Demetrius Galanos-Chanakya Niti: In western countries, India was considered a country immersed in darkness. There is something in Indian literature which is worthy of translation, it was beyond the thinking of the Greeks, that is why Dimitrios Galanos translated Chanakya Niti into Greek language. When ‘Aphorism of Chanakya’ i.e. ‘Chanakya Sukti’ in Greek language was published in Athens, not only it got tremendous popularity but its translator ‘Nicolas Kephalus’ also got a lot of fame. After the publication of this translation, there was a stir among the scholars of Athens.
It was learned about Nicholas Cephalus that he was the captain of a ship, with this the question arose that how did the captain of the ship become an expert and translator of Indian culture? The Greeks were not able to digest this. After doing more research on this, it was found that among the people who were thanked in the ‘Aphorism of Chanakya’, one of the names was ‘Demetrius Galanos’. Later it came to light that all this work was done by Galanos.
Demetrius Galanos was a Greek Indologist who studied South Asia. He was born in Anthes in the year 1760 but his growing interest towards India drew him to India. At the age of just 26, he came to Kolkata city of India and started teaching children of some Unani families here and later came to Banaras. In Banaras, Demetrius Galanos completely adopted Indian culture and even changed his attire.
Galanos’ translation was published by Kephalus
It is said that in Banaras, Demetrius Galanos was associated with Sanskrit scholars. It was in Banaras that Nicholas Kephalas met Demetrius Galanos. Kephalus spent a few days with Galanos in Banaras itself. After a little acquaintance, Galanos gave his translation from Sanskrit to Greek to Kephalus. This translation was published by Kephalus in Athens. At present, this book was a small part of the work that Dimitrios Galanos had done on Indian literature.
Galanos came to India and stayed in India
Demetrius Galanos lived in the house of Munshi Sheetal Prasad Singh, a famous Sanskrit scholar of Banaras and he remained here for a long time. Demetrius Galanos lived in India for about four and a half decades and read and translated the texts here. However, the work done by him was recognized after his death. Demetrius Galanos died in 1833.
Dimitrios Galanos has translated these texts
Demetrius Galanos’s second translation was published in 1845, 12 years after his death. This book included some verses translated from ‘Laghu Chanakya’. Demetrius Galanos also translated the Bhagavad Gita, which was published in the year 1848. Along with this, he has also created a Persian-English-Greek-Sanskrit dictionary. In collaboration with Munshi Sheetal Prasad Singh, he has worked on many Indian texts. It also includes texts like ‘Devi Mahatmya’ and ‘Markandeya Purana’.