Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House (MLBD) is an Indianacademic publishing house, founded inDelhi,India in 1903. It publishes and distributes serials, monographs, and scholarly publications onAsian religions,Buddhology,Indology,Eastern philosophy,history,culture,arts,architecture,archaeology,language,literature,linguistics,musicology,mysticism,yoga,tantra,occult,medicine,astronomy, andastrology.^[1]

Amongst its publications are the 100 volumes of theMahapuranas; the 50 volumes of theSacred Books of the East, edited byMax Müller;Bibliotheca Buddhica (30 volumes in 32 pts);Ramcharitmanas with Hindi and English translations; theManusmriti in 10 volumes and the Sanskrit lexicon; and the 7 volumes ofEncyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. It also brings out books based on research and study conducted at organizations such as theIndian Council of Historical Research (ICHR),Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), andIndian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).^[2][3] It has a turnover of approximately₹ 5–6 crore, roughly 75% coming from exports.^[4]

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers was first established inLahore in 1903 by Lala Motilal Jain, a descendant of the family of court jewellers toMaharaja Ranjit Singh in Amritsar. Motilal borrowed₹ 27 from his wife's savings that she had earned from her knitting work, to start a bookshop selling Sanskrit books in 'Said Mitha Bazar' in Lahore. He named it after his eldest son Motilal Banarsidass Jain, who later took charge of the publishing business.

In 1911, MLBD opened a branch at Mai Sewan Bazar,Amritsar, under the supervision of Lala Sundarlal Jain, another son of Lala Motilal Jain, though after the untimely death of Lala Banarasidass in 1912, Sundarlal Jain, his only surviving brother had to close this establishment and relocate to Lahore to look after the family business. Soon he was joined by his young nephew Shantilal Jain, who had just finished school, who eventually became the company's chairman. Soon a printing unit was also set up and the publishing house was established.^[5]

In 1937, a branch was started in Patna at the suggestion ofRajendra Prasad. Subsequently, during thePartition of India a riot burnt down the Lahore shop. Post independence, the family moved to India and initially stayed atBikaner and Patna, before moving to Varanasi in 1950, where it set up shop in 1951, and finally shifted base to Delhi in 1958. Today it is one of the few large publishing houses in the world which has its own in-house printing unit.

In 1992, Shantilal Jain was awarded thePadma Shri by the government of India, the first ever Padma award for outstanding community service through publishing.^[3] Today Shantilal's eldest son Narendra Prakash Jain, widely known as 'Prakash' and his four brothers and their sons, along with their mother, Leela Jain, who is the company's Chairperson, run the business.^[1][2]

In 2003, the company celebrated its centenary at a function inChennai, whereKanchi Sankaracharya,Jayendra Saraswathi, honoured three Sanskrit scholars: R. Balasubramaniam, B.M.K. Sharma and K.V. Sharma.^[6] At a function held atBangalore,Governor of Karnataka,T.N. Chaturvedi, felicitatedcentenarianSudhakar Chaturvedi, S.M.S. Chari, and B.K. Krishnamurthy ofHyderabad for their contribution to Indology, andastrologerB.V. Raman was honoured posthumously.^[7]

Its main office in New Delhi is at A-44, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase-1, New Delhi-110028. It houses Indological literature of around 30,000 titles.^[8]

• Sacred Books of the East (50 Volumes) edited byMax Müller (reprints, originallyOxford University Press);
• IndianKavya Literature byA. K. Warder (10 Volumes, 7 Volumes already published);
• History of Indian Philosophy byS.N. Dasgupta (5 Volumes);
• Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India byRam Sharan Sharma (Fifth revised edition, 2005)
• Sudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order Down to Circa A D 600 byRam Sharan Sharma (Third Revised Edition, Delhi, 1990; Reprint, Delhi, 2002)
• Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology (English translation of the Mahapuranas, 79 Volumes already published);
• Buddhist Tradition Series, edited by Alex Wayman (30 Volumes);
• MLBD Series in Linguistics, edited byDhanesh Jain (10 Volumes);
• Lala Sundar Lal Jain Research Series edited by Dayanand Bhargava (10 Volumes already published).
• Advaita Tradition Series by Shoun Hino & K.P. Jog (8 Volumes already published);
• Performing Arts Series edited by Farlay P. Richmond (7 Volumes already published).
• Wisdom of Sankara Series by Som Raj Gupta (2 Volumes published);
• Kalamulasastra Series (21 Volumes published).
• Bibliotheca Buddhica (30 Volumes in 32 pts) ed.Sergey Oldenburg,Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, (reprints, originally St. Petersburg)
• Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies (25 Volumes already published).
• Also many Sanskrit Grammar books by SC Vasu, MR Kale; Dictionaries by MM Williams, Apte.

• Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House, Website
• Treasure trove of Indology atThe Hindu

• Book publishing companies of India
• Indology
• Publishing companies established in 1903
• Bookstores of India
• Companies based in Delhi
• Religious tract publishing companies

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