Aditya Narayan Dhairyasheel Haksar (born 3 December 1933) is a well known translator of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

classics into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Born in

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

, central

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, he is a graduate of

The Doon School The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mod ...

Allahabad University , mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees" , established = , type = Public , chancellor = Ashish Chauhan , vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava , head_label ...

and

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. He was a career diplomat, serving as Indian High Commissioner to

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and the

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, Minister in the

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, Ambassador to

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and

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, and he also served as Dean of India's Foreign Service Institute and President of the U.N. Environment Programme's Governing Council. Haksar is noted for his collection of translations from Sanskrit. He has increasingly focused on the '' kathā'' or narrative Sanskrit literature, the manuscript archive of which may amount to some 40,000 volumes. This is in part because many generations of orientalist scholars had overlooked this rich tradition in favor of more ancient religious texts. His ''kathā'' translations include '' Shuka Saptati'', and the first ever renditions into English of ''Madhavanala Katha'' and '' Samaya Matrika'', respectively published as ''Madhav & Kama'' and ''The Courtesan's Keeper''.

List of works

Translated

#''Tales from the Panchatantra'' (1992) #''The Shattered Thigh & Other Plays of Bhasa'' (1993) # Dandin's '' Tales of the Ten Princes'' (1995) # Fables from

Narayana Narayana (Sanskrit: नारायण, IAST: ''Nārāyaṇa'') is one of the forms and names of Vishnu, who is in yogic slumber under the celestial waters, referring to the masculine principle. He is also known as Purushottama, and is co ...

's ''

Hitopadesha ''Hitopadesha'' (Sanskrit: हितोपदेशः, IAST: ''Hitopadeśa'', "Beneficial Advice") is an Indian text in the Sanskrit language consisting of fables with both animal and human characters. It incorporates maxims, worldly wisdom and ...

'' (1998) # the story collection '' Simhasana Dvatrimsika'' (1998) #'' Shuka Saptati- Seventy Tales of the Parrot'' (2000) #The '' Jatakamala'' ''of Arya Shura'' (2003) with a foreword by H.H. the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

#''Madhav and Kama - A Love Story from Ancient India'' (2006) # the verse anthology '' Subhashitavali'' (2007) #''The Courtesan’s Keeper - Samaya Matrika'' of

Kshemendra Kshemendra (; ) was an 11th-century Sanskrit polymath-poet, satirist, philosopher, historian, dramatist, translator and art-critic from Kashmir in India. Biography Kshemendra was born into an old, cultured, and affluent family. His father wa ...

(2008) #''Three Satires from Ancient Kashmir'' of

(2011) # Vatsyayana's ''

Kama Sutra The ''Kama Sutra'' (; sa, कामसूत्र, , ; ) is an ancient Indian Sanskrit text on sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment in life. Attributed to Vātsyāyana, the ''Kama Sutra'' is neither exclusively nor predominantly ...

'' (2011) #''The Seduction of Shiva - Tales of Life and Love'' (2014) #''Suleiman Charitra of Kalyana Malla'' (2015) #'' Raghuvamsam'' of Kalidasa (2016) #''The Ending of Arrogance – Darpadalanam'' of

(2016) #''Three Hundred Verses'' of Bhartrihari (2017) #'' Ritusamharam – A Gathering of Seasons'' by Kalidasa (2018) #''A Tale of Wonder – Kathakautukam'' by Srivara (2019) #''Chankaya Niti - Verses on Life and Living'' (2020)

Edited

*''Glimpses of Sanskrit Literature'' (1995) for the

Indian Council for Cultural Relations The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India, involved in India's global cultural relations, through cultural exchange with other countries and their people. It was founded on 9 Apri ...

. *''A Treasury of Sanskrit Poetry'' (2002) for the

References

External links

A. N. D. Haksar
at

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A. N. D. Haksar
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Haksar, A. N. D. 1933 births Living people The Doon School alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford University of Allahabad alumni Sanskrit–English translators