Ashokamitran (born 1931, Secunderabad) is one of the most distinguished of contemporary Tamil writers. He began his literary career with a prize-winning radio play in 1953, and has since written a number of short stories, novellas and novels. His work has been extensively translated into many Indian and European languages. The major English translations include Taneer (Water) by KATHA, Padinettavadu Atchakodu (The Eighteenth Parallel) by Orient Longman, The Colours of Evil by Manas, East West Books.
Ashokamitran lives and works in Chennai. His years of rich and diverse contribution to Tamil literature have brought him many honours and awards, including the Sahitya Akademi award (1996). He was also awarded a creative writing fellowship by the University of Iowa as part of its International Writing Program.
I have to admit that I read Ashokamitran for the first time, only a year ago. This is a poor comment on the sufficiency of my reading. But on closer scrutiny thereby also hangs a tale concerning the nature of the Indian State, wherein the One inevitably must translate into the Many. It also points to the foolhardiness and fragility of the sponsored neo-myths about the Oneness of Indian Literature and Tradition. If a reasonably book-and-literature-friendly person like me cannot access Ashokamitran or Ananthamurthy or Mahasweta Devi in my time and day unless I maintain a vigilant eye on translations, reviews and new arrivals in bookshops, what about the average Indian whose first concern may not be literature? What's all this about Oneness then?.
If any works of imagination provide the connecting link between most Indian languages, they are the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These two tough texts have survived adaptation both by religion and television. If they have managed to create a semblance of the so-called Oneness, it is only through translations and transcreations. The translations and versions they have undergone state the perfect case for translating literatures in the Indian subcontinent. Even variant phenomena like the rath yatra and the Ram temple have much to thank those translators for, viewed in retrospect. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata transmigrated into the folklore of the many Indian cultures through the open door of the mother tongues. Re-tellers of the epics such as Ezhuthachan of Malayalam or Kambar of Tamil became the cornerstones of the formation of a pan-Indian Hinduism. It was not Sanskrit that hit the jackpot but the re-tellings in mother tongues. Thus the Ramayana and the Mahabharata became the Mothers of all Indian Stories. They set up the Vision of the Story in Indian mother tongues.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist