Gonda Translated to Japanese
By AD VAN SCHAIK
Japanese translations of the books of Professor J. Gonda by Professor K. Yoroi reach sales figures in Japan which a best-selling novelist would envy. Thirty thousand copies each of the Japanese translations of Gonda's 'Inleiding tot het Indische denken' (Introduction to Indian Thought) published in 1948 and of his 'Kurze Elementar Grammatik der Sanskrit Sprache' (Consise Elementary Grammar of the Sansrit Language), third revised edition have been sold. Prof. Yoroi has also revised Prof. Gonda's 'A Sanskrit Reader, containing seventeen epic and puranic texts, with a glossary', which was originally published in 1935. Newly completed and not yet published is Gonda's 'Sanskrit Reader', revised and annotated by Kiyoshi Yoroi.Prof. Yoroi says that: 'With my translations of Gonda's books I want to lay solid foundations for Japanese beginners in the studies of Sanskrit and Indonology. My translations bring Prof. Gonda's books within the reach of every Japanese student'. Once Japanese who wanted to study Sanskrit had to fall back on the antiquated translation of 'Elementarbuch der Sanskrit Sprache' (Elementary Book of the Sanskrit Language) by Adolf Friedrich Stenzler, but Yoroi claims: 'That book by itself was not enough'.
Yoroi came to the Netherlands in 1962 to study Sanskrit and Indian religions under the guidance of Prof. Gonda. Having spent four and a half years in Utrecht, Yoroi was awarded his doctorate supervised by this world renowned professor for a thesis entitled 'Ganesagita. A Study, Translation with Notes and etc. (DRT, XII) 1968.
For many years Gonda, who died in 1992, determined the profile of Indology (the study of Indian culture). At one time eight of the chairs of Oriental Studies at Utrecht, Leiden, Amsterdam, and Groningen were occupied by his students. About a quarter of the sixty of those who did their doctorates under him were appointed to chairs in the Netherlands and abroad. Gonda was famous throughout the world.
Prof. Yoroi himself is a little puzzled as to why especially his Japanese translations sell so well. The majority of the purchasers are Buddhists who are studying for the monkhood. It is essential that they know Sanskrit says the translator. Quite apart from this, among young Japanese there is a waxing enthusiasm for India and, concomitantly, popular Indian culture. Yoroi says: 'Take, for example, Hindi films. At the moment they are drawing full houses in Japan'. *
Ad van Schaik is a freelance journalist, who specializes in Asian topics. He can be reached at ad.van.schaik@WXS.nl.