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Authorspeak
Bhanumurti is 82, and he has been involved with the study of Gurbani since 1962, when he first heard the recitation of Guru Granth Sahib at the house of a neighbour. In time, he tried to translate compositions from Guru Granth Sahib into Telugu, which he has accomplished to much acclaim. The room has photographs of him being honoured by the late SGPC President, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, as well as well-known leaders of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee. Punjabi University, Patiala, had honoured him at the convocation in 1974, but then honours are nothing new for Bhanumurti, who has been a journalist and worked in the Central Information Service with distinction for over 28 years. He retired in 1981 as Director, Public Relations, Ministry of Agriculture. Along with spiritualism, science runs strong in Bhanumurti’s mindscape. He has been writing books in Telugu and on science since 1938 and has more than 60 volumes to his credit. He has won awards for his Telugu writing, though he is equally proficient in English, which is the language largely used by him in his journalistic work. In 1999, he was given the Sahitya Akademi award for translating Gurdial Singh’s Punjabi novel, Aadh Chhanani Raat, from Punjabi. He can’t read the Gurmukhi script. He gets the text read to him, and then finds the right words in Telugu. Didn’t he learn Punjabi in the past 30 years? "I was advised not to, since what I learnt would not be adequate. I do not try to interpret Guru Granth Sahib; I do not want to inadvertently change the compositions of the Gurus. My translation is a literal translation, not a comment. Ours is a sincere attempt to present the Bani in its own pure form, without any interpretations," he says. "Since Guru Granth Sahib is largely in sadhu bhasha, I find it easy to translate," he says. He has been assisted by Rajinder Singh Malik, a retired Deputy Secretary, for the past 30 years. After they read a passage together, they try to find the nearest equivalent in Telugu. In this way, even the sound and the rhythm of the original are retained to a large measure. Bhanumurti has transcreated Japji Sahib into Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu. The original is transliterated in the relevant script and then a transcreation is given. When he reads out the original and the transcreation, the similarities between the two are striking, and even though one does not know the language, one is impressed by the craft. During a visit to Japan in 1974, Bhanumurti helped start the work on a translation into Japanese by making some local Sikhs transcreate Mul Mantra. About four years ago, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee gave him a computer and a researcher, which have been withdrawn since January 28, 2005. This has pained the author, since the work has been left in-between, and now aspersions are being cast on his translation work. "I am always ready to show my work to those who want to see it. I have been doing this sewa for the past 30 years without taking any pay or honorarium. I want the entire Sikh world to know about my work, and to spread the word of the Gurus all over the world, in as many languages as possible. "Right from the start, I have always involved the Sikh community in my work because I did not want to do anything which was not right. When the late Mehtab Singh pointed out some things that had been narrated wrongly, I made sure that I took care thereafter. "I only wish that scholars were to examine the work, and that I should be allowed to continue my translation of Guru Granth Sahib, since the universal message of the Gurus should be made available to the widest possible audience, which can only happen through translation," says this scholar. He has translated more than two-thirds of the entire text in Telugu and is continuing the work, though he feels the absence of the help he got keenly. "We are determined
and committed to the cause because Sikhism is the future religion of the
world. Machinery makes life easier, but we will continue our work,"
he says. |
As
you make your way to the address given by V. Bhanumurti, you can’t but
be aware that you are driving into one of the posh areas of Delhi. Yet
his first-floor apartment is spartan. Books and papers everywhere, a
warm welcome from the lady of the house, Suryamanikyam, and you are
ushered into a room full of… more books.