Categorizing Translation in the Tradition of Interpretive Community

Abstract

Translation is a category (as a product and as a process) that is recognized more in 20th and 21st centuries, though it has been existing for centuries in various forms amidst interpretive communities in India. It is not that a translation is completely unknown to the readers, outside the phenomena ‘translation’ technically; a reader knows about it as a text or as a book. Indian communities have been reading translations of Sanskrit classics in their languages (mother-tongues) in the form of adaptation/trans-creation/retelling. A community reads texts but does not read translation, though translation exists. In the tradition of Indian interpretive communities, translation as a category is not recognized. This paper will explore what that is known as translation to the interpretive community and how to categorize translation in the tradition of Indian interpretive community.

Keywords: Translation, Categorization, Classical texts, Interpretive Community