India Collection

The India Collection consists of rare books, maps and documents on British India, numbering 3,024. The books cover a wide range of subjects, including British books on Indian history, archaeology, art and architecture, geography, the natural sciences, medicine and medical histories. Translations from the original Persian works relating to Mughal history form part of the collection. Most of these books were originally published between the 17th and 20th centuries. The earliest publication in the collection is a valuable edition of Philip Baldaeus’ True and Exact Description of the Most Celebrated East India Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, printed in 1672. Also included is Col. Tod’s Annals of Rajasthan, published in 1829. The collection holds books authored by Mildred Archer, B. H. Baden Powell, A. L. Basham, J. Bradshaw, Percy Brown, R. Forbes, M. Wheeler, among others. There is also a valuable collection of journals, newspapers, dictionaries and lexicons on various Indian languages and dialects. Bilgrami Collection The special section of reference and rare books on Indian studies, donated by Sayeed Bilgrami, is called the Bilgrami Collection. It consists of about 700 books on history, travel, biography, literature, philosophy, religion, customs and folklore