It took him eight years to bring out the 730-page translation of the Bhagavad Gita, a book praised by critics for lucidity and aptness of translation.
Now an audio CD of the Malayalam version of the Bhagavad Gita translated by Etteth Gangadharan is getting a musical avatar.
The audio CD will be released at a function to be held at the Fine Arts Hall at Tarekkad on Sunday by author and Kozhikode District Collector K V Mohan Kumar.
“It was after an eight-year’s effort that the 730- page malayalam translation of Srimad Bhagavad Gita was brought outin 2006,” said Etteth Gangadharan.
After seeing the book, Anandi Ramachandran, the producer of the CD, (who had published the letters of O V Vijayan into a book) encouraged him to bring out the CD version.
And, it took an year’s effort to bring out the CD, which has a duration of 4 hours and six minutes.
“The translation of Etteth Gangadharan is a notch above the ones available in the market. While many of the translations fail to show faithfulness to the original, Gangadharan’s translation is apt and comprehensive,” said Anandi Ramachandran, who is a director of the Dubai-based Asiatic Group of Companies.
The CD has been brought out by Maithreyi Creations. The music is by S T Sasidharan, a retired professor of music at the Government College, Chittur.
“Altogether 64 ragas were used for the music composition,” said S T Sasidharan, adding that the literary aspect was also looked after by using apt pronunciations.
“The primary objective of the work is to make the message of the great book available to common people,” writer and sister of the late O V Vijayan, O V Usha said.
Gangadharan has several books to his credit including ‘Kannugal’, ‘Velicham varunnu’, ‘Njangalakku maranamilla’ and ‘Christhukurishil’. He is also credited with the Malayalam translation and interpretation of eight Upanishads from the Daso Upanishad.
Gangadharan is now readying to publish the Malayalam translations of Chandogya Upanishad and Brihadaranyako Upanishad (the ninth and tenth upanishads of the Daso Upanishad) and the Valmiki Ramayan (24,000 slokas).