BY RAMNATH N PAI RAIKAR
Religion, over the years has been interpreted by many saints, Godmen, mystics, diplomats, statesmen, politicians, revolutionaries, and the public in general, in different ways; mostly to suit their own interests and means, rather than for the benevolence of mankind. Karl Marx famously quipped that “Religion is the opium of the masses”, while Swami Vivekananda maintained that “By the study of different religions, we find that in essence they are one.”

Prof Suresh Amonkar, the septuagenarian Goan educationist and scholar, after 15 long years of hard work put into transliterating various religious scriptures into Konkani – ‘Dhammapada’, the Buddhist scripture in Pali; ‘Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta’, the Hindu Scripture in Sanskrit; ‘Kural’, the Tamil Veda; ‘Dnyaneshwari’, a commentary on Geeta in old Prakrit Marathi and ‘Japuji Sahib’ from Guru Granth Sahib by Guru Nanak in Punjabi – has earned valuable experience, which makes him strongly support the above observation by Swami Vivekananda.
All set to release the Konkani transliteration of Gospel according to John from the New Testament of the Bible, on April 20, Prof Amonkar believes that bringing the religious classics to Konkani should not be observed as his achievement. “It was a providential will, wherein I was destined to do this work,” he admitted.
But even the labour taking place through the will of God needs to have a start; and what an interesting start it was that made Prof Amonkar carry out the ‘Monumental work’, as the Gyanpeeth Award winner, Ravindrabab Kelekar aptly described it.
“In the year 1993, I was on a visit to Mumbai to undergo my first bypass surgery,” says Prof Amonkar sharing his memories with ‘The Navhind Times’, further adding, “and entirely forgetting the purpose of my visit to the Metropolitan city, I was moving around the Fort area, scanning the old books kept for sale on the footpath, when I suddenly noticed a book written by Dhammajyoti, a Buddhist monk, and coincidently revised by late Dharmanand Kossambi, which was published way back in 1945.”
“I am close to Buddhism, as can be seen from the fact that the names of my children are Siddharth and Gautam, and furthermore, have studied Sanskrit in my schooldays, thanks to the persistence of my father, late Gundu Amonkar,” Prof Amonkar states, pointing out that converting the Pali text in Devnagari script became his passion and mission. “I subsequently brought a dictionary and grammar book on Pali and had reached the 28th draft of translation, when Ravindrabab told me to stop its further revision,” the translator of scriptures informs, maintaining that the translated work was ignored by Sahitya Akademi when placed before it as Pali was not considered a fit language for translation. “Subsequently our determination made Sahitya Akademi accept both Pali and Ardhamaghadi as the languages adequate enough for translation and for granting Sahitya Akademi Awards,” he notes.
The success of Dhammapada’s transliteration into Konkani made Prof Amonkar repeat the exercise with the ‘Bhagwad Geeta’. There already existed 10 Konkani translations of the holy book, but the one by Prof Amonkar is really exhaustive.
“At this point, I felt that the Konkani language needed classics, and I could bring many such religious works into the language,” Prof Amonkar says, stating that his next project was the Konkani transliteration of ‘Dnyaneshwari’, a scripture that has 9,033 verses, and needed five revisions on his part. “My next work on the agenda was ‘Kural’ by Saint Thiruvalluvar, which is a book on pursuit of ethics in life towards salvation,” he states, adding that the dynamic, disciplinarian and socially conscious lifestyle of Sikhs prompted him to undertake the transliteration of ‘Japuji Sahib’, which is the first part of the Guru Granth Sahib.
His recent literary pursuit is the transliteration of Gospel according to John. “Sometimes, facts are stranger than fiction, as I have experienced,” Prof Amonkar says, recalling that when he was admitted to junior BA class at the Mumbai-based Wilson College, run by the Scottish Protestant missionaries, he chose ‘Scripture (Bible) for Protestants and ethics for non-Protestants’ as one of his subjects. “However, Ms Esther Kurian, the teacher of the subject inquired if I was a Protestant and after receiving a negative reply, referred me to the Scottish principal of the institution - James Kellock, who in turn, refused to admit me to the class of the particular subject unless I brought a written permission from my father,” he remembers, pointing out, “That was because the principal feared of being charged with the allegation of making efforts towards religious conversion.”
Prof Amonkar not only managed to get permission from his liberal father, who was open to new religious and spiritual ideas, but also studied Bible at the college for next two years.
“Though it is just a coincidence that I am the first Hindu to translate a Gospel into Konkani, and that too exactly 500 years after the Portuguese arrived in Goa, I feel that only time decides when certain events have to happen,” Prof Amonkar says, noting that in the globalised world today, with political borders crumbling and electronic media bringing the entire world to our bedroom, there is still a tendency for many to pronounce judgements on political and religious matters without properly studying the issues or texts. “I truly hope that my translations of scriptures will help the conscious readers to refer to the originals, before they pronounce judgements on other religions,” he points out.
Speaking further, Prof Amonkar says that few years ago, a Portuguese gentleman – Antonio Boronha on a visit to Goa was impressed by ‘Bhagwad Geeta’, learnt Sanskrit at Haridwar, and translated the scripture into Portuguese, which he dedicated to Dr Rajaram Kelekar, father of Ravindrabab. “This means that voluntarily a climate has been created for uniting various religious views and some persons like us are acting in this direction,” he maintains.
Discussing his future plans, Prof Amonkar said that the Quran is an important scripture for translation, but he would be required to study at least the basics of Arabic, before undertaking the task. “Insha’allah, God willing, it might happen,” he says, informing that presently he is working on a comparative study of Buddha, Kabir and Tukaram, great religious reformers of the country.
“It is a pity that religion is today more used for dividing people than uniting their minds and hearts,” Prof Amonkar rues on a parting note, observing that easy availability of such books would help many persons to take up comparative study of religions, which is the need of the hour.