The Murty Trust, the family foundation of Sudha Murty and Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, has announced a grant of Rs 7.5 crore to the Pune-based Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) to preserve and promote research on rare books and manuscripts in Sanskrit and Prakrit.
A release from Murty Trust said the grant covers the construction of the Murty Centre of Indic Studies, an 18,000 square feet heritage-style academic and research building with a 200-seater classroom, a state-of-the-art auditorium to conduct lectures, and an audio-visual studio to digitise ancient books and manuscripts.
The 'bhoomi pujan' was held recently with Sudha Murty laying the foundation stone of the building, it said. Speaking about the new initiative, she said the 105-year-old BORI was a key pillar of India's cultural heritage and has produced a plethora of intellectual research papers and books.
"Every professor at BORI is a great scholar. I was mesmerised by the intellectual work of two books, 'Critical Edition of Mahabharata' and 'Kane's Dharmashastra', both of which are very dear to my heart," she said. "As times have changed, audiences want online classes to learn more about our culture and would like to interact with the staff. Hence, the Murty Trust has decided to support BORI with a new and modern building that will be dedicated to celebrating India's cultural heritage," Murty added.
Bhupal Patwardhan, chairman of the Executive Board of BORI, said Sudha Murty has given funding for academic projects and now the institute has approximately 40 scholars working on different subjects ranging from Indian philosophy to Kathak, and from Ayurveda to astronomy.
The upcoming Murty Centre of Indic Studies can accommodate more than 60 scholars, he said, adding the institute has now entered the field of education as well. "The classrooms can accommodate up to 200 students for different courses. As Murty Centre will have a studio, we can generate good online content, which will be offered on our platform Bharat Vidyam," he said.
Stating that the institute has 28,000 books, he said, "To support these books the new building will provide a conservation laboratory. This is going to be a big leap for the Institute and its future." With this facility, different subjects from Indic culture can be disseminated all over the world, and for this we are extremely grateful to the Murty Trust, Patwardhan said.
(With PTI inputs)
