Thomas Maurice
'The History of Hindostan'

'The History of Hindostan'
First Edition of Early Printed Book on Indian History
The History of Hindostan by Thomas Maurice
Its arts, and its sciences, as connected with the history of the other great empires of Asia, during the most ancient periods of the world, with numerous illustrated engravings
First Edition, 4to, Vol. I - 577(i) pp, Vol. II - xix, (iii), 705,(iii) pp, Contemporary half leather over marbled boards, recently rebacked.
Thomas Maurice (1754-1824) published numerous works on the religion of India. After he had completed his extensive Indian Antiquities he traced Indian history back to its classical origins. Volume I mainly gives ancient astronomical details from the Hindoo, Hebraic, Phoenician, Egyptian and Greek systems, covering the period between the creation and the flood. Volume II contains the Sanskrit and classical history of India. The imaginative curious plates are showing the Indian Deities (incarnations of Veeshnu, Creeshna etc.) but also the ancient zodiac from Egypt, oriental zodiac, the 28 Hindoo lunar mansions. The plates are mainly facsimiles of the mythological designs and as Maurice says in his advertisement Absurd as some of them may appear to an European eye it appeared still more absurd attempt to make any alterations in them, Title in gilt on spine.Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. Cleveland Row, St. James, for The Author and Sold by R. Faulder.
Size: 20.3 x 25.4 cm (8.2 x 10.2 inches)
Fine Condition
Provenance:

Keywords: India, Indian colonial, Early Printed Book, Indian History