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South Asia Lending Library - Book List
South Asia Language and Area Center
5848 University Avenue, 309 Kelly Hall
Chicago, IL 60637
Phone: (312) 702-8635 | Fax: (312) 702-1309
Email South Asia Outreach
| # | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| Bhagat, Pamela India: An Oxfam Country Profile. Oxford: Oxfam Publishing, 2004. One of Oxfam's many country profiles, this book focuses on the lives of ordinary people in India and the major development issues that affect them. Through photographs, interviews and case-studies, this work highlights India's history and its complex socio-economic, cultural, and political climates. |
| Dehejia, Vidya and Allen Staley Impossible Picturesqueness: Edward Lear's Indian Watercolours, 1873-1875. Ahmedabad, India: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd, 1989. Edward Lear, best known as a writer of limericks and nonsense verse, was by profession, a landscape draughtsman and painter. Traveling through regions such as Calabria, Corsica, Egypt and India, he made sketches from nature, which, upon his return home, he worked up into oil paintings and watercolors for sale and exhibition. Impossible Picturesqueness presents a selection of Lear's Indian watercolors, and documents his journey to India in 1873-75. |
| Desai, Chelna Ikat Textiles of India. Chronicle Books: San Francisco, California, 1988. Ikat textiles are among the most highly prized fabrics in the world. Renowned for their Brilliant colors and complex patterns and designs, they have been woven in India since the sixth century. Ikat Textiles of India is a full-color; comprehensive guide to this unique form of the weaver's art, featuring hundreds of examples of the best work from private collections and from weavers themselves. The styles shown range from traditional to contemporary, simple to complex, and common to rare. The term "ikat" stems from the Malay-Indonesian expression "mangikat," meaning to bind, knot or wind around. In principle, ikat or resist dyeing, involves the sequence of tying (or wrapping) and dyeing sections of bundled yarn to a predetermined color scheme prior to weaving. Thus, dye penetrates into the exposed sections, while the tied sections remain undyed. |
| Deva, Krishna Temples of Khajuraho. Archaeological survey of India, Janpath: New Delhi, India, 1990. A book of photographs and detailed maps on the famous temples of Khajuraho in northern India, known for their intricate and erotic temple sculptures. This is an excellent resource on one of India's most renowned sites. |
| Elder, Joseph W., ed., Edward C. Dimock, Jr., ed., and Ainslie T. Embree, ed. India's Worlds and US Scholars 1947-1997. Manohar Publishers & Distributors: ew Delhi, India, 1998. Prepared by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) in recognition of fifty years of India's independence, the first part of the volume provides a detailed history of the study of India in the United States and the role of AIIS in that study. The second part of the volume includes contributions from twenty-seven U.S. scholars representing a wide range of academic disciplines, from anthropology and archaeology to theatre and women's studies. All the scholars identify ways in which working in India has led them and others in their field to reconsider western-based theories, classification systems, and methods of organizing knowledge. |
| Gandhi, M. K. and edited by Bharatan Kumarappa The Story of My Life. Navajivan Publishing House: Ahmedabad, India, 1955. This offers a condensed account of Mahatma Gandhi's Autobiography and his Satyagraha in South Africa, published in India and intended for use in schools there, but could be adapted for use elsewhere in order to give younger students an introduction to one of modern India's most important figures |
| Gang, Vandana Akarshak Mehandi Designs. Navneet Publications (India) Ltd.: Dantali, Gujarat, 1999. |
| Husain, Asad, John E. Woods, and Javeed Akhter Muslims in America: Opportunities & Challenges. International Strategy and Policy Institute: Chicago, Illinois, 1996. A series of articles by the three authors delve into different facets of Islam in the United States; its history and demography, its construction and imagining in the minds and media of Americans, and an outlook on its future. Although published in 1996, the subject matter of this small volume is particularly pertinent today. |
| Hutchins , Francis G. (translator) Animal Fables of India: Narayana's Hitopadesha. Book Faith India: Delhi, India, 1985. Based on the famous Hitopadesha, or Friendly Council, written in the ninth century by Narayana, this translation offers a nicely illustrated collection of India's classic animal fables. Originally intended as an instruction guide for young princes, Narayana offers a mischievously complex interweaving of stories prescribing good, moral conduct meant for Kings. |
| Huyler, Stephan P. Painted Prayers. Thames and Hudson Ltd.: London, England, 1994. For hundreds of years, Indian women have passed on to their daughters the art of ritual wall paintings, ground paintings and decorations that function as messages to the Gods. Some of the ground paintings are daily rituals, made every morning at dawn, while wall paintings and bas-reliefs are often created for special festivals, to honor the Gods as well as to attract their benevolent attentions. Here is a fascinating and richly illustrated account of the centuries-old artistic traditions of women in village India, presented in 170 full-color photographs that evoke both the women's rich artistic heritage and the pride and pleasure with which they regard their creative responsibilities. The informative text details the traditions, rituals and beliefs behind this little-known art form and places the works in the context of contemporary Indian women's lives and the social realities of India today. |
| Hoyt-Goldsmith, Diane with photographs by Lawrence Migdale Celebrating Ramadan. Holiday House Books: New York, NY, 2001. During the holy month of Ramadan, Ibraheem and his family, along with five million other American Muslims, eat and drink nothing from sunup to sundown. They are participating in a fourteen-hundred-year-old tradition that is one of the pillars of the Islamic faith. In crisp color photographs and insightful text, Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith and Lawrence Migdale follow Ibraheem's family through the month of praying and fasting and through celebrating the å id al-Fitr, the feast that ends Ramadan. The result is a beautifully designed photo essay that shows how a cotemporary American Islamic family puts an ancient faith into practice. |
| International Institute of Asian Studies, ed. Guide to Asian Studies in Europe. Curzon Press: The Netherlands, 1998. A useful reference tool of Asian Studies researchers in Europe listed by geographical region and specific country of study. It includes an alphabetical list of 5,000 European Asianists, 1,200 institutes and university departments, and 300 museums, organizations and newsletters throughout Europe. |
| Jain, Jyotindra Ganga Devi: Tradition and Expression in Mithila Painting. Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd.: Ahmedabad, India in association with the Mithila Museum, 1997. Ganga Devi, both as a person and as an artist, was rooted in the tradition of Mithila painting. While the tradition was deeply ingrained in her and was a source of inspiration in her work and of courage in her tormented personal life, she was one of the few Mithila artists to respond spontaneously and sensitively to the new possibilities offered by the availability of paper in the region. This study is the first of its kind, tracing the growth of a rural artist's work from her early paintings to her venturing out into narrative and autobiographical work, and the invention of a new pictorial vocabulary. |
| Khan, Rukhsana with illustrations by Patty Gallinger Muslim Child: Understanding Islam through Stories and Poems. Albert Whitman and Company: Morton Grove, Illinois, 1999. In this compelling collection, Rukhsana Khan lovingly examines the everyday lives and struggles of Muslim children as they learn to follow the path of Islam, one of the world's major religions, in a way of life that is often misunderstood. |
| Khorana, Meena The Indian Subcontinent in Literature for Children and Young Adults: An annotated Bibliography of English-Language Books. Greenwood Press: Westport, Connecticut, 1991. A wonderful bibliography of children's stories of the Subcontinent published in English. The children's literature of the South Asia region is dissected into five areas for the purpose of this study: Bangladesh, Himalayan Kingdoms (Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet), India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. |
| Kothari, Sunil Bharata Natyam. Marg Publications: Mumbai, India, 1999. Bharata Natyam, the most popular classical Indian dance-form, has received universal approbation as one of the subtlest expressions of Indian culture. Its intimate connection with the temple, as a ritualistic art, mirroring the imperceptible feelings of a devotee reflects the inwardness of Hindu culture. |
| Krishna, Nanditha Arts and Crafts of Tamilnadu. Ashok Leyland Ltd. in associations with Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd.: Ahmedabad, India, 1992. Tamilnadu has attained a high level of perfection in almost every craft form. The list is awesome - from jewel-toned silks of Kanchipuram to the enormously high terracotta horses in honor of Ayyanaar, protective deity of the village; from the glory of Pallava stone sculpture to the exquisite bronzes of the Chola age. The state has achieved impressive heights in jewellery, woodcraft, painting and metal ware. This book explores the world of the artisan and craftsperson of Tamilnadu. 154 color photographs. |
| Lambert, Richard D., ed. Resources for South Asian Area Studies in the United States. University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, Penn., 1962. Although outdated, this book still provides a useful overview of the resources and needs in the field of South Asian area studies in the United States. In addition, it is concerned with the development of language skills by Americans in various vernacular languages of South Asia. In both these respects, the strides taken since 1962 have been significant yet this collection if read with an eye to its historical context, can still be informative to the non-specialist. |
| Lehri, R.M. Cut and Make Festival Masks from India. Dover Publishing, 2001. In India, as in cultures throughout the world, people often wear masks for festivals and ritual dances. Six of these vibrant, imaginative masks from India have been brought together in authentic cut-and-make paper reproductions. |
| Manschot, Johan & De Vos, Marijke Behind the Scenes of Hindi Cinema: A Visual Journey through the Heart of Bollywood. Amsterdam: Kit Publishers. 2005. This wonderfully illustrated reader explores the inner world of Bombay film, the best known of India's many movie industries. The central role of songs in films, the role of censorship, devotion to god and family: these subjects and many more are explored. Behind the Scenes explores the symbolism of the divine role models (Radha-Krishna, Ram-Sita) at the heart of the main protagonists in many films. It examines a variety of people, characters and issues on both sides of the screen, from the passion of the people who make the films, to the political issues imbedded in the storylines, to marriage scenes and the character of the “villain.” The book also sheds light on Tamil cinema, which rivals the Hindi film industry in output and popularity. In the conclusion, the authors explore the mass appeal of Hindi film in other parts of the world and the recent embrace of "Bollywood" hype in the West. |
| Moynihan, Elizabeth B. (editor) The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Smithsonian Institute) and the University of Washington Press. 2000 For 350 years, the Taj Mahal in Agra has reigned luminous and splendid as perhaps the most admired monument in the world. During a study of Agra's role as a world heritage site, and international project to document the surface remains of a long abandoned Mughal garden, spectacularly located directly across the river from the Taj Mahal, was established under the sponsorship of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in cooperation with the Archeological Survey of India. This books is illustrated with new photos of the Taj Mahal and the garden - now identified as the Mahtab Bagh, or Moonlight Garden - as well as with paintings from Shahjahan's era. |
| Mukherjee, Rudrangshu (Ed.) The Penguin Gandhi Reader. New York: Penguin Books. 1996. This volume, edited and culled from the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi , offers a representative selection of Gandhi's writings, focusing on central themes of his ethico-political philosophy. The Reader is divided into eight sections, which include the following themes: Gandhi's rejection of "modern civilization" and materialism; the doctrines of swaraj and swadeshi ; the creed of non-violent resistance; his role in Non-Co-operation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements; his views on women and sex; his arguments against caste and untouchability; his thoughts on capitalism and socialism; his commitment to a united India, religious tolerance, and Home Rule/Self Rule. |
| Mumtaz, Khawar & Mitha, Yameema (with Tahira, Bilquis) Pakistan: An Oxfam Country Profile. Oxford: Oxfam Publishing. 2003. One of Oxfam's many country profiles, this book focuses on the lives of ordinary people in Pakistan and the major development issues that affect them. Through photographs, interviews and case-studies, this work highlights Pakistan 's history and its complex socio-economic, cultural, and political climates. |
| Nath, Aman and Francis Wacziarg (eds.) Arts and Crafts of Rajasthan. Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd.: Chidambaram, Ahmedabad, India, 1994. Written by scholars, this book highlights the interrelatedness of the various crafts, in patterns, motifs and colors and traces how, in Rajasthan, most crafts developed to answer royal needs and demands, and not fulfill rural needs as in other parts of the country. 228 pages, 171 photographs including 167 color plates. |
| Paine, Sheila Embroidery from India and Pakistan. British Museum Press: London, England, 2001. Focusing on over twenty textiles from the British Museum's fabulous collection, this book explores the wonderful folk embroidery of India and Pakistan - in particular the domestic work made by women for their own dowry or family. Illustrated in full and in detail, this book focuses on richly decorated items, both costumes and household textiles. |
| Panikkar, Shivaji K., ed. Twentieth-century Indian Sculpture: The Last Two Decades. Marg Publications: Mumbai, India, 2000. In the 1980s and 90s Indian sculpture was unusually productive of new ideas, new idioms, expressed in a radically wide variety of materials and mediums. The most significant trends, tendencies, and breakthroughs in the use of the sculptural medium are analyzed in this volume, along with a sampling of the works of individual artists as representatives of this complex whole. |
| Patterson, Maureen L. P. South Asian Civilizations: A Bibliographic Synthesis. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1981. An extensive bibliography of South Asian civilizations, ancient and modern, compiled by the former bibliographer for Southern Asia at the University of Chicago. |
| Prakash, K. Paisleys and Other Textile Designs from India. Dover Publications, Inc.: New York, 1994. Paisleys and Other Textile Designs from India contains 144 pages of ornamental design patterns collected from India's different regions, such as Banaras, center of fine arts and exquisitely designed fabrics, as well as Kashmir, Punjab and other parts of North and South India. In addition to the rich floral patterns, this collection features unique paisleys, a pattern with roots in Mughal art and one that is also popular today as when it was introduced to the West in the early eighteenth century. |
| Prakash, K. Authentic Folk Design from India in Full Color. Dover Publications, Inc.: New York, 1995. Renowned textile artist, K. Prakash, has created over 100 designs based on Madhubani folk art. Located in the state of Bihar, Madhubani is a bustling, market town with a rich artistic heritage. From these roots, Prakash draws on a variety of traditional themes and motifs. Brightly colored animals - parrots, peacocks, elephants, turtles, fish, snakes - intertwine with lush vegetation, and people are depicted performing a variety of everyday rituals. Through these stylized renderings, Prakash conveys the intensity and beauty of Indian folk art. |
| Rai, Ratan Kumar Along the Kali Gandaki: The Ancient Salt Route in Western Nepal. Book Faith India, Delhi, India, 1994. Based on the author's long association with the Thakali people of Western Nepal, he explores the previously undocumented relevance of art and painting to the people of this region. This book will be of interest mostly to the specialist, but could be useful in art history of Asia classes as well. |
| Sarin, Amita Akbar & Birbal . New Delhi: Puffin Books, 2005. This collection weaves classic tales and the historical details of Mughal emperor Akbar and his witty courtier Birbal together in amusing detail. With well-researched introductions to each aspect of Mughal life, Amita Sarin recreates Akbar's court in all its grandeur and vitality. The stories collected herein, are meant for both young and old readers, capturing morals and sentiments which are both historically specific and timeless in application. |
| Sattaur, Omar Nepal: An Oxfam Country Profile . Oxford: Oxfam Publishing, 2004. One of Oxfam's many country profiles, this book focuses on the lives of ordinary people in Nepal and the major development issues that affect them. Through photographs, interviews and case-studies, this work highlights Nepal's history and its complex socio-economic and political climates. |
| Shah, Shampa and Aashi Manohar (ed.) Tribal Arts and Crafts of Madhya Pradesh. Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd.: Ahmedabad in association with Vanya Prakashan, Bhopal, 1996. This book focuses on the artistic world of Madhya Pradesh's many tribes. Interwoven with their myths and legends, and illustrated with stunning color visuals and with line drawings, here are the textiles and tattoos, the stonework and carvings, the totems and the ritual terracottas of the many tribes explained by scholars whose work has led them to spend half a life time with these people. |
| Singer, Milton Introducing India in Liberal Education. University of Chicago: Chicago, Illinois, 1957. A product of the proceedings of a conference held at the University of Chicago, May 17-18, 1957 on the need for study of non-Western civilizations as part of a liberal education at US colleges and universities. This book deals particularly with the approaches to teaching various aspects of Indian civilization (politics, religion, language, culture) classes at American universities. |
| Stirn, Aglaja and Peter Van Ham The Seven Sisters of India: Tribal Worlds between Tibet and Burma. Prestel Verlag: Munich, 2000. A stunning collection of photography from the little-known Northeast of India. Probably the only book of its kind, the authors have given us a rare glimpse into the culturally diverse corner of Northeast India tucked between Bhutan, Tibet and Burma. Known as the Seven Sisters, this area includes the seven states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh, all states that are currently or have in the recent past experienced violent civil unrest. This book is an excellent introduction to a region of India, and the people that inhabit it, that is too often overlooked in the study of South Asia. |
| Sturges, Philemon with illustrations by Giles Larouche Sacred Places. G.P. Putnam's Sons: New York, 2000. People of every religion have built special places - some small and simple, some large and elaborate - where they gather to worship, meditate, celebrate, and hope. Sturges and Larouche introduce the concepts of sacredness to children, and with a lyrical text and miraculous "paper relief" illustrations, encourage them to look with a new light at the sacred places in their own lives. |
| Tana, Pradumna and Rosalba Folk Designs from India in Color. Dover Publications, Inc.: New York, 1987. This collection features 47 plates of flora, fauna and figural motifs from textiles of the Kutch and Saurashtra regions of Gujarat state in westernmost India. The means employed in their realization - cloth, needle and thread - combined to create a sense of spontaneity, vigor and gaiety. The motifs appear in an unending variety: from traditional to contemporary, changing from area to area and community to community yet remaining within the canons of established tradition. |
| Tana, Pradumna and Rosalba Traditional Designs from India for Artists and Craftsmen. Dover Publications, Inc.: New York, 1981. The present volume contains 99 plates of design motifs drawn from four types of traditional crafts: chhapai, phoolkari, mandana and chikankari. Chhapai is a general term which refers to all kinds of printing and prints. All the chhapai motifs that appear here are taken exclusively from the traditional hand printed and hand-painted fabrics of three western Indian states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Phoolkari is used nowadays as a general term for embroidery from the region of the Punjab, which straddles the northwestern border of India and Pakistan. Phoolkari consists mainly of stylized floral and figurative motifs. Ritual and decorative drawings of Rajasthan are known as mandana. Each mandana either depicts an object, or illustrates a prayer, myth, or deity by means of sacred symbols. Chikankari is a term applied to embroidery worked in white cotton thread on white, hand loomed, cotton cloth. |
| Tana, Pradumna and Rosalba Traditional Stencil Designs from India. Dover Publications, Inc.: New York, 1986. The simple yet ingenious designs in this volume are based on the fascinating though little-known traditional Indian art of sanzi khaka. This term refers to the paper stencils (khaka) used for floor decorations (sanzi) which priests and their assistants execute with marble dust and various powdered colors in the inner sanctuary of several Vaishnav temples. On major festive occasions, such as Govardhan Puja, Basant Panchami, Holi and Janmashtami these temple decorations in the cities of Mathura, Brindaban, Barsana and Nathdwara reveal a wealth of stencil motifs. |
| Varadarajan, Siddharth (Ed.) Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy. New Delhi: Penguin Books. 2002 This anthology covers the circumstances leading up to the Godhra train burning and the violence in Ahmedabad, Baroda and rural Gujarat. As a public archive, this book draws upon eyewitness reports from the English, Hindi and regional media, citizens' and official fact-finding commissions--and articles by leading public figures and intellectuals. Separate sections deal with the role of the police, bureaucracy, Sang Parivar, media and the tribals, the economic and international implications of the violence, the problems of relief and rehabilitation of the victims, and the victims' quest for justice. |