The Sammlung De Nobili

I am frequently amazed by the diversity of sources that we come across when one of the SwB family asks for a book... This has taught us so much, and has been one of the primary ways in which we have grown to include so many different publishers.

A recent request for the book Vain Debates (which is on the Buddhist-Christian controversies in 19th century Ceylon) brought the Sammlung De Nobili onto our radar. This month they run a sale on a number of their titles and so we thought that a post on their books would be of value to scholars here. But first, the Sammlung (Collection) itself.

Based in Vienna, the aim of the De Nobili association is "to promote and disseminate the results of research into Indian religions, especially as regards their encounter with the Western intellectual world and Christian spirituality. The De Nobili Research Library pursues this aim through the publication of the series Publications of the De Nobili Research Library, [and] through its maintenance of the De Nobili Research Library. "

The Foundation publishes a remarkably eclectic collection of books on Indology. Some of their authors are familiar, having books published in India, Patrick Olivelle (a range of titles that include the Manusmriti (OUP) and Ascetics and Brahmins (MRML)) and Gudrun Buhnemann, (the Tantric form of Ganesa, D K Printworld) for instance. All the De Nobili titles would appear to be essential inputs to libraries and collections that focus on the classics, and these months, the books listed below are available at reduced prices (mentioned in Euros. With shipping, the cost would be a bit more.)

Write in to us, and we would be very happy to help you get them. The conversion rate that applies is € 1.00 = INR 68.60.


Books in English:

1. PATRICK OLIVELLE, Vāsudevāśrama, Yatidharmaprakāśa. A Treatise on World Renunciation, critically edited with introduction, annotated translation and appendices, Part I: Text. Vienna 1976. 142p. (€ 13)
2. PATRICK OLIVELLE, Vāsudevāśrama, Yatidharmaprakāśa. A Treatise on World Renunciation, critically edited with introduction, annotated translation and appendices, Part II: Translation. Vienna 1977. 231p. (€ 13)
3. FRANCIS X. D’SA, Śabdaprāmāṇyam in Śabara und Kumārila. Towards a Study of the Mīmāsā Experience of Language. Vienna 1980. 218p. (€ 13)
4. RICHARD F. YOUNG: Resistant Hinduism. Sanskrit Sources on Anti-Christian Apologetics in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Vienna 1981. 200p. (€ 13)
5. GUDRUN BÜHNEMANN, Budha-Kauśika’s Rāmarakāstotra. A Contribution to the Study of Sanskrit Devotional Poetry. Vienna 1983. 125p. (€ 12)
6. ANAND AMALADASS, Philosophical Implications of Dhvani. Experience of Symbol Language in Indian Aesthetics. Vienna 1984. 240p. (€ 13)
7. PATRICK OLIVELLE, Renunciation in Hinduism. A Medieval Debate. Vol 1: The Debate and the Advaita Argument. Vienna 1986. 156p. (€ 15)
8. PATRICK OLIVELLE, Renunciation in Hinduism. A Medieval Debate. Vol 2: The Viśi ādvaita Argument. Vienna 1987. 193p. (€ 15)
9. GUDRUN BÜHNEMANN, Pūjā. A Study in Smārta Ritual. Vienna 1988. 253p. (€ 19)
10. JAMES W. LAINE, Visions of God. Narratives of Theophany in the Mahābhārata. Vienna 1989. 304p. (€ 15)
11. FRANCIS X. CLOONEY, S.J., Thinking Ritually. Rediscovering the Pūrva Mīmāsā Experience of Jaimini. Vienna 1990. 293p. (€ 15)
12. CHRISTOPHER Z. MINKOWSKI, Priesthood in Ancient India. A Study of the Maitrāvarua Priest. Vienna 1991. 272p. (€ 15)
13. YOSHITSUGU SAWAI, The Faith of Ascetics and Lay Smārtas. A Study of the Śaṅkaran Tradition of Śṅgeri. Vienna 1992. 199p. (€ 15)
14. FRANCIS X. D’SA and ROQUE MESQUITA (eds), Hermeneutics of Encounter. Essays in Honour of Gerhard Oberhammer on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Vienna 1994. 1 + 303p. (€ 15)
15. MAX NIHOM, Studies in Indian and Indo-Indonesian Tantrism. The Kuñjarakarṇa- dharmakathana and the Yogatantra. Vienna 1994. 222p. (€ 15)
16. R.F. YOUNG – S. JEBANESAN, The Bible Trembled. The Hindu-Christian Controversies of Nineteenth-Century Ceylon. Vienna 1995. 204p. (€ 15)
17. R.F. YOUNG – G.P.V. SOMARATNA, Vain Debates. The Buddhist-Christian Controversies of Nineteenth-Century Ceylon. Vienna 1996. 236p. (€ 15)

Books In German

1. PAUL HACKER, Grundlagen indischer Dichtung und indischen Denkens. Aus dem Nachlaß herausgegeben von KLAUS RÜPING, Wien 1985. 148p. (€ 12)
2. ROQUE MESQUITA, Madhva und seine unbekannten literarischen Quellen. Einige Beobachtungen. Wien 1997. 151p. (€ 15)
3. KIYOTAKA YOSHIMIZU, Der ‘Organismus’ des urheberlosen Veda. Eine Studie der Niyoga- Lehre Prabhākaras mit ausgewählten Übersetzungen der B haī. Wien 1997. 430p. (€ 21)
4. THOMAS OBERLIES, Die Religion des Ṛgveda. Erster Teil. Das religiöse System des gveda Wien 1998. 632p. (€ 40)
5. THOMAS OBERLIES, Die Religion des Ṛgveda. Zweiter Teil. Kompositionsanalyse der Soma-Hymnen des Ṛgveda. Wien 1999. 313p. (€ 17)
6. ROQUE MESQUITA, Madhva: Viṣṇutattvanirṇaya. Annotierte Übersetzung mit Studie. Wien 2000. 562p. (€ 40)
7. GERHARD OBERHAMMER - HANS WALDENFELS, Überlieferungsstruktur und Offenbarung. Aufriß einer Reflexion des Phänomens im Hinduismus mit theologischen Anmerkungen Wien 1980. 55p. (€ 3)
8. GERHARD OBERHAMMER (ed.) Inklusivismus. Eine indische Denkform. Wien 1983. 113p. (€ 6)
9. GERHARD OBERHAMMER, Versuch einer transzendentalen Hermeneutik religiöser Traditionen. Wien 1987. 48p. (€ 4)
10. GERHARD OBERHAMMER, ‘Begegnung’ als Kategorie der Religionshermeneutik. Wien 1989. 60p. (€ 4)
11. GERHARD OBERHAMMER, Offenbarungsgeschichte als Text. Religionshermeneutische Bemerkungen zum Phänomen in hinduistischer Tradition. Wien 1994. 109p. (€6)
12. GERHARD OBERHAMMER, Transzendenzerfahrung als absolute Begegnung. Wien 2003. 55p. (€ 6)
13. GERHARD OBERHAMMER (ed.), Offenbarung, geistige Realität des Menschen. Arbeitsdokumentation eines Symposiums zum Offenbarungsbegriff in Indien, herausgegeben von. Wien 1974. 237p. (€ 13)
14. GERHARD OBERHAMMER (ed.), Transzendenzerfahrung, Vollzugshorizont des Heils. Das Problem in indischer und christlicher Tradition. Arbeitsdokumentation eines Symposiums. Wien 1978. 253p. (€ 13)
15. TILMANN VETTER, Studien zur Lehre und Entwicklung Śaṅkaras. Wien 1979. 154p. (€ 13)
16. GERHARD OBERHAMMER (ed.), Epiphanie des Heils. Zur Heilsgegenwart in indischer und christlicher Religion. Arbeitsdokumentation eines Symposiums. Wien 1982. 256p. (€ 13)

Physics Today

Volume XIII in the ambitious Project of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization envisioned by D. P. Chattopadhyaya is on Physics, Then and Now. The Now in question is post--Independence, and this volume seeks to summarize the state of affairs in the subject, with reference to India, but also more generally...

Edited by Professor Asoke Mitra who taught physics at the University of Delhi for many decades, India in the World of Physics: Then and Now has an impressive list of contributors that includes Jayant Narlikar, C. N. R. Rao, U. R. Rao, A. P. Mitra, Asoke Mitra, N. Mukunda, M. Vijayan, D. Lal, and T. V. Ramakrishnan among others, some of the most illustrious names in Indian science. The scholarship they bring to the subject is formidable.

The volume seeks to provide a bird’s eye view of globally significant contributions by Indian physicists in post–World War II India. Each of the 11 parts of the book highlights contributions in a particular area of physics, judged significant by a common international standard. It begins by charting the path from quantum field theory to string theory. It then proceeds to developments in classical physics, from probability and stochastic processes to nonlinear dynamics and chaos. The cutting edge of atomic, molecular, and optical physics, which is also the ‘controlling physics’ for accessing more complex systems spread across condensed matter, materials sciences, biophysics is discussed. The other essays capture perspectives in vast domains of physics: from the small (nuclear and hadronic) to the large (cosmology and general relativity), including the intermediate discipline of geophysics, especially cosmogenic geophysics. The spectacular recent achievements of India- Chandrayaan- was made possible by the major developments in space physics and that, along with reactor physics and atmospheric sciences, form the last part of the book.

A good bridge across the two cultures. Hardcover, 625 pages, Rs 2200. From Pearson Longman, ISBN: 9788131715796. In our Physics Section.

In agreement...

SAHMAT, the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, was born in sadness. And in anger, following Safdar Hashmi’s brutal murder on January 1, 1989. Within weeks, a large number of writers, painters, scholars, poets, architects, photographers, designers, cultural activists and media persons formed SAHMAT.

Defending our cultural space, broadly, is what SAHMAT does. "With the firm conviction that all creative endeavour in India both traditionally and contemporaneously upholds the values of secularism and cultural pluralism, SAHMAT has undertaken activities – performances, exhibitions, publication of books, posters, production of audio-video cassettes ----to underline the concept of unity in diversity of the Indian nation and the people. Through these activities it has been possible to discover and display new dimensions of many social issues, to open up the possibility of reaching out to different sections in new ways, and allow the broadest unity to be forged among artists, intellectuals and cultural activists."

Scholars is proud to list SAHMAT titles. Both in Hindi and English, as well as their other offerings, posters, and music.

The felicitous double entendre, with सहमत meaning agreement, is most fortunate. The people who work with them bring the highest forms of creativity, and commitment. Tomorrow, for instance, Shubha Mudgal will sing for SAHMAT in Delhi, at Vitthalbai Patel House, Rafi Marg. Be there!

Transcending Boundaries

The Nobel Prize in Literature celebrates the work of a writer whose contribution to literature consistently transcends national boundaries to connect with the human condition.

Its natural that this new title from The New Press, New York, Nobel Lectures. From the Literature Laureates, 1986 to 2006 would catch our eye...

Finding all these authors together- Orhan Pamuk, Harold Pinter, Elfriede Jelinek, J. M. Coetzee, Imre Kertész, V. S. Naipaul, Gao Xingjian, Günter Grass, José Saramago, Dario Fo, Wislawa Szymborska, Seamus Heaney, Kenzaburo Oe, Toni Morrison, Derek Walcott, Nadine Gordimer, Octavio Paz, Camilo José Cela, Naguib Mahfouz, Joseph Brodsky, Wole Soyinka- is a special treat... A reading list to die for, so to speak. Of course many of them are already known in English, but these lectures give a special insight into the workings of the literature laureates...

Commenting on the book, the New York Post said "This book urges you to read and put pen to paper, or at least finger to keyboard. Flattered by the attentions of Stockholm, forced to explain themselves, these honorees make writing sound philosophical and seductive.

We hope to make some of the titles from The New Press available more widely in India very soon. For the moment, the book is on special order. $18 or about Rs 900. Write to us.

D'où Venons Nous? Que Sommes Nous? Où Allons Nous?

Questions that will, in one form or the other, stay for a long time, this is not just the title of Gauguin's famous painting, but also constitute some of the central issues of physics... They also figured, for instance, in the title of a survey paper written several years ago by John Ellis of CERN. As he explains in the abstract, "Within particle physics itself, Gauguin's questions may be interpreted as: What is the status of the Standard Model? What physics may lie beyond the Standard Model? What is the 'Theory of Everything'?

Gauguin's questions may also asked within a cosmological context: What were the early stages of the Big Bang? What is the material content of the Universe today? What is the future of the Universe?"

Three volumes that have recently been reprinted for the Indian market deal with these issues. Cosmology by Steven Weinberg (originally from OUP, now from Jyoti Publishers. Rs 995) is a "detailed, self-contained, and comprehensive treatment that it gives to the ideas and formulas that are used and tested in modern cosmological research. It divides into two parts, each of which provides enough material for a one-semester graduate course. The first part deals chiefly with the isotropic and homogeneous average universe; the second part concentrates on the departures from the average universe. Throughout the book the author presents detailed analytic calculations of cosmological phenomena, rather than just report results obtained elsewhere by numerical computation. The book is up to date, and gives detailed accounts of topics such as recombination, microwave background polarization, leptogenesis, gravitational lensing, structure formation, and multifield inflation, that are usually treated superficially if at all in treatises on cosmology. Copious references to current research literature are supplied. Appendices include a brief introduction to general relativity, and a detailed derivation of the Boltzmann equation for photons and neutrinos used in calculations of cosmological evolution."

Among the various reviews available on the net, here is one from Robert Kirshner of Harvard University: This book tackles the main events of today's cosmology: cosmic acceleration observed with supernovae, the exquisite structure of the cosmic microwave background, and the evidence for dark matter. Weinberg pays close attention to the historical development and summarizes the observations with care. He brings deep knowledge of the underlying physics and weaves these threads together into a rich text that will be of great value to astronomers and physicists. The first half of this book is a wonderful introduction to cosmology, suitable for a graduate course or for someone coming into the field from a neighboring region of the scientific forest. The second half is an original development of the theory for the growth of inhomogeneities in the Universe. Everyone who works on cosmology will find something to learn in this book.

The next title in question is Quantum Field Theory by Ryder (Rs 795, originally from CUP) which is a "modern introduction to the ideas and techniques of quantum field theory. After a brief overview of particle physics and a survey of relativistic wave equations and Lagrangian methods, the author develops the quantum theory of scalar and spinor fields, and then of gauge fields. The emphasis throughout is on functional methods, which have played a large part in modern field theory. The book concludes with a brief survey of "topological" objects in field theory and, new to this edition, a chapter devoted to supersymmetry. ... This text develops the quantum theory of scalar and spinor fields, and then of gauge fields. The emphasis throughout is on functional methods, which have played a large part in modern field theory."

And finally, the monumental Quantum Theory of Fields also by Steven Weinberg, in three volumes. Priced at an affordable Rs 3995, this set is for the serious student of field theory (and there is no dearth of them in India, one hopes). "A self-contained, comprehensive, and up-to-date introduction to quantum field theory from [Nobel Laureate] Steven Weinberg. The first volume introduces the foundations of quantum field theory, the second volume examines modern applications, and finally the third volume presents supersymmetry, an area of theoretical physics likely to be at the centre of progress in the physics of elementary particles and gravitation. The development is fresh and logical throughout, with each step carefully motivated by what has gone before. The presentation of modern mathematical methods is throughout interwoven with accounts of applications in both elementary particle and condensed matter physics. The three volumes contain much original material, and are peppered with examples and insights drawn from the author's experience as a leader of elementary particle research."

All available by writing in to us. And in our Physics section.

Unheard melodies

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter... wrote Keats in his famous Ode on a Grecian Urn. But as cultures move, and the medium evolves, so does the music... Keeping a record of the changes, and indeed a record of the music itself is a major challenge. Languages die as their speakers shift- so many Indian languages will surely die in this century as English and Hindi take them over- and so do musical forms. It takes a lot of effort to preserve some art forms- especially the culture that is passed on primarily through oral or mimetic traditions. The revival of Bharatanatyam a century ago, and the recording of the padams and javalis in the Carnatic tradition in the last century that were fast being lost, are just scattered examples of these efforts.

But more is being done, in a major and scholarly manner by the American Institute for Indian Studies' in Gurgaon's Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology which "houses extensive collections of recorded Indian music, all meticulously documented, as well as a superb library that includes pertinent theses on Indian music. For both recording and playback, the best available equipment is used, and documentation for all recordings is maintained in a computerized database that may be used by any interested scholar. A major project of the Archive and Research Center for Ethnomusicology has been the collection of all recordings of Indian music located abroad; included is extensive video coverage of Indian performance.

This repatriates recordings available nowhere else in India and makes them centrally available for scholars everywhere. Recordings as old as the 1930s are now maintained by the Center, where they are preserved under optimal archival conditions. So outstanding are the facilities that they have served as the model for comparable ones elsewhere in Asia.

Today ARCE has 189 collections of field recordings in its archival collections totaling approximate 25000 hours. The day to day activities of ARCE consist of following an active program of acquisition, cataloguing, preservation and dissemination. The vault at ARCE is strictly climate controlled for temperature , humidity and is dust protected. There is an audio visual laboratory which is equipped for making preservation copies of incoming material as well as for the making of working copies and research copies for users. There is a listening room dedicated for the use of scholars, equipped with high quality audio and video equipment for listening and viewing of archival material.

In addition to the archives of field recordings, ARCE has extensive collections of published recordings ranging from classical music to folk and popular genres from all over India - from 78 rpm discs to CDs. There is a small but growing collection of published world music as well. The ARCE library has approximately 10,000 books, apart from journals, and collections of offprints and newspaper cuttings. The focus of the library is on the field of ethnomusicology and related disciplines, with a regional emphasis on India."

Beyond its archival efforts, ARCE publishes several books, many of which are listed on the Scholars site. Jon Higgins' Bharatanatyam, for instance. A particularly important project of theirs was Remembered Rhythms in 2005 which deal with the issue of diaspora and the music of India. Available as a set of four CDs, Remembered Rhythms contains the music of Indians in the West Indies, the Sidis of Africa in Gujarat, and the Baghdadi Jewish community.

The music performed by the Rivers of Babylon combines the religious and secular music of the Indian Jews - the Baghdadi and the Bene Israeli tradition of India, consisting folk songs, hymns for Sabbath, festivals and life cycle events, and Middle Eastern instrumental music. The language of the songs range from Hebrew to Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic Arabic and Marathi. Harking back to their Indian roots, the Rivers of Babylon include vintage songs from Indian films in their repertoire.

Chutney is a popular Indian-Caribbean music, widely performed in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as in the Caribbean Diaspora. Chutney draws upon Indian folk traditions, devotional songs and film music, as well as from calypso, soca and rap. In addition to these, D'Bhuyaa Saaj's repertoire includes local classical music, and features some of the leading stars of Chutney from Trinidad and Tobago, on their first tour of India.

The sounds of Africa and India are uniquely blended in the ecstatic Sufi ritual and devotional music of Sidi Goma. The ancestors of today's African Sidi community first settled in Gujarat centuries ago. Yet, today's Sidis still remember some of the songs, instruments and rhythms brought long ago from Africa. Combining their African roots with the multiple musics they encountered in India, the music of the Sidis is full of surprises at times familiar at times altogether new.

Check out available ARCE publications and CDs throughout the Scholars site...

Urdu's finest

Qurratulain Hyder, Winner of the Jnanpith Award 1989 was one of the finest writers in Urdu. Women Unlimited have a new collection, Street Singers of Lucknow and Other Stories.

"This fascinating collection of short stories highlights the innovative genius of this iconoclastic writer as she moves from realism to the fabular, and from history to time-travel. In the title story woven with social satire and melodrama, an itinerant entertainer becomes a well-known singer, eventually coming back to her Lucknow roots in a subdued, melancholy ending. A cast of characters entertain themselves with gossip and adultery in the lush tranquility of the tea gardens of East Bengal. At the centre is a mercurial, identity-changing adventuress, one who often appears in her fiction. Another is the memorable Eurasian, Catherine Bolton, who escapes her roots to achieve social success. This versatile writer takes imaginative flight in unusual stories spanning decades, or even centuries. The manic comedy of Saint Flora is accompanied by a guided tour of history with elements of the fantastic that is distinctly her own. An American-educated Indian scientist finds herself communicating with godlings and rabbis in ancient Egypt.

The author returns to the stark realism of fading notions of honour, and a poignant story of a cousin who isn’t quite One of Us written in the pseudo-memoir mode perfected in earlier collections in which convictions of feudal Muslim respectability are turned on their head. Her arsenal of techniques—pastiche, satire, memoir, collage—takes us to the place most important to her, the human heart in all its varied seasons."

In our Indian Writing in English section, 244 pages. Paperback. Rs. 350 • ISBN: 81-88965-53-7

Asli Azadi

India wins Freedom the controversial autobiography of Bharat Ratna Maulana Abul Kalam Azad could not be published for decades and was released from its seal only in 1988. Available now in paperback from Orient Longman, the text provides an intimate glimpse into our freedom struggle.

November 11, the birth anniversary of the Maulana is National Education Day. As the first Union Minister of Education of independent India he was responsible for setting up many of the structures that we see today- the UGC being the most visible.

There are many institutions named after him, a special one being the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, established in 1993 by the Government of West Bengal and the Department of Culture of the Government of India. The Institute was established with the objective of carrying out research on social, cultural, economic and political and administrative developments in Asia from the middle of the 19th century onwards, with special emphasis on their links with India, and also on the life and works of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. They have a vibrant - if somewhat eclectic- publications program, and several of their titles already feature on Scholars.

A biography of Nehru that has recently become available in India is Walter Crocker's Nehru, A contemporary's estimate from Random House. Writing about it in Outlook, Mark Tully is effusive: "I have read many books on Nehru but none has left such a deep impression on me as Walter Crocker’s biography. It should never have been out of print but was for some time and has just been rescued with a foreword by Ramachandra Guha which it is difficult for any reviewer to match up to. The strength of Walter Crocker’s comparatively brief biography is his sympathy for Nehru."

The closeness of Nehru and Azad is well known- as this charming image that is available on the net testifies. As does this fragment of Homai Vyarawalla's brilliant portrait of the Cabinet (with C Rajagopalachari in the original- see it in Sabeena Gadhioke's marvellous book, India in Focus!)


All titles in our Biography Section.

An unfinished life

Two recent books from Permanent Black are both on Subhas Chandra Bose. Chalo Delhi,Writings and Speeches 1943–1945 his has been edited by his nephew Sisir Kumar Bose and Sugata Bose.

This is Volume 12 of Netaji’s Collected Works, and "brings together all his speeches and writings as leader of the Azad Hind movement from June 1943 to August 1945. His stirring speeches in Singapore, Malaya, and Burma electrified massive audiences of civilians and soldiers, united Indians of all religions, and inspired them to join the march towards Delhi.

The Proclamation of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind (Free India) in Singapore on 21 October 1943 blends erudition and passion. Netaji’s radio address to the ‘Father of Our Nation’ provides the most detailed justification of his course of action and seeks the Mahatma’s blessings in the ‘holy war’ raging around Imphal and Kohima. The ‘Tokyo thesis’ delivered to university faculty and students in November 1944 highlights the three supreme challenges for free India—national defence, eradication of poverty, and education for all. His letters—most published here for the first time—reveal Netaji’s special solicitude for the young women and men who joined the Indian National Army."

Also edited by Sisir Bose is Netaji's correspondence between 1923 and 1926, titled IN BURMESE PRISONS. "Subhas Chandra Bose’s exile in Burmese prisons from 1924 to 1927 witnessed the transformation of a lieutenant into a leader. During the non-cooperation movement and its aftermath he had wholeheartedly accepted Deshbandhu Chitta Ranjan Das as his political mentor. The apprenticeship was cut short by Deshbandhu’s death in June 1925. When Subhas received this terrible news as a prisoner in Mandalay, he felt “desolate with a sense of bereavement”, as he wrote to his friend Dilip Kumar Roy.

Netaji’s letters cover a very wide array of topics—art, music, literature, nature, education, folk culture, civic affairs, criminology, spirituality, and, of course, politics. He bore the rigours of prison life with a combination of stoicism and humour. "

Both volumes are important components to understanding one of the more enigmatic of our leaders in the freedom struggle. Sisir Bose and Sugata Bose have also edited his unfinished biography, An Indian Pilgrim from Oxford University Press is also on the Scholars website.

Find these books in our History section, in the Permanent Black listing, and under Biography.

The Maktaba Jamia

Most Indian Universities do not have a publication program- hence the lack of University presses, something that many universities outside India tend to have. There are exceptions, of course...

An unusual request from one of Scholars' regulars brought us to The Maktaba Jamia, the University Press of Jamia Milia Islamia in New Delhi. This was started in 1922, first as a Book Depot to help the Jamia in procuring text books for students. "Two years later, the Maktaba started publishing books and journals with special emphasis on literature for children. Dr. Zakir Husain pleaded with all his colleagues, who had any literary talent, to write books for children, and set an example by doing so himself.

Jamia did the greatest service to the community through Maktaba Jamia.

... In subsequent years, the Maktaba started publishing adult literature and books of general interest also. The Maktaba Jamia was made a private limited company in 1950, but the full control of Jamia was kept intact.

Maktaba Jamia has made enormous contributions in the service of Urdu language, with the aim to full fill the needs of the nation and has inculcated the feeling of awakening in the masses that have interest in Urdu. It has now grown up into a large publishing centre of Urdu and has published more than 6000 titles."

The books are inexpensive, but are accessible only to readers of Urdu. Yet, as they are proud to point out, few Universities in the country can match their publication record. We'll be more than pleased to help you get their titles. Write to us!

Everything

Stephen Hawking is a sensation. The one time he came to Delhi, he filled Siri Fort Auditorium to the brim, leaving everyone stupefied by his brilliance, bravery, wit and charm... His books are scientific bestsellers, and his popular books outsell most fiction writers quite easily...

This post is about his Theory of Everything which is available in an Indian edition, from Jaico. Priced at a very reasonable Rs 160 (Rs 195 for the edition with an audio CD) in the book, "Hawking begins with a history of ideas about the universe, from Aristotle’s determination that the Earth is round to Hubble’s discovery, over 2000 years later, that the universe is expanding. Using that as a launching pad, he explores the reaches of modern physics, including theories on the origin of the universe (e.g., the big bang), the nature of black holes, and space-time."

Quite a bit.

In our General section. Rs 195,140 pages, paperback. ISBN 978-81-7992-793-9

Lilavati's Daughters

An issue that concerns the scientific establishment in the country - and, it must be acknowledged, in most countries- is the low numbers of students opting for a career in the sciences. A second matter of concern is the lack of diversity in the types of students who do come to the sciences, and here, the number of women who choose a scientific career is particularly low. Especially as a proportion of the number of women who get an education in the sciences.

The Indian Academy of Sciences in Bangalore has taken an initiative in probing these issues. On the matter of women in the sciences, they have set up the Women in Science (or WiS) panel. As one of the more tangible of their activities, the WiS panel has asked about one hundred women scientists who are based in India to write about themselves, what brought them to science and what has kept them going...

This collection of essays, entitled Lilavati's Daughters. The women scientists of India, was released two days ago at the annual meeting of the Indian Academy. The essays are both biographical and autobiographical, and typically run about three or four pages each... Ideal dipping material that one can read in bits and pieces, and of the hundred or so contributors there is a wide representation... Physicists, biologists, chemists, mathematicians, doctors, geoscientists, computer scientists... and from all parts of India.

The title of the book "is drawn from The Lilavati, a twelfth century treatise in which the mathematician Bhaskaracharya addresses a number of problems to his daughter, Lilavati. Although legend has it that Lilavati never married, her intellectual legacy lives on in the form of her daughters - the women scientists of India".

What makes a successful career in science possible for a woman? Many answers to this question can be found somewhere in the essays written by Lilavati's Daughters. The book is directed towards the reading public. A young student with research ambitions will find this an important collection where she or he can learn firsthand of women who functioned and achieved their goals in the Indian social and academic environment. Others will also find the essays to be of value and interest for what they say. And as is often the case, also for what they do not say..."

Edited by Rohini Godbole and Ram Ramaswamy, both members of the WiS Panel of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, the book is available online exclusively through Scholars.

In our Gender Studies, and Biography Sections, 368 pages, paperback. Rs 325 (inclusive of postage) within India, and US$25 (again inclusive of postage) outside India. ISBN 978-81-8465-005-1