Sita was “abducted” by Lord Rama, says a textbook of Class XII in Gujarat. As the blooper in the English version of Sanskrit subject came to light, the Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) today described it as a translation error and ordered an inquiry. “There is (a) very heart-touching description of the message conveyed by Laxman to Ram when Sita was abducted by Rama,” reads a paragraph giving some basic understanding to students about the epic ‘Raghuvansham’ written by celebrated Sanskrit poet Kalidasa. This error figures in the textbook meant for English medium students of Class XII. GSSTB executive president Nitin Pethani claimed that the word ‘tyag’ has been translated and printed as “abducted” instead of “abandoned” by those who were given the task of translation and proof-reading.
“It should have been printed as ‘when Sita was abandoned by Lord Rama’. But, due to a translation mistake, it got printed as ‘when Sita was abducted by Rama’. “The word abandoned was replaced with abducted. This is a translation mistake, which is not there in the Gujarati textbooks,” said Pethani. “We will conduct an inquiry into the matter. If found guilty, we will blacklist the contractors who were given the task of translation as well as proof-reading. We will inform the school teachers to correct this mistake while teaching that chapter,” he added.
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