Overview for Chinese Sources of South Asian History in Translation (Volume 1)
This is the first volume in the series "Chinese Sources of South Asian History in Translation : Data for Study of India-China Relations through History". It can legitimately be called the first of its kind in the world. The present volume contains the notices, memoirs, biographies, basic annals of Chinese rulers and accounts of different nature from the official and unofficial histories, and records of flora, supernatural anecdotes and sundry matters. The earliest Chinese intercourse with the Southeast Asian states is also available here. A total of 61 entries of varying lengths from 13 important works from Shiji to Weishu have been translated with exhaustive notes and elucidations almost 75 per cent of which are made available for the first time to the scholars of ancient and early medieval South Asian history. The translated texts are evaluated in their proper historical perspective to provide new data and fresh interpretations. Translations are prefixed by notes on the authors and their works as well as introduction to the contents of the treatises from where the texts are lifted. This and the volumes following it will prove to be essential companions for the scholars of India-China relations and a must read for other cultural historians.
Haraprasad Ray (Author)
A senior Chinese expert in India, Dr. Haraprasad Ray the author, has already established his reputation as one of the very few Indian scholars dealing with India-China relations. He has contributed to a number of international seminars in Germany, Hong Kong, China, the U.S.A., London, Paris and other places. Dr. Ray has already authored some books and more than five dozen articles published in scholarly journals both in India and abroad. Dr. Ray was Sino-Tibetan Research Scholar in Chinese at Calcutta University during 1953-56. In 1959 he joined the Ministry of Defence as a Chinese language expert and held responsible posts. His service was transferred to the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. After retiring from JNU in 1996, he was successively made Senior Fellow of the Society for Indian Ocean Studies and the Indian Council of Historical Research. Presently a Professor at the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, Dr. Ray is now engaged in exploring data on South Asian history from Chinese sources covering the period from the earliest till late 19th century.
Bagchee
