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Sanskrit Translation Distortions

Translator Bias Compromised Eastern Esoteric Writings

Sanskrit translation distortions have occurred due to two major problems.

Firstly, Western translators deliberately altered many of the early translations in order to diminish the Indians’ reliance upon them. For example, Max Müller, one of the more famous Sanskrit scholars, openly bragged that his translations would help in uprooting the deep faith of the Indians. The author of the authoritative Sanskrit-to-English Dictionary, Monier Monier-Williams, held the Boden Chair of the East India College. Colonel Boden funded this chair to express Christian teachings in Sanskrit for missionary work.

Secondly, Sanskrit translation distortions happened because the Western translators had no knowledge of the inner forces and fluids being described. Also, they didn’t know how the inner forces were explained by ancient allegorical gods. As a result of their Sanskrit translation distortions, the ancient descriptions of inner powers were suppressed. Nevertheless, the distorted translations suited the missionary goals of the colonizing British.

Unfortunately, most people today consider these biased Sanskrit translations to be authoritative. Therefore, they still serve as the basis for most subsequent Sanskrit translations.

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