Get All Access for $5/mo

The Murty Classical Library of India is set to Ensure the World Knows Kalidasa is as Important as Shakespeare The Murty Classical Library of India is a continuation of the Clay Sanskrit Library Project headed by Sheldon Pollock. It was established through a $5.2 million gift from Rohan Murty

By Aashika Jain

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

While speaking to Entrepreneur India on bringing together ancient literature, the second generation of the Murthy family, Rohan Murty, the son of Infosys' founder NR Narayan Murty, opened up about his work & passion.

After having donned the cover of Entrepreneur's 35 Under 35 last year, we take stock of what Rohan Murty's project looks like.

Some snippets from his interview taken at the 35Under35 Class of 2018 celebration:-

The Founder of the Murty Classical Library of India told Entrepreneur India that the project meant for him.

"We are trying to showcase the world as well India and everywhere else when you think of classic, Indian classics are as important and as valuable as western classics or if not more people have read Indian classic everywhere," Murty believes. In his view, Indian classics are as important as compared to the rest of the Classics in the world.

The Murty Classical Library of India is a continuation of the Clay Sanskrit Library Project headed by Sheldon Pollock. It was established through a $5.2 million gift from Rohan Murty.

The Library began publishing classics of Indian literature in January 2015. The books, which are in dual-language format with the original language and English facing, are published by Harvard University Press.

The series are expected to include translations from Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, other Indian languages and Persian. It will include fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and religious texts from all Indian traditions including Buddhism and Islam. The projected 500 volumes, to be published over a century, have a corpus of thousands of volumes of classic Indian literature to draw on.

Inspiration

What inspired the Harvard-educated Rohan Murty is a crucial question. His father co-founded one of the India's largest MNCs Infosys and his mother Sudha Murthy is a social worker, engineer and author. He on the other hand ventured into a totally different genre. The only link being his association with Catamaran Ventures, a $127-million venture capital fund headed by Narayan Murthy.

His belief that people of all ages read a lot of literature from across the globe and Indian literature is liked by generations worldwide led him to launch the Classical Library. This library will have not only history or literature but also ancient scriptures written in different languages translated for the benefit of common language readers.

Value System

The 36-year old Murty's fairly academic background has been an enabler for him. He says he is very inclined to know where India's culture and civilization come from, what are the positives of it, what are our negatives, how can we improve, how we can become better. That's the source of his thinking which comes from his value system, which he thinks is a protocol of interacting with the society and its people and that matters very much.

The one thing Rohan Murty will be able to give the coming generation?

"They will think that Kalidasa is as important as Shakespeare."

Aashika Jain

Entrepreneur Staff

Former Associate Editor, Entrepreneur India

Journalist in the making since 2006! My fastest fingers have worked for India's business news channel CNBC-TV18, global news wire Thomson Reuters, the digital arm of India’s biggest newspaper The Economic Times and Entrepreneur India as the Digital Head. 
News and Trends

MPL Acquires Stake in CloudFeather Games to Enhance Skill-Gaming Ecosystem

MPL integrates CloudFeather's advanced gaming infrastructure and liquidity solutions to enhance platform stability and elevate the gaming experience for its 120 million users across India, the US, and Nigeria.

News and Trends

Kreedo Secures INR 10 Cr Debt Funding from Recur Club to Accelerate Growth

The raised funds will support Kreedo's working capital needs and drive its expansion, enhancing its ability to deliver innovative early education solutions.

Side Hustle

At Age 15, He Used Facebook Marketplace to Start a Side Hustle — Then It Became Something Much Bigger: 'Raised Over $1.6 Million'

Dylan Zajac, now a 21-year-old senior at Babson College, wanted to bridge the digital divide.

Business News

OpenAI Just Released Its Text-to-Video Generator, Sora. Here's How the New AI Could Impact Small Businesses and Creators.

Sora has a variety of use cases for businesses, from social media campaigns to video creation.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Starting a Business

10 Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs That Investors Love (Even If They Seem Like Jerks)

This article explores a thought-provoking question: Why do many successful entrepreneurs exhibit traits that might label them as "jerks?"