Maria Heim's new Milindapañha translation: Questions of Milinda

The Watercooler
, , , ,
1

A new translation of the Milindapañha by Maria Heim for the Murty Classical Library of India was published in late May. This translation seems, naturally, to focus strongly on the text as a piece of classic literature, so I think it might become the go-to Milinda translation for the foreseeable future, at least in terms of readability. Oddly, it doesn’t seem like this has received almost any attention online which I think is really unfortunate, so I hope this post can help spread awareness about its release.

I would be surprised if anyone here has actually read any of the translation in the little under a month it’s been out, but if anyone picks it up at some point I’d really love to hear what you thought of it and how it compares to the other four English translations (that I know of) - T.W. Rhys Davids’ (1890), I.B. Horner’s (1964), U Pu’s (2005) and John Kelly’s (2023).

Maria Heim discusses the Milindapañha shortly after the translation’s release:

Maria Heim again discusses the Milindapañha:

16 Likes
2

Fantastic, thanks!!!

2 Likes
3

This is exciting news- thanks for posting it.

I see the Murty Library has also recently published a new translation of Jātakanidāna as well.
(on the same day)

6 Likes
4

Here is the Harvard website listing the two new Murty Library Pali translations, with some information:

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/series/murty-classical-library-of-india?sort=date

6 Likes
5

Just got a copy. It’s huge since it also contains the Pali.

The report I got from the Sri Lankan monk here is that the English is extremely clear and modern, so he is very happy with it.

9 Likes