Dr. BIBEK DEBROY

Dr. Bibek Debroy is a Sanskrit translator and economist. He was born on 25th January, 1955. He was educated in Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur, Presidency College, Kolkata [BA (Economics Honours)], Delhi School of Economics [MA (Economics)] and Trinity College, Cambridge (M.Sc.). He has worked in academic institutions, Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Government of India. He has written several books, papers and articles in newspapers and magazines. For his work in economics, he has received several awards, including Honorary Doctorates. He has also been conferred the title of ‘Vachaspati’ by Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapith. He was also awarded ‘Padmashri’ by President of India in 2015. Presently, he is Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), Government of India and Chancellor, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, Government of Maharashtra.
Bibek Debroy has been translating texts from the Sanskrit to the English in un-abridged form. The first such translation was a translation of the ‘Bhagavad Gita’, published by Penguin in 2006. The publisher for all these translations is Penguin Random House. After the Bhagavad Gita, he has translated the ‘Mahabharata’ based on the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (Critical Edition). This was sequentially published between 2010 and 2014 in 10 volumes and is now available as a 10-volume set. This translation runs into 2.25 million words. This is only the third time an un-abridged translation of the Mahabharata has been done. The other two were by Kishori Mohan Ganguli and Manmatha Nath Dutt towards the end of the 19th Century. The 10-volume set was published in 2015. After this, Bibek Debroy translated the ‘Harivamsha’, also based on the Critical Edition. This was published in 2016. After this, Bibek Debroy translated a 3 volume ‘Valmiki Ramayana’ based on the Baroda Critical Edition. The only other person to have translated both the Mahabharata and the Valmiki Ramayana into English in un-abridged form is Manmatha Nath Dutt.
He has translated the ‘Bhagavata Purana’ (3 volumes), the ‘Markandeya Purana’, a 2-volume translation of ‘Brahma Purana’ and a 3-volume translation of ‘Shiva Purana’. A 2-volume translation of ‘Brahmanda Purana’ will soon be published and he is now working on ‘Matsya Purana’.