Motilal Banarsidass

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Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers , (MLBD) is a publishing house and bookstore chain in India with a focus on Indian culture and history , which is mainly active in the areas of Asian religions, Indology , philosophy, history, culture, arts, dance, architecture, archeology, language, Literature, linguistics, musicology, Vedic math , mysticism, yoga , tantra , occultism, medicine, Ayurveda , astronomy, astrology and related fields in India is a leader. The company is based in Delhi .

Foundation, publishing history

The founding family comes from the court jeweler of the Maharajas Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), the "Lion of Panjab ", who founded the independent Sikh state in 1801 as the strongest native state in India, with the capital Lahore . Ranjit Singh succeeded the Afghan rulers Schodscha Shah Durrani in his exile in Punjab the Kohinoor - diamonds to make alienate, and it was the ancestor of today's publishing family, Lala Bute Shah, the diamonds on behalf of Ranjit Singh in Amritsar to for purity had to check.

In 1903 Lala Motilal, who as a Jain was very interested in Sanskrit and the intellectual legacy of ancient India, founded a bookstore in Lahore , which he had borrowed from his wife - she had made the money with knitwear - 27 rupees named after his eldest son Banarasidass (Skt. "the slave / servant of Vārāņasī / Benares "). The honorary title Lāla is associated with the Srivastava or Shrivāstab caste - the Jains had taken over the caste system in a milder form in the Middle Ages - a sub-caste of the Kāyasth (also Kaet or Kaith), which usually provided the scribes and tax collectors in the country. Since the Lāla offered less religious resistance to the Sikh, Muslim and British conquerors than the conservative and socially superior Brahmins , they often held important positions in civil service under the foreign rulers. The Indian publisher and writer Premchand (1880–1936) was also a Lāla.

A branch in Amritsar, founded in 1911, was closed again after the death of Banasirdass (1912). After his death, the only brother Sundarlal Jain took over the business with the support of his nephew Shantilal, a son of Banarasidass. In 1937, on the advice of a friend of the family, who later became India's first president, Rajendra Prasad from Bihar , another shop was opened in the local capital, Patna . With the help of a printing press, a book publisher was also opened - also similar to Premchand.

When the parent company in Lahore went up in flames in the course of the partition of India in 1947, the family fled first to Bikaner and then on to Patna before moving to Varanasi in 1950 , the traditional educational institution and stronghold of Hinduism in the north of the country. A shop was opened there in 1951, and in 1958 the head office was finally relocated to Delhi, where 30,000 Indological titles are now in stock.

Interior view of Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi

(Shri) Shantilal Jain, the then managing partner of Motilal Banarsidass, was awarded the Indian Padma Shri Order in 1992 for his scientific publication activities.

Shantilal's five sons now run the company together with their mother, Leela Jain, as the chairman of the company; The managing director is Rajendra Prasad Jain. The family still lives with all five branches under one roof, MLBD has remained a classic family business.

In 2003 MLBD celebrated its centenary with events in Chennai and Bangalore.

Business structure

MLBD produces in the low-cost area. Book fittings, typeface and paper quality correspond to Indian standards and, given the low prices, cannot be measured against European standards. Much of the production also consists of copyright-free reprints ( Reprints ).

The turnover is 5-6 crore rupees. H. 50–60 million rupees , about 1–1.2 million euros. 60% of the business is earned in export, v. a. to England, the Netherlands, the USA, Japan and Southeast Asia; of the remaining 40%, 10–15% go to booksellers who in turn export, so that the total export share should be 65–70%; The majority of this goes to the account of the Non-Resident Indians (NRI), the Indians abroad.

Otherwise, the focus is on the university and library business. An increasing share of sales is achieved with books and CDs on esotericism, new age, health, diet, alternative therapies, parapsychology, medititation, spiritual healing, Reiki and music CDs. There is also a second-hand bookshop and two imprints, New Age Books and New Age Music.

Branch network

MLBD has branches in Mylapore / Chennai , Varanasi , Patna , Pune , Mumbai , Bangalore and Kolkata , the headquarters are in Delhi , 41-UA Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi-110 007.

Series of publications

The most famous publications include the " Sacred Books of the East " (50 vols., Reprint of Oxford University Press , contains the Vedas and the Puranas , among others ), ed. by Max Müller , the "Bibliotheca Buddhica" (30 vols., reprint of the St. Petersburg edition), "Buddhist Tradition Series" (30 vols. in 32 parts), the "Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies" (previously 7 vols.) , the "Mahapuranas" (100 vols.), "Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology" (ie Mahapuranas in English, so far 60 vols.), the " Ramcaritmanas " of Tulsidas (Hindi-English) and the " Manusmriti " (10 vols. ), "Indian Kavya Literature" (10 vol.), "History of Indian Philosophy" (5 vol.).

In total, around 5,000 volumes have been published in the 100 years of existence.

In view of the underdeveloped book market, the high illiteracy rate (see India , education), the low purchasing power , competition from other media and chains and the demanding book program, the fact that MLBD can look back on over 100 years of existence is particularly remarkable.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Treasure trove of Indology. In: The Hindu. November 5, 2004; today the diamond is in the English crown treasure .
  2. ↑ Similar names are Mohandas, Devdas.
  3. ↑ The Lāla's cunning and tricks were notorious: RV Russell, Rai Bahadur Hīra Lāl: The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India. Vol. 3. London 1916, pp. 404-422.
  4. ^ Culture calling. In: The Hindu. December 13, 2010.
  5. ↑ 100 years on the spiritual trail. In: The Times of India. June 24, 2002.
  6. ↑ The conditions under which the book trade in South Asia still operates today are impressively described in: Asne Seierstadt: The bookseller from Kabul. List, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-548-60430-7 .

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