This collection of essays features a significant selection of the specialized fields of knowledge that have shaped classical South Asian intellectual history, focusing on the different and complex processes employed during the 'invention', construction, preservation and renewal of a given tradition."

The essays presented in this volume constitute a progression from general considerations related to the 'ethic' (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 included into a broader comparative discussion, also in order to increase the quality and the depth of such debate.