We are familiar with the character-moulding impact of grand- mother's tales, on impressionable minds. Through the ages, it has been the privilege of the elders of the family to convey to children, through bedtime stories, a broad conception of the fundamental values of life.

Even today, particularly in rural households, children drop off to sleep lulled by lofty lullabies and stories and legends of the wisdom and the prowess of our ancestors narrated by elders.

Things are different today. With the growing disruption and dislocation of the family setting, and the increasing urbanization, when winning the bread and keeping the hearth have become the foremost pre- occupation of a hurly-burly life, young people are deprived of this nourishing food for the soul.

Young hearts and minds not yet warped by the harsher realities of life and the deadening climate of an age characterized by a technological avalanche and a soulless materialism, have to be provided with right mental and spiritual food and nourishment from infancy. They should be enabled to gradually learn, appreciate and absorb our tradition, history and culture.

The late Kulapati Munshiji felt that the first concrete step in this direction would be to prepare a series of graded Culture Course Text Books for Standards I to XI, suited to the calibre and assimilative capacity of different age-groups among our children.

A munificent donation of Rs. 1 lakh from the Mahalakshmi Temple Trust, Bombay, through Shri J. M. Barot, its Managing Trustee, enabled the Bhavan to translate this long cherished dream of Kulapatiji into a reality. Kulapatiji, in grateful recognition of this donation had offered to name the scheme "Mahalakshmi Temple Trust Series".

In 1969, Kulapatiji appointed a Special Committee with Shri S. Ramakrishnan as Chairman and Dr. Shalini Amonkar and Shri V. A. K. Ayer as Conveners to prepare comprehensive syllabi.