South Asian Studies

Collection Details
Description of Collection
Subjects of the Collection
Collection Material and Size of Collection
Collection Management Information
Collection Catalogue Information
Links to Other Collections

Collection Details

South Asian Studies held at SOAS Library [Institution record]

SOAS Library Catalogue

Description of Collection

Content description

The collection covers a broad range of subjects in the arts, humanities and social sciences relating to South Asia. Material in the pure sciences is not acquired, other than material on the history of medicine; on traditional medicine; and a selection of material on natural history, economic botany and ethno-botany.

The South Asia collection includes publications on the individual countries of South Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. The collection on India covers contemporary India as well as material covering what is now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh before Partition in 1947. There are also separate sections for material on the individual states, provinces and regions of India and Pakistan. There is a collection on South Asia as a whole (including material on SAARC – the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation); and on the Indian Ocean (including publications on the Maldives, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands).

There are nearly 200,000 items in the collection made up of books, pamphlets, journals and manuscripts in European languages (primarily English) and more than fifty different South Asian languages. Some of the important vernacular languages represented are Sanskrit and Pali, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

The collection is strongest on 19th and 20th century publications, but has material from the 17th and 18th centuries.

History and development

The South Asian collection formed the original nucleus of the School's library, consisting of Indian books from the London Institution, University College and King's College; the first volume to be accessioned was a work on Sanskrit grammar. Among the collections from King's College were books and manuscripts presented to that college by the orientalist William Marsden in 1835.

The vernacular collections have formed a major part of the collection from the earliest days.

The collections were originally strongest on the languages, linguistics and literatures of South Asia. Other traditional strengths have been in anthropology, history, religion and philosophy, law, statistics, politics and government. The collection has now grown to include subjects as diverse as economics and finance; diplomacy; development studies; environment and ecology; traditional medicine and agriculture; gender, film and diaspora studies; art, archaeology and music; literatures in translation and English language writings of the South Asian diasporas.

Strengths

The collections are in English and other European languages and in the languages of South Asia. The collection holds material in more than fifty different South Asian languages, comprising thirteen different scripts, covering classical and modern literature; poetry, drama and folklore; history; and philosophy and religion, including devotional literature and sacred texts in South Asian languages. A major strength of this collection is the material on philology, language, linguistics and literatures of the region, including literary criticism. This includes English language literature from South Asia. The Library is also developing its collection of English language literature of the South Asian diaspora communities.

The South Asian law collection is a major national collection. Within the University of London, SOAS has assumed the responsibility of specialising in the field of South Asian law.

The English language material includes major collections on the history, historiography and biography of South Asia, particularly on the Mogul Empire, on the East India Company and British rule; and on Partition and independence; and on contemporary history, politics and government of the subcontinent. There is a growing collection on subaltern and post-colonial studies. Material on gender studies and South Asian diasporas are now an important growth area.

There is a developing collection of material on anthropology and sociology, including publications on caste, communalism and ethnic minorities. There is an important collection on South Asian philosophy and religion; on the sociology of religions; and on religious communities. There are extensive collections on, and translations of, devotional literature and sacred texts. This includes collections on Hinduism; Jainism; Sikhism; on Zoroastrianism, Islam and Christianity in South Asia. There are collections on Buddhism in India, especially on the history of Buddhism and the Buddha; and on Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and on Mahayana Buddhism in the Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan. There is a growing collection of material on the relationship between politics and religion throughout South Asia and the relationship between the different religious communities.

There are collections on economics, business, finance, banking and statistics relating to South Asia as a whole as well as the individual countries of the region. There are important collections, both historical and contemporary, on South Asian agriculture, forestry, economic botany and on industry. There is a small representative collection on traditional medicine, including Ayurvedic medicine.

There is a developing collection on the film, press and media, particularly on Indian film, cinematography, directors and actors. This covers the more serious art-house films as well as on the Bollywood film industry.

The Library has an important collection on South Asia music and dance, supported by sound recordings of instrumental, vocal and classical music.

There is a large collection on South Asian art, archaeology and architecture which forms part of the Library’s Art and Archaeology section.

General arrangement and access regulations

Mainly open access. Older (pre-1880 publications), archives, manuscripts, microforms, pamphlets are closed access.

Post 1880 monographs are arranged in two sequences, vernacular and Western language publications.

Within these subdivisions the material is arranged by subject.

The exceptions are the Law, the Map and the Art and Archaeology collections and Periodicals which are held in the relevant sections of the Library.

Subjects of the Collection

Regions of Asia

South Asia.

Countries

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.

Languages of material

Assamese, Awadhi, Baluchi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Bihari, Braj, Dogri, Dravidian (Other), Gujarati, Hindi, Indic (Other), Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Lahnda, Marathi, Marwari, Munda languages, Nepali, Newari, Oriya, Pali, Panjabi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.

Subjects

Agriculture, Anthropology, Archaeology, Arts, Communication and media, Development, Economics, Education, Environmental sciences, Geography, History, Human rights, Industries, International relations, Language, Law, Literature, Medicine, Music, Philosophy, Politics and government, Recreation, Religion, Science and technology, Sociology, Travel, Women.

Languages as linguistic focus

Hindi, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Urdu.

Collection Material and Size of Collection

Material Types

Archival materials (includes non-published & mixed material), Audio materials (includes cassettes & CDs), Books, Computer files (includes CD-ROMs & other electronic material), Manuscripts, Maps (includes all types of cartographic material), Music (only includes printed & manuscript music), Newspapers (includes microfilm editions), Official publications, Public records, Serials, Theses, Visual materials (includes photographs, prints, drawings, videos & films).

Total size of collection

The collection consists of some 200,000 books, pamphlets, journals and manuscripts.

Size of collection - vernacular

~ 80,000

Size of collection - western

~ 120,000

Collection Management Information

The collection is being actively developed, and the average intake has stayed the same.

Content date range

1600 to present

Interlibrary loan procedure

Co-operative agreements

MELCOM scheme: responsibility for publications in Arabic from North Africa and publications in Persian from Iran.
SCOLMA scheme: includes responsibility for African languages, Algeria, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia, as well as other countries south of the Sahara.
University of London agreements:
a) Siberian languages, including Eskimo and Aleut
b) Asian language texts on Middle Eastern Archaeology
c) Byzantium in Asian and African languages and works on the Asian and African aspects of Byzantine history
d) Descriptive works on the minor Finno-Ugrian languages
e) Law. Asian and African law in Western, Asian and African languages, including current legislation and law reports, with special responsibility for South Asian law.
British Library agreement

Collection policy

The Library aims to acquire the important contributions to Asian and African scholarship published anywhere in the world in the humanities and social sciences, as well as representative collections of literature written in Asian and African languages. It aims to be responsive to changing interests and new developments; at the same time it bears in mind its role as a leading national and international resource for Asian and African studies. For the text of the policy apply to the Director of Library and Information Services.

Retention policy

At present all material is retained with the following exceptions: outdated editions of teaching texts, multiple copies of teaching material no longer used, material for which there is no evident demand, material which has been replaced by microform, unless it is of historic value. Academic advice is normally sought before a decision is taken. Apply to the Director of Library and Information Services for further information.

Collection Catalogue Information

Catalogue

The online library catalogue offers access to all material acquired since 1989 and a substantial part of the material collected prior to that date. Work to add records for the earlier collections from the card catalogue is ongoing and by the end of 2002 all material acquired since 1979 will be included as well as significant parts of the rest of the collection. For those who cannot access the card catalogue on site the Library's catalogues have been published (details below).

SOAS Library Catalogue

Catalogue transliteration schemes

Since 1989 all records have been created using the current Library of Congress transliteration schemes, with the exception of Japanese which uses Modified Hepburn. As records are added to the online catalogue the transliterated records are being updated to these schemes.

Catalogue scripts

The current cataloguing and some of the earlier records for the following languages contain author and title fields in the relevant script: Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Ladino, Persian, Yiddish.