Source Documents and Texts
in South Asian Studies

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Copyright ©2000-2003
Project South Asia.
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Primary Documents and Texts

Ancient and Classical South Asia

Ashokan Rock and Pillar Edicts

• Rock Edicts [14 documents]

• Pillar Edicts [8 documents]

Dramatic Texts

• Kalidasa's Shakuntala (full-text of the 1912 Arthur W. Ryder translation)

• Harsha's Nagananda (Acts I-III)  NEW!

Foreign Descriptions of South Asia

• Greek and Roman Sources [12 documents]
• Chinese [4 book documents] 

Inscriptions (Epigraphy)

• Gupta Inscriptions [21 documents]

• Gupta-era Inscriptions [38 documents]

• Aihole Inscription of Pulikeshin II (634-635 CE) [1 document] 

• Basim Copper-Plates of Vindhyashakti II [1 document] 

• Chiplun Copper-Plate Grant of Pulikeshin II (ca. 609-642 CE) [1 document] 

• Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela of Kalinga [1 document] 

• Garuda (Heliodorus) Pillar of Besnagar [1 document] 

• Junagadh Rock Inscription of Rudradaman [1 document] 

Legal and Political Texts

• The Laws of Manu (full 1886 G. Bühler translation, divided into 12 chapters)

• Kautilya's Arthashastra (full 1915 Shamasastry text, divided into 15 books)

Literature

• The Mahabharata (condensed into English verse by Romesh C. Dutt--complete 1910 Everyman's Library edition) [5 documents] 

• The Ramayana, Chapters I-V (condensed into English verse by Romesh C. Dutt--complete 1910 Everyman's Library edition) [13 documents]  NEW!

• Bhagavad Gita (Sir Edwin Arnold translation) [18 documents]

• Harsha-carita of Bana (full 1897 E. B. Cowell and F. W Thomas translation) [8 documents] 

Religious Documents and Texts

• The Dhammapada (complete 1881 F. Max Müller translation) [26 documents]

• Selections from Henry Clarke Warren's Buddhism in Translations (1896) [6 documents]

Medieval South Asia

Foreign Descriptions of South Asia

• Selections from The Travels of Ibn Batuta (early 14th century) [9 documents]

Literature

• One Hundred Poems of Kabir (Rabindranath Tagore translation) [1 document]

• Selections from Somadeva's Katha Sarit Sagara (The Ocean of Streams of Story) (C. H. Tawney translation) [13 documents]

Religious Documents and Texts

• Translation of the Quran (complete 1880 E. H. Palmer translation) [114 documents] 

Modern South Asia

Education

• Documents on Education [10 documents]

Foreign Descriptions of India

• An Englishman's Description of Fort St. David, ca. 1773 [1 document]
• Selections from A Diary of a Civilian's Wife in India (Mrs. Robert Moss King, 1884)  NEW!

Kashmir Dispute

• U.S. State Department Documents [62 documents]

Marathas

• Excerpts from Letters written in a Mahratta Camp in the Year 1809 [2 documents]

Military History

• Excerpts from a Sergeant's Diary recounting Robert Clive's capture of Arcot, September-October 1751 [1 document]
• Letters and Despatches related to the lead-up to the War of 1857 [32 documents]

Political Documents

• Charter Granted by Queen Elizabeth to the East India Company, 31 December 1600 [1 document]

• Documents related to Tipu Sultan [3 documents]

• Letters of Robert Clive [4 documents]

• Mountstuart Elphinstone: Report on the Territories Conquered from the Peshwa (1821) [1 document]

• Speeches, Letters, and Policy Documents [53 documents]

Selected Writings of Raja Rammohun Roy

• A Defense of Hindu Theism (1817) [1 document]

• On Concremation [Sati]; A Second Conference between an Advocate and an Opponent of That Practice (1820) [1 document]

• Abstract of the Arguments Regarding the Burning of Widows, Considered as a Religious Rite (1830) [1 document]

• Remarks on Settlement in India by Europeans (1832) [1 document]

Sino-Indian Border Dispute

• Government Documents [10 documents]

Subhas Chandra Bose

• German State Documents [16 documents]

Treaties and Diplomatic Agreements

• Treaties and Agreements relating to Afghanistan [8 documents]
• Treaties and Agreements relating to Burma [3 documents]
• Treaties and Agreements relating to Indian States [1 document]
• Treaties and Agreements relating to Jammu and Kashmir [1 document]
• Treaties and Agreements relating to Nepal [1 document]
• Treaties and Agreements relating to Sikkim [3 documents]
• Treaties and Agreements relating to Tibet [11 documents]

Women

• Selections from The Position of Women in Indian Life (1912) [4 documents]

Contemporary South Asia

Secondary Documents

Ancient and Classical South Asia

Archaeological Reports

Selections from John Marshall's A Guide to Sanchi (1918)

• A Topographical Description of Sanchi [1 document]

• An Historical and Artistic Description of Sanchi [1 document]

Medieval South Asia

Modern South Asia

• The Indian Corps in France (1918) [2 documents]

• A New Geography of the Indian Empire and Ceylon (1926) [1 document]

Contemporary South Asia

Governmental Reports

• Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Nongovernmental Experts, NIC 2000-02, December 2000
  (CIA Report) [1 document]