About the Collection
- Publications on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan as well as South Asia as a whole, on the Indian Ocean (including publications on the Maldives, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands). Classmarks J- JX
- Language material includes works in Sanskrit and Pali, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Classmarks K-KZ
- Certain countries that are elsewhere classified as being part of South Asia are held in other regional collections in SOAS Library:
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- Burma is in the South East Asia section ;
- Tibet in the China and East Asia section
- Afghanistan in the Islamic Middle East section .
For a full listing of classmarks and their location, please consult: location list
The English language collections include publications on:
- Religion, the sociology of religion and translations of religious texts, including on Hinduism; Jainism; Sikhism; and on Zoroastrianism, Islam and Christianity in South Asia. Buddhism in India, especially on the history of Buddhism and the Buddha.
- Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and on Mahayana Buddhism in the Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan.
- South Asian history and culture.
- English language South Asian literature (including South Asia diasporic literature) and literature in translation.
- South Asian politics, gender, caste and human rights.
- South Asian economics, development, business, finance, banking and statistics.
- South Asian agriculture, forestry, industry and resources.
- South Asian film, cinema and media studies.
- South Asian art, archaeology and architecture which forms part of the Library’s Art and Archaeology section.
- South Asian law, including religious and customary law, which forms part of the Library’s Law section.
Special collections
SOAS has responsibility for South Asian law in the University of London.