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:

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.