MCLI will create models to preserve classical Indian languages: Rohan Murty

With classical languages losing their stewards and scholars being replaced by English-speaking professionals, producing high-quality translations in the years to come will be a serious challenge, said Rohan Murty on Tuesday, while celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Murty Classical Library of India. While MCLI’s focus presently is to preserve and translate texts into classical languages, given the challenges at hand, it is imperative to preserve the languages too and not just the texts, he said, noting that language models could be an effective way to do this. Linguistic nuances “When trained on existing and future MCLI translations, these models can learn the linguistic nuances and structure of the classical texts and capture the essence that otherwise might have been lost,” he said. “Today, over 80 universities worldwide use these books in their classrooms.Through MCLI, India and more broadly South Asia’s literary tradition have taken the right place in the global discourse of classical literature,“ he said.