Hindi Granth Karyalay

Template:Inline Template:Infobox publisher

Hindi Granth Karyalay is an Indian publishing house and specialized book store dealing in books pertaining to Jainology and Indology in English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsha. It was established in Mumbai, India in 1912 by its founder Nathuram Premi. It publishes and distributes serials, monographs, and scholarly publications on Indian religions, philosophy, history, culture, arts, architecture, archaeology, language, literature, linguistics, musicology, mysticism, yoga, tantra, occult, medicine, astronomy, astrology and other related subjects, and to date have published over 100 works of noted Indian and International authors and scholars.

History

Establishment

Template:Main

Nathuram Premi, founder of Hindi Granth Karyalay

On 24 September 1912, Pandit Nathuram Premi founded the publishing house Hindi Granth Ratnākar Kāryālay (now known as Hindi Granth Karyalay) at C.P. Tank, Mumbai. It was to become the foremost Hindi publishing house in India and is also the oldest bookstore of Mumbai. Born on 26 November 1881 in Deori, in the district of Sagar in Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Nāthūrām Premī was the eldest child of Tundelal Modi, a travelling merchant of modest means, belonging to the Paravāra community of Digambara Jains hailing from Bundelkhand. He arrived in Mumbai in 1901, and started working for the Digambara Jain Tīrthakṣetra Committee as a clerk. The owner of Hirabaug, Seth Manikchandra, impressed by his honesty, diligence and intellect asked the young Nāthūrām Premī to take up rooms at the Hirabaug Dharmashala at the heart of the Mumbai market and start his business from there. He accepted the offer and together with Pannalal Bakhliwal started the Jain Granth Ratnākar Kāryālay in 1906. From this humble beginnings, in 1912 he started the publishing house Hindi Granth Ratnākar Kāryālay.

Early history

The first publication of Hindi Granth Ratnākar Kāryālay was a Hindi translation of John Stuart Mill's Liberty, titled Svādhīnatā translated by Pandit Mahaviraprasad Dvivedi. They published almost the entire oeuvre of Sharat Chandra Chatterji, the great Bengali writer and some works of Rabindranath Tagore, such as Ānkh kī Kirkirī, and Naukā Dūbī. Premiji also published Hindi translations of the Gujarati writer KM Munshi, such as Gujarāt ke Nāth and Pātan kā Prabhutva. Other famous works published include Munshi Premchand's classic novel, Godān and short story collections titled Nava Nidhi and Sapta Saroj. He also published works of then new writers such as Hajariprasad Dvivedi, Jainendrakumar, Yashpal, Acharya Chatursen, and Pandit Sudarshan. He also published the Bengali plays of Dvijendra Lal Rai for the first time in Hindi.

In memory of Seth Manikchandra, Premiji established the Manikacandra Jain Granthamālā wherein he published Jain scriptures, for the first time systematically edited by philologists. The Manikacandra Jain Granthamālā published over 48 Digambara Jain texts, mostly written in Prakrit, Apabhramśa or Sanskrit. He ran the Manikacandra Jain Granthamālā on an honorary basis between 1915 and the 1950s selling all the books at cost price. When his health began to fail, it was decided to hand over the series to Bhāratīya Jñānapītha in Varanasi.

Current management

Under Premiji’s tutelage, Hindi Granth Ratnākar Kāryālay became India's No. 1 publishers of Hindi literature. In recognition of his contributions to Indian literature, the acclaimed Hindi novelist Vishnu Prabhakar called Premiji the "Bhīsma Pitāmaha" of Hindi publishing. Premiji had suffered from asthma for a long time and died owing to old age on 30 January 1960. He left behind his daughter-in-law and two grandsons. His elder grandson, Yashodhar Modi, continued his legacy till his death in 2014, along with his son, Manish Modi. Now Hindi Granth Karyalay is being managed by Premiji's great grandson Manish Modi. In Premiji's memory, his grandson Yashodhar Modi has started the Pandit Nathuram Premi Research Series. This series has published select volumes focusing on subjects as varied as Jainism, philosophy and yoga and published original texts by ancient and medieval Jain ascetics such as Kundakunda, Samantabhadra, Pūjyapāda, Joindu, Prabhācandra, Vādirāja, Bhāvadeva and many others, usually accompanied by translation in either Hindi or English. Also, highly respected modern scholars such as Premiji himself, Prof. Ludwig Alsdorf, Prof. Maurice Bloomfield, Prof. Willem Bollée and Dr. Jaykumar Jalaj have been and are being published in the Pandit Nathuram Premi Research Series.

Bookstore

Hindi Granth Karyalay's bookstore is located at 9 Hirabaug, C. P. Tank, Mumbai 400004. Besides housing its own published titles, Hindi Granth Karyalay also stocks, sells and distribute Indological literature of thousands of different titles.

Publications

Pandit Nathuram Premi Research Series

Jain Studies: Their Present State and Future Tasks

{English}

By Prof Dr Ludwig Alsdorf

English tr. by Bal Patil

Pandit Nathuram Premi Research Series Volume 1

Published in 2006