The Clay Sanskrit Library is a series of books published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation. Each work features the text in its original language (transliterated Sanskrit) on the left-hand page, with its English translation on the right. The series was inspired by the Loeb Classical Library, [1] and its volumes are bound in teal cloth.
The Clay Sanskrit Library (CSL) is the product of the JJC Foundation, a charitable foundation established by John P. and Jennifer Clay, along with New York University Press. [2] John Peter Clay was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1934. He won a scholarship to attend St Paul's School, London in 1947. In 1951, he was offered a full scholarship by the Queen’s College, Oxford, where he achieved a First-class degree in Sanskrit, Old Persian and Avestan. He was later appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Queen's College. On leaving Oxford, Clay joined Vickers da Costa, a stockbroking firm based in the City of London. He spent 25 years at Vickers, becoming Deputy Chairman and an elected Member of the London Stock Exchange council. In 1982, he left Vickers and moved to New York City, where he founded the international investment management company Clay Finlay Inc. [3]
In the late 1990s, when he was semi-retired, Clay decided to return to his early passion, Sanskrit literature: he envisioned a series that would make the classics easily available to the general public for the first time. He shared his ambitions for the CSL with Richard Gombrich (also an alumnus of St Paul’s School, London), who was the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University from 1976 to 2004. [4] Richard Gombrich was appointed General Editor of the Clay Sanskrit Library. [4] Sanskrit scholars Somadeva Vasudeva and Isabelle Onians were appointed Associate Editors, and thirty academics from eight countries were appointed to produce new translations of classical Sanskrit texts. In 2007, Sheldon Pollock joined Gombrich as Co-General Editor, and Gombrich resigned in early 2008. [3] In 2009, the CSL ended its initial project [5] [2] and in 2010 Pollock joined the Murty Classical Library of India, [6] which seeks to publish works in Sanskrit as well as other Indian languages. John Clay died in 2013, [2] following complications from multiple sclerosis. [3] In early 2016, Camillo Formigatti (formerly of the University of Cambridge [3] ) became John Clay Sanskrit Librarian at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, [7] [8] where previously in 2010 the JJC Foundation had sponsored a CSL international outreach program led by Matt Kimberly. [3] [9]
The first 15 volumes of the Clay Sanskrit Library (CSL) were published in 2005. An additional 41 volumes were published between 2006 and 2009, far exceeding Clay’s original vision of 50 titles. The 56 published volumes represent the richness and wide variety of Sanskrit literature. They include selections from famous epics, novels, poetry, satire and drama. The entire Clay Sanskrit Library is available for purchase through NYU Press. Selected titles may be purchased individually, in a 56 volume complete set or in mini-sets, grouped thematically. [10]
In 2016, in conjunction with NYU Press, JJC launched the Digital Clay Sanskrit Library (eCSL) for ebook platforms: Amazon's Kindle, Apple's iBooks, Google Play and KOBO. The eCSL collection comprises 20 volumes. In November 2019, in conjunction with the JJC Foundation, the Bodleian Library published A SANSKRIT TREASURY: A Compendium of Literature from the Clay Sanskrit Library with a foreword by Amartya Sen. The lavishly illustrated Compendium (ISBN 978-1-85124-5314) is produced by Dr. Camillo Formigatti, the John Clay Sanskrit Librarian. It contains excerpts from the CSL collection. These excerpts are paired with manuscripts from the Bodleian Library from the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions, and Mughal miniatures.
CSL and The Queen's College, Oxford is funding the John P Clay Graduate Scholarship in Manuscript and Text Cultures: Sanskrit. In October 2018 the Scholarship was awarded to Tara (Fabienne) Hathaway.
Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called Kavya. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which were originally composed in Sanskrit and later translated into many other Indian languages, and the Five Great Epics of Tamil literature and Sangam literature are some of the oldest surviving epic poems ever written.
Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as some mixed and non-standard forms of Sanskrit. Literature in the older language begins with the composition of the Ṛg·veda between about 1500 and 1000 BCE, followed by other Vedic works right up to the time of the grammarian Pāṇini around 6th or 4th century BCE.
Shakuntalaa (Sanskrit: Śakuntalāa, is the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of Emperor Bharata. Her story is told in the Adi Parva, the first of eighteen parts of the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata, and dramatized by many writers, the most famous adaptation being Kalidasa's play Abhijñānaśākuntala.
The term Indian classical drama refers to the tradition of dramatic literature and performance in ancient India. The roots of drama in the Indian subcontinent can be traced back to the Rigveda, which contains a number of hymns in the form of dialogues, or even scenes, as well as hymns that make use of other literary forms such as animal fables However, Indian drama begins its classical stage in the 3rd-4th century BCE with the composition of the Nātyaśāstra. Indian classical drama is regarded as the highest achievement of Sanskrit literature.
Abhijnanashakuntalam, also known as Shakuntala, The Recognition of Shakuntala, The Sign of Shakuntala, and many other variants, is a Sanskrit play by the ancient Indian poet Kālidāsa, dramatizing the story of Śakuntalā told in the epic Mahābhārata and regarded as best of Kālidāsa's works. Its exact date is uncertain, but Kālidāsa is often placed in the 4th century CE.
Arundhati is the wife of the sage Vasishtha, one of the seven sages (Saptarshi) of Hinduism.
Ponna (c. 945) was a noted Kannada poet in the court of Rashtrakuta Dynasty king Krishna III (r.939–968 CE). The emperor honoured Ponna with the title "emperor among poets" (Kavichakravarthi) for his domination of the Kannada literary circles of the time, and the title "imperial poet of two languages" for his command over Sanskrit as well. Ponna is often considered one among the "three gems of Kannada literature" for ushering it in full panoply. According to the scholar R. Narasimhacharya, Ponna is known to have claimed superiority over all the poets of the time. According to scholars Nilakanta Shastri and E.P. Rice, Ponna belonged to Vengi Vishaya in Kammanadu, Punganur, Andhra Pradesh, but later migrated to Manyakheta, the Rashtrakuta capital, after his conversion to Jainism.
Sheldon I. Pollock is an American scholar of Sanskrit, the intellectual and literary history of India, and comparative intellectual history. He is the Arvind Raghunathan Professor of South Asian Studies at Columbia University. He was the general editor of the Clay Sanskrit Library and the founding editor of the Murty Classical Library of India.
John Clay was the founder and patron of the Clay Sanskrit Library, a publishing venture that produced editions of Sanskrit classics with English translation on facing pages.
Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha, "Verse Abridgment of the Great Story", is Budhasvāmin's abridgement into Sanskrit verse of the now lost Great Story. It tells the legend of the youthful exploits of prince Naravāhanadatta (Nara-vahana-datta).
Dhoyin or Dhoyī was a 12th century Sanskrit-language poet who composed the Pavanadūta. He was a court poet of the Sena king Lakshmana Sena, who ruled Gauda in what is now Bengal.
Friedhelm Ernst Hardy, also known as Fred Hardy, was Professor of Indian Religions, teaching at King's College London. He was a linguist familiar with both classical and modern Indian languages, described in his obituary as "unrivalled in this country and possibly anywhere in the world today". He is the author of two prominent works, The Religious Culture of India: Power, Love and Wisdom and Viraha-Bhakti: The Early History of Kṛṣṇa Devotion in South India.
Rama is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular avatars of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Being.
The Shalya Parva, or the Book of Shalya, is the ninth of eighteen books of the Indian epic Mahabharata. Shalya Parva traditionally has 4 parts and 65 chapters. The critical edition of Shalya Parva has 4 parts and 64 chapters.
The Hamsa Sandesha or "The message of the Swan" is a Sanskrit love poem written by Vedanta Desika in the 13th century CE. A short lyric poem of 110 verses, it describes how Rama, hero of the Ramayana epic, sends a message via a swan to his beloved wife, Sita, who has been abducted by the demon king Ravana. The poem belongs to the sandeśa kāvya "messenger poem" genre and is very closely modeled upon the Meghadūta of Kālidāsa. It has particular significance for Sri Vaishnavas, whose god, Vishnu, it celebrates.
Sanskrit prosody or Chandas refers to one of the six Vedangas, or limbs of Vedic studies. It is the study of poetic metres and verse in Sanskrit. This field of study was central to the composition of the Vedas, the scriptural canons of Hinduism, so central that some later Hindu and Buddhist texts refer to the Vedas as Chandas.
A subhashita is a literary genre of Sanskrit epigrammatic poems and their message is an aphorism, maxim, advice, fact, truth, lesson or riddle. Su in Sanskrit means good; bhashita means spoken; which together literally means well spoken or eloquent saying.
Sir James Mallinson, 5th Baronet, of Walthamstow is a British Indologist, writer and translator. He is recognised as one of the world's leading experts on the history of medieval Hatha yoga.
Robert Philip Goldman is the William and Catherine Magistretti Distinguished Professor of Sanskrit at the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since April 1996.