Motilal Banarsidass (MLBD) is a leading Indian publishing house on Sanskrit and Indology since 1903, located in Delhi, India. It publishes and distributes serials, monographs, and scholarly publications on Asian religion, philosophy, history, culture, arts, architecture, archaeology, language, literature, linguistics, musicology, mysticism, yoga, tantra, occult, medicine, astronomy, astrology and other related subjects, and to date have published over 5,000 works.

Its noted publications are the 100 volumes of the Mahapuranas, Sacred Books of the East (50 Volumes) edited by Max Müller; Bibliotheca Buddhica (30 Volumes in 32 pts); Ramcharitmanas with Hindi and English translation, the Manusmriti in ten volumes and the Sanskrit lexicon, and Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies (7 volumes). It also brings out books based on research and study conducted at organisations such as ICHR, IGNCA, ICCR , and has a turnover of approximately Rs 5–6 crore, roughly 75% coming from exports .

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers was first established in Lahore in 1903 by Lala Motilal Jain, a descendant of the family of court jewellers to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Amritsar. Motilal borrowed Rs. 27 from his wife's savings that she had earned from her knitting work, to start a bookshop selling Sanskrit books in 'Said Mitha Bazar' in Lahore. He named it after his eldest son Motilal Banarsidass Jain, who later took charge of the publishing business.

Daisaku Ikeda (池田 大作, Ikeda Daisaku^?, born January 2, 1928, Japan) is president of Sōka Gakkai International (SGI), a Nichiren Buddhist lay association which claims 12 million members in 192 countries and territories, and founder of several educational, cultural and peace research institutions. Ikeda was listed in the Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in 2012.

Daisaku Ikeda was born the fifth son of seaweed farmers in Ōta, Tokyo. He had four older brothers, who fought in World War II, two younger brothers, and a sister. During the war, his eldest brother, Kiichi Ikeda (1916-1945), was killed and his familyʼs home destroyed. As a child, he suffered from poor health and later tuberculosis; at the time, doctors had predicted that he wouldn't survive beyond the age of 30.

In August 1947, he met Jōsei Toda at a Sōka Gakkai discussion meeting and, later that month, joined the organization. In 1948, Ikeda made the decision to sacrifice his schooling in order to dedicate his full, unreserved efforts to helping Toda resolve the financial situation then confounding him, and go on to fulfill greater dreams for world peace. Initially, this involved working for Toda's publishing business. In return, Toda pledged to give Ikeda a thorough, university-level education in literature, history, chemistry, physics, economics, law, mathematics, and organization theory. Ikeda regarded Toda as his spiritual mentor. In his writings, Ikeda states that Toda exerted the greatest influence on him through “the profound compassion that characterized each of his interactions”. Ikeda became President of Sōka Gakkai in 1960, after which he began traveling abroad to realize Todaʼs vision of expanding the Soka Gakkai movement.