In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, Rammohun Roy worked on translating the Vedantic texts. In 1815, he translated the Vedas into Bengali; in 1816-1817, he wrote the Abridgement of the Vedanta in English, Bengali and Hindusthani, and translated the Upanishads into English and Bengali. Rammohun was supremely aware of his readership, and churned out Bengali and English translations with great rapidity. He was able to move between different “publics”. About this period of activity, he wrote:
I have found the doctrines of Christ more conducive to moral principles, and better adapted for the use of rational beings, than any others … and have also found Hindus in general more superstitious and miserable, both in performance of their religious rites and in their domestic concerns, than the rest of the known nations on the earth; I therefore, … translated their most revered theological work, namely Vedant, into Bengali and Hindusthani, and also several chapters of the Ved… I however, in the beginnings of my pursuit, met with the greatest of opposition from their self interested leaders, the Brahmins, and was deserted by my nearest relations; I consequently felt extremely melancholy; in that critical situation, the only comfort that I had was the consoling and rational conversation of European friends, specially those in England and Scotland.
The realm of readers for his English works comprised Europeans; no natives before him had written for such a readership, and therefore, there was no precedence as to what was expected from him as a native writer, writing in English for the Europeans. He was not hesitant in condemning the Brahmins, referring to them in the third person and in the process separating himself from the community of Hindus, and even voicing appreciation at how he had been received by the Europeans. In most ways, he was a native cultural mediator, making the east and his own culture comprehensible to the European reader.
His English works on the Vedanta are as follows: Translation of an Abridgement of the Vedanta (1816), Translation of the Kena Upanishad (1816), Translation of the Isopanishad (1816), Translation of the Mundaka Upanishad (1819), Translation of the Katha Upanishad (1819). It is interesting to speculate on the need for such translations as the English-speaking world would already have been familiar with the Vedantic works of William Jones. In the preface to the Translation of the Kuth Opunishud of the Ujoor Veda, Rammohun makes it very clear as to why he wrote these translations:
I had some time ago the satisfaction of publishing a translation of the Katha-Upanishad of the Yajur-veda into Bengalee; and of distributing copies of it as widely as my circumstances would allow for the purposes of diffusing Hindoo scriptural knowledge among the adherents of that religion. The present publication is intended to assist the European community in forming their opinion respecting Hindoo Theology.
This statement is revealing, drawing attention to the nature of print in its early years, and how Rammohun made use of the power of print. William Jones and the scholars of the East India Company had worked with Hindu pandits in explaining the nature of eastern religion to the West; the Baptist missionaries had also spread their version of Hinduism by deriding it. Rammohun wanted to combat these renditions of Hinduism. As we unwrap Rammohun’s comment on why he had published these translations, we learn about the nature of his intended English and native readership, and the reasons why his works were important. First of all, he makes it clear that his native, Bengali-reading readers were not well versed in his version of Hinduism; therefore, he made use of a strategy that was quite expensive and he must have picked up from the missionaries—free distribution of pamphlets among the Bengali speaking Hindus so that they could improve their “scriptural knowledge”. The missionaries were busy doing something similar and were also disseminating tracts in Bengali, but their focus was on ridiculing Hindu practices. The missionaries described Hinduism as originating from the devil, and Rammohun, on the other hand, proclaimed that his agenda was on teaching scriptural Hinduism to the Hindus. On the other hand, the English translations were meant for the Europeans who would to some degree have been familiar with the translations of William Jones’ version of Hinduism. Rammohun was a native, explaining his own religious systems to the Europeans and his credibility lay in this fact. He was almost a pandit who was well versed in the ways of the Europeans and made sense of the new systemic and institutional changes that were taking place.
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