Himanshu Prabha Ray (born 15 August 1947) is an Indian Sanskrit scholar and historian.
Ray is a recipient of the Anneliese Maier research award of the Humboldt Foundation for collaborative research with the Distant Worlds Programme and an Honorary Professor of the Distant Worlds Programme, Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.
She has also served as a professor in the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.
[2][3] Ray notes, most of the historians focus on political dynasties of medieval South Asia and have neglected the history of the sea.
In her recent project focusing on Indian coastal belt from Goa to Mangalore wherein, she intends to study the history of the sea through the historical monuments dated back to European time.