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Between 1948 and today, two other translations of the Gita have been brought out, which have had world-wide reception-one by Swami Pradhavananda and Christopher Isherwood and the other by Juan Mascaro.
Christopher Islierwood was an outstanding intellectual, English novelist: and filmscript writer of the 'forties. During the Second World War, he migrated froin wartime Britain to the United States, where fortuitously he met Swami Prabhavananda of the Ramakrishna Mission and came under the latter's benign influence. This led to their collaborative venture, a fresh translation of the Gita, which is appended with short essays on the "Cosmology of the Gita" and "The Gita and the War.” Aldous Huxley, the celebrated novelist and protagonist of the "Perennial Philosophy" has written the introduction. This was published by J. N. Dent in the Everyman's Library.
In 1961, the next major translation by Juan Mascaro was brought out as Penguin Classic. A Spaniard, Mascaro had studied Sanskrit and Pali at Cambridge-and later taught there. He has also translated selections from the Upanishads. He is a Biblical scholar also. His translation is in impeccable prose uncluttered by notes and footnotes. But his own introduction is an eassay in Comparative Religion, in which context he has placed the Bhagvadgita, emphasising on its universality as well as relevance to the world of today. This book has gone into several reprints, almost once every year during the 'seventies. The Gita's message is obviously finding favourable response among readers worldwide.
To understand and appreciate Radhakrishnan's methodology of translation, I have selected two Slokas (Adhyaya III Verses 19 and 20) devoted to Karama Yoga. Their translation into English by five different Gwriters are quoted below and contrasted against Radliakrishnan's rendition. In quoting the texts I have incorporated the footnotes in the text at the relevant places within brackets, with the words in italics).
Sir Edwin Arnold, C.S.I., an eminent scholar, an able administrator of the Indian Empire and an Indologist, became famous for his translation of Bhagavadgita into English blank verse, The Song Celestrial. A century ago, this book was hailed in the English-speaking world for its simplicity: and intuitive understanding of Hindoo (it was much later that the spelling changed into Hindu) philosophy. Here is Sir Edwin's translation:
"Therefore, thy task prescribed With spirit unattached gladly perform Since in performance of plain duty man
