Bhubaneswar: The two-day platinum jubilee celebrations of Utkal University concluded here Tuesday.
Eminent litterateurs graced the literary festival, Sugandha Abhiyaktira, on the occasion and shared their views on diverse topics.
The final day began with a session titled ‘Translations: An Interface between Sanskrit and Odia’.
Retired Sanskrit professors of the university, Gopal Krishna Dash and Raghunath Panda along with the chairperson of Utkal University Subhash Chandra Dash deliberated on the translations from Odia to Sanskrit and vice-versa.
Gopal Das opined that although translation is perpetually suspended between the source and target language, it is the duty of the translator to be loyal to the source as much as possible. He cited several examples of popular translations of Odia texts into Sanskrit.
Raghunath Panda talked about translations from Sanskrit to Odia and said, “One of the earliest texts to be translated from Sanskrit into Odia is the Rig Veda. Among the Vedas it is only the Rig Veda which has had a couple of translations into Odia, however translations of the Upanishads have been very popular and more in number.”
The event ended with the staging of Fakir Mohan Senapati’s short story ‘Randi Pua Ananta’ by the students of Utkal University.
Monday, Jnanpith awardee Pratibha Ray graced the occasion and said, “Be it religion or anything else, a writer shouldn’t be afraid to speak his/her heart out because only when we have unshackled us from any norms or restrictions, literature is born.”
Ray added that giving classical status to Odia language is not the end of it and still there is much to do for the overall development of the language in the state. “The most important thing is the safety of Odia language script; it is the key to its (Odia’s) survival,” she pointed out.
Padma Bushan awardee Ramakanta Rath discussed the situation of the Odia literature in the state. Rath said, “The change can only be brought by the youth of the country. They are the one who can make the turnaround possible.”
Vice chancellor Soumendra Mohan Patnaik said that language has the power to bring people together and advised the students to never abandon their mother language instead they should strive for its development.
The guests also discussed on the tradition of Sanskrit and translation in the special sessions.