The History of the Book in South Asia

Francesca Orsini is a Reader in the Literatures of North India, SOAS, University of London, UK.

Contents: Introduction; Part I Writing, Orality and the Manuscript Book: Literary culture and manuscript culture in precolonial India, Sheldon Pollock; Early manuscript illumination, Jeremiah P. Losty; The imperial library of the Great Mogul, Jeremiah P. Losty; The Jain knowledge warehouses: traditional libraries in India, John E. Cort; Orality and literacy/performance and permanence, Christian Lee Novetzke. Part II Technology and Practices: Early books and new literary practices, 1556-1800, Stuart Blackburn; Calcutta: birthplace of the Indian lithographed book, Graham Shaw; The coming of the book in Hindi and Urdu, Ulrike Stark; An Indian success story: the House of Naval Kishore, Ulrike Stark; Readers, reading practices, modes of reading, A.R. Venkatachalapathy. Part III The Cultures of the Book in Colonial India: The Battala book market, Anindita Ghosh; The domain of Konkani, Rochelle Pinto; Reading in the public eye: the circulation of fiction in Indian libraries, c. 1835-1901, Priya Joshi; ’Petrifactions of bygone ages’: the sacred books of the East, Rimi Chatterjee; Journals, publishing, and the literary system, Francesca Orsini. Part IV Post-Colonial Histories: Publishers' perspective, Rita Kothari; Epilogue: exaggerated obituraries?, A.R. Venkatachalapathy; The practices of reading and writing, Laura M. Ahearn; Name index.