New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS): A large number of Indian classics, popular Indian works and literary masterpieces have been promoted into English as well as foreign languages by the Sahitya Akademi, the Parliament was informed on Thursday.

Culture and Tourism Minister G. Kishan Reddy said that the government has constantly taken various steps to promote/encourage the translation of Indian literature' into English and foreign languages through the Sahitya Akademi, an autonomous body under the Culture Ministry.

"Over the years, the Akademi has promoted several Indian classics and popular Indian works into foreign languages such as 'The Ayodhya Canto of the Ramayana' as told by Kamban from Tamil into English, 'Chemmeen' from Malayalam into English and several Eastern European languages, 'Kavitavali' by Tulsidas into English, 'Godaan' by Premchand into English, 'Garambica Bapu' by S.N. Pendse into English, 'Pather Panchali' by Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay into French, to name a few," he told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

He also said that the Akademi has published translations of 10 books of 10 different Indian languages into Chinese, Russian, and English. The books are "Surujmukhir Swapna" by Syed Abdul Malik (Assamese), "Arogyaniketan" by Tara Shankar Bandyopadhyay (Bengali), "Vevishaal" by Jhaverchand Meghani (Gujarati), "Kavve Aur Kala Pani" by Nirmal Verma (Hindi), "Parva" by S.L. Bhyrappa (Kannada), "Manoj Dasanka Katha O Kahini" by Manoj Das (Odia), "Marhi Da Diva" by Gurdial Singh (Punjabi), "Sila NerangalilSila Manidargal" by D. Jayakanthan (Tamil), "Illu" by R. Viswanatha Sastry (Telugu) and "Ek Chadar Maili Si" by Rajinder Singh Bedi (Urdu)

Apart from the above mentioned translations and publications, the Akademi has published/translated a number of titles into foreign languages, he added.