By Prasenjit Debnath Aug 30, 2022
Agartala, Aug 30 (FD) Deeply inspired by the literary works of the Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, an MLA of Tripura, Atul Debbarma, who is also a doctor translated Gitanjali in Kokborok, the lingua franca of the nineteen tribes of Tripura.
He also translated another book ‘Tipur Sati Ishwari Jayabati’ (Tripura Sati Maharani Jayabati) into Kokborok which was written by Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur in Bengali.
Covers of the two books were unveiled by Tripura Education minister Ratan Lal Nath at Shiksha Bhavan on Tuesday.
When asked, what inspired Debbarma to translate Gitanjali, he said, “I am always deeply inspired by the writings of Rabindranath Thakur and thought that if Gitanjali is translated in Kokborok would benefit the indigenous people of the state”.
He also said that the translation of Gitanjali is a tribute to the first Nobel Prize winner of the country Rabindranath Tagore from his part.
The other book, he translated was the tale of the daughter of Udai Manikya, who ruled the state during the sixteenth century.
Elaborating the story, the MLA said, Udai Manikya was one of the two kings, who were not descendant of royal family. His daughter, Jayabati was married to the Ananta Manikya, the king of Tripura and became queen of Tripura.
However, Udai Manikya, whose original name was Gopi Prasad hatched a conspiracy and assassinated Ananta manikya and captured the throne of the kingdom.
However, Jayabati did not approve his father’s act of cowardice and planned to take revenge.
According to Debbarma, the story of the play is about how Maharani Jayabati took revenge against her father Gopi Prasad.
“The story was so famous during that period of time that script of drama was written based on the story and staged in theaters for long. It inspired me to translate the play into Kokborok, my mother tongue, so that the tribals could read the story in their own language”, Debbarma said.
Debbarma also found that very few plays were available in the Kokborok language, which is also the other reason behind translation of the story. FD PD