Description

Despite the great geographical distance
Indians and Hungarians, visiting each
others country often experienced a
feeling of congeniality or kindredship
This small book tries to analyse the
historic background and origins of
these feelings and attempts a factual
survey of the efforts of Hungarian
scholars, writers and artists to
understand India, Indian literatures,
arts and religions. Besides giving a
detailed history of Indian studies in
Hungary, well documented with the
help of a rich bibliographical selection
of books and papers from the
beginning of modern Indian studies up-
to recent times, the book tries to show
the intellectual background to these
works, specially by surveying those
works of the Hungarian literature
which relate to India in their subject
or philosophical content. Due
consideration is given to contacts in
the world of art as well. A separate
section gives an almost complete
bibliography of Indian literary works
translated into Hungarian.The extraordinary and colourful traditions of Indian literature, philosophy, religion and art have always attracted the imagination of the Hungarian public. Some of the enthusiasts managed to come to India and a few of them even settled here
for good. All the travellers who visited India were expected to give an account of their experiences, but many of the scholars,journalists or literary people, who wrote on India without seeing
the country, were compelled to collect their materials from libraries and secondary sources. In any case, the interest of the public had to be satisfied, and the publishers knew that books
on India (travelogues, art books, books on yoga, etc.) had a ready sale in Hungary. This interest has grown even more in
the last 30 years, during which a wide audience in Hungary had opportunities to see visiting Indian music and dance troupes and exhibitions of contemporary Indian artists, and many Hungarians had the opportunity to visit India.