A. N. D. Haksar

Aditya Narayan Dhairyasheel Haksar (born 3 December 1933) is a well known translator of Sanskrit classics into English. Born in Gwalior, central India, he is a graduate of The Doon School, Allahabad University and Oxford University. He was a career diplomat, serving as Indian High Commissioner to Kenya and the Seychelles, Minister in the United States, Ambassador to Portugal and Yugoslavia, and he also served as Dean of India's Foreign Service Institute and President of the U.N. Environment Programme's Governing Council.

Translations from Sanskrit to English

Haksar is noted for his collection of translations from Sanskrit, including The Shattered Thigh & Other Plays of Bhasa, Dandin's Tales of the Ten Princes, the fables of Narayana's Hitopadesha, the story collection Simhasana Dvatrimsika, the verse anthology Subhashitavali, the Kama Sutra, Three Satires from Ancient Kashmir, Tales from the Panchatantra, and the Jatakamala of Arya Shura. He has also edited Glimpses of Sanskrit Literature and compiled A Treasury of Sanskrit Poetry for the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

Haksar has increasingly focused on the katha or narrative Sanskrit literature, the manuscript archive of which may amount to some 40,000 volumes. This is in part because many generations of orientalist scholars had overlooked this rich tradition in favor of more ancient religious texts. His katha translations include Shuka Saptati, and the first ever renditions into English of Madhavanala Katha and Samaya Matrika, respectively published as Madhav & Kama and The Courtesan's Keeper.