SAALG Summer gathering, 8 September 2022

The South Asia Archive and Library Group Summer gathering will take place on Thursday, 8 September 2022 at the Ancient India & Iran Trust.

Address: 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge CB2 8BG (view on Google maps)

The charge will be £15 per person (in cash or cheque on the day). 

Places limited; please e-mail antonia.moon@bl.uk if you intend to come.

 Programme

Arrival and coffee, 11.30 – 11.40

11.40 – 11.45	Welcome	Ursula Sims-Williams, Ancient India & Iran Trust
11.45 – 12.15	Some Collections at the Ancient India & Iran Trust	Joanna Salisbury, Ancient India & Iran Trust
12.15 – 12.45	Alexander the Great in South Asia	Ursula Sims Williams, British Library
12.45 – 1.00	Display of collection items from the Ancient India & Iran Trust
1.00 – 2.00	Lunch (provided) and networking
2.00 – 2.30	Sources for Military Ancestry in the East India and India Office Records	Hedley Sutton, British Library
2.30 – 3.00	Tilya Tepe and Taliban: Bactrian Gold's Afghantsy Past	Burzine Waghmar, SOAS
3.00 – 3.30	Tea
3.30 – 4.30	Updates from all and SAALG Committee meeting
4.30	End

The History of Lahore and the Preservation of its Historic Buildings

Cross-posted from the Ancient India & Iran Trust blog, original post by Ursula Sims-Williams

‘The History of Lahore and the Preservation of its Historic Buildings’A Symposium to be held 13^th and 14^th October 2017 at Cambridge


The Ancient India & Iran Trust, in association with the Centre of South Asian Studies (University of Cambridge), is holding a symposium in Cambridge on the history of Lahore and the preservation of its historic monuments, 13-14 October 2017.

The presentations will cover a wide range of subjects, from the earliest history of Lahore and the walled city, via the glory of Mughal architecture, to the colonial period. Keynote lectures will be given by Prof Robin Coningham, Durham University: ‘Lahore’s Rich Architectural Monuments and their Current Threats’ and Fakir Syed Aijazuddin, author and researcher: ‘Lahore: Past, Present and Future’.

This will be a two-day symposium, and it is hoped that delegates will stay for both days. Sessions will take place at the Lee Seng Tee Hall, Wolfson College, Cambridge CB3 9BB and the Riley Auditorium, Clare College Memorial Court. If you would like to attend, please reserve your place by completing the registration form and sending it as an attachment to conference@indiran.org or by mail to the Conference Administrator, Ancient India & Iran Trust, 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, CB2 8BG

Provisional Programme

Registration form

The Conference organisers are grateful for support from The Bestway Foundation, Kirsten Rausing, The Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre, The Pakistan Society and the Thriplow Charitable Trust


Conference organisers: Nicholas Barrington, Trustee AIIT
Abdul Majid Sheikh, Wolfson College, Cambridge

Image: A picture showing the Lahore Fort and Hazuri Bagh Pavilion in 1870

Foundation of the Centre of South Asian Studies and the Archive Book Collection

The Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, was established in May 1964. It is primarily responsible for promoting within the University the study of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Himalayan Kingdoms and Burma, but has also, over the last 25 years, extended its activities to include Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines and Hong Kong.

The first director from 1964 to 1983 was Bertram Hughes [Ben] Farmer who had previously been  Lecturer in Geography, Cambridge University 1952; Reader 1967-83 and Member, Land Commission, Ceylon 1955-58. He presented 11 volumes (FAR 1-11) to the Archives.

Sir Arthur Dash who served in various posts in Bengal between 1910 and 1942 and was Chairman, Bengal Public Service Commission 1942-47 and Eastern Pakistan Commission 1947-51 was appointed in February 1967 to take charge of Phase I of the Archive Project. He appealed for material in circulars sent to members of the Indian Civil Service Pensioners’ Association.  He also presented 18 volumes (DS 1-18), mainly relating to Bengal.

The archive was principally collected by Mary Thatcher between 1968 and 1981. She was tasked with creating an archive of the British in South Asia, and told not to collect the papers of ‘anyone famous’. As a result of her work, we currently have approximately 610 collections of papers, detailing the life and work of a wide range of people, including those of her father W.S. Thatcher who from 1912-1914 was a lecturer at the Agra College.

The papers, audio tapes films and photographs are listed on the Archive pages of the Centre. Books are mostly shelved according to donor, and have card catalogue entries. Over 900 of these books from 140 donors may now be searched via the online catalogue. This and future blog posts will highlight major donations or themes within the collection. The personal libraries provide additional information relating to the interests and occupations of the donors and what they regarded as worthwhile to ship home and then present to the Centre. There are guidebooks to historic sites, language primers, surveys, novels, history books (often heavily annotated), legal text books and specialized publications.

The largest donations which have been catalogued have come from Lady Alan Lloyd (Archive A 1-108) and Lady Chatterjee (Archive E 1-136). Eighty people or institutions gave 1 book each, often their own work, and publication dates range from 1800 to the late twentieth century.

One nineteenth century publication:

"Curry & rice", on forty plates, or, The ingredients of social life at "our station" in India by George Francklin Atkinson. 3^rd ed.  London : Day & Son, [1860], (Archive Misc 159), was given by Mrs Margaret Stavridi, wife of Alexander Gregory Stavridi, an engineer with the East Indian Railway between 1921 and 1948. She was a writer and designer and was much involved in welfare work, especially during the 1939-45 war. It is not as might first appear a housekeeping manual for newly married couples settling down in India (although the Archives have several examples of these such as Carne, Lucy, Simple menus and recipes for camp, home and nursery. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co., 1902. (Archive ALP 8 )

Archive ALP 8

George Francklin Atkinson, Curry & Rice.

but “a satirical work that critiqued the lives and behaviors of British colonialists in India. Atkinson served with the Bengal Engineers between 1840 and 1859. Written immediately following the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, the work describes a fictional Indian village called Kabob. Included in the narrative are forty full-page tinted lithographs of daily life around the village, which he illustrated himself. Atkinson caricatured colonial officials in a humorous way, presenting brief vignettes of different fictional British characters residing in the village”. 

Source UCSB LIBRARY website viewed 29 March 2017.

Photograph found in Archive FOS 8

A later blog post will look at the forensic and legal manuals presented by members of the Police Service but, Charles William Foster 1885-, Portait parle system of description for police purposes, Lahore : Civil and Military Gazette, 1913. (Archive FOS 8),  is a good example of a publication not available in other libraries but donated by the author.  It is a modification, for local police officers, of the identification system based on physical measurements of facial features devised by the Frenchman Alphonse  Bertillon, with some of Foster’s manuscript notes tucked into the back and a photograph of serving officers in the front.

Suzan Griffiths, Cataloguer.

Southern Indian Material at the Henry Martyn Centre, Westminster College

A guest post by Lucy Hughes, Archivist of the Henry Martyn Centre in Cambridge.

 Readers of the SAALG blog may be interested to learn about the collection of material relating to missionary work in Southern India which is held at the Henry Martyn Centre, Westminster College. The items in this miscellaneous collection of books, articles and pamphlets were connected with the Reverend R. B. Budgett and range in date from 1913 to 1958.

The ‘Indian Liturgy’ (shown in the scanned image) is an abridged edition, revised in 1942, of the original order for the administration of holy communion sanctioned in 1922 by the Episcopal Synod of India for experimental use in the diocese of Bombay. In 1933 the order was given authorisation for use in any diocese of the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon. It is 2/4 in the South India collection. Within the same collection is to be found a folder of items relating to the Dornakal diocese. This folder includes a pamphlet entitled ‘Jungle Wanderings in the Diocese of Dornakal’ by Captain Hayne, undated (South India 3/7). Printed by the Church Army Press in Oxford, it is 12 pages long and contains 7 photographs of village life accompanying the detailed descriptions of life in this remote rural district, and the gradual infiltration of Christianity into the community.

Another item of particular interest is a note relating to a book entitled Andhra Christian Lyrics (South India 4/1). Andhra Christian Lyrics is an anthology published in Madras, 1937, of Christian verses popular in the Andhra region: they are printed in Hindi. According to a note (South India 2/8) found in the same collection, number 77 is the most precious of the lyrics in the volume. A story about its composition is recited in the note:

‘It is on God’s love and was composed when the author Gollapalli Nathaniel was bound in stocks by the enemies of the Christian religion. Gollapalli Nathaniel was a voluntary Evangelist. He learnt to read and write only after he was baptised with his wife in 1862. Constrained by the love of God he went about preaching the Gospel in the villages. In one of his preaching tours of 1869 the high caste Hindus of Nuramanda objected to his preaching in their streets, and had him put in stocks. Some women who took pity on him begged the Hindus in vain to give him food that night. In spite of pain all over the body Nathaniel composed this lyric on God’s love and sang it to the people who came to see him the next morning … The lyric is prescribed as the first lesson to all people preparing for baptism. It is taught to them with full explanation from the Bible. It is sung by Christians of all denominations in Andhra desa and almost all six lakhs of Christians in the Telugu area know it by heart. During Hindu festival times the lyric is printed on a separate handbill and is distributed to all non-Christians.’

Searching for Sikh Soldiers on British Medals

Enjoy a short talk, viewing session and tour of the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Images of Empire display. This special event provides an opportunity to take a closer look at a selection of rare silver medals and see beautiful artwork relating to Sikh soldiers who fought for and against the British during the nineteenth century.

Open to all. Refreshments provided.
When?  Sat 15 June 2013 | 14:00 to 15:00
Where?  Seminar Room, Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street, Cambridge,  CB2 1RB

Free, but advanced booking recommended. Please email aj431@cam.ac.uk to book a place.

Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean: the exhibition

I am delighted to announce that the Ancient India and Iran Trust in Cambridge is hosting a travelling photographic exhibition to accompany the British Academy-funded research project 'Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean' http://www.ottomansoutheastasia.org/.
An exhibition leaflet may be downloaded at: http://www.ottomansoutheastasia.org/exhibition.php

The exhibition runs from 7th-21st November 2012 and is open from 9-1, Monday-Thursday; 9.30-1.30 Friday. Afternoon visits by appointment only (please contact the Librarian on 01223 702095, or library@indiran.org to arrange).

Location: Ancient India & Iran Trust, 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge CB2 8BG
Tel: +44 (0)1223 356841, Fax: +44 (0)1223 361125

Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean

On Friday 6 July the Ancient India and Iran Trust (AIIT) in Cambridge was a most convivial venue for the joint annual meeting of SAALG and SEALG (Southeast Asia Library Group), where I spoke on the British Academy-funded research project 'Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean', investigating Ottoman links with Southeast Asia: http://www.ottomansoutheastasia.org/.   These links date back to the sixteenth century, when the sultanate of Aceh in north Sumatra contacted the Ottoman emperor to ask for help against the Portuguese who were disrupting the Indian Ocean pepper trade.

The project set out to study all forms of interaction between these two regions, from political, religious, literary and commercial exchanges to mutual influence in material culture.  A nice example of these interactions was evident among the exhibits that the AIIT's Honorary Librarian, Ursula Sims-Williams, had put out on display for the meeting: some rare 19th-century Malay lithographed poems from Singapore, which bore on the back cover the name of the publisher, Haji Muhammad Amin, modelled on the Ottoman tughra or calligraphic royal emblem.

Syair Sinar Alam, Singapore, 1914

AIIT A14E40(1)

Dr Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator for Southeast Asian Studies, and curator of Indonesian and Malay collections, the British Library.

Sri Lankan photographic archive published online

The Ancient India and Iran Trust is delighted to announce that the Sri Lankan Photographic Archive of Professor Howard Wilson is now live on the Trust’s website.  The archive has been kindly donated to the Trust and digitised by Mrs Marti Wilson and can be accessed by  following the links from the Home page at www.indiran.org to the  ‘Photo Archives’ page and the ‘Howard Wilson Collection’, or clicking on the link below.

http://www.indiran.org/HW/

SAALG Summer Conference 2012 - 6th/7th July - Cambridge

We are very pleased to announce the next SAALG conference which will take place in Cambridge on Friday 6^th and Saturday 7^th July at the Ancient India and Iran Trust. 

Copyright - Ancient India and Iran Trust

The conference will explore crossovers in South Asia and Southeast Asian Studies and this year we are delighted to be joined by our colleagues from SEALG, so it will be an excellent opportunity to network and make new connections.

Friday 6^th includes several fascinating talks, as well as the SAALG business meeting, for those who wish to attend:

10.45 - 11.00        Arrival, networking and refreshments

11.15 - 12.00        Dr Sue Sutton (Archivist, Henry Martyn Centre, Cambridge) 'Operation Nip-Off'. 

Some aspects of the repatriation of Japanese troops from Southeast Asia at the end of the Second World War in the Far East.  

12.00 - 12.35        Dr Sujit Sivasundaram (University Lecturer in World and Imperial History since 1500, University of Cambridge) 'The British invasion of Ceylon in the conflicting cultures of palm-leaf texts.'

12.35 - 13.05       Mrs Ursula Sims-Williams (Librarian, Ancient India and Iran Trust and Curator of Iranian Collections, British Library) 'An introduction to Southeast Asian collections in the AIIT'

                             Mr Edward Proctor (Librarian for South and Southeast Asia at Duke University & South Asian Studies Librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA) 'Recent Developments in South Asian Collections in the United States'        

13.05 - 14.15       Lunch and networking

14.15 - 14.55       Dr Annabel Gallop (Curator for Indonesian and Malay collections, British Library) ‘Islam, trade and politics across the Indian Ocean: investigating Ottoman links with Southeast Asia’

14.55 - 15.15       Dr Sud Chonchirdsin (Curator of Vietnamese collections, British Library) ‘Cartoons and propaganda from North Vietnam during the early stage of the Vietnam War’

15.15 - 15.55       Dr Mark Elliott (Curatorial Research Fellow, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge) ‘The Eyes of the Ancestor: Returning photographs to an Indian village’

15.55 - 16.15       Refreshments

16.20 - 17.00       SAALG Business Meeting

For the evening of Friday 6th we have booked a table at St. Johns Chophouse for a conference dinner http://www.stjohnschophouse.co.uk/ 

On Saturday 7^th there is an opportunity for a guided tour of the newly refurbished University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology by Mark Elliot (Curatorial Research Fellow, MAA) and Jocelyne Dudding (Curator, Photographic collections, MAA).

Places for our main conference day on Friday at the AIIT are limited to 35 so if you would like to attend we recommend early booking, as places will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. For a confirmation form and accommodation options please contact our Secretary, Helen Porter hp@royalasiaticsociety.org Bookings will close on Friday 29th June.

To attend our Friday programme the fee is £20.00 payable on the day and to attend the Saturday programme it is an additional £10.00. Attendance on Saturday only, is also possible and we encourage you to bring guests, family or friends, there is no limit to numbers for our Saturday programme. The price of the meal at the restaurant is not included in the conference price and again family and friends are welcome.

If you have any questions or need any further information please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Helen or Rachel Rowe our Chair rmr29@cam.ac.uk

Please spread the word to colleagues/students or friends who might be interested in attending.

Temple, Template, Text: making temples in medieval India

Temple of Bhojpur, Raisen district, M.P., India. Photographed by Yann.

The Cambridge Asian Archaeology Group is a discussion group based in the Department of Archaeology and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge.  It organises regular seminars and lectures in Cambridge, including several likely to interest readers of this blog.

 For this term's programme of events, see:
http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/events/asian/

The next talk on South Asia is on Monday 12th March 2012, 4.00 - 5.00 pm,  in the South Lecture Room, Division of Archaeology, Downing site, Cambridge.  Professor Adam Hardy of Cardiff University will speak on the topic:
Temple, Template, Text: making temples in medieval India.    He writes...

At Bhojpur in central India a gigantic temple attributed to the renowned Paramara king Bhoja was left unfinished in the mid-eleventh century. Quarries and incomplete architectural parts are scattered around the temple, and engraved on the rocks are numerous architectural drawings which have been documented for the first time. Ascribed to the same monarch is the Samaranganasutradhara, a Sanskrit treatise on architecture. For the first time its prescriptions are being translated into architectural drawings, a necessary first step for discussing the relationship between a canonical text and the practice of architecture. The talk will discuss how medieval Indian temples were designed, bringing together the drawings, the text, and the evidence provided by buildings themselves.

Cambridge news: The Centre is moving!

Advance warning: The Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, will be moving from its picturesque riverside location in Laundress Lane to the Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP between 14 December and 16 January 2012.  

During this period access to the Centre's library and archive collections will be severely limited and visitors are advised not to plan research trips to Cambridge. 


The Centre's new premises will be on the top floor of 7 West Road, with a fine view of the University Library.  Our collections will also benefit from purpose-built archival stores.

For a webcam view of the new building see:http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/em/estate/building_projects/westroad/webcam/

Our website, telephone numbers and email addresses will remain the same.

We look forward to welcoming back researchers in the New Year.

World History and Digital Scholarship conference

Henson Collection. Jubbal, India, c. 1915. © CSAS

29 October 2010


A one-day conference addressing the role played by digital humanities in the history curriculum and in inter-disciplinary research projects.


Organised by The Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge.
Venue: Adrian House, Burrell’s Field, Trinity College, Cambridge.



For registration (until 25 October 2010): digital@s-asian.cam.ac.uk
For further information: http://www.s-asian.cam.ac.uk


Speakers
Prof. Elizabeth Edwards (University of the Arts London)
Prof. Chris A. Bayly (University of Cambridge)


Panelists
Dr Kevin Greenbank (CSAS, University of Cambridge)
Dr Lee Grieveson (Centre for Intercultural Studies, UCL)
Susanne Hammacher (RAI, London)
Nico de Klerk (Film Instituut Nederland)
Dr Sean Lang (Anglia Ruskin University)
Dr Mathew Mead (University of the Arts London)
Dr Annamaria Motrescu (CSAS, University of Cambridge)
Dr Heather Norris-Nicholson (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Susannah Rayner (SOAS, London)
Dr Susan Whitfield (British Library, London)

Open Cambridge, Open Libraries

Image credit: Centre of South Asian Studies
University of Cambridge

The Library at the Centre of South Asian Studies in Cambridge will be open to the public on Saturday 11th September from 10 am - 1 pm.

Come and view photographs, artwork and home movies shot in India 1911 - 1956, and listen to archive recordings in which men and women reflect on events and issues they experienced during that period.

Many other libraries and buildings will be open too for the Open Cambridge weekend - For a full listing see:
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/opencambridge/index.html.

News from the Ancient India & Iran Trust

The Ancient India and Iran Trust newsletter has been relaunched as Indiran, and the Spring/Summer 2010 issue is now available for download in pdf format at http://www.indiran.co.uk/news.htm. 

The Trust is to be congratulated on this impressive publication, which opens with an obituary of Raymond Allchin, a legend in South Asian archaeology, and includes an interview with Christine van Ruymbeke on Persian poetry, an article on the conservation of Asian vultures and a report on their recent conference on Sri Lanka.