JOIN USIn a venture to give global access to Indian classical literature, Murty Classical Library of India has come up with translations of several Indian vernacular works. The library was inaugurated here on Wednesday.
This library is an initiative of Rohan Murty, son of Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty, in collaboration with the Harvard University Press. The initiative not only aims to present Indian literature to the world, but also hopes to encourage Indians to understand the rich vernacular literature. To begin with, the library has come up with five translations: Sufi Lyrics (Bullhe Shah), The History of Akbar- Volume I (Abul Fazl), Therigatha- Poems of the First Buddhist Women, The story of Manu (Allasani Peddana) and Sur’s Ocean (Surdas). Speaking on the occasion, scholar Sheldon Pollock said they had attempted to choose important classical books that had fallen off the map of history. The series of five books has been edited by him. Pollock also added that they had “big agenda” for Tamil and Kannada literature and one would be able to see more of these books in the next five years.
In Kannada, the next in line to be translated are Raghavanka’s Harischandra Kavya and Kumaravyasa Bharatha.
Intellectual content
Speaking about his passion for history and philosophy, Rohan Murty opined that India had produced exceptional intellectual content and through this venture he hoped that the young and the old Indians could rediscover the regional literature.DH News Service