Western Image of the Sikh Religion: A Source Book

The main aim of any source book is to offer available source materials on any particular subject at one place. The present endeavour in bringing out the inaccessible rare papers and other selected writings by the earliest western writers on the Sikh religion, in the form of this volume is inspired by the same concern. The source book promises to fill the long awaited gap of information for the interested scholars and general readers for further studies in the area of western understanding of the Sikh religion. The volume is being issued with two-fold concern in mind, firstly, to save the rare papers by the earliest western writers on the Sikh religion from oblivion and secondly, to offer these earliest rare documents in a handy volume. The collection covers a period of 140 years beginning from 1780 up to the first decades of the twentieth century, 1914. The sole criterion followed in the selection of the papers was their wearing on the Sikh religion. By the same criterion writings by the western authors on the Sikh history have been excluded. The included selections are the earliest records of the western authors on the Sikh religion and are placed here in the chronological order in order to facilitate the proper grasping of the western understanding of the Sikh religion in the historical context. Being the earliest records, these writings have played a major role in the evolution of the western image of the Sikh religion.