Alberuni's India

An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India about AD 1030

AvMuḥammad ibn Aḥmad Bīrūnī,Edward C. Sachau

Häftad, Engelska, 2012

Del i serien Cambridge Library Collection - South Asian History

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Häftad

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Beskrivning

Translated and annotated by orientalist Edward Sachau (1845-1930), this 1887-8 two-volume work is the account by Muslim polymath and traveller Alberuni (973-1048) of Indian political and social life in the medieval period. Sachau published the manuscript in Arabic in 1885-6, at the same time working on an English translation. Alberuni, born in Chorasmia, south of the Aral Sea, was one of the leading scholars of his day. He accompanied the Afghan ruler Mahmud on his invasion of India in the early eleventh century, and remained there for thirteen years, making a detailed study of Indian life and culture, and in particular studying the Hindu religion. Alberuni claims that his work is not polemical in nature, but a simple historical record of facts, and he commends the learning of the Hindus in philosophy, mathematics and astronomy. Volume 1 discusses Hindu beliefs, the caste system and the calendar.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2012-05-24
Mått:140 x 216 x 26 mm
Vikt:590 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Cambridge Library Collection - South Asian History
Antal sidor:466
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9781108047197

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Innehållsförteckning

Editor's preface; Preface; 1. On the Hindus in general, as an introduction to our account of them; 2. On the belief of the Hindus in God; 3. On the Hindu belief as to created things, both 'intelligibilia' and 'sensibilia'; 4. From what cause action originates, and how the soul is connected with matter; 5. On the state of the souls, and their migrations through the world in the metempsychosis; 6. On the different worlds, and on the places of retribution in paradise and hell; 7. On the nature of liberation from the world, and on the path leading thereto; 8. On the different classes of created beings, and on their names; 9. On the castes, called 'colours' (varna), and on the classes below them; 10. On the source of their religious and civil law, on prophets, and on the question whether single laws can be abrogated or not; 11. About the beginning of idol-worship, and a description of the individual idols; 12. On the Veda, the Purānas, and other kinds of their national literature; 13. Their grammatical and metrical literature; 14. Hindu literature in the other sciences - astronomy, astrology, etc.; 15. Notes on Hindu metrology, intended to facilitate the understanding of all kinds of measurements which occur in this book; 16. Notes on the writing of the Hindus, on their arithmetic and related subjects, and on certain strange manners and customs of theirs; 17. On Hindu sciences which prey on the ignorance of people; 18. Various notes on their country, their rivers, and their ocean - itineraries of the distances between their several kingdoms, and between the boundaries of their country; 19. On the names of the planets, the signs of the zodiac, the lunar stations, and related subjects; 20. On the Brahmânda; 21. Description on earth and heaven according to the religious views of the Hindus, based upon their traditional literature; 22. Traditions relating to the Pole; 23. On Mount Meru according to the belief of the authors of the Purânas and of others; 24. Traditions of the Purânas regarding each of the seven Dvîpas; 25. On the rivers of India, their sources and courses; 26. On the shape of heaven and earth according to the Hindu astronomers; 27. On the first two motions of the universe (that from east to west according to ancient astronomers, and the precession of the equinoxes) both according to the Hindu astronomers and the authors of the Purânas; 28. On the definition of the directions; 29. Definition of the inhabitable earth according to the Hindus; 30. On Lankâ, or the cupola of the earth; 31. On that difference of various places which we call the difference of longitude; 32. On the notions of duration and time in general, and on the creation of the world and its destruction; 33. On the various kinds of the day or nychthemeron, and on day and night in particular; 34. On the division of the nychthemeron into minor particles of time; 35. On the different kinds of months and years; 36. On the four measures of time called mâna; 37. On the parts of the month and the year; 38. On the various measures of time composed of days, the life of Brahman included; 39. On measures of time which are larger than the life of Brahman; 40. On the samdhi, the interval between two periods of time, forming the connecting link between them; 41. Definition of the terms 'kalpa' and 'caturyuga', and an explication of the one by the other; 42. On the division of the caturyuga into yugas, and the different opinions regarding the latter; 43. A description of the four yugas, and of all that is expected to take place at the end of the fourth yuga; 44. On the manvantaras; 45. On the constellation of the Great Bear; 46. On Nârâyana, his appearance at different times, and his names; 47. On Vâsudeva and the wars of the Bhârata; 48. An explanation of the measure of an akshauhinî.