The Hi-Lead

India in the 17th Century

Bocarro, Antonio.

Decada 13 da historia da India.

Lisboa [Lisbon]: Typographia da Academia Real das Sciencias, 1876.

First edition. Tall quartos. Part 1: xxii, 374 [blank leaf]. Part 2: viii, 377–805. In Portuguese. Antonio Bocarro, the chief archivist on the Portuguese colony of Goa, in India, wrote this history of the "thirteenth decade" (1612-1617) of the Portuguese presence in the far east but it remained a little known manuscript until this publication by the Academia Real. A useful source on early seventeenth-century Africa, India, Burma, and Macao.

$350.

Sanskrit Pronouns (1883)

Dutens, Alfred.

Essai sur l'origene des exposants casuels en Sanscrit.

Paris: F. Vieweg, 1883. First edition. xxiii, 302 pages.

An extended study, in French, of the pronoun in Sanskrit grammar. Dutens was a member of the Société de Linguistique in Paris. The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres continues to give a linguistic prize in Dutens' name. Rebound in plain green cloth. Pages show moderate foxing throughout. Generally very good.

$40

The Best 19th Century Hitopadesa in English

Johnson, Francis (translator).

Hitopadesa, the Sanskrit Text of the First Book, or Mitra-Labha, with a Grammatical Analysis, Alphabetically Arranged.

London: James Madden and Co., 1840. First edition. iii, 153 pages, plus a three-page scheme of poetic meters, and one page of ads. Small folio.

Johnson, a professor at the East-India College, edited this first part of the Hitopadesa (a collection of Sanskrit fables) as an introductory text for students learning the language. It includes the Sanskrit text, an English transliteration, an English translation, and a detailed dictionary of all the words used in the text.

$175

Early edition of the epic of Kashmir

[Kalhana] Troyer, M. A[nthony]. (translator).

Radjatarangini [Rājatarangini]: Histoire des rois du Kachmir.

Paris: Imprimerie royale (volume 3: Imprimerie nationale), 1840–1852. First edition.

The first Western and second-ever publication of the great Kashmiri historical epic, the Rajatarangini, written by the Brahmin Kalhana in the middle of the 12th century. A very scarce and attractive complete set of the first printing of this edition. 

$1,200.

A Voyage to India in 1883

Loureiro, Adolpho.

No oriente de Napoles a China (Diario de viagem).

Lisboa [Lisbon]: Imprensa Nacional, 1896–97.

First edition. 369, 419 pages. Two volumes bound as one. An account (in Portuguese) of a voyage from Naples to China, via India in 1883 and 1884. Series: Quarto centenario do descobrimento da India, contribuiões da Sociedada de Geographia de Lisboa. Uncommon. Bound as volume 4 of the Quarto centenario series in blue cloth with gilt spine titles. A very good copy, with old library blindstamps on the title-pages, one partially obscured with Wite-Out (no other library markings).

$75

First Printing of the Mahabharata

[Mahabharata] Bopp, Franz (translator).

Ardschuna's Reise zu Indra's Himmel, nebst anderen Episoden des Maha-Bharata.

Berlin: Königl. Akademie d. Wissenschaften, 1824. xxvii, [78], 122 pages. Octavo.

The first printed edition of four episodes of the Mahabharata (Indralokgamanam, Hidimbabadha, Brahamanavilapa, Sundopasundopakhyana) in the original Sanskrit, compiled by the noted linguist Franz Bopp.

$200

Autograph Quotation by Nehru

Nehru, Jawaharlal.

Autograph Quotation Signed.

1945. Autograph quotation signed by the first prime minister of India, before Independence. The quote is from Nehru's autobiography, Toward Freedom:

"There are no supermen or philosopher-kings; there are only frail human beings who cannot help thinking that their own personal good or the advancement of their own ideas is identical to the public good."

Signed in full and dated Nov 27, 1945, prior to his taking office as the first elected leader of independent India. Fine, but for an old crease and three small tack holes (not affecting text). There is an ink spot on the verso (back), which is just visible from the front.

$250

Treatise on Sanskrit Grammar

Ojihara, Yutaka and Louis Renou.

La Kasika-Vrtti (Adhaya I, pada 1).

Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1960–67. First edition. Complete in three volumes: vi, 124; 133; 187.

A translation into French of and commentary on the first 75 sutras of the Kasika-Vritti, a commentary on the Ashtadhyayi, a 4th century BCE treatise on Sanskrit grammar. Series: Publications de l'ecole française d'extrême-orient XLVIII. Near fine in wrappers. Page edges unopened.

$85

The Portuguese in India in 1500

Silva Rego, Antônio da.

História das missões do padroado português do oriente. India (1500-1542).

Lisboa (Lisbon): Agência Geral das Colónias, 1949. First edition. xxxviii, 565 pages. Volume 1 (of 12). With 4 folding maps.

A detailed history of the Portuguese in India, with a particular emphasis on Goa. Very good in wrappers, as issued.

$35

Pioneering Anthology of Hindu Theater

Wilson, Horace Hayman.

Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus Translated from the Original Sanskrit.

London: Trübner & Co., 1871. Third edition. Octavo. lxxi, 384; iv, 415 plus errata leaf. Published as volumes XI and XII of Wilson's Works (noted on a second title-page). Wilson (1786-1860) was a physician who served in India with the British East India Company beginning in 1808. He became fascinated with Sanskrit language and culture and translated many texts and helped to compile a Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1819). In 1826–27, in Calcutta, he published a collection of Sanskrit plays in English. A corrected second edition appeared in London in 1835. This third edition comprises the final two volumes of Wilson's collected works, published posthumously. 

$300

Novel of Christians in India (1885)

[Mullens, Hannah Catherine]

Prasanna and Kamini: The History of a Young Hindu.

London: Religious Tract Society, (n.d. but ca. 1885). First edition of this version (see below). Small 8vo. 191 pages, plus 16 pages of ads.

Illustrated with four engraved plates, including a frontispiece of a baptism taking place in the Ganges River.

Mullens was a missionary based in Calcutta during the middle of the nineteenth century (she died in 1861), and is perhaps most notable for writing the first novel ever published in Bengali (Phulmani and Karuna, 1852). This is Mullens' second novel extolling the virtues of Christian women in India, originally published as Faith and Victory: A Story of the Progress of Christianity in Bengal (London, 1865) and as Life By the Ganges (Philadelphia, 1867). The novel was then loosely adapted for publication in Bengali, with many changes apparently to make it more palatable for the local population. Prasanna and Kamini is Faith and Victory re-translated from Bengali back into English, with further amendments for an English-speaking audience. (I think there's a thesis in textual studies in there somewhere.)

A scarce work, with just one copy in OCLC (none in the US) and just three in COPAC. (Reference: Tilottoma Misra, "Early Asamiya Novels" in Early Novels in India by Meenakshi Mukherjee). A lovely copy in the publisher's binding decorated with a spray of flowers printed in colors and the title in gilt. Fine, but for a gift inscription dated 1885 (which helps confirm the publication date).

$125

Karl Bodmer's Encampment of the Piekann Indians (1840s)

[Bodmer, Karl]

Encampment of Piekann Indians Near Fort McKenzie

Hand-colored lithograph from Thomas McKenney and James Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America, published in Philadelphia by F.W. Greenough from 1838 to 1844. This image is the frontispiece for volume three of the folio edition and is based on an original painting by Karl Bodmer, one of the legendary artists of the 19th-century American West.

$1,250

Edward Curtis' The North American Indian

Curtis, Edward S.

The North American Indian, Volume 13: The Hupa. The Yurok. The Karok. The Wiyot, Tolowa and Tututni. The Shasta. The Achomawi. The Klamath.

(N.-pl.): (the author), 1924. First edition.

Folio, bound in half morocco gilt with raised bands and heavy buckram cloth sides.

One of 500 numbered copies (although Curtis never completed the edition. He sold some 220 copies and gave about 50 copies to friends and supporters). The volume was printed by letterpress on Japan vellum paper. Illustrated with 75 sepia-tone photogravures (photo-engravings) from Curtis’s original photographs.

The Library of Congress describes The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis as “one of the most significant and controversial representations of traditional American Indian culture ever produced. Issued in a limited edition from 1907 to 1930, the publication continues to exert a major influence on the image of Indians in popular culture. Curtis said he wanted to document ‘the old time Indian, his dress, his ceremonies, his life and manners.’ In over 2000 photogravure plates and narrative, Curtis portrayed the traditional customs and lifeways of eighty Indian tribes.”

$13,500

The Western Wilds

Beadle, J[ohn]. H[anson]

Western Wilds, and the Men Who Redeem Them

San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company, 1878. Early edition. Subtitled: "An authentic narrative, embracing an account of seven years travel and adventure in the Far West; wild life in Arizona; perils of the plains; life in the cañon and death on the desert; thrilling scenes and romantic incidents in the lives of western pioneers; adventures among the red and white savages of the West; a full account of the Mountain Meadow Massacre; the Custer defeat; life and death of Brigham Young, etc."

$225

Captain John

Ericson, A. W.

Scene at Hoopa Valley, Humboldt Co. California. [Captain John, Hupa leader of Madilding Rancheria]

Arcata, California: A. W. Ericson, (1890s, printed circa 1920s?).

A 9 by 7 inch photograph on an 11 by 14 inch mount titled at the bottom in a san-serif typeface (Palmquist logo style I). Ericson was the leading (and best) commercial photographer in Humboldt County from about 1880 to the 1930s. He traveled to the Hoopa reservation to take photographs on many occasions. In this scene, "Captain John," one of the best-known Hupa leaders, stands before a traditional cedar plank and stone dwelling in the Med'dilding (or Madilding) village, on the Trinity River. He is wearing the regalia for the brush dance—a fur loincloth, several strands of shell necklaces, and a hat with dangling feathers. He holds a short, obsidian-tipped spear and a bundle of furs.

$175