Ananya: A Portrait of India.
Assn. of Indians in America. 1997. 960p. ed. by S.N. Sridhar and Nirmal K. Mattoo. illus, bibliog, index, ISBN 0-9659771-1-0, $79.95

Published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India's independence, this collection of 40 essays by scholars from both East and West provides an enriching glimpse of Indian history, culture, and society over six millennia. Sponsored by the Association of Indians in America, it is conceived on a grand scale. The essays, meant mostly for the generalist, project an appealing excitement and embrace a high quality of fact and prose while providing something for every reader in their coverage of history, art, economics, women, philosophy and religion, science and technology, and more. The reader may proceed randomly of from cover to cover with equal delight and profit. Editors Sridhar (SUNY at Stony Brook) and Matoo (president, Association of Indians in America) have accomplished a grand success in their vision, coordination, and production of such an interesting work.

--John F. Riddick, Central Michigan University, Mt Pleasant.

The Village Times, Stony Brook, December 18, 1997.

Ananya: One book captures magic and multiplicity of India

BY RAMIN P. JALESHGARI

Say "India" and a million thoughts flood the mind: painted elephants, richly colored cloths, aromatic spices, and castles and temples so beautiful they seem to have been created by the Gods. India: the home of the world's oldest languages, religions, and art as well as continuing poverty. Unique in its multiplicity, the enormity of this more than 5,000 year old culture seems, at times, too much to conceive. With all this to cover, is it possible for the essence of India to be encompassed in one volume?

It is not only possible, but it has been done -- in Ananya: A Portrait of India, an extensive exploration of India's culture, society, and history edited by S.N. Sridhar, a linguistics professor at the State University at Stony Brook, and Nirmal Mattoo,a nephrologist who is also president of the national Association of Indians in America (AIA.)

"We wanted to achieve a work about India that touched on those things that are most indicative of the culture: its diversity and democracy, its desires and dreams. Most importantly, we wanted it to appeal to both scholars and lay people", said Mattoo.

The book, which has received rave reviews from university and lay communities around the world, spans Indian history, religion; science and technology; society and politics; business and economics; art and architecture; language and literature; and performing arts with additional sections about the founders of-modem India and identity and the dias-pora.

Most of all, however, it is the excellence of the authors that makes Ananya a brilliant work. The book's 40 authors are the foremost experts in their respective fields. They include a Rhodes Scholar, the presidents of the Indian Academy of Letters and Indian Music & Dance Academy, distinguished professors, members of the British and American Academies and many more. And they deliver what may well be the most formidable assemblage of expertise on India ever brought together between two covers.

Created as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of Indian independence from Britain, Ananya is unique not only in its subject matter but also in the way it was created. A collaborative effort of international scholars funded by the non profit ATA, Ananya was compiled, edited, and graphically designed, in large part, by State University at Stony Brook students under the supervision of Sridhar and Mattoo. All labor on the nearly 1,000 page book took place in only nine months at the India Studies Center which opened this past March on the Stony Brook campus.

"We've met a lot of publishing experts since Ananya came out who said that if they had been asked nine months ago they would have said that there was no way for a book of this size to be researched, compiled, and produced in less than two to three years," said Sridhar. "But, in our case, ignorance was bliss. We didn't know we were not supposed to be able to do it, so we just went ahead and did it."

The dedicated effort of the book's editors and production staff has paid off. A stunning 40 chapter edition, filled with provocative articles, color plates, and black and white illustrations throughout, Ananya is the kind of volume that becomes a treasured collection in any library. It is a work of art to be referred to again and again that many have found to be the perfect gift for Indophiles, history lovers, students of anthropology or those who simply love a good read. "I was so impressed with Ananya that I purchased it as a Christmas gift for some friends who are interested in India," said Leighton H. Coleman, III of Stony Brook. "To my knowledge it is better than any book on the subject they currently have."

Gerard Kalloo, of Trinidad and Tobago purchased Ananya on a recent trip to the United States.

INDIA-WEST - November 28, 1997

Unique Sourcebook for Science Arts, Technology

By LISA TSERING
Special to India-West

ANANYA. A PORTRAIT OF INDIA Edited by S.N. Sridhar and Nirmal K. Matoo.
Published by the Association of Indians in America, 1997. $79.95 cloth.

With a linguist's curiosity to get to the root of topics as diverse as science, politics, language and religion, Professor S.N. Shridhar shows the spectrum of contributions that India has made to the world in this comprehensive and satisfying volume. (Ananya in Sanskrit means incomparable, unique.)

Together with Nirmal Mattoo, president of the Association of Indians in America, Sridhar was inspired by the 50th anniversary of independence to create a broad introduction to India for the general reader: "One that would convey the richness of Indian civilization without getting tangled in technicalities or annoying overgeneralization," he says in the books foreword. Ananya's 40 chapters are written by some of the world's most distinguished experts on India including Sanskrit scholar Keralapura Krishnamoorthy; Shanta Gokhale, arts editor of the Times of India; and economist T.N. Srinivasan.

Sita Anantha Raman's "Walking Two Paces Behind: Women's Education in India" and "Caste: A Systemic Change" by M.N. Srinivas both bring historical perspective to stubborn modern problems, and essays from Wimal Dissanayake ("The Distinctiveness of Indian Cinema") and R.C. Sharma ("The Quest for Divinity in Indian Art") spotlight India's 5,000 years of remarkable contribution to the arts.

Chapters on India's early science and math also whet the appetite: the value of pi, which was calculated at 3.1416 nearly 500 years ago by Aryabhatta , is today established at 3.1415926, and the cosmologies expounded in the Vedas are still being discovered by modem scientists. "Caesarian section, plastic surgery, bone setting and other medical techniques were so advanced," state Sridhar and Niattoo, that "Indian physicians were brought by Caliph Haroun-al-Rashid (8th century A.D.) and others to establish hospitals."

Of course no book can mention every single aspect of a culture as rich and diverse as India's, and doubtless every reader will have suggestions of his own. The omission of the sciences of ayurveda and Vedic astrology, for example, can be forgiven since information about them can be found at neighborhood Barnes and Noble.

What isn't so readily available, and therefore to be appreciated in Ananya, are discussions of the mix of Hindi, English and regional languages in modern speech, of the detailed anthropological studies of the Indian diaspora and of the highly readable nations of yoga and the major religions.

Essays on Gandhi and Nehru, on trade and finance, architecture and modern technology, add still more.

At 960 pages, Ananya at glance seems to present a hefty challenge, but its chapters hold a wealth of treasures. "The ideals of the pursuit of knowledge ... so eloquently expressed in the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita, the tenets of the Buddha and Mahavira, the edicts of Ashoka, and the songs of the Bhakti poets which have defined the Indian ethos for millennia" were the incentives driving Sridhar and Mattoo to conceive this unique book. To a great extent they have
succeeded.

India Journal, January 2,1998

BOOK WORM
By ASHOK NAIMPALLY

Edited by S.N. Sridhar and Nirmal Matoo; Association of Indians in America; pp190; $79.95

The new edited volume, "Ananya" published by the Association of Indians in America and produced at the Center for Indian Studies, SUNY - Stonybrook, is a valuable addition to literature corning out in the 50th anniversary of Indian Independence.

The book covers the richness of India's 5,000 year civilization. In its 40 chapters it covers topics as diverse as history, philosophy, as well as science, technology, cinema, economics etc. both from the past and the present. Beginning with an introductory chapter by the editors, who summarize the work in this chapter, we start with the history of India from the Indus Valley civilizations up to the colonial period. Next was the section on Indic religions which deal with the Brahminic (Vedic) Hinduism, the ascetic Buddhism and Jainism as well as modern Hinduism. There was a moderate treatment in these sections treating Islam and its impact on what was then previously Hindu India.

In the section on Society and politics, there are very contemporary,scholarly perspectives on caste and women's education in India. However, the concept of the Spiritual self in Indian psychology seemed too Eurocentric in its treatments and did not seem to grasp the original concept of "self" as presented by Indian masters.

The sections on Science and Technology, Performing Arts, Ma of modern India and Identify and displore were excellent, readable whilst simultaneously being scholarly.

One obvious omission in the book is the fact that the address of all of the authors are not given in the first few pages, a tradition that is generally kept in edited books. Secondly, some sections take a western perspective on Modern Hinduism, thus examining it from the framework of organized religions which can lead to guest masters like Shirdi Sai Baba and Ramana Mahanshi not getting proportionate importance. Of course Ramakrishna Paramhams and Mahatma Gandhi have received extensive coverage.

The material covered in this book could easily have been expanded into several volumes. A reader will find one place where an introduction to many of the topics can be obtained. Despite minor shortcomings, an excellent addition to any library or personal collections.