ASIA/INDIA - WORD OF GOD NOW ACCESSIBLE TO MORE THAN 200 MILLION PEOPLE THANKS TO 35 YEARS OF DEDICATED WORK TO PRODUCE BIBLE IN BENGALI

Tuesday, 18 November 2003

Calcutta (Fides Service) – The complete Bible has been translated and published in Bengali thanks to the Xavier Publications House in Calcutta. The Bengali Bible was presented to the press at the Jesuit Communications Centre in Calcutta on 14 November.
The ambitious achievement is the fruit of 35 years of dedicated work by Indian Jesuit Father Christian Mignon (aged 83) and Bengali speaking author and poet Sajal Banerjea.
“Our aim from the beginning was to render the Bible in spoken modern day Bengali”, Father Mignon told Fides adding that they wanted “to present the text in words that Jesus would have used today had he been born in Bengal”.
“We worked to keep a simple, sober style accessible to all”, said co-translator Banerjea formerly a teacher at St Francis Xavier School in Calcutta. “We did all we could do avoid language that was too literary as well as the temptation to make a literal translation. Our purpose was to render the next natural, limpid and pleasant”, he added.
The Bible has a preface, notes and also historical and geographical information on Palestine in Bible times to render it more comprehensible for believers and anyone anxious to read the Sacred Scriptures today. This Bengali edition of the Bible is in three volumes and sells for 100 Rupee.
Bengali is a member of the eastern branch of the Indo-Iranian family of languages. It is spoken by about 215 million people and has a literary importance. India has more than 1.600 different languages and dialects. The official languages are Hindi and English but India’s Constitution recognises 18 local languages including Bengali. The Bengali alphabet derives from Brahmi, and the language is derived from Sanskrit. Bengali was used by the famous Indian poet Rabrindanath Tagore, who adapted it to the expressive needs of poetry and prose
(PA) (Fides Service 18/11/2003 lines 23 words 220)


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