Some event in history becomes a sort of magnet-event, attracting the enthusiasm, efforts and involvement of contemporary and succeeding generations. Swami Vivekananda's speech at the Parliament of Religions, Chicago was one such event. Otherwise why should the owner of Anandabodhini journal Mr N Munisamy Mudaliyar ask the Tamil teacher of National College High School in Trichy, Mr E S Varadaraja Iyengar, to translate the Chicago speeches of Swamiji. This was happening in 1929. The Tamil teacher was living in Uraiyur, Saraswathy Nilayam.
Anandabodhini was given its name by His Holiness Karapatra Swamigal, who was at Sadhu Nilayam, Vyasarpadi. From 1915 it was running as a monthly, attracting a subscription of 20000, as the blurb in the backpages says. And when the translation of Chicago addresses was coming out in 1929, in the same year Sri Ramakrishna Math Chennai was bringing out a selection of Swamiji's words bearing on Nationalistic themes and about our country as .Namadu Thaainadu, selected and translated by Ra Krishnamurthy, with the foreword of Swami Yathiswarananda. In the Munnurai Swami Yathiswarananda says that the complete works of Swami Vivekananda was yet to come out in Tamil at that time, 1929 and opines that the said selection of Swamiji's words will well fill the gap in the meantime.
Already in 1921, Mr M S Nateson of Trichy brought out the Tamil translation of the paper on Hinduism by Swami Vivekananda, which forms part of Chicago speeches through The Vivekananda Publishing House, Teppakulam, Tiruchi.
I think even this itself will form a good research theme. i. e. various translations in various regional languages both during when Swamiji was living and after his time in the following decades. And also what were the reactions, informal and written or some comments occurring in some other places.
Yea .. An event having reverberations through time.
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