Abstract

India is a multilingual country. Different regional languages carry their regional characteristics. The problems, aspirations, socio-cultural characteristics of the people of each region are reflected in the literature of the language of that region. Therefore, the literatures of the regional languages are independent even though they are Indian. Translation plays a special role in this linguistic diversity of India. Translation is the process by which statements in one language are expressed in another. There is a tradition of translating Sanskrit literature into various regional languages since ancient times. With the emergence of modern languages, every Indian language has enriched its language and literature with translations of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa literature. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the works of Kalidas, the Panchatantra, and Jayadeva's Gita Govinda have been translated from Sanskrit into various modern Indian languages. Among the works translated into Sanskrit are Shakespeare's Hamlet, Tempest, Gaether's Faust, Rabindranath Tagore's Kaler Yatra, Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, etc. Later, in the era of modern literature, translations between different languages of India continued. This has created interrelationships between languages on the one hand and mutual identity and linkages between regional literatures on the other. Despite the multilingual situation in India, the environment for knowing or understanding the literature of other regions in one's own local language has become possible only through translation. In this paper we will try to discuss two most important Indian languages - Tamil and Assamese. Since these two languages represent two different languages and literatures; there are some problems during translation. Despite the problems encountered during the translation the translation work continues to overcome these problems. Tamil belongs to the Southern Dravidian language family and Assamese belongs to the Aryan language family. Along with the geographical distance, there are also structural differences between the two. Perhaps this is why very little literature has been translated from Tamil into Assamese. Looking at the books translated from Tamil to Assamese, it can be seen that there are two ways process is there first is- some have been translated from Tamil to other Indian languages and with the help of those books� translator translated those to the Assamese language. Or on the other side secondly, some have been translated directly from Tamil to Assamese. The name of some important Assamese books which are the translation from Tamil includes - the Nyayashastra Tirukural, the poem Kurundoheir Kavita (originally Karuntokai) and the autobiography of Living Smiley Vidya Mai Vidya (originally Nan Vidya).

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