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Random books from mahakapi's library

Paintings from Rajasthan in the National Gallery of Victoria by National Gallery of Victoria

The Selected Poetry and Prose of Byron by George Gorden, Lord Byron

One World: The Ethics of Globalization (The Terry Lectures Series) by Peter Singer

Panorama of Indian Painting by Publications Division

Arts of Asia (May-June 1986)

Important Islamic and Indian Manuscripts and Miniatures (April 23, 1981) by Christie's

Traditional Jewelry of India by Oppi Untracht

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Friends: abaranska, Shazam001

Interesting libraries: amyposter, MaartenRuijters, Shazam001, Yiggy

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Member: mahakapi

CollectionsYour library (1,749), Currently reading (2), All collections (1,749)

Reviews4 reviews

TagsPainting (254), Exhibitions (228), Auction/Dealer Catalogs (219), Collections (202), Rare (180), British Raj (154), Court/Patronage (131), Museums (120), Mughal (115), Miniatures (114) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

GroupsArt & Books, Art Books, Art History, Asian Fiction & Non-Fiction, Books that made me think, Buddhism, Catalogues (non-European art, ethnology), Indian Authors, Librarians who LibraryThing, Librarie India — show all groups

About me"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library" - Jorge Luis Borges

I live in New York City and am a market researcher by profession. My area of interest is Indology with special interests in Indian Miniature Painting, Indian History (chiefly period between decline of the Mughal Empire and ascent of the British Empire), Buddhist and Hindu philosophy.

About my library"Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads" - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"As Sumeru is the chief of the mountains, as Garuda is the chief of those born out of eggs, as the king is the chief of men, even so in this world is the practice of painting the chief of all arts." - Vishnudharmottara, third khanda, xliii, 39

I have been collecting books on India for over 20 years. My collection focuses on all areas of Indology, particularly the arts, architecture, photography, religion, music/dance, history, philosophy, science, medicine, and languages. My aim has been to build an essential reference collection in Indian Painting, starting from early wall/cave painting through contemporary Indian painters. I also collect books on Buddhism and Hinduism.

2009 READING LIST:
(* represents books in my library)

1. William Dalrymple, The Last Mughal, the Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857 (*)
2. Natalie Angier, The Canon
3. Maya Jasanoff, Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850
4. David Gilmour, Curzon: Imperial Statesman
5. John Darwin, After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405
6. Jack Turner, Spice: The History of a Temptation
7. E.H. Gombrich, A Little History of the World
8. Brian Fagan, The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
9. Roobina Karode, Manifestations II: Indian Art in the 20th Century - 100 Artists from the DAG Collection (*)
10. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, Lucknow City of Illusion (*)
11. Kalyan Krishna & Kay Talwar, In Adoration of Krishna: Pictures of Shrinathji, TAPI Collection (*)
12. Sotheby's, Indian and Southeast Asian Works of Art (Sale N08499) - September 19, 2008 (*)
13. Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational (*)
14. Judith Martin, No Vulgar Hotel: The Desire and Pursuit of Venice
15. Nandan Nilekani, Imagining India
16. Tryna Lyons, The Artists of Nathadwara - the Practice of Painting in Rajasthan (*)
17. Juliet Barker, Wordsworth: A Life

LocationNew York City

Emailabala03yahoo.com

Favorite authorsNone

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/mahakapi (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/mahakapi (library)

Common KnowledgeSeries (35), Awards (36), Characters (109), Places (44)

Member sinceMay 25, 2006

Currently readingIn Adoration of Krishna: Pichhwais of Shrinathji, Tapi Collection by Kalyan Krishna
Lucknow City of Illusion by Rosie Llewellyn-Jones

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Hi there,

I thought you might like to know, Vikas Swarup, author of Slumdog Millionaire is coming out with a new book July 7th called Six Suspects.

It has gotten great reviews and promises to be a good read. Here is the link to his latest review from The New York Times. Also starting tomorrow July 7th you can enter to win a free copy of the book on the Macmillan website, the link is below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/books/...

http://us.macmillan.com/smp/promo/sixsus...

Enjoy!

posted by Lindsie2187 at 1:08 pm (EST) on Jul 6, 2009

Also, forgot something. Regarding meditation and brain states, its a topic I've seen a few times brought up in a chapter or paragraph here and there, but the only book I'm stumbled on so far that is explicitly about this topic is Zen and the Brain: Towards and Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness by James Austin. I haven't read all of it yet (I'm bad about that in that I tend to start a great many more books than I finish, but all in due time) but its supposed to be a good balance of science, though a great deal of his discussion on zen and meditation is couched in his own personal experience (which I've seen different people say is good or bad).

A lot of research I stumble on that talks about this topic has to do with biofeedback and EEG monitoring. I know there are some books about it out there but I haven't added them to my library (yet ;p). There is a neat little web community thats sprung up around it where people build and work on opensource EEG machines (since manufactured ones tend to be really expensive) which is a curious blend of research scientists and people curious about biofeedback and meditation.

posted by Yiggy at 11:37 am (EST) on May 22, 2009

Re: The Hindus, so far I'm really enjoying it, I'm only a quarter or so in though. I found out about it from a review in the NYTimes, it described the book as overly in depth and detailed, closer to some sort of graduate text on Hinduism and I thought "Thats perfect and exactly what I want." As someone with an abundance of curiosity but a lack of exposure to Hinduism I've enjoyed all of the context and analysis and its given me a lot of insight into Hinduism and the vast diversity of its tradition in India. Whereas before I always looked at it as some sort of uniform religion I'm starting to feel that thats a grossly inadequate label, like saying the history and cultural values of Western civ is a religion; true to a very limited point in that its been heavily influenced by a certain religious tradition, but missing a much larger picture on how many other things influence it as well and how many schools of thought are divergent.

posted by Yiggy at 11:28 am (EST) on May 22, 2009

Very cool library. I've been bitten by the India bug recently and have been slowly adding stuff to my library. I'm jealous of your admirable collection.

posted by Yiggy at 9:27 pm (EST) on May 20, 2009

A great collection.I like to start a library of such rare books. Keep collecting.
Pankajam

posted by pankajam at 12:55 pm (EST) on Oct 15, 2008

wow, you've got a great library, I'm incredibly jealous. I focus mainly on historical and political science since I don't know where to start with art.. any suggestions for entry-level books on classical India?

posted by therani at 12:13 am (EST) on Mar 16, 2008

Esteemed Mahakapi, what are your top 10 "most moving/inspirational/uplifting" books?

posted by Shazam001 at 4:59 pm (EST) on Dec 16, 2007

Thank you for your comment and advise,

After catalogueing I plan to scan all the covers that are missing. I have a flatbed scanner already, but the size is max A4, so for bigger size I will have to take pictures.

posted by MaartenRuijters at 7:11 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2007

Very nice collection.
I am myself an addict of Asian art and architecture, see my book list.
(how)Can I use your book-covers?

Greetings, Maarten Ruijters

posted by MaartenRuijters at 6:18 am (EST) on Nov 30, 2007

You might find interesting this work on the Hanzanama.

posted by defuzz at 4:06 pm (EST) on Aug 12, 2007

What an impressive collection! It puts to shame my amateur interest in Mughal India and the rise of the British Raj... Well, I'll be back to get ideas for my own book searches.

posted by Romanus at 4:43 pm (EST) on Jun 3, 2007

Thanks for your comment. I like to keep things eclectic...art, music, people, places...are these not the joys of life? I agree that "The Argumentative Indian" was rather disappointing overall...I expected much more. However, I did like a few essays, esp. the ones on defining the indian identity. Btw, you must read "Being Indian" by Pavan Varma...it's simply brilliant.

posted by balafon at 10:40 am (EST) on Apr 18, 2007

Very nice collection! Good to come across another aficionado of Indian art :)

posted by balafon at 4:06 pm (EST) on Mar 14, 2007

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