60-second revision
- Indica — Megasthenes (Greek envoy to Chandragupta Maurya); Arthashastra — Kautilya.
- Rajatarangini — Kalhana (Kashmir, 12th century); Harshacharita — Banabhatta.
- Mudrarakshasa — Vishakhadatta; Mrichchhakatika — Shudraka.
- Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari — Abul Fazl; Humayun-nama — Gulbadan Begum.
- Hind Swaraj — Gandhi, in Gujarati, 1909; Gita Rahasya — Tilak, in Mandalay jail.
- Poverty and Un-British Rule in India — Dadabhai Naoroji (drain theory).
- Neel Darpan — Dinabandhu Mitra (indigo planters); Anandamath — Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
- Godan — Premchand; The Discovery of India — Nehru, written in Ahmednagar Fort.
How to remember books
Group books by era and attach each to a person you already know from history. A chronicle is usually by a courtier of that ruler; a foreign account is usually by an envoy or traveller of that period. Most traps put two authors of the same era or the same court side by side, so learn the pairs together.
Ancient India
| Work | Author | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Arthashastra | Kautilya (Chanakya) | Treatise on statecraft |
| Indica | Megasthenes | Greek envoy of Seleucus at Chandragupta Maurya's court |
| Ashtadhyayi | Panini | Sanskrit grammar |
| Natyashastra | Bharata Muni | Dramaturgy, music and dance |
| Abhijnanashakuntalam, Meghaduta, Raghuvamsha | Kalidasa | Gupta-era poet and dramatist |
| Mudrarakshasa | Vishakhadatta | Political drama on Chanakya and Chandragupta |
| Mrichchhakatika | Shudraka | The Little Clay Cart |
| Harshacharita | Banabhatta | Biography of Harshavardhana |
| Rajatarangini | Kalhana | Chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, 12th century |
| Gita Govinda | Jayadeva | Lyrical poem on Radha and Krishna |
Medieval India
| Work | Author | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Kitab-ul-Hind | Al-Biruni | Came with Mahmud of Ghazni; studied Indian science and society |
| Rihla | Ibn Battuta | Moroccan traveller at Muhammad bin Tughlaq's court |
| Baburnama (Tuzuk-i-Baburi) | Babur | Memoir in Chagatai Turkic |
| Humayun-nama | Gulbadan Begum | Babur's daughter, written at Akbar's request |
| Akbarnama, Ain-i-Akbari | Abul Fazl | Official history of Akbar; Ain-i-Akbari is its third volume |
| Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh | Badauni | Critical history of Akbar's reign |
| Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri | Jahangir | Memoir of Jahangir |
| Padmavat | Malik Muhammad Jayasi | Awadhi epic poem |
| Ramcharitmanas | Tulsidas | Ramayana in Awadhi |
| Prithviraj Raso | Chand Bardai | Poem on Prithviraj Chauhan |
| Amuktamalyada | Krishnadevaraya | Telugu poem by the Vijayanagara king |
Freedom movement writings
| Work | Author | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Neel Darpan | Dinabandhu Mitra | Bengali play on indigo planters, around 1860 |
| Anandamath | Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay | 1882 novel; source of Vande Mataram |
| Poverty and Un-British Rule in India | Dadabhai Naoroji | 1901; drain of wealth theory |
| The Economic History of India | R.C. Dutt | Economic critique of British rule |
| Hind Swaraj | M.K. Gandhi | Written in Gujarati, 1909, aboard the ship Kildonan Castle |
| The Story of My Experiments with Truth | M.K. Gandhi | Autobiography, written in Gujarati |
| Gita Rahasya | B.G. Tilak | Marathi; written in Mandalay jail, Burma |
| Annihilation of Caste | B.R. Ambedkar | 1936 |
| Why I Am an Atheist | Bhagat Singh | Essay written in jail |
| The Discovery of India | Jawaharlal Nehru | Written in Ahmednagar Fort, 1944 |
| Glimpses of World History | Jawaharlal Nehru | Letters from prison to Indira |
| India Wins Freedom | Maulana Abul Kalam Azad | Autobiographical account |
Modern Indian literature
| Work | Author |
|---|---|
| Gitanjali | Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel Prize, 1913) |
| Godan, Gaban | Premchand |
| Kamayani | Jaishankar Prasad |
| Malgudi Days, The Guide | R.K. Narayan |
| Untouchable, Coolie | Mulk Raj Anand |
| Train to Pakistan | Khushwant Singh |
| Wings of Fire | A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (with Arun Tiwari) |
| Midnight's Children | Salman Rushdie (Booker, 1981) |
| The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy (Booker, 1997) |
| The Inheritance of Loss | Kiran Desai (Booker, 2006) |
| The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga (Booker, 2008) |
| Tomb of Sand (Ret Samadhi) | Geetanjali Shree (International Booker, 2022) |
World classics
| Work | Author |
|---|---|
| The Republic | Plato |
| The Prince | Niccolo Machiavelli |
| The Social Contract | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
| The Wealth of Nations (1776) | Adam Smith |
| Das Kapital | Karl Marx |
| On the Origin of Species (1859) | Charles Darwin |
| War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy |
| Unto This Last | John Ruskin (Gandhi paraphrased it in Gujarati as Sarvodaya) |
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