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VEDA, the SAS publishing house, brings the first translation of ancient Indian texts - Upanishads - from Sanskrit to Slovak. The author of the translation is Róbert Gáfrik, a literary scholar from the Institute of World Literature SAS. Even Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted this extraordinary scientific and cultural achievement in his show. On Thursday, December 5, at a ceremonial presentation in Bratislava, the book was introduced beside the author by Her Excellency Apoorva Srivastava, Ambassador of India to Slovakia, Dušan Deák from the Department of Comparative Religion of the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University Bratislava, and actor Boris Farkaš.

Upanishads bring the first translation of the ten so-called main ancient Indian Upanishads from the Sanskrit original to Slovak. The early Upanishads (ca. 7th-5th centuries BC) belong to the oldest preserved religious-philosophical texts in the world. The author of the translation and introduction to the book Upanishads, Róbert Gáfrik, focused on the dating and understanding of the Vedas and Upanishads, the question of their literary qualities, as well as the reasons why, when working with the text, he adhered to the interpretations of Shankara (around the 7th century), one of the most important representatives of Indian philosophy. During the presentation, Róbert Gáfrik summed up his – not only purely scientific – motivation:

“The Upanishads deal with self-knowledge. Although they originated in the distant past, their ideas are not far from those of modern man. They speak to people across millennia and cultures.”

The Ambassador of India to Slovakia, Her Excellency Apoorva Srivastava, stressed the importance of Upanishads not only for Indian but also for world culture. She mentioned that the Indian Prime Minister mentioned the Slovak edition of the Upanishads in his show Man kí bát (in Hindi, "Words from the Heart"), which is dedicated to Indian achievements. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: "I just learned about an initiative that deals with the preservation and presentation of our culture: for the first time, our Upanishads were translated into the Slovak language. ... We should be proud that there are millions of people worldwide who keep India in their hearts."

This apolitical show is telecast every month in Hindi and translated into various regional languages. It is also available online and through social media, so hundreds of millions of people learned about Slovakia, the Slovak language and the Upanishads.

At the presentation, Dušan Deák from the Department of Comparative Religion of the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University Bratislava, spoke about the symbolic meaning of the ancient Indian Upanishads: "Róbert Gáfrik is an exceptional figure of Slovak literary science. The scientific interest, which connects the European and the Indian world by means of an in-depth study of literature and culture, is not seen too often in Slovak academic realia. With his translation of the Upanishads, he created a unique and truly monumental work. Not only is it the longest translated text from Sanskrit to Slovak, but thanks to the author's methodological approach, it is also a unique text."

The publication of the book by the SAS publishing house, VEDA, was supported by the Embassy of India in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the Slovak Academy of Sciences on the recommendation of the SAS Editorial Board. Graphic design is the work of renowned book graphic designer Mária Rojko.

Indian Prime Minister on the translation of the Upanishads HERE

Upanishads book cover HERE.

Text: Monika Tináková

Photo: Matej Pok