Primus Books

Primus Books Primus Books is an academic publisher, serving learning and scholarship in higher education and the
professional world.

We publish research monographs, edited volumes, reference works and textbook in print and electronic formats.

16/12/2025

Some writings stay within the pages of books—but a few rare ones step out and become part of our lives. Vande Mataram by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay is one such creation.

First published in 1882 (and written even earlier in the late 1870s), this iconic song still stirs questions even after 130 years. What gives it such lasting power in our national consciousness? How did it become a battle cry during the freedom struggle? What inspired poets across India to translate it, and music legends from Rabindranath Tagore to A.R. Rahman to reinvent it over generations? Why has it been celebrated, debated, and even contested—from the pre-independence era to today?

In Vande Mataram: The Biography of a Song, historian Sabyasachi Bhattacharya revisits this extraordinary journey, tracing how one song shaped—and was shaped by—the story of modern India.

To procure a copy please click on:

https://primusbooks.com/vande-mataram/

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Primus Books is glad to announce its new title, 'Singing to the Goddess Poems to Kālī and Umā from Bengal' by Rachel Fel...
10/12/2025

Primus Books is glad to announce its new title, 'Singing to the Goddess Poems to Kālī and Umā from Bengal' by Rachel Fell McDermott (Second Edition).

This vibrant collection presents 145 brief Bengali lyric poems dedicated to the Hindu goddesses Kālī and Umā. These poems—many of which are presented here for the first time in English translation—were written from the early eighteenth century up to the contemporary period. They represent the unique Bengali tradition of goddess worship (Śāktism) as it developed over this period. Included are forty poems by the most famous of all (Śākta poets, Rāmprasād Sen (c.1718–1775) and ten lyrics by the renowned 20th-century poet Kājī Nazrul Islām. McDermott’s lucid introduction places these works in their historical context and shows how images of the goddesses evolved over the centuries. Her lively translations of these poetic lyrics evoke the passion and devotion of the followers of Kālī and Umā and shed light on the history and practice of goddess worship.

The author, Rachel Fell McDermott is Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College. She is the author of Mother of My Heart, Daughter of My Dreams: Kālī and Umā in the Devotional Poetry of Bengal (2001), and Revelry, Rivalry, and Longing of the Goddesses of Bengal: The Fortunes of Hindu Festivals (2011). She has co-edited Encountering Kālī: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West, with Jeffrey Kripal (2003), and Breaking Boundaries with the Goddess: New Directions in the Study of Śāktism, with Cynthia Humes (2009). She is currently writing a book on Kazi Nazrul Islam.

To procure a copy of this fascinating work of research, please click on:

https://primusbooks.com/ancient/singing-to-the-goddess-poems-to-kali-and-uma-from-bengal-by-rachel-fell-mcdermott/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

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Primus Books is glad to introduce its new title, 'Artefacts of History: Archaeology, Historiography and the Indian Pasts...
10/12/2025

Primus Books is glad to introduce its new title, 'Artefacts of History: Archaeology, Historiography and the Indian Pasts' (Second Edition) by Sudeshna Guha.

Through little-known histories of the practice, governance and scholarship of the archaeology of India, Artefacts of History examines the manner in which the past is recalled and historicized. It encourages a focus upon issues of historiography, methodology, and notions of evidence and regards the ways in which ideologies of cultural heritage and civilizational legacies are transformed into tangible and visible things through the archaeological scholarship.

This second edition, with a Preface and a new note about ‘Nineveh in Bombay’, re-presents the importance of seeing the diverse linkages that constitute archaeology’s histories. The new addition augments the book’s thrust to regard histories of collecting and curating, and addresses issues of ethics and responsibilities within the academic scholarship of archaeology.

The author, Sudeshna Guha is currently a professor in the Department of History and Archaeology at Shiv Nadar Institute of Eminence (Delhi-NCR), India. She has been a Tagore Scholar at National Museum, New Delhi; Research Associate, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Lecturer in South Asian History, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, at University of Cambridge. She researches on histories of archaeologies, photography, collecting practices, museums and heritage-making, and is the editor (and lead contributor) of The Marshall Albums: Photography and Archaeology (2010) and Histories in the Making: Photographing Indian Monuments 1855–1920 (2024), and the author of A History of India Through 75 Objects (2022). Her recent publications include a status report of the tribal arts in the Central Indian Tribal Belt (2022), essays on aspects of human–animal relations in the arts of pre-colonial Deccan (2023), and representations of craft practices in pre-colonial India (2024).

To procure a copy please click on:

https://primusbooks.com/ancient/artefacts-of-history-archaeology-historiography-and-the-indian-pasts-by-sudeshna-guha-second-edition/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

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Primus Books is glad to introduce its new title, 'India’s Industrial Policy—A Reassessment: Growth, Employment, and Gend...
08/12/2025

Primus Books is glad to introduce its new title, 'India’s Industrial Policy—A Reassessment: Growth, Employment, and Gender Justice in Tamil Nadu' by Padmini Swaminathan.

India’s Industrial Policy: A Reassessment brings together insights from essays written over a few decades, and traces the rudimentary evolution of an industrial policy in erstwhile Madras Presidency. The book examines specific aspects of the growth and development of industry in the region as well as the factors integral to this progress. This includes human resource development in terms of education and skill enhancement, including the role played by gender in such growth. The bringing together of historical and contemporary writings emphasizes in no uncertain terms the lack of coherence in current policies, which contain disparate components put together to constitute an industrial policy. Historically, the provincial government struggled but made attempts, for instance, to forge a link between education and employment, involving also the artisan classes. In post-Independence India, this disjuncture has not just widened; the material base to absorb the products of higher education has not simultaneously expanded. In the face of India’s continued anxiety to be globally relevant in the economic field, the chapters here emphasize the necessity of an industrial policy that directly addresses the theme of how to improve state capacity to coordinate investment and prioritize activities on which resources are to be expended.

The author, Padmini Swaminathan is a former Director of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, where she also held the post of the Reserve Bank of India Chair in Regional Economics till her retirement in 2011. After retirement, she was Professor and Chairperson of the School of Livelihoods and Development, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad till May 2017. From June 2017 to February 2019, she was Visiting Professor at the Council for Social Development, Hyderabad. Swaminathan’s research work covers the areas of industrial organization, labour, occupational health, and skill development. Her recent publications include Telangana Social Development Report (co-edited, 2017); Telangana: Gender, Access and Well-being (2018); Feminist Methodologies: Interdisciplinary Explorations (co-authored, 2017); and Women and Work (edited volume, 2012), among others.

To procure a copy please click on the link below:

https://primusbooks.com/indias-industrial-policy-a-reassessment-growth-employment-and-gender-justice-in-tamil-nadu/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

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Please join us for the launch of Rup Kumar Barman’s ‘Kingdom Formation in Precolonial India’ at 11.30 am on 2 December 2...
29/11/2025

Please join us for the launch of Rup Kumar Barman’s ‘Kingdom Formation in Precolonial India’ at 11.30 am on 2 December 2025. Please click on the link below to join the session:

https://meet.google.com/joc-ybsk-pxc

We are hopeful about your participation.

24/11/2025

Let us revisit on of our important publication from the recent past, 'Reading the Rāmcaritmānas: A Companion to the Awadhi Ramayana of Tulsidas' by Rupert Snell with Neha Tiwari.

The Rāmcaritmānas of Tulsidas, begun in 1574 CE, is the most widely known and best loved devotional text in the whole of the north Indian vernacular tradition. Still widely read today—typically with the help of modern commentaries—it is also the subject of public performance styles that have brought it to the widest possible audiences. A source of inspiration and comfort to countless millions over the centuries, the Mānas stands as the classic exemplar of the Ramayana tradition for speakers of Hindi and its dialects.

The book in your hand introduces Tulsi’s Awadhi masterpiece to readers who are already at home in modern standard Hindi. Introductory chapters outline the significance of the text, analyse Tulsi’s Awadhi and his poetic metres, summarise the narrative, and offer a close reading of a key passage. The main section of the book features selections from all seven chapters of the Mānas, with the shortest one (Kiṣkindhākāṇḍ, on events in the monkey kingdom) appearing in full; the copiously annotated English translations are designed to reflect the originals as closely as possible, and are followed by a comprehensive etymological glossary.

The authors, Rupert Snell is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and previously taught at SOAS, University of London. His Hindi textbooks are in wide use, and many of his teaching materials are available on the website of the erstwhile Hindi Urdu Flagship, of which he was Director. His books on literature include The Hindi Classical Tradition: A Braj Bhāṣā Reader (1991); In the Afternoon of Time (1998; a translation of the autobiography of Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan); and Poems from the Satsaī (2021; translations of Braj couplets by Biharilal). Forthcoming works include The Self and the World: Autobiographical Readings in Hindi; and Lines Before a Hanging, a translation of the autobiography of Ramprasad ‘Bismil’. A current project has the working title The Lucent Moon: Aesthetics and Style in Old Hindi Poetry.

Neha Tiwari‘s interest in languages and cultures drew her to the field of language learning and pedagogy after she graduated from IIT Kanpur in 2008. She offers online courses in Hindi, Urdu, Awadhi, Sanskrit, and Persian, while also pursuing her own studies in these and other languages, and in linguistics; she has worked with students, colleagues, and professionals from numerous universities and organisations across the world. Formerly a director at Zabaan School for Languages, New Delhi, Neha is currently pursuing a Masters in South Asian languages and literature from Ghent University, Belgium.

To procure a copy please click on the link below:

https://primusbooks.com/literature/reading-the-ramcaritmanas-a-companion-to-the-awadhi-ramayana-of-tulsidas-by-rupert-snell-with-neha-tiwari/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

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Historical and Political Geography of the Cōḻa Country is a revised and enlarged version of the author’s work that was o...
20/11/2025

Historical and Political Geography of the Cōḻa Country is a revised and enlarged version of the author’s work that was originally published in 1973. It deals with different aspects of the territorial units found in the Cōḻa period inscriptions (850–1300), from the village (ūr) at the base to higher-level territories, such as vaḷanāṭu and maṇṭalam. Instead of simply considering them to be administrative divisions used for political purposes, their social and cultural aspects are studied here, while the associated social and agrarian groups (like ūrār and nāṭṭār) are given due importance in understanding contemporary socio-political organization. Several tables and maps have been added to this new edition, to organize and analyze the data provided. As a backdrop, the geography of the bhakti period (700–900) is also explored, showing the continuity of temples and the associated settlements over the centuries.

The author, Y Subbarayalu was Professor in the Department of Epigraphy and Archaeology, Tamil University, Thanjavur from 1983 to 2001. He was also previously Researcher in the French Institute of Pondicherry (2005–8), where he co-ordinated the project on the Digital Historical Atlas of South India. In association with Professor Noboru Karashima of Tokyo University, he has undertaken several projects in Tamil epigraphy and the history of south India. His publications include A Concordance of the Names in the Chola Inscriptions (co-authored, 1978); Palm-leaf Documents of Tiruchirappalli District (1992); A Glossary of Tamil Inscriptions (2002–3); and South India under the Cholas (2012).

To procure a copy please click on:

https://primusbooks.com/ancient/21927-2/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

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Foundations of Money and Banking in India offers a comprehensive study of the Indian monetary and banking system from a ...
20/11/2025

Foundations of Money and Banking in India offers a comprehensive study of the Indian monetary and banking system from a pluralistic perspective. The textbook aims to integrate diverse theories of money and banking with the Indian experience, at the same time placing national development in a broader international political economy context. From a pedagogical perspective, the text discusses contemporary and pressing issues such as Indian demonetization experience, financial crises, modern monetary theory, central banking in an open economy, and a critical comparison of New Keynesian and Post Keynesian monetary macroeconomics.

The book bridges theory with practical knowledge, by encouraging critical thinking through suggested students projects and advanced reading material, and is intended primarily for undergraduate and postgraduate students, but it may also serve as a pedagogical tool for faculty members, policymakers, and development practitioners interested in the evolving dynamics of money and banking in India.

The Authors:
Ankur Bhatnagar is Professor of Economics, Satyawati College, University of Delhi, India. An Alumnus of University of Delhi, where she studied at Shri Ram College of Commerce and Delhi School of Economics, her research interests span behavioural and social economics and international business.

C. Saratchand is Professor at the Department of Economics, Satyawati College, University of Delhi, India. He is an alumnus of St. Stephens College and Jawaharlal Nehru University. His research interests are in the areas of macroeconomics and political economy.

To procure a copy please click on the link below:

https://primusbooks.com/foundations-of-money-and-banking-in-india/ #1516344244336-dd52b549-d1ad

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Primus Books is glad to announce its new title, "Conquering the Museum: Appropriation of the Tribal Museum Bhopal by its...
20/11/2025

Primus Books is glad to announce its new title, "Conquering the Museum: Appropriation of the Tribal Museum Bhopal by its Indian Visitors" by Ina Ross.

Conquering the Museum presents the first comprehensive empirical study of Indian museum visitors, using the Tribal Museum of Bhopal as the case study. It demonstrates the audience’s remarkable agency and creative capacity in shaping the museum experience—an aspect previously overlooked. Beyond that, it offers intimate and detailed insights into a museum that operates not merely as a site of exhibition, but as a dynamic social space whose uses are shaped by visitors themselves, proactively and in relation to everyday life. Bringing together voices from the audience, curatorship, and the wider community, this study showcases a vibrant model of museum practice—responsive, participatory, and deeply connected to its cultural context. It is a compelling invitation to rethink what museums in India can be: inclusive spaces of dialogue, belonging, and collective . This new form of postcolonial museum practice, positioned between institutions, source community, and audience, offers a powerful inspiration for museums around the world.

The author, Ina Ross is a cultural management scholar and educator based in Germany. She teaches Cultural Management at the University of Applied Sciences, Saarbrücken and holds a doctoral degree from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where she focused on empirical audience research in India. Previously, she has taught arts management at the National School of Drama, New Delhi and contemporary art marketing theory at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. Her research has been published internationally in journals and edited volumes, covering topics in both museum and theatre studies. Her work—both academic and practical —explores audiences, museums, and cultural participation, with a focus on institutions that challenge conventional museum models. Her current research investigates the relationship between socially underrepresented audiences and contemporary art museums, with a case study on the Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania.

To procure a copy please click on the link below:

https://primusbooks.com/archaeology/conquering-the-museum-appropriation-of-the-tribal-museum-bhopal-by-its-indian-visitors-by-ina-ross/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

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Primus Books' new series 'The Life and Works of Simon Digby' is intended to bring most of Simon Digby’s publications, to...
10/11/2025

Primus Books' new series 'The Life and Works of Simon Digby' is intended to bring most of Simon Digby’s publications, together with a large body of work left unpublished at his death, to new and wider audiences.

Simon Digby (1932–2010) was one of the foremost scholars on pre-Mughal India as well as a prolific writer, translator and collector. He was Honorary Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, curator in the Department of Eastern Art of the Ashmolean Museum of the University of Oxford, and a member of the Oriental Institute of the university. His contribution to the study of Indian history can be seen by a glance through his bibliography, which demonstrates his wide-ranging research into disparate fields. Throughout his illustrious career, he wrote several books that are considered path-breaking in their field, including Wonder Tales of South Asia and War-Horse and Elephant in the Dehli Sultanate.

The series stands as testimony to his extraordinary scholarship. Publication of this series has been made possible by the Simon Digby Memorial Charity (SDMC). Registered in the Channel Island of Jersey where Digby was based, the SDMC was established to further the study of subjects that were of particular interest to Simon Digby. The SDMC has donated much of his collection to Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum and Bodleian Library, to the British Museum, and to other museums across the globe. It has funded the production of this series through a postdoctoral fellowship at SOAS University of London, aided in the publication of a volume on Digby’s historical method, and continues to fund projects in fields associated with his research.

The fourth book in the series, 'Tales, Translations, Trajectories: Literary and Linguistic Journeys in South Asia and Beyond' is a collection of the late Simon Digby’s penetrating and revelatory essays on broadly literary topics.

Beginning with a substantial piece on the ‘Indian making’ of Richard Burton as an Arabist—on which Digby lectured when he was awarded the Burton Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1999—subsequent chapters explore connected themes through the Arabian Nights and related tales in the Indo-Persian tradition. The second section focusses on another of his great passions—‘wonder tales’—and includes a wholly original study of the north Indian kissa tradition and the Nepali Madhumālatī.

The final section focusses on Rudyard Kipling, Kim, and other lesser known but inter-connected colonial-era stories of ‘the little boy lost’, including missionary tracts. These probing, erudite, and in many cases never-before published essays make for essential and lively reading for anyone interested in the multi-lingual and interconnected literary worlds of South Asia.

The book is edited by David Lunn and includes an introduction by Francesca Orsini.

To procure a copy, please click on the link below:

https://primusbooks.com/tales-translations-trajectories-literary-and-linguistic-journeys-in-south-asia-and-beyond/

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