“A marvelous new venture. Modeled on the Loeb Library of Greek and Latin classics, the Clay Sanskrit Library presents masterpieces of Sanskrit poetry, drama, and prose in a dual language format . . . one of the most admirable publishing projects now afoot.”
—New Criterion

“Geek-chic.”
—Book Forum

”You needn’t be a scholar to enjoy this wondrous poem [Buddhacarita], which continually marvels us with its grand gestures: moments of divine intervention, political assassination plots, infernal visions and hellish battles with chimerical fiends. Recent pop culture has tackled the Buddha, from fantastic depictions (see Osamu Tezuka’s eight-volume manga interpretation of his life) to the absurd (one thinks of a bronzed Keanu Reeves strutting as Siddhartha in Little Buddha). Yet you would be hard pressed to find anything that ranks close to the Buddhacarita, which still mesmerizes with its vividness and sheer audacity.”
—Time Magazine

“Very few collections of Sanskrit deep enough for research are housed anywhere in North America. Now, twenty-five hundred years after the death of Shakyamuni Buddha, the ambitious Clay Sanskrit Library may remedy this state of affairs…a good place to experience some deeply human poetry.”
—Tricycle magazine

“A handsome new series of dual-language Sanskrit texts. . . . . No effort has been spared to make these little volumes as attractive as possible to readers.”
—Times Higher Education Supplement

“The texts reflect the vibrant literary culture of the classical Sanskrit period, taking readers on an adventurous journey through the palaces and gardens of ancient India.”
—East-West Times

“…a whole library, a whole literature, hot off the press, is now at last open and available to readers of English. It is more than two hundred years since Goethe remarked, after reading some very inadequate translations, that all earthly beauty is condensed into Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. Was he exaggerating? Now you can make up your own mind.”
—David Shulman, The New Republic

About the CSL

The Clay Sanskrit Library, co-published by NYU Press and the JJC Foundation, has been created to introduce classical Sanskrit literature to a wide international readership. This literature combines great beauty, enormous variety and more than three thousand years of continuous history and development.

For many interested readers, access to this vast treasure store has been hindered by an unfamiliar language and a difficult script. The new Clay Sanskrit Library makes everything easier: the Sanskrit text, written in familiar Roman letters, faces the English translation, and the convenient pocket size (4.5″ X 6.5″) is both elegant and practical. Each book, with a handsome jacket, retails for only $22.00.

Twenty-eight leading scholars from eight countries cooperated to produce fresh new translations that combine readability and accuracy. The first twelve titles appeared in February 2005, and by 2009 the library was completed with 56 published volumes. The selection includes drama, poetry and novels, together with the famous epics. The Library is now also available as a 56-volume complete set, as well as in six thematic mini-sets, grouped for readers interested in specific areas of the world of classical Sanskrit literature.

Available from booksellers everywhere, and on the NYU Press website.