Author: Qeyamuddin Ahmad
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Prabhat Mukhopadhya
Publisher: National Book Trust
Year: 2012
Language: Bengali
Pages: 238
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788123722818
Description
Al-Biruni, celebrated mathematician and astronomer, came to India in the wake of the invading forces of Mahmud of Ghazni in the eleventh century. His enquiry into India, popularly known in its original Arabic version as Tarikhu'l Hind, is erudite and, as a historic chronicle of its kind, a classic.
There is much in this chronicle that reads like fiction, while being at the same time an objective record of the history, character, manners and customs of India of that time.
Sachau's well-known English translation of the classic has been used in this publication, but edited specially for a large and popular readership.
Contents
Editor's Introduction
List of Greek Words in the Text
Preface
CHAPTER I
On the Hindus in General, As an Introduction to Our Account of Them
CHAPTER II
On The Belief of the Hindus in God
CHAPTER III
On The Bindu Belief as To Created Things, both "Intelligibilia" And "Sensibilia"
CHAPTER IV
From what Cause Action Originates, and How the Soul In Connected With Matter
CHAPTER V
On The State of the Souls, And Their Migrations through the World in the Metempsychosis
CHAPTER VI
On The Different Worlds, And on the Places of Retribution in Paradise and Hell
CHAPTER VII
On The Nature of Liberation from the World, And on the Path Leading Thereto
CHAPTER VIII
On The Different Classes of Created Beings, and on Their Names
CHAPTER IX
On The Castes, Called "Colours" (Varma), And On the Classes below Them
CHAPTER X
On The Source of Their Religious and Civil Law, On Prophets, And On the Question Whether Single Laws Can Be Abrogated or Not
CHAPTER XI
About The Beginning of Idol-Worship, And a Description of the Individual Idols
CHAPTER XII
On The Veda, the Puranas, and Other Kinds of Their National Literature
CHAPTER XIII
Their Grammatical and Metrical Literature
CHAPTER XIV
Hindu Literature in the Other Sciences, Astronomy, Astrology, Etc.
CHAPTER XV
Notes on Hindu Metrology, Intended To Facilitate the Understanding of All of Measurements Which Occur In This Book
CHAPTER XVI
Notes on the Writing of the Hindus, On Their Arithmetic and Related Subjects, And On Certain Strange Manners and Customs of Theirs
CHAPTER XVII
On Hindu Sciences Which Prey on the Ignorance of People
CHAPTER XVIII
Various Notes on Their Country, Their Rives, and Their Ocean. Itineraries of the Distances between Their Several Kingdoms, And Between the Boundaries of Their Country
CHAPTER XIX
On The Names of the Planets, the Signs of The Zodiac, the Lunar Stations, and Related Subjects
CHAPTER XX
On The Brahmanda
CHAPTER XXI
Descriptions of Earth and Heaven According to the Religious Views of the Hindus, Based Upon Their Traditional Literature
CHAPTER XXII
Traditions Relating To the Pole
CHAPTER XXIII
On Mount Meru According to the Belief of the Authors of the Puranas and of others
CHAPTER XXIV
Traditions of the Puranas Regarding Each of the Seven Dvipas
CHAPTER XXV
On The River Of India, Their Sources and Courses
CHAPTER XXVI
On The Shape of Heaven and Earth According to the Hindu Astronomers
CHAPTER XXVII
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 Hindu Astronomers And The Authors Of The Puranas
CHAPTER XXVIII
On The Definition of the ten Directions
CHAPTER XXIX
Definition of the Inhabitable Earth According to the Hindus
CHAPTER XXX
On Lanka, or the Cupola of the Earth
CHAPTER XXXI
On That Difference of Various Places Which We Call the Difference of Longitude
CHAPTER XXXII
On The Notions of Duration and Time in General, And On the Creation of the World and its Destruction
CHAPTER XXXIII
On The Various Kinds of the Day or Nychthemeron, And On Day and Night in Particular
CHAPTER XXXIV
On The Division of the Nychthemeron into Minor Particles of Time
CHAPTER XXXV
On The Different Kinds of Months and Years
CHAPTER XXXVI
On The Four Measures of Time Called Mana
CHAPTER XXXVII
On The Parts of the Month and the Year
CHAPTER XXXVIII
On The Various Measures of Time Composed Of Days, the Life of Brahman Included
CHAPTER XXXIX
On Measures of Time Which Are Larger Than the Life of Brahman
CHAPTER XL
On The Samdhi, the Interval between Two Periods of Time, Forming the Connecting Link between Them
CHAPTER XLI
Definition of the Terms "Kalpa" And "Caturyuga", and an Explication of the one by the other
CHAPTER XLII
On The Division of the Caturyuga into Yugas, And the Different Opinions Regarding the Latter
CHAPTER XLIII
A Description of the Four Yuga, And of All That Is Expected to Take Place at the end the Fourth Yuga
CHAPTER XLIV
On The Magavantaras
CHAPTER XLV
On The Constellation of the Great Bear
CHAPTER XLVI
On Narayana, His Appearance at Different Times, and His Names
CHAPTER XLVI
On Vasudeva and the Wars of the Bharata
CHAPTER XLVIII
An Explanation of the Measure of an Akshauhini
CHAPTER XLIX
A Summary Description of the Ears
CHAPTER L
How Many Star-Cycles There Are both in a "Kalpa" And In a "Caturyuga"
CHAPTER LI
An Explanation of the Terms "Adhimasa", "Unaratra", and the "Aharganas", As Representing Different Sums of Days
CHAPTER LII
On The Calculation Of "Ahargana" In General, That Is, The Resolution Of Years and Months Into Days, And, Vice Versa, The Composition Of Years And Months Out Of Days
LIII
On The Ahargana, or the Resolution of Years into Months, According To Special Rules Which Are Adopted In the Calendars for Certain Dates or Moments of Time
CHAPTER LIV
On The Computation of the Mean Places of the Planets
CHAPTER LV
On The Order Of the Planets, Their Distances And
CHAPTER LVI
On The Station of the Moon
CHAPTER LVIII
How Ebb and Flow Follow Each other In the Ocean
CHAPTER LIX
On The solar And Lunar Eclipses
CHAPTER LX
On The Parvan
CHAPTER LXI
On The Dominats of the Different Measures of Time in both Religious and Astronomical Relation, And On Connected Subjects
CHAPTER LXII
On The Sixty Years-Samvatsara, Also Called "Shashtyabha"
CHAPTER LXIII
On That Which Especially Concerns the Brahmans, And What They Are Obliged To Do During Their Whole Life
CHAPTER LXIV
On The Rites and Customs Which the Other Castes, Besides the Brahmans, Practise During Their Lifetime
CHAPTER LXV
On The Sacrifices
CHAPTER LXVI
On Pilgimage and the Visiting of Sacred Places
CHAPTER LXVII
On Alms, and How A Man Must Spend What He Earns
CHAPTER LXVIII
On What Is Allowed Forbidden In Eating and Drinking
CHAPTER LXIX
On Matrimony the Menstrual Courses, Embryos, and Childbed
CHAPTER LXX
On Lawsuits
CHAPTER LXXI
On Punishments and Expiations
CHAPTER LXXII
On Inheritance and What Claim the Deceased Person Has On It
CHAPTER LXXIII
About What Is due To the Bodies of the Dead and Of the Living (i.e. About Burying and Suicide)
CHAPTER LXXIV
On Fasting, And the Various Kinds of It
CHAPTER LXXV
On The Determination of the Fast-Days
CHAPTER LXXVI
On The Festivals and Festive Days
CHAPTER LXXVII
On Days Which Are Held In Special Veneration, On Lucky And Unlucky Times, And On Such Times As Are Particulary Favourable For Acquiring In Them Bliss In Heaven
CHAPTER OXXVIII
On The Karanas
CHAPTER LXXIX
On The Yogas
CHAPTER LXXX
On The Introductory Principles of Hindu Astrology, With a Short Description of Their Methods of Astrological Calculations
Select References
Notes
Index