Alberuni's India

Alberuni, or as his compatriots called him, Abu Raihan was a contemporary of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazani, the leading monarch of Asian history in between AD 997-1030. Alberuni has left behind a monumental account in Arabic in the form of Tahqiq ma Iil-Hind (AD 1030), more usually known in English as his India or Indica. Alberuni has included in his account the religion, philosophy, literature, mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, geography, customs, laws and astrology of the Brahmanical India. He had written his India or Indica with a view to make familiar anyone about India who wants to converse with the Hindus, and to discuss with them questions on religion, science or literature, on the basis of his own civilization. It can be visualized from his account that he was conscious of not allowing a place to the religious enthusiasm, bordering on fanaticism and the racial superiority complex in his survey and due to this character the account made by Alberuni has proved to be the best among the records made by the foreigners. The editor, Dr. Edward Sachau has done a great service to the scholarly world by translating in English the original account of Indica by Alberuni. He has translated the original Arabic text with commendable amount of accuracy along with detailed annotations on the important Arabic words used and the indices at the end. This book is an indispensable source work to the scholars researching on ancient India.