New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) A new landmark collection of some of the most iconic works of literature of the Indian subcontinent is being published on the occasion of Murty Classics’ tenth anniversary by Harvard University Press.
Murty Classical Library of India’s “Ten Indian Classics”, with a foreword by poet and translator Ranjit Hoskote, is set for release on October 18.
Over the last decade, the Murty Classical Library of India has reintroduced in original translation some of the greatest literary works of India from the past two millennia to a new generation. These works are a part of world literature’s treasured heritage.
The series provides English translations of classical works alongside the Indic originals in the appropriate regional script and new books are added to the series annually.
The new anthology showcases original translations by leading experts from a vast array of India’s literary traditions: Hindi, Kannada, Pali, Panjabi, Persian, Sanskrit, Telugu, and Urdu, a statement said.
Beginning in the sixth century BC and coming up to the eighteenth century, spanning the Indian subcontinent, the selections in this anthology include some of the oldest women’s writing in the world, exquisite Sanskrit court poems and verses from the Sikh sacred tradition recited by millions around the world.
The collection also includes the renowned chronicle of the Mughal emperor Akbar, and Tulsidas’s retelling of the epic Ramayana that is cherished in north India to this day. Here, too, are the poems of Surdas, Mir Taqi Mir, and Bullhe Shah, which continue to inspire artists today and live on in contemporary music.
Romantic ghazals and devotional quatrains, medieval battles and separated lovers, Buddhist women on their journeys toward nirvana and Lord Ram’s battle against a demon army to rescue Sita – all these and more can be found in “Ten Indian Classics”, the statement by A Suitable Agency said.
Sharmila Sen, editorial director and director of special initiatives at Harvard University Press, said “Ten Indian Classics” is a celebration of South Asia’s vibrant literary cultures.
“Each page is imbued with our renewed promise to present the greatest literary works of India from the past two millennia to the largest readership in the world,” she said.
According to Hoskote, “Ten Indian Classics” embodies the vibrant diversity of South Asia’s literary traditions over a 2,500-year period.
“In the pages of this anthology, through the devoted work of scholarly translators and editors, we are invited into mysterious, magical, illuminating worlds. Selected from languages and literary traditions ranging across the subcontinent, the extracts in this anthology delight us with hymn and epic, biography and visionary utterance,” he said.
“These eloquent texts remain achingly alive to us, as relevant to the crises, dilemmas and joys of the present as they were to those of previous times,” Hoskote added.
The tenth anniversary will also be marked by year-round activities, events and immersive reader engagements. PTI ZMN RB RB
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