elisa freschiHow to translate ākāśa (and some thoughts on translation in general) – elisa freschi https://elisafreschi.com These pages are a sort of virtual desktop of Elisa Freschi. You can find here my cv and some random thoughts on Sanskrit (and) Philosophy. All criticism welcome! Contributions are also welcome! Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:06:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 How to translate ākāśa (and some thoughts on translation in general) https://elisafreschi.com/2018/06/27/how-to-translate-akasa-and-some-thoughts-on-translation-in-general/ https://elisafreschi.com/2018/06/27/how-to-translate-akasa-and-some-thoughts-on-translation-in-general/#comments Wed, 27 Jun 2018 08:13:48 +0000 elisa freschi http://elisafreschi.com/?p=2789 I recently discussed the translation of ākāśa with a senior and much more advanced scholar. Here come my thoughts thereon:
The first possible candidates for ākāśa are ‘space’ and ‘aether’.
I agree with my senior colleague that ‘space’ should not be used, because ‘space’ translates deśa and because one can imagine an empty space. In fact, the idea of avoiding an empty space is exactly the reason for postulating aether.

My current way of discussing possible translations is to create a conceptual map of the term I want to translate. In the case of ākāśa, this is

  • 1. a substance
  • 2. all-pervasive
  • 3. not directly perceptible
  • 4. postulated as the substate of sound understood as its exclusive quality

Ether, by contrast, is

  • 1. a substance
  • 2. all-pervasive
  • 3. not directly perceptible
  • 4. postulated as medium of propagation of the light waves and because pure empty space is unthinkable
  • 5. has been used in the 18th c to explain some problems in the theory of gravity

Therefore, it is right that ākāśa is not exactly tantamount to aether, especially as for sound (for which European theorists thought that air was a suitable medium). Still, if one needs to avoid leaving the term untranslated, I think ‘aether’, especially if accompanied by an explanatory footnote is still the best solution.

What do readers think?

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