This was announced a while back, and I've been looking forward to it ever since -- and now, finally, in the new Harvard University Press catalogue the first volumes in the Murty Classical Library of India have been announced (though it'll be a few more months before they're actually available ...).
What so great about this series ?
The recently started Library of Arabic Literature (at NYU Press) has shown how invaluable such an academic series can be, and I imagine the Murty-series can do much the same for classical Indian literature. The first titles look like a fairly interesting variety, and I can't wait to see them, and where this series goes.
What so great about this series ?
The Murty Classical Library of India aims to make available the great literary works of India from the past two millennia. [...] The series will provide modern English translations of classical works, many for the first time, across a vast array of Indian languages, including Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Pali, Panjabi, Persian, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.(I remind you that for this year's Best Translated Book Award there was all of one eligible title in the fiction category in any sub-continental language -- an indicator of how far too little translated from any (and all) Indian languages is published in the US; these works might not add much to these totals over the years (not that much fiction among them, for one thing, presumably), but any new venture on this scale certainly helps (and might also help pave the way for more modern works to be translated too).)
The recently started Library of Arabic Literature (at NYU Press) has shown how invaluable such an academic series can be, and I imagine the Murty-series can do much the same for classical Indian literature. The first titles look like a fairly interesting variety, and I can't wait to see them, and where this series goes.