Through its use of words and language that is different from today’s Marathi, Sardeshmukh’s version, which was translated in the 1950s, offers a sense of distance, of presenting the exotic and the unknown, which the reader can unravel. However, this particular translation alienates today’s readers with its Sanskrit Shlokas and its use, without explanation, of words that are unknown to the educated readers of today. Ulka Raut’s version and Avinash Tadphale’s version strike a balance through their language. The words are exotic yet familiar enough to retain the interest of the reader. Both these texts do not reveal more than is needed, making for a journey of discovery for the reader. Lastly, Soman and Vaidya’s version can be seen more as an adaptation of the novel rather than a translation due to the presence of many additional passages, dialogues, and due to the colloquial style of communication between the characters. Soman and Vaidya’s version is furthest away from being a translation; it is more an adaptation.
To conclude, the four different translations of Siddhartha discussed in this essay can co-exist because the philosophical material in the novel requires interpretation. For Indian readers, the novel is Siddhartha’s journey. Each of these translations takes the reader on a journey, each journey being distinct from the others. The translations referred to in this chapter concentrate more on appealing to contemporary Marathi-language readers and to contemporary tastes. The Marathi-speaking generation of today may purchase the book seeing Gautama Buddha on the cover and hope to start their own philosophical journey. Through these translations, they come across a Siddhartha who is facing similar challenges in his life as the ones they are facing, and finding solutions. Hesse’s appropriation of Indian philosophy in Siddhartha in the twentieth century, which signifies a colonial gaze at a distant culture, thus, is re-appropriated in Indian culture in a postcolonial gaze back through the medium of translation of the novel. Although Hermann Hesse and his works in the original German may not have had a significant impact in India, Siddhartha, through its re-translation into various Indian languages via English, has made its mark among Indian readerships in the last two decades.