South Asia Research Series

Statement of Purpose

Since 1998, the South Asia Institute at the University of Texas, in collaboration with Oxford University Press, New York, has published an innovative series on South Asia that returns to old scholarly values. The series leans away from the latest intellectual fads and toward works that we think have the potential to become basic tools of the trade—studies that that will remain reference points in important scholarly enterprise for decades to come. We aspire to publish scholarly translations, critical editions, reference works, and field-opening monographs on understudied topics. Our goal continues to be the publication of works critical to the field, but not easily published in today's market.

The range of topics we will consider is determined not by discipline or area, but by quality. To date, the series has included a wide range of studies from several disciplines and based on many South Asian languages. The series also covers many time periods and regions of South Asia. We are especially interested in basic works that will be significant to scholars of South Asia regardless of their discipline—translations and editions, collections of art historical material, archaeological reports, new dictionaries, detailed ethnographies, or studies of a corpus of inscriptions or historical documents.

Our goals are not modest; but neither are they unattainable. We want to provide a place where scholars who undertake these difficult and unglamorous projects can publish their results. By providing a forum—and by commissioning significant works—we also hope to encourage such basic research especially among younger scholars.

For inquiries about publication or to discuss a project, please contact Professor Don Davis, drdj@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-5811.

Published to date:

• Bronner, Yigal, ed., forthcoming. A Lasting Vision: Dandin's Mirror in the World of Asian Letters.

• Allen, Michael S. 2022. The Ocean of Inquiry: Niścaldās and the Premodern Origins of Modern Hinduism.

• Reich, James D. 2021. To Savor the Meaning: The Theology of Literary Emotions in Medieval Kashmir.

• d'Hubert, Thibaut, 2018. In the Shade of the Golden Palace: Alāol and Middle Bengali Poetics in Arakan. View Cover and Table of Contents
• Salomon, Carol, trans., 2017. City of Mirrors: Songs of Lālan Sāi. View Cover and Table of Contents
• Bronner, Yigal, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb, eds., 2014.  Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kavya Literature.View Cover and Table of Contents
• Jamison, Stephanie W. and Joel P. Brereton, trans., 2014. The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India (3 vols.). View Cover and Table of Contents
• Busch, Allison. 2011. Poetry of Kings: The Classical Hindi Literature of Mughal India. View Cover and Table of Contents
• Hiltebeitel, Alf. 2011. Dharma: Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative. View Cover and Table of Contents
• Davis, Richard H. 2010. A Priest’s Guide for the Great Festival. View Cover and Table of Contents
• Silk, Jonathan A. 2008. Managing Monks: Administrators and Administrative Roles in Indian Buddhist Monasticism. View Cover and Table of Contents
• Olivelle, Patrick. 2006. Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE. View Cover and Table of Contents
• Malik, Aditya. 2005. Nectar Gaze and Poison Breath: An Analysis and Translation of the Rajasthani Oral Narrative of Devnārāyan. View Cover and Table of Contents
• Olivelle, Patrick. 2005. Manu’s Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmásāstra. View Cover and Table of Contents
• Slaje, Walter. 2004, Medieval Kashmir and the Science of History 
• Rocher, Ludo. ed. 2002. Jimutavahana's Dayabhaga: A Twelfth Century Sanskrit Text on Inheritance in Hindu Law.View Cover and Table of Contents
• Orr, Leslie C. 2000. Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu.View Cover and Table of Contents
• Tulpule, S. G. et. al. 1999. A Dictionary of Old Marathi.View Cover and Table of Contents
• Olivelle, Patrick. 1998. The Early Upanisads Annotated Texts and Translations.View Cover and Table of Contents
• Salomon, Richard. 1998. Indian Epigraphy A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Other Indo-Aryan Languages.View Cover and Table of Contents