Motilal Banarsidass
Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, ( MLBD ) is a publishing house and a bookstore chain in India with a focus on Indian culture and history, especially in the fields of Asian religions, Indology, philosophy, history, culture, arts, dance, architecture, archeology, language literature, linguistics, musicology, vedic mathematics, mysticism, yoga, tantra, occult, medicine, ayurveda, astronomy, astrology and related areas in India is a leader.
Creation, publishing history
The founding family comes from the court jeweler of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) from, the " Lion of the Punjab ", the independent Sikhstaat founded in 1801 as the strongest native state of India with its capital at Lahore. Ranjit Singh to make the Afghan ruler Shah Shuja in his exile in the Panjab the Kohinoor diamond alienate succeeded, and it was the ancestor of today's publishing family, Lala Bute Shah, who check the diamonds on behalf of Ranjit Singh in Amritsar on its purity had.
1903 founded Lala Motilal, the very Sanskrit and the spiritual legacy of ancient India was interested in as a Jain, with 27 rupees, which he had borrowed from his wife - she had the money earned knitwear - a bookshop in Lahore, he by his eldest son Banarasidass called ( skt. " the slave / servant of Varanasi / Benares "). The honorary title Lāla 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 Kayasth (also Kaet or Kaith ) commonly presented the clerk and tax collector in the country. Since the Lāla the Sikh, Muslim and British invaders less religious resistance to applied as a conservative and higher social standing Brahmins, they took among the foreign rulers often important positions in the civil service a. The Indian publisher and writer Premchand (1880-1936) was a Lāla.
A branch office in Amritsar, founded in 1911, was closed 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. 1937 was opened on the advice of a family friend who later became the first President of India, Rajendra Prasad from Bihar, another shop in the local capital Patna. Premchand is also similar - with the help of a printing press also a book publisher was opened.
As the parent company in 1947 went up in Lahore during the partition of India in flames, the family first fled to Bikaner and then to Patna, before she moved in 1950 to Varanasi, the traditional training center and stronghold of Hinduism in the north of the country. 1951 there was opened a shop, and in 1958 the headquarters was eventually moved to Delhi, where we now holds 30,000 titles in stock Indology.
( Shri ) Shantilal Jain, the former managing partner of Motilal Banarsidass, was in 1992 awarded the Padma Shri Indian Medal for his scientific publications.
The five sons of Shantilal operate the company today with her mother, Leela Jain, as Chairwoman; Managing Director is Rajendra Prasad Jain .. The family lives to this day with all five branches under one roof, MLBD thus remained a classical family.
2003 MLBD celebrated its centenary with events in Chennai and Bangalore. Today, Print-On- Demand ( POD) and
Business Structure
MLBD produced at high substantive claims in the low- cost sector. Book design, typeface and paper quality meet the Indian conditions and are given the low prices not to compete with European standards. Much of the production also consists of copyright-free reprints ( Reprints ).
The conversion is 5-6 crore rupees, that is, 50-60 million rupees, about 1-1.2 million euros. 60 % of the business to be earned in exports, especially to England, the Netherlands, the USA, Japan and Southeast Asia; go of the remaining 40 % 10-15 % of booksellers who in turn export, so that the total export share is expected to be at 65-70 %; of which the majority goes to the account of non- resident Indians (NRI ), the Indians abroad.
Moreover, the focus is on the university and the library business. A rising 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. Attached is also a book - Antiquarian 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 is located in Delhi, 41 -UA Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi -110 007
Serials
Among the most famous publications include the " Sacred Books of the East" (50 vols, reprint Oxford University Press, among other things contains the Vedas and the Puranas ), ed. by Max Müller, the " Bibliotheca Buddhica " (30 vols, reprint of the edition St.Petersburg ), " Buddhist Tradition Series" ( 30 vols in 32 Tl ), the "Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies " (previously 7 vols ), the " Mahapuranas " (100 Bde ), " Ancient Indian tradition and Mythology " (ie Mahapuranas in English, previously 60 Bde ), the " Ramcaritmanas " of Tulsidas ( hindi -english) and the " Manusmriti " (10 vols ), "Indian Kavya Literature " (10 vols ), " History of Indian Philosophy " (5 vols ).
A total of about 5,000 volumes were published in the 100 years of existence.
Given the underdeveloped book market, the high illiteracy rate (see India, education), the low purchasing power, competition from other media and chains, and the challenging book program is the fact that MLBD can look back on over 100 years of existence, particularly noteworthy.