OmshantiMandiram Sarla Nagar

Sarla was born March 26, 1924, in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India, and was married on Feb. 28, 1951, to Murarilal Nagar in Jullandar.

She received her master’s in Hindi from Agra University and lectured at Kanya Gurukula Dehradun. She came to the United States to join her husband in 1951 and began working at the Library of Congress. She continued her studies at Teachers College Columbia University in New York and received her master’s degree in education in 1956. She studied at the University of Missouri and received her master’s degree in library science in 1968. She served as the curator of South Asian art at the Museum of Art and Archaeology of the University of Missouri for many years.

Murari was born into a very pious Agnihotri Family in Banaras, India. Shree Bhagwanilalji Agnihotri, his father, was a native of Banswara, Rajasthan and his mother, Jivankunvar, was a native of Varanasi.

Dr. Nagar spent his childhood on the banks of river Ganga (Ganges River) learning Sanskrit and graduated with high honors as a Gold Medalist from the Banaras Hindu University. He also obtained an Acharya in Sanskrit. In 1951, he moved to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar and continued his services at the New York Public Library and Library of Congress.

With a deep love for his motherland, he returned to India and worked in New Delhi and continued his educational pursuits at various educational institutions. He returned to the United States and completed his Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York.

Being a great devotee of Sarasvati, the Goddess of Education, and with his love of the library, he started his services at the University of Missouri in 1965 as the South Asia Librarian. He dedicated his life to research and service on behalf of scholars of religion, history, geography, culture and librarianship, until his retirement in 1987. The University of Missouri honored him with the title of “Library Emeritus” the first in the history of the University. He has published over 60 books and the University of Missouri “MU Libraries” has preserved all of Dr. Nagar’s publications in the digital form online at MOspace so that it is accessible to the entire world.