'Boundaries, Dynamics and Construction of Traditions in South Asia' explores the dynamic constructions and applications of the concept of 'tradition' within the South Asian context during the ancient and precolonial periods. This collection of essays covers a significant selection of the specialized fields of knowledge that have shaped classical South Asian intellectual history, offering a stimulating array of papers on the different and complex processes employed during the 'invention', construction, preservation and renewal of a given tradition.

To that end, the contributors have...

The essays presented in this volume constitute a progression from general considerations related to the 'etic' (in the geertzian sense of the word) approach to South Asian cultural productions, to peculiar and detailed investigations of them. Such a sequence is meant to develop a renovated and systemic approach, through which these specific cultural materials should be interpreted: materials not to be read in isolation, nor with an overemphasised concern for cultural relativity. Rather, they should be viewed as meaningful examples of sophisticated intellectual and cultural procedures to be...