About The Indosphere

The Indosphere is a free reference work on Indian civilization — the Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Vedic and Indus traditions, the dynasties and states that carried them, the texts they left, and the ideas they argued over. It is written to be looked things up in.

What an entry is

Every entry is about one subject and is titled with that subject’s name. It opens with a sentence defining the thing, carries a box of checkable facts, and is filed under the traditions it belongs to, the periods it sits in, and the kind of thing it is. Longer entries have a table of contents. Every entry ends with works a reader can go to next.

Entries are unsigned

No entry carries a byline, and none is attributed to a person or to The Indosphere as an author. This is deliberate. A reference entry is not an argument someone is making; it is an account of a subject, and it should be judged on whether it is accurate rather than on who wrote it. Entries are revised over time, and the date of the last revision is shown at the foot of each one.

Further reading, not sources

The list at the foot of an entry is headed “Further reading” rather than “Sources”, and the distinction is meant literally. Every work listed is a real, published book whose existence has been checked against library records — no citation here has been invented. But the list is a reading list on the subject, not a record of the specific volumes an entry was compiled from, and it should not be read as one. Where an entry does cite a particular claim, that citation appears as a numbered note in the text.

Disputed ground

Much of this subject is contested — dates, attributions, the reading of an inscription, the origins of a practice, the record of a reign. Where scholars disagree, an entry should say that they disagree and give the range, rather than pick a side and present it as settled. Where a claim rests on tradition rather than evidence, it should be marked as traditional. Entries that fall short of this are defects, and are worth reporting.

Corrections

Corrections are welcome and are the main way this improves. Write to [email protected] with the entry, the passage, and what the record actually says — a source makes a correction far quicker to act on.

How it is paid for

The Indosphere is free to read and carries advertising. It is a commercial publication, not a charity or a non-profit, and it does not solicit donations. Advertising is what pays for it; it has no bearing on what the entries say.