My Mother Instilled a Deep Respect for History & Literature

As the world tour celebrations kick off in Bengaluru today to mark the 10th anniversary of the Murty Classical Library of India, founder Rohan Murty speaks to CE about situating South Asia's literary classics within larger cultural circulations, his family's role in this ambitious project, and navigating controversies along the way

- VIDYA IYENGAR

Ten Indian Classics (Harvard University Press; ₹599) and a performance by Shubha Mudgal. Ahead of the big day, Murty, son of Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy and writer-philanthropist Sudha Murty, talks about MCLI, now overseen by an independent board of trustees and managed by Harvard University Press – with much input and contribution from him. Even as his primary focus is on building a technology company while ‘balancing’ his role as a father, he hopes to support philanthropic efforts that celebrate our culture and society. Excerpts Congratulations on this milestone! What have the last 10 years been like? By the end of 2025, the 10th year of our journey, we will have accomplished the translation of 50 volumes across 14 languages, representing over 2,500 years of classical Indian literary traditions. This achievement is thanks to the dedicated efforts of scholars from more than a dozen countries, including India, who have served as our translators. What excites me most is our tradition of releasing new volumes every January, ensuring the series remains dynamic and ever-evolving. Additionally, we’ve created and open-sourced the Murty Fonts – a unified family of classical Indian language fonts – for global use. It’s a promising start, but there’s so much more we aspire to achieve.