Clay Sanskrit Library

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'sKindle, Apple'siBooks, 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.

• Banks, Eric (December 2005 – January 2006), "100 Paths to Nirvana", Bookforum, archived from the original on 2007-09-27, retrieved 2007-08-30.
• Hanneder, Jürgen (2008), "Review of Clay Sanskrit Library"(PDF), Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 158: 496–499.
• Ormsby, Eric (May 2005), "The jewel in the cobra's mouth", The New Criterion.
• Pollack, R. (7 September 2008), "The Clay Sanskrit Library", rpollack.net, retrieved 29 March 2017.
• Regier, Willis G. (3 March 2006), "Seduced by Sanskrit", Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 52, no. 26.
• Shulman, David (12 August 2008), "The Arrow and the Poem", New Republic, retrieved 29 March 2017.
• Smith, John D. (11 November 2005), "Script doctors' blunders mar valuable texts", Times Higher Education.

• Clay Sanskrit Library (official page)
• Blog (Internet Archive copy)