Alumni Travel Reading: India

India is a large country, with more than a dozen official languages, and a multiplicity of cultures. There are several good surveys on the history of India and, more generally, South Asia. A few of them are listed here. 

Tiger in Ranthambore. Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.

Thrillers about tigers in India are by a colonial-era hunter and later conservationist, Jim Corbett, who wrote a series of books, the titles of which start as ‘Man-Eaters of ….’

Taj Mahal. Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.

Selected and Annotated By:

For more information about this and other Penn excursions, please visit the Penn Alumni Travel Web site.

"Yamuna River, Agra, Uttar Pradesh." Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.

"Ahilya Ghat by the Ganges, Varanasi." Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.

There is no dearth of popular travel guide, most of which are particularly suited to Penn’s itinerary for what is known as the tourist triangle, comprised of Jaipur, Delhi, and Agra. 

Khajuraho Temple. Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.

The wealth of literature about the Taj Mahal is overwhelming, but an excellent essay by Wayne Begley, explaining an alternative meaning of the Taj can be found in the Art Bulletin of March 1979 (vol. 61 no. 1). 

It is not unusual that the same author produces a scholarly monograph on a site, as well as a popular guide book. Such is the case for Khajuraho.

Akshardham, Delhi. Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.