Translator of Mahan Kosh justifies omitting word list
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 11
Reacting to The Tribune story, ‘6,000 republished Mahan Kosh copies may be scrapped’ (September 11), the scholar who had translated the work into English said 132 pages comprising a list of words were not included as “these would not have served any purpose”.
Three persons headed the project for translating the magnum opus into English – Prof Prem Singh of University of Delhi, Prof Gurkirpal Singh Sekhon of Punjabi University (Patiala) and Prof Tejwant Singh Gill of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. The first two have passed away.
In a statement, Prof Gill said they had decided to exclude the pages as Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha had only listed the words. “He might have included them after elaborating upon their meaning, etymology and semantics,” he said. “As listed by Bhai Nabha, their inclusion in the Punjabi volumes was concordant. It would have seemed discordant in volumes carrying their English translation,” he said.
The Tribune had highlighted that in view of alleged distortions and mistakes, the Punjabi University authorities had called a meeting on September 15 to take a final call on the fate of Mahan Kosh (Encyclopedia of Sikh Literature).
