NBT to launch series of Sanskrit books
A book on Mahatma Gandhi, that is in advanced stages of publication, will be the first to hit the stands
The National Book Trust has set the ball
rolling to bring out a dozen books in Sanskrit next year, beginning with a book
on Mahatma Gandhi that will hit the stands within months.
“We have decided to make a beginning with a
dozen books in Sanskrit in 2017. We do publish in Indian languages. We need to
pick up publication in Sanskrit. A long time back, we had brought out a
children’s book in Sanskrit,” an official of NBT, an autonomous institution
under the Human Resource Development Ministry, told The Hindu.
This children’s book was the Bal Geetam
by Shashipal Sharma, officials recall.
Gandhi Tattva Shatakam, a
book on Mahatma Gandhi that is in advanced stages of publication, will be the
first in the Sanskrit series.
|
Translation
Authored by Sanskrit scholar and economist Mangesh Venkat Nadkarni, the book is in the form of 108 Sanskrit verses dedicated to the Mahatma’s life and thought, with their translations in English. |
The last verse, an official said, is Albert
Einstein’s famous quote on Gandhi’s death: “Generations to come will scarce
believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this
earth”.
Padma Shri awardee and Sanskrit scholar
Ravindra Nagar has reviewed the manuscript and okayed it for publication, with
a suggestion that the meaning of the verses may also be provided in Hindi,
apart from English.
‘Mother of Indian languages’
Saying that he had modelled his work on the
ancient Sanskrit poet Bhartrihari — who wrote shatakams or sixfold
verses on ethics, erotics and renunciation — Mr. Nadkarni says in his preface
to the book: “The Shatakam... has the purpose of introducing Gandhian
philosophy in a simple way in most of its dimensions taken together to the
young as also the old.”
Asserting that he chose Sanskrit, the
“mother” or “at least a foster mother” of Indian languages because of his love
for it, Mr. Nadkarni added, “My ‘Shatakam’ is not addressed to scholars already
well-accomplished in the study of either Sanskrit or Gandhi, but to those who
want to read something simple in Sanskrit, yet express contemporary thinking.”
Source | The Hindu | 2 November 2016
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Pralhad
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