
Ramayana from the dead and indefinite Sanskrit into the living and real
English, is, like unearthening a fossil and inspiring it with life; or
rather like transferring a light from a bushel in which it has been
hidden, to a mountain- top,--so that men may behold it and the
surrounding objects by help of its grateful rays. Surely, to render a
work from a dead tongue into a living language and specially such a
language as English with all its resources, is literally taking it from
its narrow and circumscribed sphere of influence, and placing it before
the world at large--in fact, making it the common property and heritage
of all mankind. The utility, therefore, we flatter ourselves, of this
present literary undertaking, will recomend itself to all thinking-minds
without any further elaboration on our part. Indeed, it would argue no
common hardihood in him who despite common sense and reason, would
endevour to maintain that the Epic of Valmiki published in an English
garb (always provided that the execution do not fall far short of the
requirements) would prove valueless as a contribution to the case of
literature and culture.
In translating the Ramayana into English, we are concerned with a work
composed by an illustrious ascetic passing his days in a hermitage in
devout contemplation and the practice of rigid austerities and
self-denial. It behoves us, therefore, to approach the task in a
becoming spirit, with minds duly prepared and fitted. Let us,
accordingly, begin by invoking Him whose presence can convert the
foulest and the most unclean spot, pure and clean, "like the icicle that
hangs on Dian's temple," or the hearts and aspirations of the Vestal
Virgins, or pious saints ever engaged in meditating the Most High. May
He in His infinite and eternal grace vouchsafe to purge our minds of all
ignoble feelings and motives,--may He enable is to find delight in duty
and doing His will! May our energies never flag while carrying the
burden we have taken on our shoulders! May He enlighten our
understanding to interpret aright and convey in clear and adequate
language the great thoughts and sentiments of the sublime bard,--so that
the English Ramayana being read by all the subjects of a Monarch on
whose dominions the sun never sets, it may contribute to their constant
profit and delight.
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