81 YO translating ancient scriptures into English so all can benefit and understand. Noble deed.
We keep listening to many people talk about tradition and the rich cultural heritage, they getting deteriorated day by day due to external influences and often long, tiring speeches about the preservation of culture are given. How many of them, who speak about preserving ancient wisdom try to actually do it? How many of us do really know the actual meaning of Slokas in Vedas and Upanishads? Do we even understand that it is not religion-specific and that everyone can read and assimilate their richness? Also, people who are interested in reading ancient scriptures in their original format often find it hard to understand because of the language difficulty. Not everyone who loves to know about ancient wisdom opens the scriptures and Upanishads to read them because they seldom understand what's written in it. In an era, where foreign languages are ruling the world and the ancient languages are lying behind the doors, an 81-year-old man is trying to gift the goodness of ancient scriptures to the present world by translating them into English. Let's know about the work of P.R. Ramachander, a native of Trichur.
A Man with Strong Educational and Professional Background:
P.R. Ramachander was born on January 10th, 1940 in Chelakkara, Trichur District, Kerala to Sri. P.R. Rama Iyer. A person from Kerala's Iyer sect, Ramachander pursued M.A in Mathematics and has obtained his Post Doctoral Diploma in Agricultural Statistics. He worked as the Head of the Department of Statistics in several ICAR institutes. After serving for 36 years, he is retired as the Head of Division of Economics and Statistics of Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore in the year 2000. He published close to 150 papers and 4 books. One of the institutions in England recognized him as one of the top scientists of the Millenium. Ramachander is a linguist and can read, write and speak English, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi; can read Sanskrit and can speak Telugu and Kannada. He loves astrology and historical studies. Blogging, writing religious articles keep him busy. He keeps writing and publishing poetry in English. His wife is Jayalakshmi and his son is Ramesh who live in Florida. His daughter Meera Priya lives in Bangalore. Ramachander has two granddaughters and a grandson. Currently settled in Bangalore, Ramachander is a member of the Kerala Iyer Trust.
Resolution on the Day of Retirement:
On the day of his retirement, Ramachander took a resolution. He decided to translate all the Hindu stotras written in Tamil, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada into English. So far he has translated 2000 stotras written in four languages. He also translated Valmiki, Kamba, and Adhyathma Ramayana into English. Looking at how people are facing difficulty in accessing the language, he has also translated 21 Upanishads, Gita, Devi Mahatmyam, Narayaneeyam, Jnanapana , Krishna Karnamrutham, 21 Vedic sukthas including Chamakam, Rudram and 65 out of 80 known stotra compositions of Adhi Sankara into English. With a wish to preserve Carnatic Kritis in English, he has translated 1950 Kritis that include all the known Krithis of Thyagaraja, about 100 krithis each of Purandara Dasa, Oothukadu Venkata Subba Iyer etc. His translations are available in pdf format - Click here to See His Works
Ramachander, who also loves writing and telling stories, blogs on topics like Mantras, Essays, Samkshepa Dharma Sastram, and Kerala temples. We wish more visits from the young and the old to his blog and may many acquire the goodness of ancient wisdom.
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