Thinking of Neuroscience

One of the finest scientists of the times- and one who happens to be of Indian origin- is V S Ramachandran. Currently Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, Professor in the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Programme at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Ramachandran studied first at Stanley Medical College in Chennai, then at Cambridge and at Caltech before moving to San Diego.

The Marco Polo of neuroscience is what Richard Dawkins calls him, Galileo of neurocognition, says Allan Snyder, while Oliver Sacks- that prolific writer on matters neurological- says "No one is better than V. S. Ramachandran at combining minute, careful observation with ingenious experiments and bold, adventurous theorizing."

Random House, India, brings us his latest book, The Tell-tale Brain: Unlocking the mystery of human nature, where Ramachandran takes us on a fascinating journey into the human brain, studying patients who exhibit bizarre symptoms, and using them to understand the functions of the normal brain. Along the way he asks big questions: How did abstract thinking evolve? What is art? Why do we laugh? How are these hardwired in the neural mechanisms of the human brain, and why did they evolve? Brilliant, lucid, and utterly compelling, The Tell-Tale Brain is a pathbreaking book from one of the leading neuroscientists today.

In our General Science section, 384 pages in hardcover, Rs 450. ISBN: 9788184001198

What Fun!

As an archaeologist Shereen Ratnagar has been long involved in studying the enigma of early kin-organized, small-scale and non-specialized societies, which lack private landed-property and are free of a money economy; societies that we call tribal. Having conducted ethno-archaeological research amongst tribal people in eastern Gujarat, she spent a few months living with them to investigate how, in spite of their miniscule land holdings, they are able to raise crops regularly, year after year. Far from being abject or primitive, tribal people schedule their subsistence in a rational way, which is diversified in more ways than one, and families are self-sufficient to a considerable extent. That households think years ahead, is also abundantly clear from their provisions for the storage of food.

Being Tribal attempts to define tribal society, traces tribal migrations in history, and examines their modes of agricultural production. This book also comes to the conclusion that tribal culture is robust, and that Indian society owes it to the tribal population-repeatedly displaced and marginalized in the interests of the powerful-to give them full scope to live out their destinies in their own way.

The brief biography that accompanies the book says that Ratnagar gave up her Professorship in Archaeology at the JNU when it ceased to be fun and has since been researching and teaching in various places. The effusive praise for the book- a recent review appeared in The Hindu, by Vinay Srivastava- suggests that Ratnagar has combined scholarship with empathy while indeed having fun.

Srivastava's review concludes with a recommendation (emphasis his): In a chapter that provides a sensitive account of the institutions and practices of the people, the author rebuts several typecasts and shows that tribes have historically evolved ‘safety nets'. Kinship and marriage ties are among them. Neighbours join hands and form informal groups to help a person in carrying out a task, and the recipient reciprocates by pitching in with his effort on a different occasion. This makes for solidarity among the people. This, however, does not mean that the world of tribes is closed. They do interact with the market, but do not acquire from there objects they need for their living. Their economy is not oriented towards ‘producing for the market', and this gives the tribespersons autonomy and robustness. The book is aptly titled and, refreshingly, it not only acknowledges its key respondent profusely but also carries his photograph. The book argues that “modest land allocations” should be made to tribal households so that they could eke out their livelihood by adopting their time-tested traditional methods of cultivation.

From Primus Books, in our Tribal Studies and History sections, Rs 825, 112 pages in hardcover. ISBN: 9789380607023

Revising Ptolemy

Astronomy is one of the most widely researched topics in contemporary India, with a large number of institutes and telescopes dotting the landscape, from optical telescope in Hanle in Ladakh to the solar observatory in Kodaikanal in the South. And the tradition of studying astronomy is an old one, as the new title from Hindustan Book Agency reminds us once again...

The Tantrasangraha of Nilakantha Somayaji by K. Ramasubramanian and M. S. Sriram is a new contribution to HBA's Culture and History of Mathematics series. Composed in 1500 CE by the renowned Kerala astronomer Nilakantha Somayaji (c.1444–1545 CE), the Tantrasangraha ranks along with the Aryabhatiya of Aryabhata and the Siddhàntashiromani of Bhàskaràcàrya as a seminal work that significantly influenced further work on astronomy in India. One of the distinguishing features of this text is that it introduces a major revision of the traditional planetary models, leading to a unified theory of planetary latitudes and a better formulation of the equation of centre for the interior planets (Mercury and Venus) than was previously available.

Several important innovations in mathematical technique are also to be found in Tantrasangraha, especially related to the computation of accurate sine tables, the use of series for evaluating the sine and cosine functions, and a systematic treatment of the problems related to the diurnal motion of the celestial objects. The spherical trigonometry relations presented in the text—applied to a variety of problems such as the computation of eclipses and elevation of Moon’s cusps—are also exact.


In preparing the translation and explanatory notes, the authors have used authentic Sanskrit editions of Tantrasangraha by Suranad Kunjan Pillai and K V Sarma. , The text consists of eight chapters covering mean longitudes, true longitudes, gnomonic shadow, lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, vyatãpàta, reduction to observation and elevation of Moon’s cusps. All 432 verses have been translated into English and supplemented with detailed explanations through use of mathematical equations, tables and figures.


This edition of Tantrasangraha will appeal to historians of astronomy as well as those who are keen to know about the actual computational procedures employed in Indian astronomy. It is a self-contained text with several appendices, enabling the reader to comprehend the subject matter easily.


It is truly remarkable that Nilakantha and Copernicus, contemporaries living 4000 miles apart, should have independently made profound revisions to the classical epicyclic models of the planetary system at the same time. Here, for the first time, Westerners can read Nilakantha’s great work, the Tantrasangraha and learn the mathematical principles of Indian astronomy in their most developed form. This work has a major place in the canon of the History of Science, enlarging our world-wide view of the landmark human discoveries... says David Mumford, Professor of Mathematics at Harvard.


In our History of Science and Mathematics sections, in hardcover, 642 pages Rs. 975. ISBN 9789380250090

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Michael Hahn, Professor Emeritus of Indology and Tibetology at the University of Marburg has a new title from Aditya Prakashan, Poetical vision of the Buddha's former lives: Seventeen legends from Haribhaṭṭa's Jātakamālā.

The present book contains the first Indian edition of 17 (out of 34) legends from the “Garland of Birth-Stories” (Jātakamālā) by the Kashmiri poet Haribhaṭṭa who lived not later than 400 CE. His composition, written in the prosimetric campū style, is a worthy successor to Āryaśūra's Jātakamālā. An exemplary representative of the chaste style (vaidarbhī rītiḥ), it enchants the reader by its perfectly lucid Sanskrit, the great variety of metres (29) and superb prose sections, which can be regarded as forerunners of Daṇḍin's and Bāṇa's prose novels. The legends, which are meant to illustrate the six moral perfections (pāramitā), viz. giving, morality, forbearance, striving, meditation and wisdom, are chosen not only from the rich store-house of Buddhist narrative literature, but occasionally also from other sources, e.g., the Mahābhārata or even folk tales.

In contrast to his predecessor Āryaśūra, Haribhaṭṭa follows the way of playwrights and boldly alters the original plot in order to achieve more dramatic effects. His stories vary considerably in length: between 6 pages (containing 28 stanzas) such as the legend of the ascetic Jajvalin (No. 26) and 60 pages (containing 242 stanzas) such as the legend of prince Sudhana and his wife, the kinnarī Manoharā (No. 25; still unpublished), the latter story being in fact a veritable love romance.

Until 1973, Haribhaṭṭa's work was known only from its medieval Tibetan translation. Between 1973 and 1976, Michael Hahn discovered ten of its legends in anonymous manuscripts from Nepal. They were published (in Latin script) in Japan in 2007. In 2004, Michael Hahn got access to another fragmentary Sanskrit manuscript that permitted him to include seven more legends in the present Indian edition. An English translation is currently being prepared. A CD containing colour photographs of the oldest manuscript of Haribhaṭṭa's Jātakamālā from Nepal is attached to book.

In our Buddhism and Sanskrit Literature sections, in hardcover, 232 pages with CD, ISBN 9788177421040.

My Other, My Self

Intimate Others: Marriage and Sexualities in India, edited by Samita Sen, Ranjita Biswas and Nandita Dhawan is Stree, Kolkata's next book.

Although the challenge to the hegemonic status of the institution of marriage in India is grabbing the limelight in popular media, it has received comparatively less attention in the social sciences. This path-breaking collection presents an analysis of marriage from historical, social, cultural, psychological and legal perspectives. Changes wrought by globalization, by information technology and by the increasing social visibility of queer life forms and practices have had considerable impact on the homogeneous imagination of the ‘Indian family’, with the traditional marriage system as its base. The essays in this collection look behind and beyond the institutional framework of marriage to critique the structures of our everyday lives and to explore new horizons and possibilities in the domain of the intimate.

The collection is divided into four parts, moving from a historical perspective to present-day concerns: Part I, ‘Historicizing Marriage: Marriages Are Made in Scriptures’; Part II, ‘Contextualizing Marriage: Class, Caste, Masculinity and Violence’; Part III, ‘Representing Marriage: Sex, Conjugality and Videotapes’; and Part IV, ‘Recasting Marriage: Singlehood, Coupledom and Intimate Others’.

Samita Sen (Director) Ranjita Biswas (Lecturer) and Nandita Dhawan (Research Coordinator) are all at the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University.

In paperback, in our Gender and Culture sections, 400 pages, Rs 450. ISBN 9788196076014

Mandira Sen, the stree behind Stree has made a habit of being an early champion of the unusual! You can learn about Some-Things-You-May-Not-Know-About-Stree on their Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhatkal_and_Sen. Only fitting, since the documentary filmmaker Bishakha Datta, one of the few members of the Wikimedia board of trustees (the only stree and the only Indian) is a Stree author (And Who Will Make the Chapatis? A Study of All-Women Panchayats in Maharashtra). Not surprising, given Stree's admirable track record...

The changing Climate...

It is a commonplace that most of us generally fail to comprehend the enormous scale, power, and complexity of the atmosphere. With the effects of global climate change becoming increasingly apparent, an understanding of the processes that underpin our weather and climate is vital.

Offering an engaging and insightful treatment of the behavior of the lower atmosphere, Fundamentals of Weather and Climate takes a quantitative approach to describing the mechanisms involved. Beginning with an overview of the atmosphere and its components, it intro

duces the physics that drive weather systems before setting those principles in the context of specific systems of differing scales and latitudes. Finally, the text draws this information together in relation to the problem of anthropogenic climate change.

Fundamentals of Weather and Climate is enhanced by extensive pedagogical features including end-of-chapter questions, key points, and custom-drawn illustrations that enable students to more easily visualize the processes and interactions described.

From OUP, in our Environmental Studies section, Rs 1295, ISBN: 9780199215423

A related title, reviewed recently in the journal Current Science is Climate Change and Chemicals: Environmental & Biological Aspects from New India Publishers. Coauthored by a group of academics based in Australia and Bangladesh, Golam Kibria, A. K. Yousuf Haroon, Dayanthi Nugegoda and Gavin Rose, this book addresses the two key environmental issues : climate change and chemical impacts on human health, environment and agricultural production with reference to chemistry, Ecotoxicology, toxicology, and biology. The book reviewed and summarised research results and information from both developed and developing countries including Asia-Pacific, Australasia and other parts of the world.

Also in our Environmental studies section, Rs 3600, ISBN: 9789380235301

Nearer to thee...

Rupantar, a small publisher based in Bhubaneswar has just brought out a collection of short stoies by women from Orissa.

One Step towards the Sun is a comprehensive selection of short stories by women from Orissa, originally published in the middle of the twentieth century to the present day. Harrowing incidents of poverty, mental instability, religious intolerance, crime and injustice are detailed here, as are explorations of loving yet nonetheless problematic relationships, the possibilities available for personal fulfillment and an independent life, the difficulties of growing old, environmental concerns and so many other matters relevant to all of us - male or female, young or old, Indian or non-Indian. While depicting women's gendered experiences, these stories also shed light on the shifting dynamics of Orissan history and culture. Together, they reaffirm old and established facts, but also explore the contours of new realities. The authors employ varied structural devices and their apparently straightforward narratives often lead up to to startling moments of revelation.

In our Indian Literature in Translation section, Rs 295. ISBN: 9788190672917

Marshall Alkazi

Friday the 14th of January will see an important event in the School of Arts and Aesthetics at JNU, the inauguration of the exhibition, The Marshall Albums: Photography and Archaeology.

One of the most important collections in the Alkazi Collection of Photography, The Marshall Albums displays images taken by Sir John Marshall and the ASI during his service as its first Director General between 1902 and 1928. The images reflect his keen interest in photography as a tool for successful conservation campaigns and highlight a unique process, which helped set important trends and standards in photography for archaeological scholarship in the formative years of the ASI.


The exhibition is drawn from a publication by the same name, edited by Dr. Sudeshna Guha, which explores the many discoveries and interpretations of Indian history that emerged through archaeological fieldwork. While maintaining focus on Marshall’s contributions to South Asian archaeology, the themes presented include the rise of archaeology as an authoritative element for historical scholarship during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the politics and contestations involved in the archaeological preservation of monuments and historical landscapes, and the relationship between photography and archaeology.

The exhibition aims to present reflexive histories of an investigative technique that developed into a disciplinary science within British India and will be on till the 29th of January.

The book by Sudeshna Guha is published by Mapin, and is, quite naturally, in our Photography and Archaeology sections at SwB.

With inputs from Michael Dodson, Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Robert Harding and Christopher Pinney, the book draws "on the photographic albums in the personal collection of Sir John Marshall, Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1908, this volume is a study exploring multiple perceptions of Indian history and related scholarship produced through archaeological field work during the colonial period. While maintaining focus on Marshall’s contributions to South Asian archaeology, the themes of the essays include the rise of archaeology as an authoritative element for historical scholarship during the 18th and 19th centuries, the preservation of monuments and historical landscapes, and the complex relationships between photography and archaeology.

The book highlights major sites such as Sanchi, Sarnath, Mohenjodaro and Taxila—often referred to as Marshall’s archaeological triumphs."

In hardcover, 288pages, 119 sepia photographs, 10 drawings and a map. Rs 3500, ISBN: 9788189995324

Upward and Outwards..

Sunil Kothari, briefly a colleague at the JNU many moons ago, is a leading dance historian of Indian classical dance. Bookwise, the sumptuous art bookstore in Shapur Jat is organizing an evening around one of his books, New Directions In Indian dance from Marg.

Published in 2003, in the book Kothari approaches the questions Is there no Modern Dance in India? Don't Indian dancers choreograph in the contemporary idiom? Does Indian dance only depict stories of gods and the goddesses or Indian mythology? Are there no innovations taking plae in Indian dance? Do dancers not depict contemporary issues? Is there a new kinetic language of Indian dance?

The answer is yes!

Indian dance does find contemporary expression as well - one could term it Modern Indian Dance. Not as an imitation of a term from the West, but indigenous and essentially Indian. In New Directions in Indian Dance, dancers, choreographers, and critics document the new directions Indian dance is taking in finding contemporary expression. Their contributions cover a wide range of topics which mirror the new directions Indian dance is taking - not one but many, enhancing the volume's documentary value. The tradition of abstraction is explored, as are the martial arts and other dance traditions employed by dancers to express their concerns and urges to create and experiment with contemporary themes. Issues of inter-culturalism and modernism are discussed. Illustrated generousy with images by photographers of international repute, the book reveals the mystique of the new Indian dance.

In our Performing Arts section, Rs 2250, 204 pages. ISBN: 9788185026626

The Sky... The Earth... And our very core...

Three titles from Springer India caught our eye recently. These are some of the Platinum Jubilee Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy (or INSA), and deal variously with the past, present and future of some matters of interest in physics.

The first is edited by Thanu Padmanabhan of the IUCAA, Pune, on Astronomy in India: A Historical Perspective. India has a strong and ancient tradition of astronomy, which seamlessly merges with the current activities in Astronomy and Astrophysics in the country. While the younger generation of astronomers and students are reasonably familiar with the current facilities and the astronomical research, they might not have an equally good knowledge of the rich history of Indian astronomy. This particular volume, brought out as a part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Indian National Science Academy, concentrates on selected aspects of historical development of Indian astronomy in the form of six invited chapters. Two of the chapters - by Balachandra Rao and M. S. Sriram - cover ancient astronomy and the development of calculus in the ancient Kerala text Yuktibhasa. The other four chapters by B. V. Sreekantan, Siraj Hasan, Govind Swarup and Jayant Narlikar deal with the contemporary history of Indian astronomy covering space astronomy, optical astronomy, radio astronomy and developments in relativistic astrophysics. These chapters, written by experts in the field, provide an in-depth study of the subject and makes this volume quite unique.

Rs 995, in our History of Science and Physics sections, ISBN:9788184899979

The second title is on the Physics and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior: Crust, Mantle and Core, edited by Alok Gupta and Somnath Dasgupta. With high P-T experimental studies on essential mineral phases present in this crust, mantle and core it is now possible for mineral physicists to develop a clear picture about the earth’s interior. Seismological studies provide additional constraints on various petrological models. Leading national and international scientists have written papers in this issue on metamorphic processes, geothermo-barometry, generation and migration of melts in the deep crust and evolution of mountain chains. Thermal structure, convection cycle and phase transformations within the mantle and core and their correlation with respect to seismic discontinuities have also been discussed. The volume gives a knowledgeable disposition about how the earth works.

Also Rs 995, in our Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences sections, ISBN: 9788184891966

And our very core- the stuff we are made of? The subject of investigation of particle physics... and the subject of the third title, Physics at the Large Hadron Collider by Amitava Datta, Biswarup Mukhopadhayay and Amitava Raychaudhuri. In an epoch when particle physics is awaiting a major step forward, the Large Hydron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva will soon be operational. It will collide a beam of high energy protons with another similar beam circulation in the same 27 km tunnel but in the opposite direction, resulting in the production of many elementary particles some never created in the laboratory before. It is widely expected that the LHC will discover the Higgs boson, the particle which supposedly lends masses to all other fundamental particles. In addition, the question as to whether there is some new law of physics at such high energy is likely to be answered through this experiment.

The present volume contains a collection of articles written by international experts, both theoreticians and experimentalists, from India and abroad, which aims to acquaint a non-specialist with some basic issues related to the LHC. At the same time, it is expected to be a useful, rudimentary companion of introductory exposition and technical expertise alike, and it is hoped to become unique in its kind. The fact that there is substantial Indian involvement in the entire LHC endeavour, at all levels including fabrication, physics analysis procedures as well as theoretical studies, is also amply brought out in the collection.

In our Physics section, Rs 1195. ISBN: 9788184892154

Forever linked in alliteration

Arguably the most exquisite building in the Mehrauli complex, the tomb of Jamali Kamali is well known for many things, beginning with its unusual square structure, the inlaid tiles, the poetry of Jamali, the surrounding gardens... And as an enduring icon of homosexual love, based on the mystery of Kamali.

While something is known of Jamali, that he was a sufi mystic and poet of the early Mughal period, Kamali, his alliterative partner is more of an enigma.

Karen Chase, a poet based in the US, has a new book out from Mapin Publishing. In Jamali-Kamali: A tale of passion in Mughal India, a homoerotic poem, she "reconstructs the expressions of love and longing between the two, who according to Delhi's oral tradition were homosexual lovers." Since the oral tradition in question is little more than the arch assertions of local tourist guides, this may be more a work of imagination than history. On the other hand, a century later, there was the much better documented history of the Persian mystic Sarmad, so there could be something here...

In our Poetry section, 80 pages, Rs 1100, ISBN: 9788189995126

Yours Disobediently

"Lakshmi Chand Jain (1925-2010) was a child of India's first freedom movement. He spent much of his life as an impassioned crusader of what Gandhi called the second freedom struggle, for a just and equitable India. In Civil Disobedience, he tells the riveting story of the personal influences and experiences that shaped his beliefs.

Told mostly through Jain's vivid memory, the book is based on a series of interviews by the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library as part of their video/oral history project, and by his son Sreenivasan Jain, the journalist. These interviews have been shaped into a narrative that describes the making of a gentle revolutionary. A luminous guide to all those engaged in a struggle for India's second freedom."

From The Book Review Literary Trust, Rs 395 in hardcover, ISBN: 9788188434053