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Audacious retellings: Multilingualism and translation in Jnāneswari and Kristapurāṇa

ABSTRACT The present study analyzes the relationship between translation and multilingualism through a reading of Jnāneswari (1290 AD) and Kristapurāṇa (1616 AD). Jnāneswar's Bhavarthadeepika, or Jnāneswari, is a translation of the Sanskrit Bhagvad Gita into Marathi. Jnāneswar's “audacious” translation took considerable liberties with the Sanskrit source text and retold it in the framework of Marathi culture, thereby inaugurating the tradition of Marathi saint literature. Three centuries later, the Catholic missionary Thomas Stephens SJ (1549–1619) composed Kristapurāṇa in the same tradition of Marathi saint poetry. Kristapurāṇa may be read as the earliest retelling of the Christian Bible in a South Asian language. The article juxtaposes Jnāneswari and Kristapurāṇa to examine the manner in which translations drew on and contributed to the literary multilingualism in the region. In doing so, the article also critically reflects on early South Asian approaches to translation as “retelling”, as delineated in these two texts.