Clay Sanskrit Library - CSL and The JJC Foundation

CSL and The JJC Foundation

The JJC Foundation was founded by John P. Clay and his wife, Jennifer. John Clay, who was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1934, went to Oxford University in the 1950s, where he studied classics and Sanskrit literature. He went on to a long career in global investment banking with Clay Finlay, Inc, New York, and Vickers da Costa, New York. But in 1999 he decided that he wanted to return to his real passion, Sanskrit literature, and envisioned a series that would make all the classics available to the general public for the first time. He shared his vision for the Clay Sanskrit Library with Richard Gombrich, Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University from 1965 to 2004, and Richard Gombrich agreed to serve as general editor of the series. They invited Somadeva Vasudeva and Isabelle Onians (themselves Sanskrit scholars) as associate editors for the series, as well as thirty leading academics from eight different countries to produce new translations of classical Sanskrit literature. John Clay now lives in New York City. In 2007 Sheldon Pollock joined Richard Gombrich as co-general editor. Richard Gombrich resigned from the post in early 2008.

The first books in the series were published in 2005. At present, there are 46 volumes available.

In the summer of 2009, the series became financially insolvent and all further publications were cancelled. Among the projects still incomplete at the time of the bankruptcy was the Clay Sanskrit edition of the Mahabharata, perhaps its most celebrated and ambitious undertaking. As a result, only fifteen of the projected thirty-two volumes were ever produced, and those not in any particular order. No institution or patron has so far undertaken to revive the series.

Sidenote:Now there is renewed effort to revive the series albeit under a different moniker but the stewardship & editorial guidance of Sheldon Pollock as the Murty Classical Library of India.This has been confirmed by the $5 million in donation to Harvard University Press by the billionaire founder of Infosys Narayana Murthy not just to restart the project of publishing classical Indian literature in English translation, but to expand it to works in many languages other than Sanskrit.