Alberuni, or, as his compatriots called him, Abu Raihan was a contemporary of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazani, the leading monarch of Asian history in between AD 997-1030. Alberuni has left behind a monumental account in Arabic in the form of Tahqiq ma lil-Hind (AD 1030), more usually known in English as his India or Indica. While the ruthless conqueror Mahmud was harrying India by fire and sword destroying and plundering its cities and temples, the great Arabic scholar engaged himself in studying the culture and civilzation of the country. He has included in his account the religion, philosophy, literature, mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, geography, customs, laws and astrology of the Brahmanical India. He had written his India or Indica with a view to make familiar anyone about India who wants to converse with the Hindus, and the discuss with them questions on religion, science or literature, on the basis of his own civilization. It can be visualized from his account that he has conscious of not allowing a place to the religious enthusiasm, bordering on fanaticism and the racial superiority complex in his survey and due to this character the account made by Alberuni has proved to be the best among the records made by the foreigners. The editor, Dr.Edward Sachau has done a great service to the scholarly world by translating in English the original account of Indica by Alberuni. He has translated the original Arabic text with commendable amount of accuracy alongwith detailed annotations on the important Arabic words used and the indices at the end. This book an indispensable source work to the scholars researching on ancient India.
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