Ten Indian Classics: (Murty Classical Library of India)

About the Book

2,500 years of India's dazzling literary tradition, translated from a wide range of classical languages, and introduced by an award-winning poet.

Romantic ghazals and devotional quatrains, medieval battles and separated lovers, Buddhist women on their journeys toward nirvana and Ram's battle against a demon army to rescue Sita-all this and more can be found in the Murty Classical Library of India's Ten Indian Classics.

Beginning in the sixth century B.C.E. 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, verses from the Sikh sacred tradition recited by millions around the world, 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.

The 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. With a foreword by the award-winning poet and translator Ranjit Hoskote, Ten Indian Classics is an invitation to readers worldwide to immerse themselves in a literary tradition that continues to shape modern South Asian culture and aesthetics in all its stunning diversity.

About the Author :
Poet, translator, and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote has authored more than thirty books of poetry, art criticism, cultural theory, and translation. His translation of the poems of the fourteenth-century Kashmiri mystic Lal Ded has been published as I, Lalla. His translation of a selection of the eighteenth-century Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir’s poetry has just appeared as The Homeland’s an Ocean.

Review :
Reading [this book]…felt like eavesdropping on a vibrant familial gathering where each member proposes a different answer…what emerges is a magnificently knotty history of thinking about personal transformation in South Asia, pegged to the archetypal narratives of love and war. The Murty Classical Library of India sifts through multiple languages and thousands of years to bring a nation’s literary treasures to English-language readers. A testament to the dedication of scholars and translator who ensure these works are not just preserved but celebrated…[this] is not just a book; it’s a journey through time…a treasure trove for anyone interested in South Asia’s literary heritage. The[se] texts are unmistakably Indian, sharing a love for words, sounds and images and exhibiting an exuberance rarely found in other cultural traditions…a good introductory volume to Indian literature. Offers a collection of stories and poems that span thousands of years and a variety of cultures across India…delivers a profound exploration of history, literature, and emotions. Traverses and transcends time and space…a testament to the power of translation. A rich selection of South Asian classics…awe-inspiring in not only presenting the richness and plurality of South Asian history but also revealing how our present reality is inextricably woven with our past. It seems hardly conceivable that a slim, elegant anthology could capture and distill into a single essence the astonishing variety—extending over millennia and across a vast linguistic, geographical, historical, semantic, and spiritual terrain—of India’s imaginative literature. That is, though, exactly what Ten Indian Classics does. The translations here are spotless and exhilarating, word by word and page by page. The overall vision is breathtaking. This stunning collection of contemporary translations of Indian classics is a profound testimony to the underlying continuity of human civilization. Essential reading for anyone curious about the roots of South Asia’s diverse and vibrant literary culture in our own time. Covering two-and-a-half millennia and nine languages, Ten Indian Classics is a magnificent, dazzling collection of some of the gems from the vast treasure trove of the classical literatures of the Indian subcontinent. From the mystical to the ideological, the erotic to the devotional, the range of genres, moods, artistry, and emotions on display in these works is ​extraordinary. It ​shows the longue durée of a ​culture of immense plurality and diversity, of traditions that are still alive, still fresh, in their endlessly renewing practices. This is a beautiful and indispensable book.