Our Community
With the wealth and breadth of the American Institute of Indian Studies built over more than 50 years, we have great stories to share. Select from our profiles below.
| Place of Research | Hotels, Paying Guest Accommodations, Guest Houses | Restaurants, Doctors, Pharmacies, Book Stores | Archives, Libraries, Museums | Research Assistants, Translators | Contact |
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| Agra | Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Ajmer | Hotel KC Inn | Mango Masala (a two-sided restaurant, offering both veg and non-veg) has great Indian and Western food, including brick-oven pizzas. | Brian Cannon bcannon@sas.upenn.edu Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Aligarh | Roy Bar Sadeh rb3159@columbia.edu |
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| Amritsar | Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Bangalore | |||||
| Bengaluru | Jamun Guest House | Harshita Mruthinti Kamath harshita.kamath@emory.edu |
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| Bikaner | Hotel Raj Haveli | Brian Cannon bcannon@sas.upenn.edu |
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| Chandigarh | AC Joshi Library in Chandigarh—while their manuscript collection is well known, their digitization program is new, and the current librarian is very helpful. I was also able to procure digital PDFs of texts for no charge. | Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Chennai | Hotel Saverra in Chennai for short stays. | Tamil Nadu Archives | |||
| Cochin | |||||
| Deoband | Roy Bar Sadeh rb3159@columbia.edu |
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| Dharamsala | Eco Homes, Jogiwara | Tibetan Doctors at the Tibetan medical institute (Men-Tsee Khang), most importantly Dr Tsewang Tamding. Doctors at Delek Hospital. Illiterati to read and write and work from. | Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA) – has a significant collection of both Tibetan and English books, journals, periodicals about Tibet, the Tibetan people and the experience of exile. | ||
| Faridkot | Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Hyderabad | University of Hyderabad was a helpful partner. I will note that they require a $200 affiliation fee. (Andrew Flachs) Oriental Manuscripts Library in Osmania University; Telangana State Archives (Harshita Mruthinti Kamath) | I recruited Telugu speaking research assistants through the University of Hyderabad and my contact, George Tharakan. | Andrew Flachs aflachs@gmail.com Harshita Mruthinti Kamath harshita.kamath@emory.edu |
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| Jaipur | Air B&B (Manpreet Kaur) | The Fortis hospital on JLN Marg has a reliable emergency room and good outpatient clinics (many of which offer walk-in appointments); Anokhi Café and On the House are favorite eateries, particularly if you are craving non-Indian food! | Brian Cannon bcannon@sas.upenn.edu Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Jodhpur | Air B&B (Manpreet Kaur) | Rajasthani Granthagar is a wonderful academic bookshop (particularly for books in Hindi and Rajasthani), with an extremely knowledgeable staff well-connected to other Indian publishers and academics. For dental work, Dr. Nitin Mirdha (clinic near Nehru Park) is very competent and runs a spotlessly clean facility. | Brian Cannon bcannon@sas.upenn.edu Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Khem Karan | Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Kochi, Kerala | D'Homz Suites in Kadavanthra | Too many to list -- Kadavanthra and Panampilly Nagar are excellent neighborhoods | Ajay Abraham Verghese ajayv@ucr.edu |
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| Kolkata | I was lucky to find a comfortable two-bedroom accommodation in Jodhpur Park via Air B&B, which was very conducive to my travel to the various archives that I needed to work in. | College Street is the place to go for books. | The Jatindra Mohan Collection is a jewel of a collection for the study of Sylheti materials. It is less well-known, and is located at Jadavpur Vidyapitha in the National Council of Education. The person to contact there is Maya Bhattacharjee, the daughter of the collector, Jatindra Mohan Bhattacharjee. Her contact number is: 9831036967. | Roy Bar Sadeh rb3159@columbia.edu |
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| Lucknow | Kelsey Utne kju3@cornell.edu Roy Bar Sadeh |
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| Manipur | (Imphal and Kangpokpi/Senapati Districts) Vinod and Vandana host an AirBnB in Defence Colony in Delhi, not far from the AIIS office, that I highly recommend. It is a small, detached room from the rest of their home, and they are absolutely fabulous hosts. I think it would be a wonderful accommodation for future AIIS scholars, and I recommend getting in touch with them directly to see if perhaps you can coordinate something. Vinod +91-9891335569, vinod_mohindra2002@yahoo.com Vandana +91-9560708186 Hotel Classic Grande, though a bit pricey, is my go-to hotel when I have needed to stay in Imphal for a night or two. It is also the place I booked for my family when they came to visit me in the village. Rooms are excellent, as is the service and in-house restaurant. Address: Chingmeirong Rd, Chingmeirong, Imphal, Manipur 795010 Phone: 0385 242 1663 | Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) Dr. Narayan Choudhary Assistant Director (Admin), i/c, LJRO, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, Government of India, Manasgangotri, Mysore - 570006 PH: 0821-2345007; 0821-2345092 ada-ciilmys@gov.in | Patrick McDonough | ||
| Naraina | Temple guest houses | The Dadupanthi temple itself stores several manuscripts and they can be accessed through permission of the head priest. Again, while the temple is well known, no comprehensive catalogue of these manuscripts is published, and for someone working on devotional traditions in north India, this would be a great place to visit. | Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| New Delhi | BloomRooms Jangpura; I have been quite successful using Airbnb to find longer term accommodations in South Delhi; it is worth browsing around, reading reviews carefully, and also taking the recommendations of friends/colleagues who have stayed in the past. (Brian Cannon) | Bahri Sons (Khan Market) and Amrit Book Company (Connaught Place) are great for academic books in English. Smoke House Deli (Khan Market) and Gulati (Pandara RoadMarket) are great for Western and Mughlai food, respectively. Andhra Bhavan (near the National Archives) serves a wonderful veg thali; non-veg is also available. (Brian Cannon) East West Medical Centre; Swiggy (for food delivery from many area restaurants) (Kelsey Utne) For work meetings, I found that the library canteens of Nehru Memorial and IGNCA in Delhi were quiet and cheap. I also liked the food in nearby Andhra Bhavan (they have a set lunch menu). For more formal meetings, I used the cafes in Khan Market (Longitude Cafe on the top floor of Good Earth, Cafe Turtle, L’opera) were my preferred choices, since they do not play loud music. (Manpreet Kaur) The Moolchand in Delhi (Roy Bar Sadeh) | Delhi State Archives (Kelsey Utne) The Iran Culture House in Delhi has a digitization wing called the Noor center, where they have started collecting digitized copies of Persian manuscripts from educational institutions at places like Aligarh, Agra, Hyderabad, as well as from private collections. It is a comparatively lesser known reference point than IGNCA for starting manuscript work, and it proved very useful for me. (Manpreet Kaur) The Jamia Millia Islamia Library is amazing, holding various unknown materials in Urdu and Arabic from the nineteenth century to our contemporary times (the staff is also very friendly).(Roy Bar Sadeh) | Brian Cannon bcannon@sas.upenn.edu. Kelsey Utne kju3@cornell.edu Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu Roy Bar Sadeh rb3159@columbia.edu |
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| Patiala | Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Pondicherry | Contact Mrs. Prerana Patel at EFEO for recommendations. Hotel Sri Kamatchi, Pondicherry | Very interesting Tamil publications. The EFEO/IFP publications are also worth checking out , and the price in rupees is considerably cheaper than the one in euros. | The Pondicherry Archives, French Institute Library Jesuit Archives (Shenbaganur), The person in charge changes often but they have a website that is useful to find the contact number: archivesj.in. | ||
| Rampur | Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu Roy Bar Sadeh |
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| Sermapore | |||||
| Sheikhsar | Temple guest houses | Manpreet Kaur mk3674@columbia.edu |
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| Sitamau | Brian Cannon bcannon@sas.upenn.edu. |
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| Tallapaka | Harshita Mruthinti Kamath harshita.kamath@emory.edu |
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| Thanjavur | The Thanjavur District Records Office | ||||
| Tharnagambadi | |||||
| Tirupati | Pai Viceroy Hotel | SV Museum, Tirumala; Oriental Research Institute, SV University | Harshita Mruthinti Kamath harshita.kamath@emory.edu |
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| Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand Char Dham sites | The Birla Mangal Nivas is a comfortable place to stay in Gangotri. | I would highly recommend a taxi driver who is based in Uttarkashi, but I also used him to travel to the Char Dham sites. He is a very trustworthy driver to use on the road. His name is Narendra and he has 3 taxis, with other good drivers. His phone numbers are: 8954542294 and 9456766310. | I used a research assistant in Uttarkashi who was recommended to me by Georgina Drew. I pass on the recommendation. His name is Dr. Jayhari Srivastava; mobile/Whatsapp number is +91 81713 87837. | David L. Haberman dhaberma@indiana.edu |
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| Varanasi | UP State Archives in Varanasi | Kelsey Utne kju3@cornell.edu |