At a time when there is raucous debate on India’s real and imagined past, a library of rare ancient Indian classics – one going as far back as 3 BCE – has been launched. A philanthropic initiative of Rohan Murty, the literary project is spearheaded by noted Sanskrit scholar Sheldon Pollock and published by the Harvard University Press.
The first set of books ranging from Bulle Shah’s works in Gurmukhi and the Akbarnama in Persian to Surdas’ poetry and Manucharitramu in Telugu was released by eminent economist Amartya Sen. Over the next seven years, the series, named the Murty Classical Library of India, will publish 48 volumes of these classic works, translated from around 14 Indian languages, including Sanskrit and near extinct vernacular forms.
“India has the single most complex and continuous tradition of multi-lingual literature in the world and a lot of it is inaccessible. MCLI will make this literature available in the best possible way for the general reader as well as students and scholars,” said Pollock. These books have the original script as well as an English translation on the facing page.
The library was meant to reiterate the fact that Indians have been storytellers to the world for centuries, and to redefine the idea of a “classic”.
Murty said he represented the general Indian reader who was curious about ancient India but had access to very few literary sources. “What was life like in ancient India? How did people live, die? What was its astronomy, maths, science like? There is so little discussion on any of these in our schools and colleges,” he said. “This literature will hopefully offer an exposure.”
The next set of translations will include Kamba Ramayanam, Ramcharitmanas, Ghalib’s poetry and 6 AD Sanskrit scholar’s work Kiratarjuniya and Bharatchandra’s Annada Mangal. The big plan is to have 500 books on the MCLI shelves.
Among the most riveting is Therigatha, Poems of the First Buddhist Women which is in Pali and composed by theris, the elder Buddhist nuns. They speak in touchingly honest verse of their spiritual struggles.
Murty promises a digital version of the library sometime soon, low cost or even free to access. “As a tech dreamer, I envision an MCLI with a button you can press and read Bulle Shah in Gurmukhi, Devnagari…a day will come when the communal politics of script will be resolved with the click of a button,” said Pollock.
(Source: Times of India – dated 16-01-2015)
