About the Library

The Library of Indology and Indonesian Studies has around 12,000 volumes, mostly in foreign languages, mainly English, German, Russian, and French, and a few in Italian and Nordic languages. A substantial part of the collection consists of publications in Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Tamil, Pali, Indonesian, Urdu and others. Czech books in the library collection are either translations from Asian languages or books by Czech Indologists. Textbooks whose authors have been or are still teaching in the Indology Seminar are also an integral part of the collection. 

The predecessor and also the foundation of the Indology Library was the library of the “Seminar für Indologie und Ethnologie der Deutschen Universität in Prague“, which was part of the German part of Charles University and where Asian languages were originally taught. In 1945, the “Library of the Indological Seminar of Charles University” was established at the Faculty of Arts. Books from this period are unique not only because they were published in the 19^th century and often have beautiful period illustrations, but are usually the only copies in the country. The library has continued to expand with book donations from teachers who have purchased books on their travels to India and then donated them to the library. Books from grants and the estates of leading Czech Indologists also form an important part of the collection. 

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