Bhagavad Gita translation from Sanskrit to English by Dr. Shakuntala Rao Sastri, a lady Sanskrit scholar, way back in 1950s

I am almost close to finishing re-reading the Bhagavad Gita by Dr. Shakuntala Rao Sastri. An interesting aspect of this book is that the author is a lady who was proficient in Sanskrit and English and had academic degrees from India and UK to back that, and who authored the book way back in the 1950s.

This book copy was printed in 1982. I think I must have bought the book from an old books seller. I bought it in 2000 when I was based in Dombivli/Mumbai.

It is fascinating to know of this lady Sanskrit scholar who seems to have written at least two books related to Sanskrit scripture. She passed away in 1961 a year before I was born.

I think this is the only lady (Indian or foreign) Sanskrit scholar of the 1950s and earlier part of 1900s authored book I have read. It would have been quite challenging for an Indian lady to have acquired strong academic qualifications from India and UK in the 1940s and 1950s (which is when I presume she did the main part of her English and Sanskrit academic degree related studies). I am very happy to have known of such a lady Sanskrit scholar of that period and to have read one of her works multiple times.

Given below are a few pics of the book cover and of the preface. In the preface, the author explains how this translation arose as part of her work of teaching (a teaching aid, one could say) Sanskrit and Bhagavad Gita to Japanese students in Tokyo in 1950s! The preface itself is authored in New York (USA). Hmm - so we know she was in India, UK, Japan and USA. This Indian Sanskrit scholar lady was quite a traveller for those times, I must say.

[On PC desktop, to open pic in larger resolution (if available), right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]

Above pic: Front cover

Above pics: Two pics of back cover with author photograph being clear in one pic and text in the other pic.

Above pic: Title-Verso page showing that the book was first published in 1959.

Above pic: An inside page of book giving some info. on author and publisher. 

Above pics: The author preface in book

An ebook version of this book which has slightly different content in first few pages (dedication, introduction) and a different publisher but whose main content, I think, may be the same as the book I read, is available here for free: https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.505906/page/n7/mode/2up .

Another book of hers which may be of interest to some readers is this one: Women In The Vedic Age (1954) , https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.506179 (free ebook). It is really great to know of this lady Sanskrit scholar (and English scholar) who wrote a book on Women in Vedic Age which was published in 1954. Fascinating!

I looked around for a biography article/book on this lady on the Internet. While I got info. about the books she has written and the short biography provided by the publisher, I could not get a proper biography article/book on her. I would have loved to read about her life - her childhood, how she studied Sanskrit and English in India & UK in those days, the challenges she faced, her family life etc.

I felt I should mention that I have another Bhagavad Gita Sanskrit to English translation book - this one is by Swami Gambhirananda of Advaita Ashram Calcutta, which was first published in 1984. This Gambhirananda book also has commentary of Shankaracharya and is much bigger than Shakuntala Rao's book. For this re-reading that I have nearly finished, I preferred the Sanskrit scholar translation to the monk's (Swami's) translation, but for some other re-reads I preferred/would prefer the monk's translation with Shankaracharya commentary.

[I thank Dr. Shakuntala Rao Sastri and publisher of her Bhagavad Gita book, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above few pics of the book cover, inside title page and preface on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]