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AN
ANALYTICAL
INDEX OF THE MATERIALS PROVIDED ON THIS SITE
*MAPS of SOUTH
ASIA* == Many of the maps are on this
site; some are outside links.
*SOUTH ASIAN
LITERATURE* == Lots of outside links,
together with some particular short articles, texts,
etc., for classroom use, all hooked up in
chronological and/or thematic order. Some special
projects:
*ARTHASHASTRA*
== by Kautilya (300s-200s BCE?), translated from
the Sanskrit by R. Shamasastry (1915), an
extraordinary work of realpolitik.
*SACONTALA*
== by Kalidasa (300's?), translated from
the Sanskrit by Sir William Jones (1789). Nobody can
resist Shakuntala, and Sir William Jones has the
courtly vocabulary and attitude to do her justice.
With much background material.
*HARSHA-CHARITA*
== by Banabhatta (600's), translated from the
Sanskrit by E. B. Cowell and F. W. Thomas (1897); a
court poet's account of his ruler's life, and his
own.
*PANCHATANTRA*
== by Vishnu Sharma (c.1199), translated from the
Sanskrit by Arthur Ryder (1925); wonderfully
embedded animal tales-- think "Aesop's Fables"
*HITOPADESHA*
== (anon., date uncertain), translated from
the Sanskrit by Sir Edwin Arnold (1861). It turns
out that certain animals know a lot about reciting
proverbs, winning friends, and destroying enemies--
along with peace, war, betrayal, and other human
vicissitudes.
*Gul-badan
Begam's
HUMAYUN-NAMA (c.1587)* == Akbar's
aunt describes her own relationship with her brother
Humayun.
*ABU'L-FAZL
(1551-1602)* == Akbar's great and
devoted chronicler has left us the multivolume Akbar-nama
and its concluding part, the A'in-i Akbari;
here are some excerpts from his remarkable work.
*Ananda
Ranga Pillai (1709-61)* == The Chief
Dubash (interpreter) to Governor Dupleix of
Pondicherry kept an extensive private diary from
1736 until his death; selections from it are
presented here.
*Dastan-e
AMIR HAMZAH (1871)* == by Abdullah
Bilgrami, translated from the Urdu by FWP. The
medieval Persian-Urdu dastan world has been said to
consist of 'fights and parties, magic and trickery'
(razm o bazm, tilism o 'ayyari)-- what's not
to like?
*Gandhi's
Autobiography (1925)* == a version
that aspires to be conveniently arranged and
carefully proofread.
*BASTI
(1979)* == by Intizar Husain,
translated from the Urdu by FWP. A meditative,
memory-filled look at Pakistani history, from the
perspective of the recent loss of Bangladesh.
*MARVELOUS
ENCOUNTERS: Folk
Romance in Urdu and Hindi (1985)* == I've
finally gotten around to putting my dissertation
online.
*S. R. FARUQI* ==
the website of this all-round-brilliant Urdu
literary figure, with whom I've been fortunate
enough to collaborate.
*C. M. NAIM*
== a page devoted to the work of this
important modern scholar, teacher, writer, and
social critic.
ALSO: SOME RELEVANT WORKS BY
NON-SOUTH-ASIAN WRITERS:
*HERODOTUS
on
India (c.450 BCE)* == Our earliest
surviving (clearly datable) literary source by a
couple of centuries, and thus uniquely valuable.
*IBN
BATUTA VISITS INDIA (1330's)* ==
This tireless traveler visited the Delhi court,
and covered a surprising amount of ground in and
around South Asia.
*Munster's
COSMOGRAPHIA (1544)* == A look at
one of the most influential medieval accounts of
South Asia, complete with monsters and the famous
gold-digging ants.
*MIRAT UL-MEMALIK (Mirror
of Countries) (1557)* == by Sidi
Ali Reis, translated from the Turkish by A.
Vambery (1899). The Ottoman Admiral, out to
confront the Portuguese Infidels, is shipwrecked
on the Malabar Coast, and stops to visit with
Humayun.
*The
Travels of Pietro della Valle (1650)*
== On the Malabar Coast in 1623 he meets some
local celebrities, and describes these
cross-cultural encounters with thoughtfulness and
candor.
*Jean
Baptiste TAVERNIER's TRAVELS (1676)*
== He shares his own mercantile (and other)
experiences in late-Mughal India, in what amounts
to a vivid and well-organized travel guide.
*MALLET's
Description de l'Univers (1683 on)*
== Remarkably influential maps and views of
everything in the world.
*PREVOST'S
Histoire
generale des Voyages (1746-1759)* ==
15 volumes of maps and views and other
illustrations
*GENERAL
HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS*
ARRANGED IN SYSTEMATIC ORDER: Forming a
Complete History of the Origin and Progress of
Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and
Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time,
by Robert Kerr (1811-c.1820's).
*Lalla
Rookh (1817)* == Thomas Moore's
'Eastern Romance' (with an extraordinary set of
footnotes) is framed as a set of stories narrated
to Aurangzeb's daughter; this passionate hymn to
freedom, nationalism, piety, and young love was
immensely popular in its day.
*The
General East India Guide (1825)* ==
Everything the young East India Company employee
needs to know, by no less an authority than John
Borthwick Gilchrist himself (of Fort William
fame).
*The
Life of William Carey (1761-1834)*
== An ardently Christian and imperialist
biographer, George Smith (1887), salutes the great
scholar-missionary as a counterpart to Clive.
*Campaign
of the Indus (1838-39)* == A
British soldier's letters home, edited by his
father; both men emphasize that this is the first
'western army' in the area since Alexander's
*MACAULAY
(1800-1859)* == Beyond the 'Minute
on Education' that we all love to hate, this
ardent social reformer was also a brilliant
literary stylist: just take a look at his essays
on Clive and Hastings.
*From
the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan (1879-80)*
== Despite her love of mystery, Madame Blavatsky
is a more vivid, amusing, and sympathetic travel
writer than you'd ever expect
*INDIA
IN AMERICAN EYES: What We Used to Read* ==
A wide range of articles about things Indian, from
19th-century American magazines; and a Gutenberg
banquet
*The
Pirates of Malabar* by John
Biddulph (1907) == One of their main early home
ports was New York; Captain Kidd was overrated;
the Angria clan's fortresses loomed large
*URDU/HINDI
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE* == Most of
these are outside links, or else teaching and research
materials (including works by *Abdul
Qadir*, *Baidar
Bakht*, *Bailey*,
*Kellogg*,
*King*,
*Pybus*,
*Shackle
and Snell*, *Suhrawardy*,
and *Tarachand*.
But
there are also (excerpts from) some major texts, which
are presented in literal translation as well as in at
least parts in the original script, with background
material. These 'study sites', which I call *Fran's
favorites* include, in
chronological order:
*SELECTIONS
FROM
SAUDA*
*"A GARDEN OF
KASHMIR"* (Mir)
*THE MASNAVI
OF MIR HASAN*
*"BAGH O
BAHAR"* (Mir Amman)
*"A DESERTFUL OF
ROSES"* (Ghalib)
*A
MARSIYAH OF MIR ANIS*
*"THE CAUSES OF
THE INDIAN REVOLT"* (Sir Sayyid)
*NAZIR
AHMAD'S BEST-SELLERS*
*UMRAO JAN
ADA* (Rusva)
*"HALI'S "JUSTICE
FOR THE SILENT"*
*TWO
TARANAHS* (Iqbal)
*IQBAL: some of
his best Urdu poems*
*"KAFAN" (THE
SHROUD)* (Premchand)
*"TOBA
TEK SINGH"* (Manto)
*ISMAT CHUGHTAI*
(one of her stories)
*Three modern Urdu
poets: FAIZ, RASHID, MIRAJI*, from the
generation after Iqbal
*THE
GREAT GLOSSARY FAIR* == Hindi/Urdu
language-study glossaries and other materials from a
variety of sources
*INDIAN ROUTES*
== An idiosyncratic timeline that provides
hyperlinked resources from all over. Many related
'scrapbook' pages, located on this site, are available
through its *SITEMAP*, and
are by far the most popular things on my
whole website.
*EARLY MODERN
INDIA: A SELECT GLOSSARY* == This
perpetual work-in-progress centers on the 1700's,
with some excursions forward and backward in time.
It has lots of external links, and some of its own
materials; it's also hooked up to many other things
on this site.
*"SOURCES OF
INDIAN TRADITIONS"* == Links to
accompany the Columbia University Press anthology.
*Dr. B. R.
AMBEDKAR* == This is part of
Columbia's web project on one of our greatest
alumni. Its centerpiece is the CCNMTL e-text of *Annihilation
of Caste (1936)*. My own site contains some
articles by Dr. Ambedkar, a *timeline*
of his life, and also two of his books:
*Pakistan,
or
the Partition of India (1945)* == Dr.
Ambedkar's detailed consideration of the question,
using the best information available to him at the
time.
*The
Buddha
and His Dhamma (1956)* == Dr.
Ambedkar always regretted that there was no Buddhist
Bible, so he set out to compose one. He managed to
finish it just before his death, as a last gift to
his people.
*Prof. C.
M. NAIM* == Naim Sahib
is much more than my own teacher and ustad-- he's an
excellent cultural critic.
MY OWN WORK == this section consists
chiefly of my own *published
work* (along with extensive access to *S. R. Faruqi's
work* in English); most texts are provided on
this site more or less the way they were published.
Some sections are online creations, however:
*"A
DESERTFUL OF ROSES*: the Urdu Ghazals
of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib" (always in
progress); this is my magnum opus.
*"A GARDEN OF
KASHMIR*: the Ghazals of Mir Muhammad
Taqi Mir" (always in progress); he was Ghalib's only
real equal
*"Urdu
Meter: A Practical Handbook"* (once a
book, but now reworked into online format)
*"The
Dastan of Amir Hamzah"* (the
translations available here are twice as extensive
as in the "Romance Tradition" book)
IN THE BASEMENT (onsite links are
fine, but external links may decay):
*The IGBO language
of Nigeria* ==
My
mother loved the Igbo language and its
literature. Since her death, her website of
texts and translations has become a memorial to
her.
*South Asian Art
and Architecture*
== Mostly
outside links; but many images of this kind will
also be found in the *Indian Routes
sitemap*. One major project:
*A
HANDBOOK TO AGRA* and the Taj,
Sikandra, Fatehpur-Sikri, and the Neighbourhood, by
E. B. Havell (1904); now illustrated with online
images.
*Islam
in South Asia* == Many outside links
that may decay, but also many particularly useful onsite
colonial-period articles, speeches, excerpts, etc.
Also, two notable onsite books:
*OBSERVATIONS
ON
THE MUSSALMAUNS OF INDIA* DESCRIPTIVE
OF THEIR MANNERS, CUSTOMS, HABITS AND RELIGIOUS
OPINIONS, Made During a Twelve Years' Residence in
their Immediate Society, by Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali
(1832); her remarkable letters about her life in
Navabi Lucknow well deserve their fame.
*MUSLIM
CIVILIZATION IN INDIA*, by S. M.
Ikram, edited by Ainslie T. Embree (1964); a classic
introductory text, somewhat dated now but valuable
and interesting in many ways.
*Some
lovely calligraphy* == Some examples
are on this site, and some are outside links; this
collection is no longer updated.
*General links*
== This list of good starting points consists
mostly of outside links that are no longer updated.
But I've also made homes here for some of my own
projects (these are also linked through the *South Asian
Literature* collection).
*"Morningside Mix"*
== using this bookmark set is like rooting around in
the refrigerator for a snack: lots of random
leftovers, since it's no longer maintained,
but there might still be a few good tidbits.
COURSE
SYLLABI == These course
websites have been left as they were when they were
last used.
="Introduction to
Indian Civilization," as of fall 2008
="Islam in
South Asia--an Introduction," as of spring
2009
="Hindi/Urdu: An
Overview," as of spring 2010
="Readings
in Urdu Literature," as of spring 2013
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