lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on India

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39104 [All India Radio] Aspects of Indian Music A series of special articles and papers read at the music symposia arranged by All India Radio Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1976. Stapled paperback, octavo, 103pp. Minimal foxing, minor wear. Very good. Fifteen contributions on general and specialised aspects. Click here to order $8

69754 Allen, Charles, & Sharada Dwivedi Lives of the Indian Princes Century Publishing, London, 1984. Small quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titling and illustrated endpapers; 352pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; lightly spotted text block edges. Minor rubbing and edgewear to the dustwrapper; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. From the earliest days, a solid plank in the platform of Britain's diplomatic policy towards India was the notion of divide and conquer. One strategy was to allow hereditary rulers of the various kingdom states to retain their notional power...so long as they toed a British line. The funding of princely educations in Oxford and Cambridge and the equipping of monarchical security forces with the best of British armaments, added to the sense of obligation that the young rulers of these princely kingdoms felt weighing them down and diverting them from their political ambitions. Into the Twentieth Century, these kept maharajahs - increasingly chafing against the bonds of foreign ownership - found new ways to throw off their glittering shackles and commit to the formation of India as a modern nation with self-rule. In this work, Charles Allen - famous for his exposition of India under British Rule in "Plain Tales of the Raj" - follows the lives of these Indian princes, alternatively struggling for political freedom or languishing in wealthy extravagance, and gives a fascinating insight into the lives, ambitions and dreams of these puppet rulers. Click here to order $28

84014 Ardizzone, Edward (intro. Malcolm Muggeridge) Indian Diary Bodley Head, London, 1984. First edition. Octavo hardcover; blue boards with gilt spine titling; 159pp., monochrome illustrations and top edges dyed green. Minor wear; offsetting to endpapers and half-title; mildly spotted text block edges; dustwrapper faded along spine and slightly worn at edges. Very good otherwise and now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $22

207803 Bhavnani, Enakshi (Foreword by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya) The Dance in India The Origin and History, Foundations, the Art and Science of the Dance in India - Classical, Folk and Tribal Taraporevala's Treasure House of Books/D.B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. Pvt. Ltd., Bombay India, 1984. Reprint: quarto; hardcover, full cloth with gilt spine titles; 261pp., with a full-colour frontispiece and many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; somewhat shaken; spine extremities softened; text block edges lightly toned; an old price in ink to the flyleaf; retailer's bookplate to the title page. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed and edgeworn; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Laid in: two raga charts Click here to order $50

207836 Binyon, Sir Laurence Akbar Appleton Biographies series D. Appleton and Company, New York NY, 1932. Octavo; hardcover; 159pp., with a monochrome portrait frontispiece. Moderate wear; mildly shaken; spine extremities softened; board edges sunned; text block and page edges well toned; offset to the endpapers; retailer's bookplate and previous owner's name in ink to the front pastedown. Dustwrapper is rubbed and edgeworn; spine panel well sunned with light chipping to the extremities; some marks and stains; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $30

79911 Burnard, Joyce Chintz and Cotton India's Textile Gift to the World Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst NSW, 1994. Quarto hardcover, 92pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Slight wear to lower board edges and corners and light wear to dustwrapper edges. Very good to near fine. Chintz, so often regarded as being traditionally English, is a legacy of the trade in the 17th century of the East Indian companies. This book traces its origins, along with those of many other fabric types with Indian-derived names that we take for granted in our modern textile vocabulary, such as gingham, calico and muslin. Joyce Burnard relates the fascinating story of how this came about. It is a rich history, as colourful as the fabrics themselves. Click here to order $35

207051 Canning, Charlotte, & Charles Allen A Glimpse of the Burning Plain Leaves from the Indian Journals of Charlotte Canning Michael Joseph Ltd., London, 1986. Quarto; hardcover, with endpaper maps; 170pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; faint spotting and one or two marks to the text block edges; wear to board edges. Mild edgewear to dustwrapper; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $25

57491 Curzon, Lord Travels with a Superior Person Edited by Peter King and Introduced by Elizabeth Longford Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1985. Quarto hardcover; brown boards with gilt spine titling, map endpapers; 191pp., monochrome illustrations. Owner's name. Lightly spotted upper text block edges and mildly rubbed dustwrapper. Very good to near fine otherwise. 'My name is George Nathaniel Curzon, I am a most superior person. My cheek is pink, my hair is sleek, I dine at Blenheim twice a week.' - Curzon hated this 'accursed doggerel' penned by a fellow undergraduate during his years at Balliol - but it accurately sums up the man who, in his twenties, visited and conversed with kings, emperors, potentates, and despots and who, in later life, became Viceroy of India, Foreign Secretary and nearly Prime Minister. No traveller of the period had a prose style to match that of Curzon, nor did they have his wit. It is these qualities, coupled with Curzon's fascinating experiences in remote and exotic places, that make Travels with a Superior Person the quintessence of late-Victorian travel writing. Click here to order $20

97585 Dalrymple, William The Last Mughal - signed by the author The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., London, 2006. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling and decorative endpapers; 580pp., with maps and 24pp. of monochrome and full-colour plates. Moderate wear; shaken; spine extremities lightly softened; text block edges lightly toned with heavy spotting; light scattered foxing to the preliminaries; signed in ink to the title page. Dustwrapper is rubbed and edgeworn; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $35

214133 Dalrymple, William White Mughals Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India HarperCollins Publishers, London, 2002. Reprint: octavo; hardcover, full cloth with gilt spine titles and decorative endpapers; 580pp., with 24pp. of full-colour and monochrome plates. Minor wear. Dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Near fine. Click here to order $30

94694 Danielou, Alain (trans.; prepared with the help of Kenneth Hurry) The Complete Kama Sutra The First Unabridged Modern Translation of the Classic Indian Text by Vatsyayana, including the Jayamangala commentary from the Sanskrit by Yashodhara and extracts from the Hindi commentary by Devadatta Shastra Park Street Press, Vermont, 1994. Hardcover, octavo; quarter bound with yellow papered boards and red cloth spine and gilt spine titling; 564pp. Minor wear; spotting to text block edges and mild wear to dustwrapper edges. Very good to near fine and wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $28

95251 Dehejia, Harsha The Flute and the Lotus: Romantic Moments in Indian Poetry & Painting Mapin Publishing / Grantha, Middletown, 2002. Quarto hardcover; blue boards with gilt spine titling, yellow endpapers; 228pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear only; near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. "In the world of aesthetic mania, there are normally two categories of people - the scholar, the plunderer of passages and the archivist of trends, admiring beauty but never thinking of possessing it; and the collector, the jealous stalker of artefacts, for whom knowledge is only a firewall against fraud and admiration only an intended prelude to acquisition. But Mumbai-born, Canada-based Harsha Dehejia is a kind of rarity in this world - a scholar who also collects, a student of Hindu religion and philosophy and a zealous collector of Indian miniatures. That is probably why he thinks his book The Flute and the Lotus: Romantic Moments in Indian Poetry and Painting, an affectionate survey of verses and watercolours, is unique, even unprecedented. 'Collectors have asked art historians to attribute meaning to their works,' he says. 'But then the assessment becomes far too object-centric; they never seem to describe the experience that comes from the object.' And when Dehejia, who calls himself a philosopher, critiques a work, he feels he is far more passionate and holistic. The book begins with a lengthy discourse on classical aesthetics and medieval society because, to the author, any enjoyment of miniatures, in particular the cult of Radha-Krishna, can't happen without understanding the rasa theory, Vaishnavism or the non-Sanskrit sources from which Krishna arose. Then there are the miniatures themselves - from the sharp physiognomy of Kishangarh to the coarser profiles from Mewar. Dehejia, who became a doctor (an asthma specialist settled in Ottawa) before he became a serious aesthete backed with a PhD from Mumbai University, says most of the printed paintings are from his collection. ..'I'm still coming to terms with trying to define beauty in the modern world," he says. That, incidentally, is the topic of his next book, his fifth." - India Today Click here to order $35

43475 Emily, Lady Clive Bayley & Sir Thomas Metcalfe (M.M. Kaye, ed.) The Golden Calm - An English Lady's Life in Moghul Delhi Reminiscences by Emily, Lady Clive Bayley, and by her father, Sir Thomas Metcalfe Studio Books/Viking Press, New York NY, 1980. Quarto; hardcover, full bonded leather with gilt spine titles, gilt upper board rules and decorations and decorated endpapers; 220pp., with a colour frontispiece and many colour illustrations, one folding. Minor wear. Dustwrapper with minor edgewear; spotted on the verso. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $28

77343 Eraly, Abraham The Mughal World India's Tainted Paradise Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2007. Reissue: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 420pp., with maps and 8pp. of full-colour plates. Minor wear; toned text block edges. Near fine in like dustwrapper. The Mughal emperors were larger-than-life figures, men written on a supra-human scale who exercised absolute power. The three centuries of their rule, as laid out in Eraly's previous volume, The Mughal Throne, mark one of the most crucial and fascinating periods of Indian history. Here, he looks beyond the story of the empires rise and fall; an exotic growth that was transplanted to India from Islamic Persia to bring the world of the Mughal ruler and Hindu subject vividly into focus. Blending contemporary sources and detailed description he introduces an India full of strangeness and contrast: of sacred harems and suttee rites, of brutal war and cultural and artistic refinement, of staggering opulence, deviant indulgences and abject poverty. From bizarre religious cults to the Mughal fondness for formal gardening, from murderous female bandits to the sex lives of the nobles, almost every angle of life is examined making this a comprehensive and absorbing introduction to India's last Golden Age. Click here to order $30

43479 Forster, E.M. The Hill of Devi Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York, 1953. First US edition. Hardcover, octavo, 267pp. Slightly worn lower board edges and corners. Very lightly toned text block edges. Discoloured rear panel of dustwrapper; not price-clipped; minor edge wear; professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. The Hill of Devi is an account by E.M. Forster of two visits to India in 1912-1913 and 1921, during which he worked as the private secretary to Tukojirao III, the Maharaja of the state of Dewas Senior. Forster publishes the letters of his early travel without introduction in order to let the reader share his own 'bewilderment and pleasure at plunging into an unknown world and at meeting an unknown and possibly unknowable character'. This character, the central figure of the whole book, is the Maharajah himself. He is witty, complex, sensitive and religious, 'certainly a genius, and possibly a saint, and he had to be king'. As his private secretary, 'Forster was privileged to ride elephants, to receive an Official Insult, and to attend the strange eight-day festival of Gokul Ashtami'. The early essays are followed by an explanatory text on "The State and its Ruler." Then comes the main section, containing the letters of 1921, which are extensively commented by Forster. In the last part of the book, he describes the 'Catastrophe,' the descent of the Maharaja and the state. Forster closes his recollections with a meditation upon death and memory: 'One of the puzzling things about the dead is that it is impossible to think of them evenly. They all go out of sight and are forgotten, they all go into silence, yet we cannot help assigning some of them a tune. Most of those whom I have known leave no sound behind them, I cannot evoke them though I would like to. He (the Maharajah) has a rare quality of evoking himself, and I do not believe that he is here doing it for the last time'. In the preface, E. M. Forster describes his time in India as 'the great opportunity of (... his) life'. Click here to order $50

208259 Gandhi, Arun (Foreword by Lord Richard Attenborough) Daughter of Midnight The Child Bride of Gandhi Blake Publishing Ltd., London, 1998. Octavo; hardcover, with silver-gilt spine titles; 315pp., with maps and 16pp. of monochrome plates. Minor wear; some spots to the text block edges. Dustwrapper a little rubbed and edgeworn with some slight chipping to the spine panel extremities (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good. Click here to order $20

92057 Griffith, Ralph T.H. (trans. & ed.) Hymns of the Rgveda - Two Volumes Translated with a Popular Commentary Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi India, 1999. Two volumes: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; pp. [749pp. + 719pp.]. Mild wear; slightly shaken with softening to the spine extremities; text block edges toned. Dustwrappers are mildly edgeworn with original prices elided from the front flaps. Very good. Click here to order $50

205549 Guha, Ramachandra Gandhi The Years that Changed the World 1914-1948 Allen Lane/Penguin Books (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., Camberwell Vic., 2018. Octavo; hardcover; 1,129pp., with monochrome plates. Mild wear; a bump to the spine heel with a corresponding crease to the dustwrapper. Dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Gandhi lived one of the great 20th-century lives. He inspired and enraged, challenged and galvanized many millions of men and women around the world. He lived almost entirely in the shadow of the British Raj, which for much of his life seemed a permanent fact, but which he did more than anyone else to destroy, using revolutionary tactics. In a world defined by violence on a scale never imagined before and by ferocious Fascist and Communist dictatorship, he was armed with nothing more than his arguments and example. This magnificent book tells the story of Gandhi's life, from his departure from South Africa to his assassination in 1948. It is a book with a Tolstoyan sweep, both allowing us to see Gandhi as he was understood by his contemporaries and the vast, varied Indian societies and landscapes which he travelled through and changed beyond measure. Drawing on many new sources and animated by its author's wonderful sense of drama and politics, Gandhi is a major reappraisal of the crucial years in this titanic figure's story. Click here to order $28

78228 Harris, John Much Sounding of Bugles The Siege of Chitral, 1895 Hutchinson, London, 1985. Hardcover, octavo, 248pp., monochrome plates. Owner's names blanked out on half-title and title pages. Toned text block edges; dustwrapper worn along upper edge especially over spine. Very good otherwise and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. A tale of derring-do against grim odds, this piece of history reads more like something that Macdonald-Fraser might have whipped-up, were it not for the fact that it is all true. The principality of Chitral lay uneasy in Britain's possession, a buffer zone between the Raj and the looming menace of Russia. When the Mehta of Chitral died after thirty year's rule, internecine conflict between his scions forced the British - in the form of Surgeon-Major George Scott Robertson - to intervene. Without warning, he and his men found themselves held under siege in the Fortess of Chitral, facing Russian-backed and native malice, with a view towards conquest and imperial expansion. With barely enough time to sound the alarm, Robertson and his small force were compelled to face a many-headed menace of wicked strategies, in an attempt to hold fast while awaiting the two liberating forces which had been raised to break the siege and free them. This is high drama, all the more riveting for being an actual part of history. Click here to order $18

216015 Holroyde, Peggy (Foreword by Ravi Shankar) The Music of India Praeger, New York, 1972. Hardcover, octavo; red boards with gilt spine titling; 290pp., monochrome plates. Minor wear; mildly toned and spotted text block and page edges. Red illustrated dustwrapper mildly edgeworn, now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Non-technical introduction for the general listener. Ravi Shankar writes: "Although several people have written about Indian music recently, there is a continuing need to initiate people, especially if they have not had the opportunity of hearing our music in its proper setting in India.... What I specially like about this book is that it does not go into dogmatic assertions or deal only with the dry, theoretical aspect, but has a much more human approach. This comes out beautifully because of Peggy Holroyde's love for the country, its people, its art forms and many other facets of Indian culture. I knew, when she was in India, what great pains she took in travelling round the country... listening to all kinds of music... experiencing it for herself and collecting information during the five years she was there. I know, also, how much care she has taken in selecting and checking her material for this book, and as a result it reveals the great love she has for the task of trying to help understand the past and present of Indian music, as well as the enduring background of India itself." Click here to order $20

60675 Keay, John The Great Arc The Dramatic Tale of How India was Mapped and Everest was Named HarperCollins, London, 2000. Octavo; hardcover; black boards with silver-gilt spine-titling, dark red endpapers; 182pp., with 16pp. of black-&-white photographic plates and several maps and diagrams. Text block edges lightly browned; mild scuffing to dustwrapper with a few small spots. Otherwise very good to near fine and wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Prior to 1800, William Lambton conceived the notion of measuring an arc of longitude the length of the Indian Subcontinent, thus paving the way towards the accurate measurement of India and the implementation of new governmental infrastructure. The Great Indian Arc of the Meridian, as it became known, was a project that claimed more lives and delivered more hardship than most wars at the time. Researchers dragged their half-ton collection of instruments up mountains and across plains and jungles, enduring bandits, tigers, malaria and scorpions amongst other woes. Although started under Lambton, the project was concluded by George Everest after whom the world's tallest mountain is named. At the end of the day, at the cost of a bewildering number of lives, the Great Arc not only allowed India to be accurately mapped, but it paved the way for the complete mapping of the Himalayas and gave science its first intimations as to the true shape of the Earth. Click here to order $17

212385 Lal, Ruby Empress The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan W.W. Norton & Company, New York NY, 2018. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in papered boards with gilt spine titles; 308pp., with a map and 8pp, of colour plates. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. In 1611, thirty-four-year-old Nur Jahan, daughter of a Persian noble and widow of a subversive official, became the twentieth and favourite wife of the Emperor Jahangir who ruled the Mughal Empire. An astute politician as well as a devoted partner, she issued imperial orders; coins of the realm bore her name. When Jahangir was imprisoned by a rebellious nobleman, the Empress led troops into battle and rescued him. The only woman to acquire the stature of empress in her male-dominated world, Nur was also a talented dress designer and innovative architect whose work inspired her stepson's Taj Mahal. Nur's confident assertion of talent and power is revelatory; it far exceeded the authority of her female contemporaries, including Elizabeth I. Here, she finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography. Click here to order $24

9898 Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (Peter King, ed.; Introduction by Elizabeth Longford) A Viceroy's India Leaves from Lord Curzon's Notebook Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1984. Quarto hardcover; red boards with gilt spine titling, map endpapers; 192pp., colour portrait frontispiece, monochrome and colour plates and illustrations. Minor wear; slightly cocked; spotting to text block edges. Mild spotting to dustwrapper edges. Very good. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $25

87202 Masselos, Jim, et al. Dancing to the Flute Music and Dance in Indian Art Art Gallery NSW, Sydney NSW, 1997. Quarto gatefold paperback; 311pp., colour illustrations. Minor wear only; near fine. The first Indian treatise on the arts, the Natyasastra, was about dance. It is this interactive and performative nature of artistic expression that the exhibition 'Dancing to the Flute' sought to capture by demonstrating the centrality of music and dance to religious worship, to love, to the expression of every spiritual and emotional nuance possible to a human being. Although the theme is so fundamental to the arts of India, no exhibition had before been realised. The exhibition further celebrated the fiftieth celebration of India's independence. Divided into the sacral - ' Realm of the Gods' - and the secular -'Realm of the Mortals' - the intimate relationship between music and dance is established. it is subsequently developed through sections on Krishna, Celestials, Buddhism and Jainism, preceding more secular scenes of music and dance. Click here to order $30

61446 Michaud, Roland and Sabina with Olivier Germain-Thomas India: Journey Through the Heart of a Continent Abbeville, New York, NY, USA, 2005. Quarto; hardcover; black cloth boards with red gilt spine titling, illustrated endpapers; 310pp., colour illustrations. Dustwrapper. Small scrape on lower front corner. Remainder. New. From 1965 to 2001, Roland and Sabina Michaud traveled throughout India on a series of lengthy expeditions, dedicating over thirty five years to photographing the landscape and people. India: Journey through the Heart of a Continent is their intimate view of this remarkable country, designed to illuminate the country's complexities and contradictions. The beauty and mysteries of India's many competing religions and ways of life provided the inspiration for the 150 carefully selected photographs in this volume, telling the story of a remarkable country caught between old traditions and modern dilemmas. The variety of the photographs is astounding, reflecting the depth of understanding of the photojournalists; the breathtaking images range from India's austere, mountainous landscapes and diverse architectural tradition to intimate portraits of the men, women and children who inhabit these places. From beachside bonfires and traditional fishing boats to details of intricate stone carvings and sweeping panoramas of the cities' crowded streets, India: Journey through the Heart of a Continent provides an unparalleled look into the lives of the Indian people and the multifaceted worlds they live in. India is currently one of the top five destinations in the world and it inspires extreme and passionate responses from its many visitors; while some see it as an enchanted island, the poverty and difficulties of daily life are impossible to ignore. From the Himalayas to the Dravidian lands, India contains the variety of an entire continent. Through their fascinating text and images, Roland and Sabina Michaud have sought to capture the reality of Indian life in this gorgeous, expansive tribute to the real India. Click here to order $45

217983 Mishra, Yatindra (trans. Mahdu B Joshi) Girija: A Journey Through Thumri: signed copy Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 2006. Square quarto hardcover; dark red boards no titling; 115pp., colour & b&w illustrations. Inscription. Signed by the author on title page. Slightly rubbed illustrated black dustwrapper, mildly worn along the edges. Very good to near fine. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. This book is not about the Benaras gharana, or Girija Devi the reigning queen of Thumri or Purab Anggayaki; it is the portrait of an artiste and a journey in music, as seen by a poet. Girija Devi has a symbiotic relationship with Kashi. She and her music draw sustenance from the hoary tradition of the eternal city. They also sustain the tradition. It would be inconceivable to think of one without thinking of the other. In keeping with the tradition of Kashi, Girija Devi imparts spiritual depth to even the most erotic compositions. In her singing, the world of the spirit goes hand-in-hand with the world of the flesh. An adventurous venture, this book is the result of an interface between two closely related art forms: music and poetry. The poetic sensibilities of the author provide for rare glimpses into the mind of a great artiste and the influences that shape her art. Click here to order $35

217965 Mitchell, George & Antonio Martinelli The Royal Palaces of India Thames & Hudson, London, 1994. Quarto hardcover; red cloth boards with gilt spine titling and upper front board publisher's insignia; red endpapers; 250 illustrations, 205 in colour. Minor wear; one or two tiny scrapes on front pastedown under inner flap of dustwrapper; very faint spotting to text block edges and some mild foxing to underside of dustwrapper. Very good to near fine in like dustwrapper. As early as the fourteenth century, stories glorifying the exotic palaces of Indian rulers began to circulate in the West: stories which closer acquaintance only confirmed. Even today, they are magical places - small towns rather than single buildings, in which the Hindu and Muslim rulers of the subcontinent dispensed their laws and enjoyed their wealth. The beauty and atmosphere of these palaces is displayed here in Antonio Martinelli's exceptional colour photographs, composed with the eye of a painter and a trained architect who enjoyed unrivalled access to the buildings. George Michell, a recognised authority on Indian architecture and art tells the story of the palaces. He evokes life within these complexes and describes their many elements: defences; spacious audience halls and courtyards; temples and mosques; private apartments; service quarters. At the heart of the book are the palaces themselves. The oldest surviving are those erected by the Muslim conquerors who swept down through the country from the 12th century onwards, notably at Mandu and Bidar. In the north, the Mughals built vast imperial palace-cities at Fatchpur Sikri, Agra and Delhi. The Hindu Rajputs in Central and Western India, where many ruling families have lasted into the modern era, created citadels that are comparatively well preserved - as at Gwalior, Udaipur and Amber. Southern India, another Hindu realm, offers a complete contrast in forms with the towers of Chandragiri and the breezy timber halls of Padmanabhapuram. Finally there are the lavish palaces built by the princes in the era of British domination, such as Mysore Baroda and Morvi, some Indian in character, others clothed in dazzling Art Deco. Click here to order $50

218039 Nehru, Jawaharlal Mahatma Gandhi Signet Press, Calcutta, nd [1949]. First edition: octavo hardcover; quarter bound decorated green papered boards with black cloth spine; 169pp., b&w plates. Inscription on front endpaper. Minor wear; board corners bumped and frayed; offsetting and foxing to endpapers; toned and spotted text block edges. Lacks dustwrapper. Very good. Click here to order $65

93954 Pemble, John The Raj, The Indian Mutiny, and the Kingdom of Oudh, 1801-1859 Harvester Press, 1977. Hardcover, octavo; blue boards with gilt spine titling, green endpapers; 303pp., monochrome plates. Owner's name. Minor wear; a few faint spots on text block edges and mild wear to dustwrapper edges. Very good to near fine and wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $22

211483 Preston, Diana & Michael Taj Mahal Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire Walker & Co., New York NY, 2007. Octavo; hardcover, with silver-gilt spine titles; 319pp., with a monochrome frontispiece, maps, many monochrome illustrations and 8pp. of colour plates. Mild wear; spine extremities softened; some marks to the text block edges. Dustwrapper is now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $23

207868 Radhakrishnan, S. Eastern Religions and Western Thought Oxford University Press, Oxford UK, 1940. Second edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 396pp. Moderate wear; toned and spotted text block edges; offsetting to endpapers and preliminaries. Dustwrapper browned along spine and top panel edges; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. 'This important and beautifully written book describes the leading ideas of Indian philosophy and religion. It is written with earnest conviction and conspicuous ability.' The book traces the probable influence of Indian mysticism on Greek thought and Christian development, through Alexandrian Judaism, Christian Gnosticism, and Neo-Platonism. The author argues that Christianity, which arose out of an eastern background and became wedded to Graeco-Latin culture, will find rebirth in a renewed alliance with this Eastern heritage. Click here to order $60

207999 Ranade, G.H. Hindusthani Music Its Physics and Aesthetics Popular Prakashan, Bombay India, 1971. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 204pp. Minor wear; retailer's stamp; mild offsetting to endpapers; browned text block and page edges with some light spotting on top edge. Mildly rubbed and spotted dustwrapper with wear and chipping to edges; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $20

98900 Reid, Walter Keeping the Jewel in the Crown The British Betrayal of India Birlinn Ltd., Edinburgh Scotland UK, 2016. Octavo; hardcover; 288pp., with 16pp. of monochrome plates. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. 'This unusual book, a revealing account of the last 30 years of British rule, undermines any idea that withdrawal involved honourably assisting India towards Independence. As early as 1833, T.B. Macaulay told the House of Commons that transforming 'a great people sunk in the depths of slavery and superstition' and making them 'desirous and capable of all the privileges of citizens, would indeed be a title to glory all our own'. Instead, the Raj ended horribly as Britain, in Walter Reid's own words, just scuttled off. For Reid, the complete failure to prepare India for independence was the betrayal of a trusteeship which the colonials had themselves proclaimed, a betrayal in which the entire British political class willingly colluded.... It may ultimately have been the Second World War that made the British leave. Linlithgow, supposedly slow of mind, declared war for India using powers the monarch at home had lost in 1688, but by 1945 the London government owed India 1.2 billion pounds and was being drained by the U.S. Lend-Lease agreement, which was finally paid off only in 2006. The ruling Labour Party gave Earl Mountbatten orders which are now familiar; by then too, over half the working class, as against a fifth of the upper classes, favoured withdrawal. Yet even the Labour government, craving great-power status in a post-war triumvirate, wanted India to become a dominion. Mountbatten's predecessor, Earl Wavell, had stopped trying to make sense of anything London did. For Reid, the whole story is one of procrastination and deceit; he provides ample evidence, and the continuing legacy includes some of India's most repressive legislation. That, however, needs another book; the author and the publishers have done well with this one." - Arvind Sivaramakrishnan Click here to order $24

217985 Sahm, Reiner Rajasthan: Panoramic Photography NZVP Books, Frankfurt, 2007. Large quarto hardcover; black cloth boards with silver gilt upper board and spine titles and upper board image pasted on; black endpapers; 183pp., colour illustrations with many fold-out pages. Minor wear; binding slightly cocked; a few scattered spots on early and late pages; faint spotting on text block edges; one or two superficial scratches on rear boards. No dustwrapper, as issued. Very good. Click here to order $45

66686 Sen, Mimlu The Honey Gatherers Travels with the Bauls: The Wandering Minstrels of Rural India Rider/Ebury Publishing/Random House Group Co., London, 2010. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 250pp., with a map and some monochrome decorations. Minor wear; text block edges lightly toned. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed. Near fine. Mimlu Sen is living a bohemian life in Paris when she witnesses an electrifying performance by three wandering minstrels from rural India. They wear flowing, multicoloured robes and play frenetic rhythms on strange instruments made of wood and clay, capturing the many moods of nature and passion. After her turbulent past, including a year in a Calcutta jail, Mimlu instantly knows it is time to set off on the journey of her life. One of the minstrels, Paban Das Baul, is a gifted young musician with a growing international reputation. Mimlu defies prejudice to travel with him deep into the heart of Bengal, the rural hinterland behind Calcutta where few tourists ever go. In this fascinating and unusual book, she describes how they make their way across country, from shanty town to village, from monastery to festival, perched on the roofs of buses and squeezed inside trains, encountering tantrics and sages, exorcisms and witch sightings, catfish that climb trees and esoteric secrets - and fall in love. With Paban's encouragement, Mimlu too performs for alms - 'gathering honey' in the traditional Baul way - and is initiated into a hidden world of song, sensuality and adventure as wild and unpredictable as the landscape itself. Click here to order $20

33603 Shankar, Ravi Raga Mala An Autobiography Welcome Rain, New York, 1999. Large octavo hardcover; brown cloth boards with gilt spine titling, decorated endpapers; 336pp.Many plates in black and white and colour. Mild spotting to upper text block edges. Very good to near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Features a stunning collection of photographs and documents drawn almost entirely from personal archives and contributions from a wide circle of friends. Click here to order $28

217970 Singh, Chitralekha Drawings of Rajasthan Aryan Books International, Delhi, 1993. Small quarto hardcover; black boards with gilt upper board and spine titles; gray endpapers; 116pp., colour and b&w illustrations. Minor wear; slightly bumped board corners and toning to text block edges. Yellow illustrated dustwrapper sunned along the spine panel; slight wear to edges and corners. Very good. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film with white paper backing. These drawings come from both the Jaipur museum and the private collection of Kumar Sangram Singh. The author has made a critical and analytic study of these drawings which include Tinted Drawings and 'Khakas' in 12 main schools of Art in Rajasthan. He also examines in depth the historical, mythological, lyrical, social and cultural, architectural, biological and decorative aspects of Rajasthan art. Click here to order $17

83430 Singh, Raghubir (Foreword by Satyajit Ray) Rajasthan India's Enchanted Land Thames & Hudson, London, 1981. Landscape octavo; hardcover, red cloth boards with gilt spine-titling; 32pp, & 80 full-colour photographic illustrations. Faint spotting to upper text block edges and tiny tear on head of dustwrapper spine; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Near fine. Raghubir Singh was one of India's leading photographers. His photographs are in the permanent collection of museums and galleries such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum. Since 1974, he has published 12 books on India, including Rajasthan, his home state. Singh belongs to a tradition of small-format street photography, pioneered by photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, whom he met in 1966 and observed for a week while the latter was working in Jaipur, and who, with Robert Frank, was to have a lasting impact of his work; however, unlike them, he chose to work in colour, as for him this represented the intrinsic value of Indian aesthetics. In time Singh was acknowledged with William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld as one of the finest photographers of his generation and a leading pioneer of colour photography. He travelled across India with the American photographer Lee Friedlander who, according to him, 'was often looking for the abject as subject'; in the end Singh found Friedlander's approach of 'beauty as seen in abjection' fundamentally western, which suited neither him nor India; thus, he built his own style and aesthetic imprint, which according to his 2004 retrospective created 'a documentary style vision was neither sugarcoated, nor abject, nor controllingly omniscient'. 'Because he was obsessed with authenticity, his pictures have a vividness and immediacy that convey the essence of numerous aspects of Indian life. As other critics have noted, his real passion was for portraying people so that it is rare to see a shot that does not have a living person within it.' - Bruce Palling. Click here to order $35

217982 Slesin, Suzanne & Stafford Cliff (photos. David Brittain) Indian Style Thames & Hudson, London, 1990. Quarto hardcover; yellow cloth boards with silver gilt spine titling and red decorated endpapers; 299pp., colour illustrations. Mild spotting to boards and one or two tiny bumps on edges; binding very slightly cocked; one or two faint spots on text block edges. Illustrated dustwrapper with sunned spine and adjacent; mild edgewear. Very good. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Indian Style unfurls a huge variety of miraculously preserved hidden treasure - of ornament, furniture, decor and architecture - where bold colour palettes and traditional motifs blend with Victorian and modern elements. This is the India of fabled maharajas' palaces. But the full range of dwellings and landscapes revealed is astonishing: homes with spectacular mountain views; townhouses and havelis that combine Italianate and Indo-Saracenic influences; the temple-like rooms of a Brahmin family; a houseboat on a Kashmir lake; a Goan home that dates from the days of the China Trade; and the opulent palaces, many now transformed into luxury hotels. Click here to order $35

207103 Swayne-Thomas, April (foreword by Sir Sidney Ridley; Alan Philip, illus.) Indian Summer A Mem-sahib in India and Sind New English Library Ltd., London, 1981. Quarto; hardcover; brown boards with gilt spine titles and illustrated endpapers; 176pp., with many monochrome and colour illustrations. Minor wear; text block edges lightly toned. Price-clipped dustwrapper, very mildly edge-worn; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Indian Summer is a witty and affectionate evocation in pictures and letters of the last days of the British Raj and of the early years after the independence that divided India into several parts. For eight years during and after the Second World War India was April Swayne-Thomas's second home. Where usually with her husband, Geoffrey, but sometimes alone when travelling to paint murals, she came to love the great country. She has many things to say about poverty, ignorance, superstition and of the later enmity that grew between different parts of the populations. Click here to order $25

217941 Taylor, Miles Empress: Queen Victoria and India Yale University Press, New Haven, 2018. Octavo hardcover; blue boards with gilt spine titling and dark red endpapers; 388pp., b&w plates. Minor wear only; near fine in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. In this engaging and controversial book, Miles Taylor shows how both Victoria and Albert were spellbound by India, and argues that the Queen was humanely, intelligently, and passionately involved with the country throughout her reign and not just in the last decades. Taylor also reveals the way in which Victoria's influence as empress contributed significantly to India's modernization, both political and economic. This is, in a number of respects, a fresh account of imperial rule in India, suggesting that it was one of Victoria's successes. Click here to order $28

43583 Thapar, Raj (ed.) The Invincible Traveller Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1980. Hardcover, small quarto; brown boards with gilt spine titling; 218pp., monochrome illustrations. Text block and page edges lightly toned; softened spine panel board extremities and binding very slightly rolled; rubbed dustwrapper with score on rear panel, light wear to edges. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. This is a compilation of travel accounts in India, some dating to as early as the eighteenth century. Whether it is a visit to the Mughal court or a journey across Rajasthan on camelback, intrepid and now legendary travellers like Rousselet, Torrens and Edward Lear have faithfully recorded it all. Vivid and engaging, these accounts have been excerpted from rare books long out of print. The book's charm is enhanced by classic etchings by masters like Daniell, which speak more eloquently than words. Click here to order $25

96563 Vequaud, Yves The Art of Mithila: Ceremonial Paintings from an Ancient Kingdom Thames & Hudson, London, 1977. Quarto paperback; 112pp., colour and monochrome illustrations and plates. Mild spotting to text block edges; mildly toned cover edges. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $15

207398 Vidyabhusana, Mahamahopadhyaya Satisa Chandra (trans.) The Nyaya Sutras of Gotama Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, New Delhi India, 1975. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 175pp. Moderate wear; retailer's and owner's stamps with offset on front pastedown and front free endpaper; stamp on flyleaf; small mark on lower text block edge; general light toning, Slightly toned and rubbed dustwrapper with one or two marks on rear panel; mild edgewear; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $60

83282 Wade, Bonnie C. Music in India - Prentice-Hall History of Music series The Classical Traditions Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs NJ, 1979. Octavo; paperback; 252pp., with maps and many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; covers rubbed and edgeworn; faint spotting to text block edges. Very good. Click here to order $18

210426 Woodroffe, Sir John (Foreword by T.M.P. Mahadevan) The Garland of Letters Studies in the MantraSastra Ganesh & Company, Pondicherry India, 1989. Octavo; hardcover, full cloth with upper board titles; 318pp., with a monochrome portrait frontispiece. Moderate wear; somewhat shaken and rolled; light cracking to the joints; text block edges lightly toned and top edge dusted. Dustwrapper is well rubbed and edgeworn with light chipping and a few small tears to the spine pane l extremities and flap-turns; spine panel heavily sunned; sticker ghost to the rear panel; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $40