The ruins of Nalanda university, which had well-equipped libraries. The number of volumes in the Nalanda library is not known, but it is estimated to have been in the hundreds of thousands.The court of Akbar, an illustration from a manuscript of the Akbarnama, 16th century
This is a bibliography of notable works about the historical Indian subcontinent as well as the modern-day Republic of India.
India history books
Single volume works
Primary sources
Ancient India
Diodorus Siculus, 1st century BC. "Book II: The East." Pp. 35–60 in Bibliotheca historica.
Mookerji, Radhakumud (1912). Indian Shipping: A history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times. Longmans, Green and Co., Bombay.
F. E. Pargiter (1922). Ancient Indian Historical Tradition. Oxford University Press, H. Milford.
Bannerjee, Dr. Gauranganath (1921). India as Known to the Ancient World. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, London.
V. S. Bhatnagar (1991). "Foreword". Kānhaḍade Prabandha, India's Greatest Patriotic Saga of Medieval Times: Padmanābha's Epic Account of Kānhaḍade. Aditya Prakashan. ISBN 978-81-85179-54-4.
Elphinstone, Mountstuart. 1841. The History of India, 2 vols. London: John Murray. vol. 1, vol. 2.
Sachau, Eduard C. 1910. Alberuni's India — An account of ... India about A.D. 1030, 2 vols. London: Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner & Co.Ltd. vol. 1, vol. 2.
Major, Richard Henry, ed. (1857). India in the Fifteenth Century: Being a collection of narratives of voyages to India, in the century . London: Hakluyt Society.
Lethbridge, Roper, Sir (1893). The History of India. London: Macmillan.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Feudge, Fannie Roper (1903). India; The Gorgeous East with Richest Hand Showers on her Kings Barbaric Pearl and Gold. The Saalfield Publishing Company, Ohio.
De La Fosse, C. F. (1918). History of India (Revised ed.). London: Macmillan & Co.
Dodwell, H. H. (1929). The Cambridge History of India: British India, 1497-1858 (Vol. 5). Cambridge University Press.
—— (1932). The Cambridge History of India: The Indian Empire, 1858-1918 (Vol. 6). Cambridge University Press.
Haig, Wolseley, Sir (1928). The Cambridge History of India: Turks and Afghans (Vol. 3). Cambridge University Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Crooke, William. 1896. The tribes and castes of the North-western Provinces and Oudh, 4 vols. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing.
Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6.
Dhar, Triloki Nath (2006). Kashmiri Pandit Community: A Profile. Mittal Publications. ISBN 978-81-8324-177-9.
Jeffrey, Robin (1994) [1976]. The Decline of Nair Dominance: Society and Politics in Travancore 1847-1908. Sussex University Press. ISBN 0-85621-054-4.
Dictionary of National Biography 4 vols ed. Sibapada Sen
The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915) by C. Hayavadana Rao
Dictionary of Indian biography (1906) by Charles Edward Buckland
Who's Who in India Supplement 1 (1912)
Who's Who in India Supplement 2 (1914)
The Golden Book of India, a genealogical and biographical dictionary of the ruling princes, chiefs, nobles, and other personages, titled or decorated, of the Indian empire (1893) by Roper Lethbridge
The Oriental Biographical Dictionary (1881) by Thomas William Beale
Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Great Men of India by Ram Gopal Sanyal Vol 1 (1894), Vol 2 (1895)
Who's who of Indian Writers, 1999: A-M
Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, Volume 1
Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, Volume 2
Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, Volume 3
Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, Volume 5
Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Supplementary entries and index
Historical Dictionary of the Bengalis (2013) by Kunal Chakrabarti, Shubhra Chakrabarti
Manuals and gazetteers
Chaudhuri, S. B. 1964. History of the Gazetteers of India. New Delhi: Publication Division.
Henry Scholberg (1970). The District Gazetteers of British India: A Bibliography. Zug, Switzerland: Inter Documentation Company. ISBN 9780800212650.
Tej Ram Sharma (1978). Personal and geographical names in the Gupta inscriptions. Concept Publishing Co., Delhi.
Fa, Hien (1877). "Record of the Buddhistic Kingdoms" by Fa Hien (414 AD). Herbert A. Giles (trans.). London: Trubner & Co., 414 CE
Mundy, Peter (31 January 2024). The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667. Cambridge [Eng] Printed for the Hakluyt Society. ISBN 978-0-8115-0338-9.
Faxian; tr. by James Legge (1886). A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms; being an account by the Chinese monk FA-HIEN of his travels in India and Ceylon, A.D. 399-414, in search of the Buddhist books of discipline. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Watters, Thomas (1904). On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629-645 A.D. London: Royal Asiatic Society.
Sachau, Edward C. (1910). Alberuni's India — An account of ... India about A.D. 1030 (Vol. 1). London: Kegan Paul, Trench Trübner & Co.Ltd.
Sachau, Edward C. (1910). Alberuni's India — An account of ... India about A.D. 1030 (Vol 2.). London: Kegan Paul, Trench Trübner & Co. Ltd.
Majumdar, R. C. (1981). The Classical accounts of India: Being a compilation of the English translations of the accounts left by Herodotus, Megasthenes, Arrian, Strabo, Quintus, Diodorus, Siculus, Justin, Plutarch, Frontinus, Nearchus, Apollonius, Pliny, Ptolemy, Aelian, and others with maps. Calcutta: Firma KLM.
Early modern period
Tavernier, Jean Baptiste; Ball, Valentine (tr. from the Orig French Ed. 1676) (1899). Travels in India (Vol. 1). London: Macmillan & Co.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Tavernier, Jean Baptiste; Ball, Valentine (tr. from the Orig French Ed. 1676) (1899). Travels in India (Vol. 2). London: Macmillan & Co.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Herbert, William; William Nichelson; Samuel Dunn (1791). A New Directory for the East-Indies. London: Gilbert & Wright.
Fraser, James Baillie (1820). Journal of a Tour through Part of the snowy range of the Himala Mountains, and to the sources of the rivers Jumna and Ganges. London: Rodwell and Martin.
Bernier, Francois (1891). Travels in the Mogul Empire, A.D. 1656-1668. London: Archibald Constable.
Meenakshi Jain, The India They Saw (co-edited with Sandhya Jain, 4 Volumes, Prabhat Prakashan), ISBN 8184301065, ISBN 8184301073, ISBN 8184301081, ISBN 818430109X.
Karan, P. P. "Environmental movements in India." Geographical Review 84#1 (1994): 32-41. online
Nayak, Arun Kumar. "Environmental movements in India." Journal of developing societies 31.2 (2015): 249-280. online
Saravanan, Velayutham. Environmental History of Modern India: Land, Population, Technology and Development (Bloomsbury Publishing India, 2022) online review; also see excerpt at Amazon]
Shiva, Vandana. "Ecology Movements in India", in Oomen, T. K. (Ed.), Social Movements: Issues of Identity (Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2011)
Turaga, Rama Mohana R., and Anish Sugathan. "Environmental regulations in India." in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science (2020) online
Flora
Nicol Alexander Dalzell; Alexander Gibson (1861). The Bombay Flora: Or, Short Descriptions of All the Indigenous Plants Hitherto Discovered in Or Near the Bombay Presidency : Together with a Supplement of Introduced and Naturalised Species. Education Society's Press.
Hope, John (1863). The House of Scindia — A Sketch by John Hope. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, London.
Menon, P. Shungoonny (1879). A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times. Higginbotham & Co., Madras.
Prinsep, A.R.A., Val C. (1879). Imperial India — An artist's journals:Illustrated by numerous sketches taken at the courts of the principal chiefs in India. Chapman and Hall, London.
Supplement to Who's Who in India — Containing lives and photographs of the recipients of honours on 12th December 1911. Newul Kishore Press, Lucknow. 1912.
People, politics and customs
Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6.
Broughton, Thomas Duer (1812). Letters written in a Mahratta camp during the year 1809, descriptive of the character, manners, domestic habits, and religious ceremonies, of the Mahrattas. Archibald Constable & Co., London.
Buyers, Rev. William (1848). Recollections of Northern India — With observations on the origin, customs, and moral sentiments of the Hindoos, and remarks on the country and principal places on the Ganges. John Snow, Paternoster Row, London.
Karaka, Dosabhai Framjee (1884). History of the Parsis — Including their manners, customs, religion and present position. (Vol. 1). Macmillan & Co., London.
Karaka, Dosabhai Framjee (1884). History of the Parsis — Including their manners, customs, religion and present position. (Vol. 2). Macmillan & Co., London.
Kishwar, M., & Vanita, R. (1996). In search of answers: Indian women's voices from Manushi : a selection from the first five years of Manushi. Daryaganj, New Delhi: Manohar.
Dass, Baboo Ishuree (1860). Domestic manners and customs of the Hindoos of northern India, or, more strictly speaking, of the north west provinces of India. Medical Hall Press, Benares.
J.Forbes Watson (1866). The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes of the People of India. India Office by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, London.
Illustrations of the Textile Manufactures of India. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 1881.
Menpes, Mortimer (1910). The People of India (Illustrated). Adam & Charles Black, London.
Manmatha Nath Dutt, ed. (1896). Kamandakiya Nitisara: The Elements of Polity. H.C.Dass, Calcutta.
Goel, S. R. 1998. Vindicated by Time: The Niyogi Committee Report on Christian Missionary Activities. Madhya Pradesh: Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee.
Religion, culture and arts
Acharya, Prasanna Kumar (946). An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture. Oxford University Press.
Blacker, J. F. (1922). The ABC of Indian Art. Stanley Paul & Co., London.
—— (1914). Viśvakarmā; examples of Indian architecture, sculpture, painting, handicraft. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Ghose, Aurobindo. 1998. The Foundations of Indian Culture. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Gibson, Agnes C.; Jas. Burgess (1901). Buddhist Art in India. Bernard Quaritch, London.
Gupta, S. P., and S. Asthana. 2007. Elements of Indian Art: Including Temple Architecture, Iconography & Iconometry. New Delhi: Indraprastha Museum of Art and Archaeology.
Gupta, S. P., & Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. 2011. The Roots of Indian Art: A detailed study of the formative period of Indian art and architecture, third and second centuries B.C., Mauryan and late Mauryan. Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation.
Havell, E. B. (1908). Indian sculpture and painting. John Murray, London.
—— (1913). Indian Architecture, its psychology, structure, and history from the first Muhammadan invasion to the present day. London: John Murray.
—— (1920). A Handbook of Indian Art. London: John Murray.
Kak, S. 2015. The Wishing Tree: Presence and Promise of India. Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
Kishwar, M. (1989). Manushi: Women Bhakta poets. New Delhi: Manushi Trust.
Lokesh, Chandra, and T. Chandrika. 1997. Cultural Horizons of India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
—— 2016. Battle for Sanskrit. Harper Collins India. ISBN 978-93-5177-538-6.[4]
Robinson, W. Andrew. 1989. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker. vol 1, vol. 2.
Sethna, K. D. (1989). Ancient India in a New Light. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
Sidhanta, N. K. (1929). The Heroic Age of India: A Comparative Study. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Company, London.
Smith, Vincent A. (1930). A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Tagore, Abanindranath (1914). Some Notes on Indian Artistic Anatomy. Indian Society of Oriental Art, Calcutta.
Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee 1927-1928. Madras: Superintendent, The Government Press, Madras. 1928.
Performance art
Day, Charles Russel (1891). The Music and Musical Instruments of southern India and the Deccan. William Gibb (lllus.). Novello, Ewer & Co., London.
Dhanamjaya (1912). The Dasarupa or Treatise on Ten Forms of Drama — A Treatise on Hindu Dramaturgy. George C. O. Haas (trans.). New York: Columbia University.
Popley, Herbert Arthur (1921). The Music of India. Calcutta: Association Press.
Shourie, Arun. 1979. Hinduism, Essence and Consequence: A Study of the Upanishads, the Gita, and the Brahma-Sutras. Sahibabad, District. Ghaziabad: Vikas.
Strangways, A. H. Fox (1914). The Music of Hindostan. London: Oxford University Press.
Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish (1918). The Dance of Siva — fourteen Indian essays. The Sunwise Turn Inc., New York.
Crooke, William. 1896. An Introduction to the Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India (revised and illustrated ed.), 2 vols. North-Western Provinces and Oudh: Government press.
Volume I
Volume II
Dayananda, S., and C. Bharadwaja. 1932. Light of Truth, or, An English translation of the Satyartha Prakasha: The Well-Known Work of Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Madras: Arya Samaj.
Elst, K. 2014. Decolonizing the Hindu Mind: Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism. New Delhi: Rupa.
Frawley, David. 2014. How I became a Hindu: My Discovery of Vedic Dharma.
—— 2015. Shiva: The Lord of Yoga. Lotus Press.
Gautier, Francois. 2008. The Guru of Joy: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar & the Art of Living. Carlsbad, Calif: Hay House.
Ghosha, Pratapchandra, ed. (1871). Durga Puja — With Notes and Illustrations. Varanasi: The Hindu Patriot Press.
Klostermaier, K. K. 2007. A Survey of Hinduism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Malhotra, Rajiv. 2014. Indra's Net: Defending Hinduism's Philosophical Unity. HarperCollins India. ISBN 978-9-351-36244-9.[5]
Nandikeśvara (1917). The Mirror of Gesture — Being the Abhinaya Darpana of Nandikeśvara. Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy; Gopala Kristnayya Duggirala (trans.). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Narain, H. 1983. Facets of Indian Religio-Philosophic Identity. Delhi u.a: Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan.
Shourie, Arun. 2017. Two Saints: Speculations around and about Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharishi. Harper Collins.
Shourie, Arun, and S. R. Goel. 2009. Hindu Temples, What Happened to Them.
Swarup, R., and David Frawley. 2001. The Word as Revelation: Names of Gods. New Delhi: Voice of India.
Sadhana Naithani (21 May 2006). In Quest of Indian Folktales: Pandit Ram Gharib Chaube and William Crooke. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-11202-8.
^Pandit. N. K., trans. 2009. A Muslim Missionary in Mediaeval Kashmir: Being the English translation of Tohfatu'l-ahbab. New Delhi: Voice of India.
^Chatterjee, Rimi B. (2004). ""Every Line for India" : The Oxford University Press and the Rise and Fall of the Rulers of India Series". In Chakravorty, Swapan; Gupta, Abhijit (eds.). Print Areas: Book History in India. Orient Blackswan. pp. 65–102. ISBN 978-81-7824-082-4.
^"Home". Being Different the Book. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
^"The Battle for Sanskrit". The Battle for Sanskrit. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
^"Indra's Net | Rajiv Malhotra | Infinity Foundation". Retrieved 19 March 2019.
External links
The Indian City, 1700 to the Present: A Select Research Bibliography by Vinay Lal
Banaras Bibliography by Jörg Gengnagel & Axel Michaels