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Charles Coleman, The mythology of the Hindus / with notices of various mountain and island tribes, inhabiting the two peninsulas of India and the neighbouring islands; and an appendix, comprising the minor avatars, and the mythological and religious terms, etc., etc., of the Hindus. With plates, illustrative of the principal Hindu deities, &c. By Charles Coleman, London: Parbury, Allen, 1832

xviii pages, 1 unnumbered leaf, 401 pages, 1 unnumbered leaf, 39 plates including frontispiece (including detailed depictions of deities such as Kali, Durga, and Ganesha; Jain and Buddhist figures; ritual objects; and mythological tableaux), and several after drawings by W. Clerk, lithographed by Dean & Munday; later full green morocco-backed cloth boards, the upper cover gilt-stamped with symbolic figures, spine with gilt lettering and decorative rules, renewed endpapers.
29.5 x 23.5 cm

A COLONIAL SURVEY OF HINDU ICONOGRAPHY: CHARLES COLEMAN’S MYTHOLOGY OF THE HINDUS, 1832

This rare early illustrated study, The Mythology of the Hindus, represents one of the first English attempts to synthesise Hindu religious beliefs for a Western readership, combining textual narrative with finely executed engraved plates. Coleman draws extensively on Indian sculptural sources, manuscripts, and living ritual practice, illustrated here in detailed engraved plates illustrating key deities (including Kali in her fearsome iconography, Durga slaying Mahishasura, and Ganesha) and sacred paraphernalia used in worship. It also explores Jain and Buddhist artistic traditions and includes a valuable appendix explaining mythological and religious terminology.

Coleman, a Calcutta-based writer and orientalist, drew from both textual sources and local informants to present a compendium intended to inform Western readers of India’s religious complexity. Although inevitably reflecting the colonial gaze of its era, the book remains a crucial reference in the study of nineteenth-century representations of Hindu religion, particularly for its fine engravings and for having been published at a time when such systematic pictorial works were rare. Institutional collections such as the British Library and the Bodleian Library hold copies of this edition, which continues to be cited in scholarly studies of Hindu iconography and early European Indology.

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