There are a number of Gitan^jalz translations in Indian languages; often these translations are done without taking cognisance of the spirit of the Bengali original. Unfortunately, a Sanskrit translation from an English translation from Bengali can be a contribution only to that parochialism which keeps many in India content with reading mere translations of other languages of the country without attempting to reach for an original. This further fails the test of a good translation that calls for the cultural background, semantics, imagery, diction, alliteration and other such ornamentation to be maintained to the extent possible where, at least the tatsama words need no translation, which is easy between two languages as closely related as Bengali and Sanskrit, like, say German and Englisho Let us look at some ot the stanzas: Song 4 in Tagore^ P^ja: Line 1: tvmi keman kare gan karo he gurvl II: ami avak ha^e suni keval suni It is rendered more or less literally in the English Gitan^jati (Song #3) I: I know not how thou singesfc, my master 1 II: I ever listen in silent amazemento Pullela Shn Ramachandrs translates these lines from English: I: ^akt^s leghorn parzkalayitun ritim etam na giter II: aScar^ena pratihata-vaoah kevalam tvam Smomi • More effective, much mere expressive of the original would have been a much shorter Sanskrit impression of Bengali I: kathankrt^agayasi tvam gunin he II: Srnomi tv^l sarvatha vak Smomi. In the same song: Line XI: amap tumi pheleche kon phande XII: oc dzke mope surer jal buni » would be literally rendered into English: "In what a mesh you have caught me, my master, having woven-a net of song all around me." The English Gitandali paraphrases it: XI: Thou hast made my heart captive XII: In the endless meshes of thy music, my< master,