South Asia Research Series

Statement of Purpose
The South Asia Institute at the University of Texas, in collaboration with Oxford University Press, New York, has established an innovative series on South Asia by returning to old scholarly values. We are not much inclined toward the ephemera of the latest intellectual fads, but will focus, rather, on works that we think have the potential to have something like the shelf-life of the scholarly translations in The Sacred Books of the East, or Max Müller's edition of the Rig-Veda, both also published by Oxford University Press, and neither of which would be easily published in today's market. We are interested in the kinds of works that, once published, all scholars will have to use. We are looking for works that will be basic tools of the trade, and works that will remain reference points in important scholarly enterprise.

The range of things we will consider will be determined not by discipline or area, but by quality. We are interested in collections of art historical material, for example, which will provide a definitive record of specific sites—like Coomaraswamy's La sculpture de Bharhut—or make available comprehensive data on a given area or form—like Nagaraju's work on the architecture of the Western Caves. We will consider archeological reports, which have so much difficulty making it into print, detailed ethnographies, comprehensive collections of inscriptions—like Lüder's Mathura Inscriptions—and collections of historical documents. We are especially interested in basic works of reference that will be significant to scholars of South Asia regardless of their discipline.

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 proving such a forum—and by commissioning significant works—we hope also to encourage such basic research especially among younger scholars.

For inquiries about publication, please contact Professor Martha Selby, mas@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-5811.

Published to date:

• Salomon, Carol, trans., 2017. City of Mirrors: Congs 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