Murty Trust, the family foundation of Sudha Murty and Narayana Murthy, announced a grant of INR 75 million to the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) to preserve and promote research on rare books and manuscripts in Sanskrit and Prakrit. The grant covers the construction of the Murty Centre of Indic Studies, an 18,000 sq. ft. heritage-style, academic and research building with a 200-seater classroom capacity, a state-of-the-art auditorium to conduct lectures, and an audio-visual studio to digitise ancient books and manuscripts. Sudha Murty laid the foundation stone for the building.
Speaking about the new initiative, Sudha Murty stated, “BORI is a 105-year-old institution and a key pillar of India’s cultural heritage. It 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 addition of Mahabharata’ and ‘Kane’s Dharmashastra’, both of which are very dear to my heart. As times have changed audiences want online classes to learn more about our culture and would like to interact with the staff.”
Bhupal Patwardhan, Chairman, Executive Board of BORI also spoke about the institution’s plans for the Murty Centre of Indic Studies. “Hon’ble Sudhatai has given funding for academic projects, and now the Institute has approximately 40 scholars working on different subjects from Indian philosophy to Kathak, and from Ayurveda to astronomy. The upcoming Murty Centre of Indic Studies can accommodate more than 60 scholars. This Murty Centre shall have a studio, we can generate good online content which will be offered on our platform ‘Bharat Vidya’. The Institute has 28,000 manuscripts and old books. To support these books the new building will provide a conservation laboratory. With this facility, the different subjects from Indic culture can be disseminated all over the world. So, we are extremely grateful to the Murty Trust”.
