Indological Series Project

Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit

This project, supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, produced a guide to Indian texts and studies published in South Asian monographic series. Most of these books are primary texts in Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit or translations into modern languages. Indological books in series: Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit covers both original publications and reprints produced in the South Asian subcontinent. Some 1,410 series, encompassing more than 24,600 individual titles, are included.

The large and significant tradition of series publication in India began in 1849 with publication of the first volume of Bibliotheca Indica by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Originally modeled on European series publications, the practice of publishing in monographic series spread and was adapted rapidly to the requirements of South Asian cultures. By 1900 more than 65 series were published on classical Indology. Major academic centers throughout the subcontinent continue to this day to publish such series, which occasionally run to hundreds of volumes and cover comprehensively what was considered formal learning -- philosophy, poetics, grammar, music, art and architecture, astronomy and astrology, sectarian religion, law, scripture, literature, history, and medicine.

Titles in 610 Indological series were preserved on microfilm through two projects in the early 1990s supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education. The microfilm copies are available via inter-library loan. Bibliographic records for all of the titles in Indological books in series are being added to the South Asia Union Catalogue database.