No expert to translate162-yr-old German book

Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 25

The state Department of Heritage and Culture is struggling to get a 162-year-old rare book of a German prince translated. Besides producing over 22 lithographic paintings of three Anglo-Sikh wars, Prussian prince Waldemar had given a detailed account of these wars in German, way back in 1853.

He had written in detail about Punjab, its army and generals but the book was never translated into English or any other Indian language so far.

The Berlin-published book — In Memory of the Travels of Prince Waldemar of Prussia to India 1844-1846 — landed at Chandigarh-based Punjab Digital Library (PDL) for digitisation in 2013.

A private artifacts collector had given the book to the PDL.

Interestingly, the state government was so impressed by the book — especially the lithographs — that it had even gifted copies of these lithographs to industrial and business giants, who had attended Progressive Punjab Summit held in October this year.

That the book is actually rare can be gauged from the fact that according to Christie’s, the world-famous auction house of heritage items, a copy of the book was sold at a whopping $22,000 in 2012.

“The English translation of this book is not available. Despite our efforts so far, the book is still waiting to be translated into English. We had contacted several independent experts of German language available in India and German embassy to help us. The embassy had arranged a German expert, who revealed that the book is written in old German script and its translation is not an easy task. But efforts are still on to locate a German expert, either from India or abroad, who can accomplish the task,” NPS Randhawa, Director, Department of Archaeology and Museums.

Devinder Singh, Executive Director, PDL, said, “Waldemar was the state guest of the British from 1845 to 1846. He was in Punjab when Sikhs fought battles against the British in Ferozshah, Sabraon and Mudki...

“This book is a first-hand account of an eyewitness. But, when we received its copy in 2013, we were wondering why the book was not available in English and hardly referred to by any Punjabi historian so far.”

“Waldemar’s five paintings, which are also part of this book, are exhibited at the Chandigarh Museum. These paintings were acquired from a private collector by the then Chandigarh’s Chief Commissioner, MS Randhawa, who established this museum in Chandigarh.”