Sushil Kumar Saxena (b. 1921) is widely known today as a scholar who has shown the way to look at Indian music, rhythm, and dance in the way of contemporary Western aesthetics. As a professor of philosophy at Delhi University, he distinguished himself with his very first book, Studies in the Metaphysics of Bradley (1967) published by George Allen & Unwin, London, and Humanities Press, New York, in their prestigious Muirhead Library series of philosophical works.

Dr Saxena introduced the teaching of aesthetics at Delhi University in 1964; and, since his retirement in 1986, has published a steady stream of scholarly papers in internationally reputed journals through the 1970s and 80s. What is more, he has produced six books on Hindustani music, rhythm and Kathak dance, besides a work on philosophy of religion, Ever Unto God: Essays on Gandhi and Religion (1988). His latest book is Hindustani Sangeet: Some Perspectives, Some Performers (Sangeet Natak Akademi, and D.K. Printworld 2010).

For all this scholarly work, Prof. Saxena has been honoured by Sangeet Natak Akademi with its Annual Award (2007) and its fellowship in 2008. He was bestowed the state honour, Padma Bhushan, also in 2008.

Dr S. P. Gupta (1931-2007) had been the Chairman of Indian Archaeological Society, New Delhi. A distinguished archaeologist and an art historian, Dr Gupta had been awarded several gold medals and the Sir Mortimer Wheeler Prize for excellence in archaeology. He had worked and lectured in more than 30 countries of the world. He had authored a number of books including Disposal of the Dead and Physical Types in Ancient India (1971); Tourism, Museums and Monuments (1975); Archaeology of Soviet Central Asia and the Indian Borderlands - two volumes (1978); The Roots of Indian Art (1980) - the French edition of which was published in 1990; The Indus Saraswati Civilization (1996); Elements of Indian Art (2002) and Cultural Tourism in India (2002). He had also edited many books and published about 50 articles in various national and international journals and books.

Dilip K. Chakrabarti is University lecturer in south Asian archaeology at Cambridge University. His recent publications include Archaeological Geography of the Ganga Plain: the Lower and the Middle Ganga  (Delhi 2001) and The Archaeology of European Expansion in India: Gujarat, c. 16th-18th Centuries (in Press). His current field-research programmes include a historical geographical study of the upper Ganga plain and a similar study of the routes, which linked the Ganga plain with the Deccan.

Thomas Dahnhardt (Ph.D.), a scholar dedicated to exploring the contact between Islamic and Hindu spirituality over centuries of their co-existence, is currently a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and a lecturer of Urdu literature and the Islamic civilisation on the Indian subcontinent at Venice University.

Ms. Krishna Lal, formerly Keeper National Museum, New Delhi, has served as Advisor for Documentation and Cataloguing Art Objects in the Indira Gandhi Centre for Arts. She has contributed research articles to various journals and authored the book, Bidri Collection in the National Museum, New Delhi (1990) and co-authored the work, Tourism, Museums and Monuments in India (1975).

Mrs. Mahua Bhattacharyya, M.A. in archaeology, is at present associated with the Indian Archaeological Society to create awareness about the country's cultural heritage through the Society's educational activities. She is currently also engaged in a doctoral thesis on pilgrimage tourism in India. She has, to her credit, a diploma in Mass Communications as well.

Dr. Shashi Prabha Asthana(1947-1997), an expert in ancient Indian history and archaeology, won a number of prestigious scholarships and fellowships like the Bursary Merit Scholarship, Commonwealth Scholarship and British Institute Fellowship to visit and work in the UK, the USA, Japan, Iraq, Iran, France, Germany and other countries. She has authored several monographs and catalogues including History and Archaeology of India's Contacts with other Countries from earliest times to 300 BC (1976), Pre-Harappan Cultures of India and its Borderlands (1985), Mathura Kala (2000), Indian Art through the Ages and Indian Bronzes.

V.K. Sharma, Agra University's Ph.D (History) is a reputed scholar with varied academic and research concerns - which are abundantly reflected in his writings. Besides the co-authorship of Terracotta Catalogue of Mathura Museum (published in AD 2000) and his numerous presentations at regional/national/international seminars and conferences, he has published articles on varying themes in different print media and has, in addition, produced biographical profiles of eminent Indian personalities for certain reputed journals as well as books. Currently, he is working on "The History of Mathura" - a project whereupon he has already expended over a decade-long research effort.

Having taught at several colleges affiliated to the universities of Panjab and Agra for about thirty-five years, Dr Sharma retired as Head, Department of History, K.R. Post-Graduate College, Mathura.

Nrusingh Charan Panda is the 1929-born 'Scientist Emeritus' - having retired from the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, as Professor and Dean of the Veterinary Faculty. Notwithstanding his specialization in Nutritional Biochemistry - with M.Sc and Ph.D degrees of the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA, Dr. Panda is essentially a versatile personality, combining in him the endowments of a scientist, a Sanskritist, a philosopher, and a litterateur. And his achievements have been recognized, at different times, with a number of prestigious awards/honours, like the Membership of America's Gamma Sigma Delta Society, Orissa's Sahitya Academy Award and Sarala Award.

Internationally reputed for his scientific interpretations of Vedic literature, Professor Panda has also authored the widely acclaimed books: Maya in Physics and The Vibrating Universe. His is at once integral, synthetic, holistic approach.

Prof. P. George Victor (born: 1953), Professor of Philosophy, and Founder Director, Centre for Religious Studies, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam has been teaching Sankara Vedanta, and Western Philosophy for the post-graduate students for more than two decades.

He has participated in many seminars in India and abroad. He has organized the 'First National Seminar on Teaching Philosophy in India' in association with the editors of Teaching Philosophy journal, USA sponsored by ICPR during March 1998. His major published works include 'Social Philosophy of Vedanta', 'Life and Teachings of Adi Sankaracarya' and 'Moral Science'.

Dr. S.D.A. Joga Rao (born: 1953), Associate Professor of Philosophy, Andhra University, took his Ph. D. Degree from Andhra University, which is adjudged as the best thesis of the year. During his research period he had the prestigious Indian National Science Academy Fellowship. Basically he is interested in Philosophy of Science and Indian Philosophy.

Dr. Joga Rao participated in the World Congress of Holistic Medicine, sponsored by WHO, held at Colombo in 1983. He has to his credit, several research articles and two books: 'Science and Indian Philosophy' and 'Buddhism and Peace' (ed.)

Swami Tattvavidananda Saraswati, sannyasi-scholar, honoured with the title 'Vidya Nidhi' by Sri Sankaracarya of Pushpagiri Matha, is an acclaimed teacher of the Vedas and the Vedantic literature, the Sanskrit language and the Epics, who has discoursed on the subject to various national and international audiences and conducted courses in gurukulas. He is also the author of several books in English and Telugu including Science of Krishna Yajurveda and numerous articles on Hindu philosophy.

Ardy Verhaegen is an independent scholar and writer with special interests in the lives of outstanding spiritual figures and contemplative spiritual practices. He has served as a teacher in residence at the world-famous Esalen Institute, lectured at a number of universities and colleges, and continues his writing, teaching, consulting and coaching work in the areas of spirituality, personal human development and life transitions.

Ardy may be contacted at:

averhaegen@kw.igs.net

Dr. Surendra Singh Yadav is a Professor in the Department of Management Studies at IIT Delhi. He holds a B.Tech degree from IIT Kanpur. He did his MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University and obtained his PhD from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, Paris.

He wrote "Krishna Arjuna Samvada" in Paris where he stayed for six years. He has written several books and papers in Hindi, English and French.

K.S. Prasad is a Reader in the Department of Philosophy, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, specialises in Nyaya. He obtained his Ph.D. in Indian epistemology and is teaching Indian Philosophy since 1984. Apart from teaching courses on Indian Philosophy, he has been actively participating in seminars and workshops. Besides, he has published few scholarly papers on Indian philosophy in renowned journals.

G.P. Singh, Prof. of History at the University of Manipur, Imphal, has researched different aspects of ancient Indian history and culture over the past three decades. He has contributed numerous papers to national and international journals. His works that include The Kiratas in Ancient India: A Historical Study of their Life, Culture and Civilisation; Political Thought in Ancient India; Early Indian Historical Tradition and Archaeology; Republics, Kingdoms, Towns and Cities in Ancient India; and Ancient Indian Historiography, have won the acclaim of scholars in the field. In 1989, Dr. Singh was elected the Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London. He has been recently nominated a member of Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi.

Arthur E. Falk did his M.A. at Yale University, USA in 1962 and obtained Ph.D. from the same university in 1965. Earlier he had the distinction of being a Woodrow Wilsion Fellow and a Junior Sterling Fellow at Yale during 1960-62 and in 1964 respectively. He has been teaching at Western Michigan University since 1966 and was elevated to the post of Professor of Philosophy in 1977.

A Visiting Professor in Indiana University, USA in 1968, Dr. Falk was a Fulbright Visiting Professor in Jadavpur University, where he lectured and taught for 10 months. Recently he lectured at Utkal University as a Visiting Professor.

An expert in Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Mind, Professor Falk's other areas of interest include Logic and Moral Philosophy.

Klaus Seeland is a reputed political scientist and sociologist who has been researching in South Asia on socio-cultural aspects of forests, comparative studies in resource management, perception and local knowledge for over twenty years now. Currently, he is Senior Lecturer at the Chair of Forest Policy and Forest Economics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, and Reader in sociology at the University of Konstanz, Germany.

Franz Schmithusen, Professor of Forest Policy and Forest Economics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) since 1984, is an eminent scholar with varied research concerns that include law and public administration, land tenure and utilisation rights, and combined resources and management systems.

Nityananda Patnaik (b. 1927), formerly Director of Anthropology, National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), is a scholar of wide renown and established author.  In earlier years of his career, he taught anthropology at Utkal University and had also been a fellow of the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.

Currently, Dr Patnaik is involved in various activities of the Social Science and Development Research Institute (SSADRI) which he set up at Bhubaneswar after his retirement from government service.

Narayan Chandra Saha, at present Reader in History, Maulana Azad College, Kolkata, has contributed several research papers and articles to noted academic journals and magazines in English all well as Bengali. He has devoted years to the study of the emergence, growth and contribution of the Marwari community in Eastern India establishing himself as a specialist on the subject.

Corrado Puchetti (Padova, 1963) is participating in field research in India since 1986. After graduating in Hindi from the faculty of Eastern Languages at Ca 'Foscari' University in Venice with a thesis on Indian alchemy, he has been collaborating with the Kampilya project in India under the patronage of the Venetian Academy of Indian Studies. The completion of his Ph.D. thesis on the History and Archaeology of the Kampiliya Region, at the Banaras Hindu University has engaged him for the last three years.

Krishna Ghosh has a B.A. and M.A. in Sanskrit and an M.Litt. and Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Delhi. She has travelled widely and has lived in several Buddhist countries.  She has been closely associated with the Tibetan community in exile for more than thirty years. Krishna Ghosh has lectured and taught Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Indian religion and Buddhism at many universities and religious centres in Europe, Asia and America.

Mandakranta Bose, Professor Emerita, and till her retirement Director of the Centre for South Asia and India Research, at the University of British Columbia, has made the Sanskrit tradition of dance and theatre arts the subject of her lifelong study. She has published major studies in the field, including Classical Indian Dancing: A Glossary, Speaking of Dance: The Indian Critique, and critical editions of Sanskrit texts on music and dance. Her interests also comprise gender issues and Ramayana studies, represented by Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval and Modern India, The Ramayana Culture, and The Ramayana Revisited. Dr Bose is a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain.

Swami Muni Narayana Prasad is the Guru and Head of Narayana Gurukula, a guru-disciple foundation open to all, irrespective of caste, creed, gender, religion or nation, aimed at promoting the Science of the Absolute (Brahma-vidya) as restated by Narayana Guru. A disciple of Nataraja Guru and Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati, he has travelled widely teaching Indian philosophy. He has authored around seventy-five books in the Malayalam language. His English books are: commentaries on the Isha Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya Taittiriya, Aitareya and Chandogya Upanishads, Vedanta Sutras and Darshanamala of Narayana Guru, Three Acaryas and Narayana Guru, Karma and Reincarnation, Basic Lessons on India's Wisdom, The Philosophy of Narayana Guru, Life's Pilgrimage Through the Gita, Collected Works of Narayana Guru, Narayanasmritih, and Natural Philosophy for Youth.

Iravati, a scholar who has specialised in the field of ancient Indian theatre, has written a number of research articles on the subject for various journals. Several plays penned by her have been staged and admired, the latest one based on the life of poet Kabir and tiltled Moko Kahan Dhundhe Re Bande. She has been honoured by Samskar Bharati for her contributions to histrionic art. Currently she heads the Department of Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology in Vasanta College for Women, Krishnamurti Foundation (India), Varanasi.

Debasish Chakrabarty coordinates the Science and Liberal Arts Department at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He is pursuing his doctoral research in Semiotics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Nataraja Guru is the disciple-successor of Narayana Guru (1854-1928), whose dialectical revaluation and restatement of Sankaracarya's Advaita Vedanta conformed for the first time to the requirements of a normative or experimental science, to the extent that will probably ever be possible. Sankara himself may be said to be a continuator of Vyasa, who in his turn revised and restated the wisdom of the Upanishads as understood in his time. Nataraja Guru is thus a representative of the same pure, direct and vertical line of succession of philosophical revaluators extending back through time to the most ancient phase of the recorded history of human thought. The Guru may thus be seen to be uniquely qualified to undertake the present work, which he did at the instance of Narayana Guru himself.

Sent by Narayana Guru to study in the West, Nataraja Guru was awarded the D. Lit. degree from the University of Paris. In 1923 he established the Narayana Gurukula, with headquarters at Varkala in Kerala State, a Guru-disciple foundation which welcomes all who seek the wisdom of the Absolute in open and living terms. The Guru has translated into English and commented on all of the major works of Narayana Guru, and has written on a wide variety of subjects, employing throughout a protolinguistic or structural approach which could be said to be his unique contribution to the perennial wisdom heritage of mankind.

T.N. Mishra, a scholar with varied specialised interests, is Assistant Curator, Bharat Kala Bhawan: the prestigious Museum of Art and Archaeology, at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi. Awarded Ph.D., in 1978, by BHU, for his research study on 'Ancient Indian Bricks', he had also taught at two of this university's affiliated colleges, before opting for a career in museology.

Apart from about half-a-dozen books that include Company School of Painting in Varanasi (in Hindi), Westernization of Indian Art, and Impact of Tantra on Religion and Art, Dr. Mishra has published numerous articles in different journals on a range of themes from Indian art and archaeology.

Shivaji K Panikkar teaches at the Department of Art History and Aesthetics, M.S. University of Baroda. He is the author of Saptamatrka Worship and Sculpture: An Iconological Interpretation of Conflicts and Resolution in the 'Storied' Brahmanical Icons, Twentieth Century Indian Sculpture: Last Two Decades (ed) and the exhibition catalogue Creative Process: Tangible Realities, Concrete Myths are among his publications. He is presently engaged in writing on art developments in Madras since the 1940s.

Parul Dave Mukherji teaches at the Department of Art History and Aesthetics, M.S. University of Baroda. She has done her doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. Her publications include the translation of The Citrasutra of the Visnudharmotara Purana. Her current area of work is on visuality in early Indian art.

Deeptha Achar teaches at the Department of English, M. S University Baroda. She has worked on representations of Africa in popular boys' fiction of the late nineteenth century Britain for her Ph.D dissertation. Her current research interests center around education and childhood in India and she is currently engaged in a project entitled 'Educational Policies and Gender: The Case of Gujarat'.

T.R.R. Iyengar, with keen interest in Hindu mythology, religion and philosophy, is a freelance journalist who has published scholarly articles on various aspects of ancient Hindu thought and culture. Apart from contributions to the Encyclopaedia of Hinduism, he is known for his well-compiled The Hindu Mythological Dictionary and the work, Hinduism and Scientific Quest.

Kanoko Tanaka, born in 1964 and a Ph.D. from the University of Delhi, is an eminent scholar and a member of the International Institute for the Study of Religion, Tokyo, who has devoted more than a decade to studying the methodology and practice of religious studies. Her papers on Buddhist art and comparative religion have been appreciated in academic societies and institutes all over the world. She has won special acclaim for her elaborate theories of 'the stupa-art', 'the vedika-design', 'the stepped-pyramidal motifs' and 'the empty throne' in early Buddhist art, which were first presented by her at the XXIXth International Congress of the History of Art, 'Memory and Oblivion', held in Amsterdam in 1996.

Dr. L. Thara Bhai, Ph.D., has been associated with the International Sociological Association as Vice President of RC22 and is a member of the Managing Committee of the Indian Sociological Association. She has specialised in religion and state, women's studies and gerontology and her research works include Woman in New Professions and Status of Widows in Contemporary Tamil Nadu.

Dr. Jyotsna Maurya, a scholar of repute, specialises in aspects of ancient Indian culture like trade routes, microliths, rock-cut caves and beads. A prolific writer, she holds the prestigious position of Director of the National Ecology and Environment Foundation, Mumbai.

Dr. Rekha Jain, is a brilliant product of the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics, Bombay, where she has also been a faculty member for some time.

Dr. Krishna Kanta Handique is a reputed scholar of Sanskrit and folk literature who has presented research papers and represented the country in world conferences. His published works are Dvatrishaputtalika, Nagananda, Drama by Shriharsha, Uduyana: Vasavadutta and Bohe Brahmadaka Bhedi.

Prof. Prabodh Kumar Mishra (born: 1937), Professor of History at the Sambalpur University, is a reputed scholar of Indology and an expert in Orissan history and culture. Associated with various prestigious societies and organisations like the Indian History Congress and Numismatic Society of India, he has been the President of the Orissa History Congress for the years 1986-87 and 1995-96; and Vice-President of the South Indian History Congress for 1982-84. Prof. Mishra has written a number of books which include Evolution of Orissa and Her Culture; Culture, Tribal History and Freedom Movement; Heritage of India (2 Vols.); Aspects of Indian History and Historiography; etc. His latest work Comprehensive History and Culture of Orissa (in two volumes) is in press.

Dr. Neeta Yadav, a Ph.D. in History, is an emerging young scholar of distinction who is deeply involved in research on the meaning and concept of the Ardhanarishvara in indian history and culture. A prolific writer, she has, to her credit, seminar presentations on the sculptural tradition of Ardhanarishvara pertaining to different regions of India.

Dr. Goutam Biswas, an eminent scholar of Phenomenology and Existentialism, did his M.A. in Philosophy from Visvabharati University, Santiniketan and obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur on "Martin Buber's Philosophical Anthropology." He has keen interest in Aesthetics, Philosophical Anthropology and Modern Indian Philosophy which colour all his philosophical works. Being an indefatigable researcher he has made a number of important contributions to many distinguished journals. Currently a Reader in Philosophy at the University of North-Bengal, Dr. Biswas has visited France under the Indo-French Cultural Exchange Programme.

Shyamala Gupta (b. August 1931) is Bombay University's Ph.D. (Philosophy), with specialised interest in Aesthetics. And has been Research Fellow at the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (1966-67). An untiring researcher and writer, she has published numerous papers in different journals and, in addition, has contributed as many as 27 articles to the 3-volume Marathi Encyclopaedia in Philosophy (published by MEP Council, Pune). Also, she has authored two books, namely, The Beautiful in Indian Arts, and Saundarya Tattvamimamsa (Hindi) -both prescribed by Delhi University for undergraduate-level students taking a course in aesthetics.

Involved with the teaching of philosophy for well over three decades, Dr. Gupta retired, in 1996, as Reader from Kamla Nehru College, University of Delhi, Delhi.

Mrinal Miri is currently Vicechancellor of Northeastern Hill University. He has taught philosophy in Delhi University and Northeastern Hill University. His philosophical publications include several books and many articles in professional journals both in India and abroad. Prior to his present assignment he was, for six years, Director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.

After his matriculation, Guru Nitya left home as a wandering mendicant to familiarize himself with the land and people of his country of birth. He met great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and poets of high repute and sat at the feet of several spiritual masters, including Sufi fakirs, Jain munis, and Buddhist monks, and Hindu teachers such as Ramana Maharshi and Nityananda.

In 1947 he joined the University College, Alwaye, Kerala to continue his academic studies. After specializing in philosophy and psychology, he taught these subjects in Indian universities.  In 1951,  he accepted Nataraja Guru - founder and head of the Narayana Gurukula - as his spiritual preceptor. In 1973 he followed him as head and Guru of the Gurukula, a world community of spiritual seekers. Between 1970 and 1980 he taught courses in psychology, philosophy, yoga, and aesthetics at universities in the US and other countries. He also was the chairperson of the East-West University of Unitive Sciences and the Commissioner for World Education.

Guru Nitya published over 120 books in Malayalam and 80 books in English, as well as countless articles on philosophy, psychology, social ethics, and aesthetics.  His writings combine rare insight and profound wisdom with an ability to communicate in terms readily understood by students everywhere.

G.V. TAGARE, a former Member of the Maharashtra Education Service, retired as Professor of Education from the Government Secondary Training College, Kohlapur.

A versatile scholar, untiring researcher and prolific author, he has written on diverse themes from Indology, linguistics and education. In addition, his published work includes translations of over half-a-dozen Mahapuranas, critical editions of Sanskrit texts, and histories (in Marathi language) of Prakrit, Pali and Assamese literatures. Dr. Tagare is also known for discovering several old, unpublished manuscripts: in both Marathi and Sanskrit.

Bimal Chandra Mohapatra, who holds Delhi University's Ph.D, is a one-time Research Fellow of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

An untiring researcher, Dr. Mohapatra is currently working, in the Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, on a post-doctoral project relevant to Comparative Religion. Which also involves him with the Taisho University and the Eastern Institute in Tokyo, Japan.

After completing a Doctorate in Comparative Drama at Cambridge University in 1964, David George began a peripatetic career which has seen him teach and live in California, Germany, France, Malaysia, China and Australia. There he took advantage of the proximity of Asia to undertake a further 21 field trips - to India, Bali, Java, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal.

These led to a series of books, monographs and papers on Asian and comparative theatre, and 21 theatre productions, some of them similarly intercultural in their ambition and inspiration.

He is currently Professor and Chair of Drama Theatre and Dance at Queens College, City University of New York where he is working on a Buddhist Musical ("Sky Dancer"), establishing a multicultural theatre company, and continuing his research on Buddhist theatre and philosophy.

Dr. R.C. Sharma, educated and trained at Varanasi, Calcutta, and Paris, is the Director General of the National Museum and Vice-Chairman/Vice-Chancellor of the National Museum Institute, New Delhi. He is also the Chairman of the Vrindaban Research Institute and President, Museums Association of India, an apex professional body in India. He has been the Curator, Government Museum, Mathura; Director, State Museum, Lucknow; and Director, Indian Museum, Calcutta; He has also been associated with a number of central and state organisations and universities in different capacities.

Dr. Sharma, the author of several books, catalogues and albums, made enormous contribution in the field of Indian history, art, culture, archaeology, inscriptions, paintings & literature and has also edited research journals on these subjects. He is the research guide and examiner of doctoral dissertations of different universities.

Dr. Sharma has organised and participated in numerous national and international seminars, delivered prestigious memorial lectures and has travelled to different parts of the world in connection with conferences, cultural delegations, lectures and mounting of important exhibitions.

Rajnish Kumar Mishra has come to have specialised interest in the theories of meaning and interpretation: both Indian and Western - in his broader academic pursuits to locate the interface domain of linguistics, literature and philosophy. A member of the Shastra Group at the Centre of Linguistics and English, Jwaharlal Nehru University (CL & E, JNU) - which is producing English translations of select classical Sanskrit texts, he has presented research papers in various international seminars and contributed articles on Indian grammatical traditions, theories of meaning and philosophy of language for several volumes. He has recently been awarded the Japanese Okita Memorial fellowship by the ICCR for two years for his significant research that has bearing on Indo-Japanese cultural contacts and relations.

Currently, he is involved in research on Kashmir Shaiva philosophy and literary theory at the Centre of Linguistics and English, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Dr. P.L Bhargava is an eminent Indologist, who retired as Professor and Head of the Sanskrit Department, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. A historian of equal renown too, he had been at the McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, for about two years: 1974-76, as a Visiting Professor of Religion. His Ph.D thesis, entitled: India in the Vedic Age, was hailed as "the most original work of our times" (U.N. Ghoshal), "a distinct advance over Pargiter's work" (A.S. Altekar), and "a brilliant sorting out of the very complex data into clear and logical pattern" (A.L. Basham).

A recipient of many academic honours - the latest among which being the 1994-95 President's Award for "Eminent Sanskritists", Professor Bhargava has already published eight books and over 60 papers.

Molly Kaushal is a well known folklorist, specializing in Punjabi and Russian folklores. A Ph.D (Folklore) from the Moscow State University, Moscow, she is now researching lifestyles among the Gaddis of Himachal Pradesh - chiefly on the basis of her extensive field work in this Himalayan region. Already some of her papars have appeared in the journals of international repute.   

Currently, Dr. Kaushal is Research Officer at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts(IGNCA), New Delhi

Irmgard Meininger, a German Judge for Criminal Law in profession, is a genuine connoisseur of arts, especially Indian arts and history that first drew her to India as far back as 1973. Her acquaintance ever since, with Maharaj Kumar Arvind Singh of Mewar and his family, coupled with four years of her intensive research and study combined with the input by Mohan Singh Kothari, a noble of Mewar has gone into the shaping of her this guide and the exquisite photographic reproductions it embodies. She has also published a more detailed and illustrative book on The Kingdom of Mewar.

Dr. Sures Chandra Banerji (b. 1917) is a distinguished scholar of ancient Indian history, scriptures and literary classics of almost every genre. With over half a century of serious involvement in Indological research, he has already authored 56 books that notably include titles, like Studies in the Origin and Development of Dharmashastra, Studies in the Origin and Development of Yoga, A Brief History of Tantra Literature, A Companion to Sanskrit Literature, Society in Ancient India, and A Companion to Indian Philosophy.

A retired Professor of Sanskrit (Bengal Educational Service), Fellow of Asiatic Society (Calcutta), and Life Member of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (Pune) as well as Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute (Madras), Dr. Banerji was honoured with the Rabindra Memorial Prize (1963-64): the highest academic award from the Government of West Bengal.

Baidyanath Saraswati, an anthropologist of international eminence, is Unesco-Professor at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. And is former Professor of Anthropology at the North-Eastern Hill University; Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study; and Visiting Professor at the universities of Ranchi and Visva-Bharati.

Professor Saraswati's published work comprises a number of books and monographs, among which notably figure Pottery-making Cultures and Indian Civilization; Brahmanic Ritual Traditions; Kashi: Myth and Reality; and Spectrum of the Sacred - besides his edited titles, like Tribal Thought and Culture; Prakriti: Primal Elements - the Oral Tradition; Prakriti: Man in Nature; Computerizing Cultures; and Cross-Cultural Lifestyle Studies.

Yolotl Gonzalez Torres: Born in Mexico City. M.A. Sc. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the National School of Anthropology, and the National University of Mexico, two years studies of Indian anthropology at the Delhi University. Director of the Center of Asian Studies, of the Ibero American University; Executive Secretary of the School of Anthropology of the Ibero American University, Curator of the Asian Section of the Museum of Cultures, of the National Institute of Anthropology (INAH), Director of the Departament of Ethnology and Social Antropology (INAH); Director of the Museum de El Carmen (INAH).

Author of the books: The Astral Workship of the Stars Among the Mexica; Human Sacrifice among the Mexica; and Dictionary of Mythology and Religions in Mesoamerica. About 50 articles including "Mesoamerica, History of Study" in the Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. by Mircea Eliade at the Columbia University in 1985, and several articles in Papeles de la India, edited by the ICCR.

Dr (Mrs) Krishna Jain obtained her Masters Degree and PhD in Philosophy from Delhi University. She has been teaching Logic to the undergraduates for nearly last three decades and is presently Reader in the Department of Philosophy, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi. Her other publications include Description in Philosophy - with Special Reference to Husserl and Wittgenstein, (1994).

Vijay Mishra is Professor of English literature at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author of the Gothic Sublime, also published by State University of New York Press, and (with Bob Hodge) Dark Side of the Dream: Australian Literature and the Postcolonial Mind.

S.C. Malik with a teaching background in Palaeoanthropology at M.S. University of Baroda, was also a Fulbright Smith-Mundt scholar at the University of Chicago. From 1966 until 1988 he was associated with the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, in various capacities. From 1988 to 1997 he was a Professorial UGC Research Scientist in Anthropology.

His major contribution is in developing multidisciplinary research methodologies and formulating theoretical models for the study of Indian Civilisation, lately within the framework of philosophical anthropology. Some of his major books are: Indian Civilisation - The Formative Period (A Study of Archaeology as Anthropology); Understanding Indian Civilisation - A Framework of Enquiry; Modern Civilisation - A Crisis of Fragmentation; Dissent, Protest and Reform Movements in Indian Civilisation; Determinants of Social Status in India; Intercultural Dialogue and the Human Image; and Reconceptualising the Sciences and the Humanities - An Integral Approach.

Fredrick W. Bunce, a PhD and a cultural historian of international eminence, is an authority on ancient iconography and Buddhist arts. He has been honoured with prestigious awards/commendations and is listed in Who's Who in American Art and the International Biographical Dictionary, 1980. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Art, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana. He has authored the following books all published by D.K. Printworld: 
 Buddhist Textile of Laos, Lan Na and the Isan - The Iconography of Design Elements.
  A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography.
  An Encyclopaedia of Buddhist Deities, Demigods, Godlings, Saints and Demons (2 vols.).
  An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Deities, Demigods, Godlings, Demons and Heroes (3 vols.).
  The Iconography of Architectural Plans - A Study of the Influence of Buddhism and Hinduism on Plans of South and South-east Asia.
  Islamic Tombs in India - The Iconographical and Genesis of their Design.
 Monuments of India and the Indianized States.
  The Mosques of the Indian Subcontinent - Their Development and Iconography.
 Mudras in Buddhist and Hindu Practices - An Iconographic Consideration.
  Numbers - Their Iconographic Consideration in Buddhist and Hindu Practices.
  Royal Palaces, Residences and Pavilions of India - An Iconographic Consideration.
 The Sacred Dichotomy: Thoughts and Comments on The Duality of Female and Male Iconography in South Asia and the Mediterranean.
The Tibetan Iconography of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and other Deities - A Unique Pantheon.
 The Yantra of Deities and their Numerological Foundations - An Iconographic Consideration.

Bharat Gupt, Reader (Associate Professor) in English, College of Vocational Studies, University of Delhi, holds two Master's degrees, one from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and another from Toronto. He did this doctoral research at the M.S. University of Baroda. He was taught sitar and surbahar by Pandit Uma Shankar Mishra and musicology and classics by Acarya Brhaspati. Trained both in modern and traditional educational systems, he is also on the Visiting Faculty of National School of Drama, Delhi. For his interest in media studies he was awarded a Fellowship to work at the McLuhan Program, University of Toronto. Author of several research articles, he has presented many papers at various international seminars.

His forthcoming books are: Natyashastra, Chapter 28: Ancient Scales of Indian Music. (2) Natya Siddhanta: Greek Evam Bharatiya. (Hindi version of the present book). (3) Natyashastra, Chapter 17: A Critique of Theatrical Polyglossia. (4) Natyashastra Chapters 29-36, Trans. into Hindi with Commentary. (5) Dibbuk ki Prem Katha, Trans. into Hindi with Introduction, of Anskey’ Dibbuk.

Dr Marta Vannucci is a globally distinguished biological oceanographer who has been UNESCO's Senior Expert (Marine Sciences) and was a member of oceanographic research cruises in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. She has been engrossed in studies in the libraries, archives, museums and universities of Florence, Italy and India aided by a grasp over almost all Latin and Greek derived languages, English and German. She has been honoured with the prestigious Grand Cross of the "Order of Merit in Science" of Brazil. She is Italian born and has been resident in India since 1970.

Mitali Chatterjee is Jadavpur University's Ph.D. (Arts) - holding, in addition, master degrees in Sanskrit and Library and Information Science, a bachelor degree in education, and proficiency in German and Hindi languages. Currently, she is Library In-charge with the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.

S.C. Panigrahi, editor of this volume, has been teaching in Utkal University for over 15 years. Dr. Panigrahi, a specialist in Indian Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind and Political Philosophy, has published two books and several articles.

Professor Ziya-ul-Hasan Faruqi holds two master degrees - from Allahabad and McGill Universities. He has held various positions in the Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi, like, Principal, Jamia College; Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Sciences; Professor of Islamic Studies; and Director, Zakir Husain Institute. With a good knowledge of Arabic and Persian, he has edited journals of scholarly height in Islamic Studies. Has been a member of the academic bodies of Aligarh Muslim University, Kashmir University, Hamdard Institute of Historical Studies and the Islam and Modern Age Society. Prof. Faruqi has visited many European and Middle-East countries besides the U.S.A. and Canada as a scholar. He has to his credit a number of books in Urdu and English, besides presenting papers at seminars of national and international repute and contributing widely to many journals.

GUNNAR GALLMO was born, in Sweden in 1946, in an actively Christian family, but converted to Buddhism during his student years: in 1968. Ever since, he has had an active involvement with the Buddhist movement of his country.

A graduate from the Upsala University, with specialized interest in Comparative Religion, Gallmo lives in Stockholm, while working mainly as a literary translator and free-lance writer.

Christian Gonner is a biologist by profession, with specialised interests in ornithology. He also studied ethnology for years before his research work in Borneo.  Indisputably a scholar with varied academic and  research concerns, he is today recognised as a leading specialist in Applied Ecology, whose approach to resource management practices unites knowledge of natural and social sciences. Presently living in Sumatra with his family, Dr. Gonner is working for a nature conservation project. He has also been a consultant  to several Indonesian development projects from time to time.

Dr Caesar Voute - Professor Emeritus of the International Institute for Aerospace Surveys and Earth Sciences in The Netherlands - is a specialist in the fields of hydrogeology and engineering geology. Dr Voute joined Dr Bernard Groslier - the director of the Conservation and Restoration works at Angkor Wat - on a UNESCO-sponsored expert mission conducted in 1968 to study the conservation and restoration problems at Borobudur. Born in the city of Magelang nearby, the Dutch geologist had literally grown up in Borobudur’s general vicinity. From 1971 until 1975, Dr Voute served as the resident UNESCO/UNDP coordinator for the Borobudur Reconstruction Project.

Padmini Pathi is a social anthropologist with a wide range of experience in anthropological research. For more than a decade she worked among the forest dwelling tribes of Central Orissa, such as the Kuttia Kondh, the Dongaria Kondh and the Lanjia Saora. At the moment she is finishing her PhD on the iconography of the Lanjia Saora at Utkal University.

Jagganath Dash is a senior lecturer in social anthropology at Utkal University, Bhubaneswar and presently a visiting fellow at Edinburgh University. Dr. Dash has several publications on aspects of tribal life of Orissa to his credit and is author of a comprehensive book on the Hill Kharia.

Kamala K. Patnaik is retired Professor of Botany and former Member of the Orissa Public Service Commission. Dr. Patnaik's particular specialisation is research on indigenous knowledge of the medicinal use of plants in the tribal cultures of Orissa. For eight years she was Vice Director of the research project Man & Forest.

Ramakrishna Puligandla is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toledo USA. He has received a B.S. degree in physics and an M.S. degree in applied physics from the Andhra University in Waltair, India and an M.S. degree in physics from the Purdue University in the US. His academic achievements in philosophy include an A.M. degree in philosophy from the University of South Dakota and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Rice University. His areas of speciality are logic, philosophy of science, and comparative philosophy and religion, with emphasis upon the Indian and Western traditions. Dr. Puligandla, Fulbright visiting professor in India in 1992, has written ten books and over seventy scholarly papers. Associated with many institutions and journals, he is a member of the American Philosophical Association, assistant editor of The Philosopher's Index and consultant and reviewer for Choice, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Born in Korea, Dr. Inchang Kim received a Master's Degree in 1987 and a PhD in 1995 from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda. During his long stay in India, he actively participated in various seminars on ancient Indian art and archaeology and travelled extensively to all the excavated Buddhist sites and museums. He has founded an institute in Korea with the aim of promoting history of Buddhist art.

Prof. Lokesh Chandra is a renowned scholar of Tibetan, Mongolian and Sino-Japanese Buddhism. He has to his credit over 360 works and text editions. Among them are classics like Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary; Materials for a History of Tibetan Literature; Buddhist Iconography of Tibet; and his ongoing Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography (about 20 volumes). He was nominated by the President of the Republic of India to the Parliament in 1974-80 and again in 1980-86. He has been Vice-President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research. Presently he is Director, International Academy of Indian Culture.

Gummadi Veerraju, (born: 1954), is Andhra University's Ph.D (Philosophy) and credited with the authorship of several papers on a variety of themes from Gandhian Studies. Currently, he is a senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Andhra University.

Dr. Veerraju teaches 'Contemporary Western Philosophy' and 'African Religions' and has attended many national and international conferences. He is currently engaged in advanced research in: 'Globalization of Religion for a Dynamic Society'; 'Relevance and the need for the study of History and Comparative Religions'; and 'A Plan of action for resolving Socio-Political and Environmental Issues of the Modern Society'.

Sheila McDonough, a McGill's Ph.D, is an internationally known scholar specializing in Comparative Religion, more particularly Islamics, Her numerous research papers/articles apart, she has already published four books, including The Authority of the Past (1970) and Muslim Ethics and Modernity (1985) - which have evoked enormous interest not only in South Asia, but North America as well. She has also contributed chapters in as many as nine books, including the Encyclopaedia Britannica, new edition, 1972. Among her other faculty, department and external administration positions, she held, in 1972, the office of Resident Director, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, New Delhi.

Since 1975, Dr. Sheila McDonough has been Professor of Religion at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

The author is a member of the Laboratoire d'Ethnologie at the University of Paris X, Nanterre and is Research Fellow at C.N.R.S. (National Centre of Scientific Research) in Paris. She is the co-author of Newar Art. Nepalese Art in the Malla Period (Warminster, 1979) and author of Gods, Men and Territory. Society and Culture in Kathmandu Valley (New Delhi, 1995).

Dr. M.N. Rajesh is a young scholar who is devoted to studying social contexts in which religious institutions and traditions function and flourish particularly with respect to Hinduism and Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent. He is presently lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh).

Dr. Anup Chandra Pandey, an alumnus of Punjab University, is both a scholar and bureaucrat who has ingeniously combined his scholastic pursuits with insights from his professional career to explore the comparatively uncharted terrain - the systems and modes of governance: present and long past. He has been awarded PhD degree by Magadh University, Bodh Gaya.

An officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), with intensive experience in varied official positions of responsibility, Dr. Pandey has also co-authored A New History of Ancient India.

Shashi Kant, Lucknow University's Ph.D., is a brilliant scholar of history, untiring researcher and recipient of several academic awards - including the Uttar Pradesh Government's state honour. Besides numerous articles on varied themes from Indian history and culture, he has authored Political and Cultural History of Mid-North India: From the Earliest Times to ad 1248 - a work which, approved for publication by the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), appeared in print in 1987. And like his Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela and Bhabru Edict of Ashoka, is ready for its second updated edition. He is also editor of a research journal, entitled Shodhadarsha.

Professionally a bureaucrat, Dr. Shashi Kant retired as Special Secretary to the Uttar Pradesh Government.

Dr. Kohli, a specialitst of Hindu Law, is a PhD from Andhra University who has put in years of painstaking research studying the Hindu Law of marriage and divorce.

Prof. Gaganendra Nath Dash (b. 1940) is a scholar in the field of Orissan studies. A Ph.D. from Utkal University, he has specialised in Oriya language studies and ethnohistory and socio-religious history of Orissa. He has written a number of papers and books on the subject. Presently, he is head of the Department of Linguistics, Berhampur University.

Dr. Anjali Mittal teaches Hindustani Classical Music and Aesthetics at the University of Delhi. She passed her B.A. Hons. and M.A. examinations from the same institution, getting a high first class on both occasions. As a vocalist herself, Dr. Mittal had the privilege of learning Hindustani Classical Music under the wing of the Late Ustad Nasir Ahmed Khan of Delhi gharana. As a result of this training, she is now a proficient vocalist herself; and her music can be heard from A.I.R., Delhi every now and then. Presently a Reader in the Faculty of Music & Fine Arts of Delhi University, Dr. Anjali Mittal is one of the few teachers of music whose concern with the art follows the way of contemporary aesthetics.

Jagna Kumar Sahu (b. 1933), a historian with profound knowledge of Sanskrit and epigraphy, is a reputed name in the field of Orissan studies. He has taught in leading colleges in Orissa for more than three decades and authored about 25 books in his area of specialization. He has also published over 50 articles in various prestigious journals and magazines. Having guided about a dozen scholars for their dissertation on different topics, he is currently engaged in research on a project sponsored by the Orissa Sahitya Academy.

Prof. Thomas Donaldson (Ph.D.) is a leading authority on Indian art, particularly Orissan art, as he has been studying and writing on the subject for more than three decades. His works include a monumental three-volume study titled Hindu Temple Art of Orissa (1985-87), Kamadeva's Pleasure Garden in Orissa (1987), Sculptural Masterpieces from Orissa: Style and Iconography, co-authored with K. S. Behera (1998), Ornaments of Orissa, co-authored by R.P. Mohapatra (1998), Iconography of Vaishnava Image in Orissa (2001), and The Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa - 2 vols (2001).

Dr. Suchita C. Divatia, born in a well known Nagar Grihastha Divatia family, did her graduation and post-graduation with specialization in Sanskrit. A first class first in M.A. from the Gujarat University, she is also a gold medalist and scholarship holder. She did her Ph.D. in Indian Philosophy at the Gujarat University under the able guidance of Padmashri Prof. Dr. Esther A. Solomon and is presently teaching at the St. Xaviers College, Ahmedabad. She is invited by the All India Radio to give talks on Sanskrit literature and philosophy.

Dr. P.L. Bhargava is an eminent Indologist, who retired as Professor and Head of the Sanskrit Department, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. A historian as well, he had been at the McMaster University, Ontario, Canada for about two years: 1974-76, as a Visiting Professor of Religion. His Ph.D. thesis, entitled: India in the Vedic Age, was hailed as "the most original work of our times" (U.N. Ghoshal), "a distinct advance over Pargiter's work" (A.S. Altekar) and "a brilliant sorting out of the very complex data into a clear and logical pattern" (A.L. Basham).

Professor Bhargava has already published six books and over 60 research papers.

Bibhu Padhi teaches English at SCS College at Puri-on-Sea, Orissa. His poems and scholarly articles have appeared in magazines and journals of international repute. His fourth book of poems, Painting the House, is in press. He has also written a book-length study of D.H. Lawrence.

Minakshi Padhi teaches philosophy at SCS College. Her interests include philosophy of religion and contemporary Indian philosophers.

A scholar of Asian Studies, Professor D. L. Johnson obtained a Ph. D. degree from The University of Iowa. He holds the A. B. degree in English Literature and in Religious Studies from Aubsburg College of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Uma Chakravarty, (born: 1933), is a reputed scholar of Indology who, for about 35 years, has been with the Lady Keane College, Shillong, Meghalaya, as Head of the Sanskrit Department. She also has had a stint, during 1992-93, as Visiting Fellow at the Freie University, Berlin, under the German Academic Exchange Service, Germany.

She has published several articles on Vedic themes in the journals of international repute. Currently, Dr. Chakravarty is an ICHR (Indian Council of Historical Research) Fellow at the prestigious Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune.

Ian Whicher is Deputy-Director of the Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic Research at the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Pat Boni, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, San Diego State University, is a close associate of Prof. Friedman. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University, Philadelphia, and has taught for twenty years in many colleges in the U.S.A. She has contributed many siginificant papers on religion, existentialism and literature.

Manasi Sinha is at present an Assistant Professor of English, Department of Humanities and social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur. Earlier she also taught in several colleges in Orissa. Dr. Sinha did her Ph.D. in American Literature in 1982 from IIT Kharagpur. Since then, she has been working in Mediaeval English literature and contemporary Indo-Anglian fiction. She is closely associated with the publication of IIT Newsletter and students' activities.

Hideaki Sato is a Japanese scholar of Sanskrit literature, with strong interests in Eastern religions and philosophies. A landed immigrant in Canada since 1984, he took both his M.A. and Ph.D in Sanskrit literature from the University of Toronto - where, now associated with its Centre for South Asian Studies, he is a postdoctoral research fellow. He is also Member of American Oriental Society; Canadian Association for Asian Studies; and a few other similar bodies.

Dr. Sato knows over a dozen languages, is recipient of several scholarships/fellowships, has travelled across the continents. He has published research articles/papers and books, and has taught Japanese at different institutions, in Canada and India, for the last fifteen years or so.

Dr. Gian Giuseppe Filippi is Professor of lndology and History of Art of lndia, University "Ca' Foscari", Venice. Involved, since 1971, in extensive field studies in India, directed specially towards the traditional relations between the shrines and rituals, he is not just one of the discoverers of Drupad Kila (in mid- Ganga plains), but led the multidisciplinary research team, credited with this discovery.

Extensively published, Professor Filippi is President of the Venetian Academy of Indian Studies (VAIS), heads Human Sciences research in the "Kampilya Project"; and is Member of Is.I.A.O., Royal Society of Asian Affairs, Indian Archaeological Society, and Pafichal Research Institute, among several other institutions in Europe and India.

Dr. Bruno Marcolongo is a geo-archaeologist and author of international renown, currently Director of Research Unit at the National Research Council of Italy/Institute of Applied Geology in Padua. Also Visiting Professor of Remote Sensing in Earth Sciences at a number of Italian universities, he has academic association with VAIS as well, heading Environment/Remote Sensing Research in its "Kampilya Project". And shares the distinction of being one of the discoverers of Drupad Kila. As an expert for the European Commission/Joint Research Centre of Ispra in various European environmental projects, he extablished durable.collaborations with French CNRS (Scientific Research National Centre) in Paris and Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow - besides his expert involvement in many geo-archaeological missions in Near- Middle East and Central Asia.

Sunil Sen Sarma (b. 1933) is a geologist of wide repute. Notwithstanding his professional training, his academic concerns have, over the years, evolved in many different directions to focus more specifically on man and nature.

A former Director, Geological Survey of India, he is also an extensively published scholar, credited with the authorship of over a hundred articles and five book: in both English and Bengali. His English titles include Farakka: A Gordian Knot: Problems on Sharing Ganga Waters and The Ecology and the Epidemic: A Study on Nineteenth Century Controversy.

Sadhana Parashar is a bright scholar of Sanskrit poetics, holding research degrees from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi on her theses: Rajashekhara's Kavyamimamsa and Sylvia Plath's poetry: An Interpretation in the Classical Indian Framework.

Apart from her specialised interests in Sanskrit literary studies, her area of work involves curriculum development, teacher training in the field of English language teaching, testing and evaluation. She also writes poetry.

Currently, Dr. Parashar is working as an AEO (ELT), Academic Unit, Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi.

Dr. Parmeshwari Lal Gupta was a distinguished numismatist, with international recognition. And, this besides, an educationist, a social reformer, a journalist, a museologist, a litterateur, and a tireless researcher - all rolled into one: into his one versatile personality. Also an Honorary Fellow of Numismatic Society of India (Elected 1974), Honorary Member of International Numismatic Commission (Elected 1986), and Honorary Fellow of Royal Numismatic Society, London (Elected 1975), Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, and Asiatic Society of Bombay (both elected in 1993), he has chaired History/Archaeology/Fine Arts/Numismatics sections of various national and international conferences.

Dr. Gupta was a prolific writer too, credited with the authorship of over 30 books and 250 research papers on diverse themes from his several specialized disciplines. Among his other achievements, he was the recipient of many prestigious awards/honours, including Huntington Medal, Lhotka Memorial Prize, Royal Numismatic Society's Medal, and Sir J. Sarkar Gold Medal.

Dr. Sarojini Kulashreshtha, an educationist, is a renowned Hindi poetess and story writer having several collections to her credit. She is also Sahitya-Mahopadhyaya of Hindi Sahitya Sammelan. Besides, being the resident of Mathura, she is deeply interested in the ancient history of Mathura, particularly of the Kushanas and occassionally contributes articles/research papers related to them.

Labhshankar M. Joshi is a 1953-born, distinguished Sanskrit scholar, with specialized interests in Vedantic philosophy, yoga, astrology and tantrashastra, For about two decades now, he has given courses in Yoga and Yoga Philosophy at Yoga Niketan - a professional institute of Baroda. And, besides his active involvement with a number of national/international astrological societies, has been an "invited speaker" of the All India Radio as well. He holds Ph.D. on Tantrashastra.

The author, S. Sapru is a senior journalist who has been associated with the leading newspapers  - The India Express, The Pioneer and The Deccan Herald. Presently, Consulting Editor for the Reference Encyclopedia India 2001 and Consultant to Enbee Technologies, he is the winner of prestigious awards including the Press Foundation of Asia - Mitsubishi, Journalist of the year Award 1987. He is the author of many books based on his varied experiences as a journalist: among them are The News Merchants [A National Agency's Partnership with an International Agency (1982)], The Pioneer Saga (1989) and the Sky Hawks.

Alexander William Macdonald, (born: 8 October 1923) - British by birth and French by decree - is a Buddhist scholar and cultural anthropologist of wide renown. He is an equally well-known specialist of the ethno-history of the Himalayas, with interests concentrated in the interaction of oral and written traditions. Veritably an indefatigable researcher - who, for about 40 years, has been with the National Center of Scientific Research in Paris, and is now an honorary Directeur de Recherche, he has done considerable spells of field-work in Nepal, Sikkim and Ladakh: not only in high altitude areas, but in the valleys and plains as well.

Besides his stints at the Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu: 1973-75, the Chinese University, Hong Kong: 1979-80, and California University, Berkeley: 1984, among other teaching positions/assignments, Professor Macdonald has had a four-year term: 1991-95, as General Secretary of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. Published extensively, he is also in-charge of a publication series of the Laboratoire d’ Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative, at the University of Paris X, Nanterre.

Alpana Chakraborty holds M. Phil and Ph.D of the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong. And is currently Lecturer in Philosophy at the NEHU-affiliated St. Anthony College.

A scholar with varied areas of interest and also member of several academic bodies, Dr. Chakraborty writes in both Bengali and English on different themes that range from mind-body dualism to existentialism.

Arun Kumar Biswas, holding Calcutta University's M.Sc. Tech. and D. Phil. (Applied Chemistry), besides an M.S. (Metallurgy) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, has, over the years, concentrated his research effort around 'archaeo-metallurgy' and 'history of science', notwithstanding his professional specialization in applied chemistry, surface chemistry, mineral engineering and hydrometallurgy. For over three decades: 1963-95, he has taught at the prestigious IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Kanpur.

A scholar with varied pursuits: ranging from the history of religions to sacred and secular literatures, Professor Biswas has authored a number of papers and books - which eminently include his Science in India (1969). Also, he has edited the internationally acclaimed, multi-authored Profiles in Indian Languages and Literatures. Currently associated with the Asiatic Society, Calcutta - for further research, Prof. Biswas has had the distinction to be on the National Commission for History of Science, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.

(Mrs) Sulekha Biswas, Kanpur University's Ph. D, has teamed up, since 1964, with Professor Arun Kumar Biswas: her husband, not only in some of his published papers on the History of Science, but in several other academic exercises as well. Her chief research concerns, though, have involved her with Sanskrit texts/treatises on science and religion. In writing Minerals and Metals in Ancient India, Volume 2, (which, incidentally, is also the outcome of her doctoral research), she has had the expert guidance of Professor Biswas.

Director, Samvidulaya, Abhinavagupta Research Library

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R.C. Jamieson is Keeper of Sanskrit Manuscripts at the University of Cambridge, a member of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and a member of King's College. His new book, on the earliest dated illustrated Sanskrit manuscripts in the world, The Perfection of Wisdom, (New York, Penguin Viking, ISBN 0670889342/London, Frances Lincoln, 2000 ISBN 0711215103) includes all the illustrations from that historic manuscript (www.edlis.org/pow).

Sadasiba Pradhan, (born: 16 May 1955), holding Ph.D (Sambalpur), has had professional training in archaeology: both at the Institute of Archaeology, ASI (Archaeologieal Survey of India), New Delhi, and at the Institute of Archaeology, U.C.L., London. A brilliant scholar with varied academic interests that are reflected in the Ph.D/M.Phil dissertations he has guided, Dr. Pradhan himself has been the recipient of the Senior Research Fellowship of the American Institute of Indian Studies, Varanasi (1987). And has also, on a UGC-sponsored research project, surveyed and documented prehistoric Rock Art in Orissa.

Currently, Dr. Pradhan is Reader in Post Graduate Department of History, Sambalpur University, Sambalpur, Orissa, and working on Eastern India's Rock Art and Archaeology. His published work comprises over half-a-dozen books and many more papers.

Dr. Kanai Lal Hazra is one of the better-known scholars of Pali language, Pali literature, and Buddhist studies. And is an equally reputed author. Among his so-far-published works figure titles, like, History of Theravada Buddhism in South-East Asia; Royal Patronage of Buddhism in Ancient India; the Adi Buddha; Constitution of the Buddhist Sangha; and Studies on Pali Commentaries.

Currently, Dr. Hazra is Reader in the Department of Pali, Calcutta University, Calcutta.

Prof. S.G. Moghe is an eminent Sanskritist, specializing in Dharmashastra and the Purva-Mimamsa system of traditional philosophy. An extensively published author and recipient of the prestigious Springer Research Scholarship (1981-83) - for his work: Purva Mimamsa and Alamkara Shastra, he has recently been honoured, by the Government of Maharashtra, as 'a distinguished Sanskrit scholar'.

Currently, Dr. Moghe is professor-in-charge, Postgraduate Studies, Marathawada University, and also Head of the Sanskrit Department, Government Arts and Science College, Aurangabad.

Miss G.V. Davane, holding the Bombay University's Ph. D (Indian Linguistics) is a scholar of wide repute, with specialized interests in Vedic studies, classical Sanskrit literature, and linguistics. Joining the Maharashtra Educational Service (MES) in 1947, she retired as Professor of Sanskrit from the Elphinstone College, Bombay, in 1980. And thereafter, for five years: 1981-86, she had been the Honorary Director, MM Dr. P.V. Kane Research Institute - of the Asiatic Society of Bombay. Also Member of the prestigious Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, and the All India Oriental Conference, she has authored three books and numerous research papers/book reviews.

Now, an Honorary Professor at the MM Dr. P.V. Kane Research Institute, Dr. Davane is persisting with her research in Vedic literature.

S. Bhuvaneshwari (b. 1976) has been studying the Prasthanatraya, Bhashya and Advaita Prakaranas from Swami Paramarthananda Sarasvati of Chennai since 1994. Having obtained a BA in Economics and MA in Public Administration, she later branched out and procured her Masters in Philosophy, and Sanskrit as well. She is a Gold Medalist in MA Philosophy from the Department of Philosophy, University of Madras (2004-06). She is the recipient of University Research Fellowship for her Doctorate at the Department of Sanskrit, University of Madars (2009-10) and was awarded the Ph.D (2010) for her study on the Sanskrit text Vicarasagara.
Her other area of interest is Philosophy of Art, especially the aesthetic theories of Bharata, Abhinavagupta and Hegel, and has been teaching Aesthetics and Indian Philosophy as guest lecturer in various reputed institutions in Chennai since 1997.
She continues her study of Advaita works in Sanskrit, Hindi and Tamil and is currently working on some unpublished Advaita texts available as paper manuscripts at the Government Oriental Manuscript Library and Adyar Research Library, Chennai. She has over fifteen articles to her credit in both Advaita Vedanta and Aesthetics.
 

Dr Sudha Satyawadi is an artist, a researcher, an author. Tribal, rural and folk arts are her interests and she has spent over fifty years on these. Exhibitions of her paintings on rural and folk art have been held in New Delhi, Melbourne, Gaborone, Universities of Stanford, Berkeley, Louisiana, Buffalo and Pittsburgh in the last ten years or so. She heads an NGO called Udayan created for encouraging the rural artists who work deep inside a village. She spends much time with them and is working for them. With her background she is trying to preserve this dying art and encourage artists by giving them exposure in the global world. She has authored two books.

Lance E. Nelson is Assistant Professor of Theological and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego.

Priyadarshi Patnaik, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Kharagpur (India). His areas of specialization include Indian aesthetics, visual culture and non-verbal communication. He is also a creative writer, painter, translator and photographer. He has authored more than 20 research articles and 15 creative writings in journals and edited volumes in India and outside.  He has published two anthologies of poems, a critical work entitled Rasa in Aesthetics (DK Printworld), co-authored a monograph on non-verbal communication and co-edited a volume on Discourses on Ageing and Dying (Sage). He can be reached at his email: priyadarshi1@yahoo.com. Some of his visual work can be viewed at www.geocities.com/priyadarshi1

Lallanji Gopal (1934-99), a Ph.D. from the school of Oriental and African Studies, London, was a scholar of wide repute, recognised with many awards/honours, like the British Council scholarship, the honorary degrees/conferments of Vidya Chakravarti and Vidya Vachaspati, and appointments to prestigious university chairs. And had figured in the top layers of several national bodies of history, archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, philosophy, and Hindi. As many as 80 students took Ph.Ds under his supervision.

A prolific writer, credited with about two dozen books and over 200 research papers, Dr. Gopal had over three-decade-long association with the Banaras Hindu University, where he held professorial positions in the Departments of Indian Philosophy and Religion as well as Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology. He also had the distinction to be the University's Rector and three-times Dean.

Prof. S.S. Barlingay (1919-1997) would be remembered as a teacher, educationist, journalist, social reformer, political activist rolled in one and for his markedly unorthodox views on different fields ranging from epistemology and logic to aesthetics and social philosophy.

Though a believer in concept of one-world and one international order, his belief in 'Indianness' is reflected in many of his writings, philosophic or otherwise. The present book is a unique example of this. Educated in Nagpur, Prof. Barlingay was associated with several national and international institutions from Amalner, Nanded and Pune to SV University, Tirupati, Delhi University, University of Zagreb, Croatia and University of Western Australia, Perth. He was founder editor of Indian Philosophical Quarterly and Paramarsh (Hindi and Marathi). Dr. Barlingay was recipient of many academic honours and awards. He was a senior fellow of Indian Council of Historical Research, Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), national fellow of ICPR, national lecturer of University Grants Commission and life time Prof. Emeritus University of Poona. Prof. Barlingay, traveled extensively in India and abroad, had authored several books in English, Hindi and Marathi.

Tandra Patnaik (b.1947), the author of Shabda: A Study of Bhatrtrihari's Philosophy of Language, combines in her the scholarship of both Indian and Western Philosophy as well as deep study of Oriya philosophical texts. Her interest in discovering the neglected and forgotten treasure of Indian philosophical culture finds outlet in the study of a rare medieval philosophical tradition that has so far been understood only as a form of bhakti literature.

A researcher for more than 35 years, the author of four books on both Indian and Western philosophy, three edited volumes and numerous research papers, Dr. Patnaik was nominated by the Human Resources Department, Ministry of Education, Government of India, as a member of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research from 1995 - 1998. Currently she is a Professor and the Coordinator of the Department of Special Assistance in Philosophy, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India.

Francesco Brighenti (b. Venice, Italy, 1963) has travelled extensively in India in pursuit of his academic concerns around the living traditions of Hinduism. And, resultantly, having worked on the goddess-cults of Orissa (Eastern India) during 1995-97, he took his Ph. D. from the Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. Earlier, in 1991, he graduated in History from the University of Venice. 
 
As a member of the Venetian Academy of Indian Studies: an Association of Indologists affiliated to the Department of Studies of Eastern Asia, University of Venice, Dr. Brighenti is presently researching upon the religious cults practised by different tribes of Orissa, like the Hill Saoras and the Kondhs, and their relation to the regional typologies of Hindu cults.

Dr. Nitin Trasi is a practising gynaecologist, with a post-graduate degree in the discipline from the University of Bombay.

The son of an eminent mathematician and theoretical physicist, he has come to be deeply versed in the fundamentals of the new physics. This he combines not only with serious studies of religion and philosophy, but also with profound personal insight, as well as close interaction with several sages, including an over decade-long association and extensive discussions with Sri Ramesh Balsekar - a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. And, then, with an added gift of felicitous writing, he is ideally qualified to investigate the spiritual phenomena of Enlightenment and Liberation.

Dr. Romano Mastromattei is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Tor Vergata, Rome. A scholar and author of international renown has been carrying out researches in Nepal, and is the Founder and also present Director. of the CIRSE (lnter-University Centre of Research on Euro-Asian Shamanism - a centre instituted by a group of six Italian Universities, which coordinates Shamanic Studies.

Dr. Antonio Rigopoulos is a reputed historian of religions and philosophies. Having had a two-year stint as Assistant Professor of Indology at the California University, Santa Barbara, he is now engaged in research work at the University "Ca' Foscari" of Venice.

Currently Secretary General of the Venetian Academy of Indian Studies (V AIS}, Dr . Rigopoulos is the well-known author of several books and articles on Sai Baba of Shirdi and Lord Dattatreya. His preferred field of research in India is Maharashtra and northern Karnataka.

P. Subramanian, a Madras University's Ph.D, is Professor of History, heading the Department of Rare Paper Manuscripts, Tamil University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. An untiring researcher and research guide, he holds/has held membership of several learned bodies, like Indian History Congress, All India Political Science Association, and Kongu School of Historical Studies.

Professor Subramanian's published work comprises numerous research articles and five books that include Indian History and Civilization; History of Europe : 1815-1870, and the 3-volume Tamil translation : Modi Documents.

P.K. Mohapatra got his Ph.D. from the University of Keele, England where he worked as a Commonwealth Scholar during 1974-77 and had been to the United States as a Fulbright Visiting Professor in 1989. A specialist in 'Philosophy of Mind' and 'Philosophy of Values', he has authored two books, entitled Personal Identity and Concepts and Problems, edited five books and published a number of articles. He has been the President of the Metaphysics Section of the Indian Philosophy Congress in 1983 and also the General President of the All Orissa Philosophy Association in 1998.

Currently, Dr. Mohapatra is the senior-most Professor of Philosophy at Utkal University and the General Editor of Utkal Studies in Philosophy series.

Born in a hard-working family, Dr. B.S. Kharade got his primary education in a village of Maharashtra state and a Ph.D from Shivaji University, Kohlapur. Dr. Kharade has been awarded medal for being the first scholar studing the Veda with agricultural point of view. Having a background of an agriculturist family, he has extensively studied the Athrvaveda focusing on the life of agricultural community. Presently he is a Reader of Sanskrit in the Arts and Commerce College at Satara.

Aditya Malik received his PhD in the History of Religions of South Asia from the University of Heidelberg in 1990. He has taught at the Universities of Heidelberg and Bamberg and was awarded his Habilitation in Modern Indian Studies from Heidelberg in 1998. His interests cover pilgrimage, oral traditions, multimedia and cultural studies, as well as post-colonial and post-modern issues relating to the study of Hinduism. He has held fellowships of the German Research Council, been the Representative in India of the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg between 1999-2001, and is a UNESCO International Consultant. His publications include a monograph on the pilgrimage of Pushkar and a forthcoming study and translation of the narrative of Sri Devnarayan (Oxford University Press, NewYork, in press). Currently he is Senior Lecturer in Indian Religions in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Guy Poitevin, born in France in 1934, and an Indian citizen by naturalization, settled in Pune in 1972. He obtained his Ph.D. in social sciences from Paris University, with a research on attitudes and aspirations of Indian students from lower social sections. In 1982, he established the Center for Cooperative Research in Social Sciences, Pune, devoted to researches on those social agents and communities whose socio-historical plight, struggle for survival, internal representations and cultural potentialities happen to be overlooked by academic research methodologies. Alternative ways are explored, based on the active cooperation and self-investigation of all those concerned, and geared in one way or the other to social agency.

Hema Rairkar, born in Maharashtra in 1939, graduated in Economics. She is actively associated with action-groups of peasant women in villages of Pune district. She follows and facilitates their attempts of self-learning in study-groups concerned with current gender issues. She organises, in particular on the grindmill songs, seminars which bring together social animators, school teachers, professors of Marathi and social sciences, and those peasant women themselves who reappropriate their tradition.

Madhavi Bhaskar Kolhatkar is Pune University's Ph.D (Sanskrit); knows German, Russian, Tibetan and Japanese; and has been at Nagoya University, Japan for her post-doctoral research in 1986 on a Japanese government scholarship. In 1987, she visited Nepal to participate in Gurumandalapuja - a project undertaken by the Department of Indian Philosophy, Nagoya University, Japan.

Started her career in 1973 as a Research Assistant in Sanskrit Dictionary Department, Deccan College, Pune. A Research Associate, 1985 onwards, Dr. Kolhatkar has published over thirty articles on a variety of themes bearing notably on Vedic ritual, religion, Japanology and Sanskrit literature, and has co-authored Pavitreshti: An Indian Fire Ritual.

Kapil Kapoor (1940-) is Professor of English, Centre for Linguistics and English, and Concurrent Professor, Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was Dean of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, JNU, from 1997-1999 and Rector of the University from 1999-2002. His teaching and research interests include literary and linguistic theories - both Indian and Western, philosophy of language, nineteenth century British life, literature and thought, and Indian intellectual traditions. He has been lecturing on these themes and has written extensively on them. He has been teaching for almost forty-five years now. Literary Theory - Indian Conceptual Framework (1998); Canonical Texts of Literary Criticism (1995); Language, Literature and Linguistics - The Indian Perspective (1994); and South Asian Love Poetry (1994) are among his publications. His book, Dimensions of Panini Grammar - The Indian Grammatical System, is in press.

Rajendra Prasad, educated at Patna University and University of Michigan, retired from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur where he held the chair of the Senior Professor of Philosophy and Head, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. He has been a Fulbright/Smit-Mundt Fellow, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, thrice a National Lecturer of the UGC, a National Lecturer and Senior Fellow of the ICPR and, until recently, a National Fellow of the latter. Professor Prasad has been General President of Indian Philosophical Association, Akhil Bharatiya Darsan Parishad, and Indian Philosophical Congress. His publications include Darshana Shastra Ki Ruparekha (Hindi), Regularity, Normativity and Rules of Language, Karma, Causation and Retributive Morality, Aesthetics, Morality and Jivanmukti, and Ends and Means in Private and Public Life (edited). Besides, he has published numerous scholarly papers in several learned journals in India and abroad. He has edited the journals Indian Review of Philosophy and Darsanika Traimasika, and is currently a co-editor of Indian Philosophical Quarterly and Paramarsa.

Leona M. Anderson was trained at McMaster University, Canada and currently teaches Hinduism at the University of Regina, Canada. She has resided in both Pune and Delhi and has on several occasions been affiliated with the Deccan College, Pune. She has received grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her articles have appeared in many journals and she has participated at symposia worldwide. Dr. Anderson is presently the Resident Director of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute in Delhi. Her current research centres on a study of the Festival of Lord Ganapati.

S.R.N. Murthy, Ph.D, F.G.S (Indology), is a professionally trained earthscientist and Sanskrit scholar, whose research concerns have, for over three decades, focussed on the revival of ancient Indian sciences/concepts: in modern scientific language. And, resultantly, has produced books, like The Integrated Theory of the Earth and Geophilosophical Aspects of the Rigveda; besides Ancient Indian Theories of the Earth, comprising a series of his lectures delivered at the Centre of Advanced Studies in Sanskrit, University of Poona, Pune.

Dr. Murthy retired as Director from the Geological Survey of India.

Dr. Maura Corcoran's acquaintance with Hindi began as a child in India. She subsequently studied Hindi at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. For the pursuit of her post-graduate research work she stayed at Vrindaban for some time and was associated with the Vrindaban Research Institute. This granted her an opportunity to be familiar with the region of Braj and analyse the Vaishnava theology, traditions and literary texts. She received a Ph.D. in 1980 from the University of London and since then she has been teaching Hindi in London. Dr. Corcoran was the Chief Examiner for GCSE Hindi for a number of years. At present, she is In-charge of Religious Education in a secondary school.

Dr. M. Darrol Bryant is a Professor of Religion and Culture at Renison College, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He has been the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and the Acting Principle of Renison College. He is the author/editor of fifteen books including Religion in a New Key; Huston Smith: Essays on World Religion; A World Broken By Unshared Bread; The Many Faces of Religion and Society; God: The Contemporary Discussion; Muslim-Christian Dialogue: Promise and Problems; and Interreligious Dialogue: Voices from a New Frontier. He has published more than 70 scholarly articles in journals both East and West. He was educated at Harvard University and St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto. Dr. Bryant has been a Visiting Scholar at Hamdard University and the University of Madras in India, the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and he has lectured at universities throughout the world. His research over the past twenty years has been focused on the dialogue of religions.

Kusum P. Merh is a notable Sanskrit scholar, with a brilliant academic career that led to her selection for the UGC's (University Grants Commission's) prestigious research fellowship. Awarded Ph.D in 1992, she currently teaches in the Department of Sanskrit, Pali & Prakrit, M.S. University, Baroda, India.

A Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Dr. Bhaduri specialises in Indian and Western philosophy. With years of teaching experience, he is presently a lecturer at the Department of English and Modern European Languages, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Dr. Raghunath S. Pappu is a scholar of international repute in geo-archaeology who has investigated pre-and proto-hostoric sites in varied ecological settings in different regions of the country. Of significance is his prehistory and Quaternary studies in the Kaladgi basin (north Karnataka) and excavation of Palaeolithic sites of Anagwadi (Karnataka), and Chirki-Nevasa, Wadoli and Inamgaon (Maharashtra). Among his publications, which include researchpapers in various national and international journals, are monographs on PleistoceneStudies in the Upper Krishna Basin and Man-Land Relationship during Palaeolithic Times in the Kaladgi basin, Karnataka.

Dr. V.K. Dabral, holding a master's degree in English literature and history of art, is a distinguished scholar who has devoted more than two decades to the study of Sinhala language, literature, art and history. He has, to his credit, contributed several well-researched articles in Sinhala, English and Hindi particularly on Buddhism in the Indian and Sri Lankan contexts, to journals in both the countries.

Dr. R.C. Hiremath, a former Vice-Chancellor of Karnatak University, some time National Fellow, is a well-known scholar. After a distinguished career at the University of Bombay, he took his Ph.D. at the Karnatak University, and had his post-doctoral training in Modern Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. Dr. Hiremath has taught and administered for 30 years in Karnataka, and has an impressive volume of scholarly publications - both creative and critical - to his credit.

Bidyut Lata Ray (Ph.D) is a noted Sanskrit scholar who has been researching on Sanskrit and teaching the subject for over three decades. She has contributed a number of research papers and articles on Jagannatha cult, Vedic and Puranic studies to reputed journals, periodicals and felicitation volumes and published monographs on the subject. She has been conferred with an honorary appointment to the Professional Women's Advisory Board and to the Research Board of Advisors of the American Biographical Institute, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

Bhogendra Jha, Ph. D., an expert in Indian sculpture, iconography and museology, has contributed research papers to leading journals on Indian art. He is the co-author of Gupta Sculptures and Gandhara Sculptures. He is associated with the Bharat Kala Bhavan of the Banaras Hindu University as a senior curator at present.

Dr Swarajya Prakash Gupta was born in Prayag on the day of Devashthana Ekadashi, November 11, 1932 but his birth date was registered in the School records as December 22, 1931. He got his M.A. and LLB education in Prayag University itself. Awarded a Ph.D degree from Delhi University, D.Lit. from Magadha University and Dip. in Archaeology from School of Archaeology, Delhi, he later went to Paris and London for his higher education. He has travelled to about thirty countries.

Swarajya Prakash Gupta has been honoured with awards like "Sir Mortimer Wheeler Prize", "Maulana Azad Gold Medal", and "Centenary Gold Medal" for his special efficiency in the field of archaeology. He has written more than fifty articles, authored six books and edited eight. He has been an editor of a Journal Puratattva for many years. His famous books are The Roots of Indian Art, The Indus-Saraswati Civilization, The Archaeology of Soviet-Central Asia and Indian Borderland, etc. Presently he is the President of Indian Archaeological Society, New Delhi.

J.M. Malville obtained his PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado. He has taught in the astronomy departments of the universities of Michigan and Colorado. At Colorado he served as the Chairman of the Department of Astro-Geophysics. His research interests have ranged from the physics of the earth's aurora and the sun's corona, to the archaeoastronomy of India, American Southwest, Peru, and Egypt. As a visiting scientist at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Malville investigated the connections between astronomy, culture, and self-organized complexity. His is presently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado and an Adjunct Professor of Astronomy at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia. His books include A Feather for Daedalus and Prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest.

Narayana Guru (1854-1928) was an enlightened seer who re-visualized and restated the ancient wisdom tradition of Vedanta. Equally conversant with Sanskrit, Malayalam and Tamil languages, the Guru utilized these three to express his vision of wisdom through the beauty of poems and songs. His philosophical poems and hymns reveal the essential wisdom content expressed in the Upanishads, while doing so with a scientific precision suitable for our Age of Science. Hence in Narayana Guru's works we find a wonderful blend of beauty and precision. His poems, songs, and his activities aimed at social and religious reform, all became a creative tour de force aimed at uplifting the minds' of his fellow human beings. Hence his teachings and activities were not only intended for the thinker or literate person, but also for the common man for whom the Guru had the deepest sympathy. In fact, the Guru initiated a powerful movement of social and religious reform in Kerala which aimed at correcting the evils of casteism and religious rivalry. Today the Narayana Gurukula Movement seeks to further the spread of the wisdom of universal and eternal value that the Guru stood for.

Prof. Ratan Parimoo is a noted art teacher, historian and critic who has specialised in traditional and contemporary arts of India. He was Head of the Department of Art History & Aesthetics from 1966 to 1991 at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. As a Commonwealth scholar, Prof. Parimoo studied History of European Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of  London (1960-63). He received the Rockfeller Grant to study in the USA in 1974. He was invited to participate in the twenty-third World Congress of the International Society of Education through Art held in Australia in 1968.

He is the editor of the encyclopaedic critical anthology, Creative Arts in Modern India. In 2010 he edited "Historical Development of Contemporary Indian Art 1880-1947". His publications include Paintings of the three Tagores: Abanindranath, Gaganendranath and Rabindranath; Studies in Modern Indian Art; Sculptures of Sheshasayi Vishnu; and Essays on New Art History: Studies in Indian Sculpture. He is also an eminent painter.

Tzannis Tzannetakis, (born: 1927), a former Prime Minister of Greece, is unmistakably a versatile personality, eminently combining in him the gifts of a parliamentarian, an administrator, a social activist, an art-lover, and a scholar. Essentially a humanist with inwrought democratic values, he relinquished his promising career in the Greek Navy, in 1967, in protest against the military dictatorship. And for this action of his, he suffered both imprisonment and exile. With the return of democracy in 1974, he entered politics - which, over the years, has seen him in a succession of key positions, like Minister of Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister and then, finally, Prime Minister in the coalition Conservative and Left government in 1989.

Besides his involvement with the restoration of old traditional villages in Greece and cultural activities of various descriptions, Mr. Tzannetakis has also authored/translated a number of books - including his Greek translations of several Upanishads, which have been published together with his introduction and commentary.

Salima Jan (Ph.D) is a specialist in women's studies. She takes keen interest in communication research, having devoted more than a decade in research in the Audio Visual Research Centre in the University of Kashmir. She conducts research studies in educational television programmes and is the resource person/expert for the Commonwealth Educational Media for Asia, New Delhi, and other state level institutions, besides for the Indira Gandhi National Open University.

Dr. Madhu Khanna earned her PhD in Religious Studies with a specialization in Tantra from Oxford University. Author of several books and academic papers, she has researched and organised several cross-cultural interdisceplanary exhibitions at the IGNCA including the one on the theme Rita-Ritu Cosmic Order and Cycle of Seasons.  At present she is Associate Professor, at the IGNCA.

Dr. Rahul V. Atlekar, an expert on vastushastra, is a production engineer with years of industrial, corporate training and consulting experience in materials management and IT strategy among other areas. He has delivered lectures on vastushastra and ancient Indian architecture and engineering. He is at present involved in vastushastra consultancy.

Rita Pratap, Ph.D (Rajasthan), is the 1952-born, freelance art critic and reputed painter, who today figures among the ten leading contemporary women artists of Rajasthan. A member of several art organizations, she has published a number of research studies, besides art reviews in Rajasthan's newspapers. And some of her canvases have won awards and honours - at exhibitions : local, national and inter-national.

Currently Assistant Professor of Drawing and Painting at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Dr. Pratap has presented, analytical insights in her studies of the paintings and Wall paintings of Jaipur. Her other title, Galta - a tirath to be published shortly.

S.K. Mohanty, editor of this volume is a Reader in Philosophy at Utkal University where he has been teaching for over 30 years. A specialist in Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Values and Practical Ethics, Dr. Mohanty has published two books entitled The Concept of Action and Bertrand Russell - the later in Oriya.

Dipak Kumar Samanta is Calcutta University's Ph.D. And his doctoral dissertation on "the Neo-Buddhists" has been well-received. Yet his varied research concerns have led him on to work on different tribal groups of Central and Western India, in addition to his studies of pilgrimages/sacred centres.

Essentially a motivated scholar, with specialized interests in social and cultural anthropology, Dr. Samanta has the distinction of being published in almost all the leading anthropological journals in India.

A scholar, researcher and litterateur of wide repute, Vijayalayam Jayakumar (born: 15 November 1924) was awarded a Ph.D for his well-received dissertation on the autobiographical genre of Malayalam literature. And has had fairly long association with the Malayalam Lexican Department of Kerala University, and later with Oriental Research Institute at the Kariavattom Campus. Currently, he is Director, SNR (Sree Narayanaguru Research) Centre, Peroorkada, Thiruvananthapuram.

Dr. Jayakumar's creative writing: in both prose and verse, has appeared in about forty books, including the two fictional works that are conceived on an epical scale. One of these novels, namely, Kunti-Atmadugham Ente Sugham has already been translated into English, under the title: Delight in Distress.

Prem Saran, a senior member of the Indian Administrative Service, is currently on study leave, working on "Gender, Personhood and Hedonism as Core Themes in Nepalese Tantrism" for his Ph.D in Anthropology at the University of California, USA. A versatile scholar, holding an M.A. (Anthropology) from the University of California, an M.A. (South Asia Regional Studies) from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, and a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, he carries on "the intellectual tradition" of the Indian civil services.

Now in his early forties, Saran was born in Kerala, is married to an Assamese, and is himself an initiated follower of the Tantric cult.

Professor R. Nath (b. 1933), M.A., Ph.D., D. Litt, taught History at Agra College and University of Rajasthan Jaipur, from where he retired as Professor & Head of Department of History & Indian Culture. For almost half a century, he has been studying Indian historical architecture, chiefly Mughal Architecture, on which subject he has authored 55 books, 15 monographs and 179 research-papers, including the multi-volume series: History of Mughal Architecture. With his knowledge of Sanskrit and Persian, he writes authoritatively. His is, essentially, a study of the Land, the People and the Culture.

Swami Shantidharmananda Saraswati is a scholar-saint who has been involved in the quest for spiritual knowledge for years. He received spiritual guidance and wisdom from spiritual masters at the historical pilgrimage centers - Munger, Rishikesh, Benaras and Omkareshwar. He has specialized in yoga, having received initiation from the great yogic master of modern times - Paramahansa Swami Satyananda Saraswati of Bihar School of Yoga, Munger. He currently resides and teaches in his own hermitage.

Nandlal Vanvari, PhD, has specialized in electronics and communication engineering. He has presented papers in national and international conferences on R&D vis-a-vis electronics industry and has published a number of research papers in journals and works on the subject.  Over the years, he has keenly cultivated his interest in spiritual-scientific topics like the occult sciences.

Prof. (Dr.) Anupa Pande is an Art Historian and Indologist. She is a Sanskritist of note, proficient in Indian music and foreign languages. She has authored research works on ancient Indian society, culture and art, specializing on the Natyashastra tradition and Buddhist Art. A Baden-Wurtemburg Fellow in the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany from May 2003 to July 2003, she has delivered lectures within India and abroad on Indian cultural and art traditions. She is currently engaged in teaching and post-doctoral research in the National Museum Institute, New Delhi.

Parul Pandya Dhar is Associate Professor in the Department of History, Faculty of Social Science, University of Delhi. Prior to this she was teaching Indian Art History at the National Museum Institute, New Delhi.  Her research interests focus on the cultural history of ancient and medieval India and Southeast Asia. She has been awarded prestigious research fellowships and grants such as the Alexander von Humboldt (post-doctoral) research fellowship (Germany) and the Nehru Trust Research Grant (U.K.). She has contributed several research papers and has edited a book, Cultural Interface of India with Asia: Religion, Art & Architecture (2004).

Dr. Pranati Ghosal (1956- ) is a promising scholar in the field of Sanskrit, and in Vedic Studies in particular, and is presently working with the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Varanasi. She is the co-editor of the Annual Bulletin and Proceedings of a number of seminars organised at Jnana-Pravaha. She has co-edited the recently published volume on Buddhism and Gandhara Art, Interaction Between Brahmanical and Buddhist Art, and Sakta Contribution to Varanasi. Dr. Ghosal has authored Jada-Bharata's Prasnavali: A Text on Advaita Vedanta, and several research papers which have been highly rated for their academic value and have appeared in reputed journals and bulletins.

Jennifer E. Duyne, who obtained her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Zurich, began her research in 1983 into the impact of small credit programmes on informal credit systems in rural Bangladesh. After a number of postings in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Southern India, studying the social organisation of irrigated agriculture, she returned to Bangladesh in 1992, working as a social development advisor to a water resource development project, funded by the Government of the Netherlands, until 1998. Within that framework, she became responsible for a national research project on indigenous water management practices in rural Bangladesh upon which this book is based. At present, Dr. Duyne is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Zurich and at the University of Applied Sciences in Lugano (Switzerland).

Jitamitra Prasad Singh Deo, the President of Khariar Sahitya Samiti, is an enthusiastic amateur archaeologist. He is credited with the discovery of the pre-historic Rock art of Yogimath Donger, Ghat Ghumar rock art, copper plates, gold coins of Shatabhapuriya dynasty, clay seal, stone seal of Panduvamshi dynasty, Kalachuri coins, terracotas, beads and sculptures of various types. His extensive collection of archaeological remains has been displayed in the Khariar Branch Museum in Orissa, a museum specially constructed for this purpose. An author of various informative books, viz. Cultural Profile of South Koshala, Origin of Jagannath Deity, Tantric Art of Orissa, and Character Assasination in Modern History of Orissa, he has also contributed to different research journals, bulletins, periodicals, magazines and newspapers.

Dr. Ranjana Srivastava, Reader, Kathak Dance, Faculty of Performing Arts, B.H.U., is an artist, a performer, a researcher and a choreographer of international repute. She is credited with starting Kathaka Diploma Classes from the scratch in the Faculty of Performing Arts, B.H.U., which has now grown into a Degree Course enrolling students from abroad. A disciple of stalwarts like Guru Vikram Singh, Pandit Shambhu Maharaj, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Pandit Sunder Prasad and Guru M.R. Kalyanpurkar she is a recepient of the U.P., Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. She is currently working on a University Grant's Commission. sponsored major project: Dhrupada Nritya : A Reconstruction.

John Chathanatt, S.J. is a Professor at Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi. Formerly, he was the Principal of the same Institute. He is a  Ph.D. in Ethics and Society (the Divinity School, University of Chicago); he has degrees in Mathematics, Philosophy, Economics and Theology from some leading Indian and foreign universities; and has been a Visiting Professor at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune, and East Asian Pastoral Institute (Ateneo de Manila University). Prof. Chathanatt has also co-edited a book, Songs of Silence: Christians in Nation Building with Prof. S. Arokiasamy, S. J.

The first drummer in India to have worked as Professor of Tabla at a centre of higher learning, Sudhir Kumar Saxena (1923-2007), retired from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, in 1983 as head of its music department, after serving the institution for thirty-three years. Besides teaching Tabla to generations of students, a lifetime work which he lovingly continued in retirement at his residence, Professor Saxena had, in his long career (1945-1995), participated in most of the major music conferences of the country as a Tabla accompanist to almost every front-ranking musician and Kathak dancer.

His pupils abound. Some of them are themselves distinguished teachers in India and other countries. Many more are serving All India Radio; and some of them, the very university where he worked as a teacher. All of them are proud of the authentic training they had received - authentic because Professor Saxena himself had the privilege of learning the art for years from Ustad Habeebuddin Khan, the doyen of the Ajrada gharana of Tabla.

As an accompanist, Professor Saxena had always delighted not only audiences, but the main artiste as well, be it a musician or a Kathak dancer. As a teacher, he was analytic, and therefore easy to follow. This book should bear it out.As an accompanist, Professor Saxena has always delighted not only audiences, but the main artiste as well, be it a musician or a Kathak dancer. As a teacher, he is analytic, and therefore easy to follow. This book should bear it out.

Dr. Ashok Sarma, a distinguished scholar, is a keen researcher of tribal life and folklore in India. His studies have borne special reference to the nature, dynamism and influences on folklore and tribal culture of the plain tribes of Assam. He has contributed valuable articles relating to the culture of Assam in several leading newspapers.

Arvind Sharma, formerly of the I.A.S., is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion in the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He has published extensively in the fields of Indology and Comparative Religion, and is currently engaged in promoting the adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World's Religions. He was the co-convenor of the congress on World's Religions After September 11: An Asian Perspective, which met in Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi in January  2009.

Ashok Vohra is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Delhi. He was the Member Secretary of Indian council of Philosophical Research during 1995- 98. He is the author of Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mind, (Croom-Helm, London, Sydney); co-author of Radhakrishnan: His Life and Ideas (State University of New York Press, New York) and co-editor of The Philosophy of K. Satchidanada Murty (ICPR, New Delhi).  He has translated Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations; On Certainty; and Culture and Value into Hindi. In addition he has published more than seventy articles and research papers in Indian and foreign journals. He has been writing columns on Indian philosophy and religion in leading national dailies.

Dr. Shiva Acharya, a distinguished scholar of Sanskrit and a recipient of various awards, has great knowledge of literary classics and Vedas. He has authored four books, of which two books deserves specific mention - Samskrita Margadarshini in Sanskrit and Ajako Digbhranta Samajsashta in Nepali. Besides, he has contributed more than a hundred valuable articles on history, nationalism, culture, religion and national integration in five different languages - English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Assamese and Nepali. All his books and articles have been extensively appreciated by Indologists, historians and sociologists.

Pabitrakumar Roy, presently Fellow of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, was till recently Senior Fellow of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi. Roy taught Philosophy for over three decades at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and the University of North Bengal. He had been Visiting Faculty at various Indian Universities and British Council Scholar at King's College Cambridge and University of Reading.

Roy has authored scores of papers and some of his works are David Hume; Rabindranath Tagore; Hume and Kant: A Study in Linkages, Man and Technology. The areas of his interest lie in Moral Psychology and Aesthetics.

Deepak Raja [b: 1948] is amongst the most respected writers on Hindustani music today. He works as Repertoire Analyst for India Archive Music Ltd. New York, the most influential producer of Hindustani music outside India and is closely associated with the academic and publishing activities of the ITC-Sangeet Research Academy, Sangeet Natak Akademi, and the Indian Musicological Society.  His first book: Hindustani Music: A Tradition in Transition, was published in 2005. In 1999, he co-edited a volume titled Perspectives on Dhrupad for the Indian Musicological Society. He also runs a respected blog on Hindustani music: http://swaratala.blogspot.com.

The author, a musicologist, is a sitar and surbahar player of the Imdad Khan/Etawah Gharana, and studies Khayala under Vidushi Dhondutai Kulkarni of the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana. Deepak Raja took an Honours degree in Economics, Philosophy, and Political Science from Delhi University, a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Advertising Administration from the Watford College of Technology in Hertfordshire, UK. He has occupied important positions in the media industry, including Editor of Business India, and Secretary General of the Indian Newspaper Society.

Dr. Chithra Madhavan obtained her M.A. Degree in Indian History with first rank in 1988 from the University of Madras. In 1989 she received her M.Phil. degree from the same University. Subsequently, she obtained her Ph.D. degree in Ancient History and Archaeology from the University of Mysore in 1999. Her Doctoral dissertation has been published as a book entitled "History and Culture of Tamil Nadu - Vol. I." She was awarded the Junior Fellowship in Epigraphy by the Department of Culture, Government of India for the period 2001-03, and the present book embodies the results of this research work. She is now the recipient of a Post-doctoral Fellowship from the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi.

Dr. Madhavan has contributed a number of research papers on epigraphy, art and architecture to various seminars and reputed journals, and also many popular articles to newspapers on Indian history and art.

Dr. Subrata Kumar Acharya (b. 1962) is a scholar of Indian epigraphy and palaeography who has published research papers in prestigious journals in India. He has authored Numerals in Orissan Inscriptions (Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, 2002) and his work Symbols and Syllables: Understanding the Origin and Development of the Brahmi Numerals is shortly going to press.

Dr. V.V.S Saibaba (1947-), a Professor at Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, wherefrom he holds his Master's degree (1973) and Ph.D degree (1985). He was the Head in the Centre for Mahayana Buddhist Studies at Acharya Nagarjuna University (1987-89). He taught Buddhist Sanskrit texts, philosophy of the Buddha, Scriptural readings, Indian philosophy and Shankara Advaita. He has participated in several International and National Conferences and supervised research on Jaina and Buddhist Philosophical texts, Buddhist history, Art, Architecture, Literature, Judaism, Catholic Christianity and Hatha Yoga. He has published the book Facets of Buddhist Philosophy: Theravada and Mahayana; many research papers in International and National Buddhist journals. He was a consulting editor of the Contemporary Who is Who, American Biographical Institute, USA.

Dr. (Ms.) S.P. Chavan (Ph.D), b. 1962, is a scholar of history holding the post of senior lecturer and head of department of history in Jayawant  Mahavidyalaya, Ichalkarunji district, Kolhapur since 1998. She has specialised on the history of South Karnataka. She has participated in national conferences and workshops and presented papers on the subject.

Giuseppe Baroetto was born in Turin (Italy) in 1959. He graduated in philosophy at the Oriental University Institute of Naples, where he prepared his thesis on Tibetan Buddhism with Prof. Namkhai Norbu. Subsequently he undertook in greater depth his study and practice of the Indo-Tibetan spiritual traditions of Mahamudra and Dzogchen with various Buddhist and Bonpo masters. In Italy he has had published translations of some significant essential texts of these traditions together with the direct oral instructions of his masters. On this foundation he established in 2003 the Ati Rim‚ School, with the aim to study and practise Atiyoga with a fresh approach of renewed openness.(Emerging Perceptions in Buddhist Studies, no. 18)

Sashinungla is a Reader of Philosophy at the Centre of Advanced Study, Jadavpur University, India. Her areas of interest are environmental philosophy and tribal culture and philosophy.

Avadhesh Kumar Singh (1960- ) is Professor and Head, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Saurashtra University, Rajkot. His areas of publications include Indian and western literary theories, comparative literature, Indian literature and translation studies. He is the Coordinator of UGC SAP/DRS Programme on "Indian Renaissance with special reference to English, Gujarati and Hindi." He is the Editor of Critical Practice, a journal of critical and literary studies since 1994.

Dr. Sadananda Das: Research Officer, Alice Boner Institute (Varanasi); at present Lecturer in Sanskrit, Institute of Indology and Central Asian Studies, University of Leipzig (Germany).

Dr Ernst Furlinger has studied Nondualistic Kashmir Shaivism from 2001 till 2006 in North India, mainly with Pandit Hemendra Nath Chakravarty and Prof. Bettina Baumer (both from Varanasi). He is a Lecturer at the Institute for Religious Studies, University of Vienna and member of the Scientific staff at Center for Migration and Integration, Danube University, Krems (near Vienna). Austria.

Contact:ernst.fuerlinger@donau-uni.ac.at

Rev. Dr. John R. Dupuche, a Catholic priest from Melbourne (Australia), specialized in Kashmir Shaivism and Christian mysticism, and chair of the Interfaith Committee of the Archdiocese.

Kanchan Mathur completed her honours in English from Delhi University and her B. Ed. from Loresto House, Kolkata. She worked at The Statesman, Delhi and Loreto, Darjeeling, before joining her husband in business, at Jaipur.

A lover of music, she found the writing of Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's biography, a tempting offer.

Chandran T.V. is Lecturer in Art History in the Government College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He obtained his Masters in Art History and Aesthetics from the MS University of Baroda, Gujarat. He has been doing research on teyyam since 1992. This book is part of his on-going research for which he received a fellowship from the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi in 1997. He has presented papers in national and international seminars on Art and folklore and has been contributing to periodicals on related issues. He also regularly writes on contemporary art. Another of his major work in progress is Adhunika Chitrakala : Avasthayum Akhyanavum (in Malayalam).

He can be contacted at: chandrantpayyanur@yahoo.com

Dr. Vijay Kumar Singh, a Reader in the Department of Chinese and Tibetan Language, Panjab University, did his Masters in Buddhist Studies from the University of Delhi and was awarded PhD in Tibetan Buddhism from Panjab University, Chandigarh. He has written several papers on Tibetan Buddhism. These have been published in national and international journals and several books. He remains one of the very few scholars in the field of Lam Rim Teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Lam Rim teachings are considered to be the base of Buddhist scriptures that reached Tibet from India during the introduction of Buddhism in Tibet in 7th century. In Tibetan language, Lam means path and Rim is graded. Hence, the Lam Rim teaching is considered to be of Indian origin, but developed to its present extent by the Tibetan masters in their own environment with local flavours and soon it earned the respect and command of all the sects and sub-sects of Buddhism in Tibet.

Living in a Guru-Shishya-Parampara with the late Dr Lalmani Misra, Laxmi Ganesh Tewari underwent extensive training in Indian classical music. Dr Misra arranged for his study of vocal music with Pandit Madhav Vaman Thakar. Laxmi completed his Doctorate in Music, with honours, from Banaras Hindu University. In 1968 Dr Tewari went to the United States to study and teach at Wesleyan University, where he completed an MA and a PhD in Ethnomusicology. He is currently a Professor of Music at Sonoma State University. Dr Tewari is an accomplished performer, teacher and scholar. He has collected the musics of India, Turkey, and Trinidad and has produced numerous recordings from his field research.

Mr. Utpal Chakraborty (born in 1951) graduated in Fine Arts from the Vishva Bharati University (Santiniketan, West Bengal, India) in 1972 after which he received 'National Cultural Scholarship' from the Government of India and 'Cultural Scholarship' from Government of France. He obtained a Master and a Doctorate degree from the Universit‚ de Paris III, Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris) on Indian Buddhist Art and Archaeology under the guidance of late Professor Jean Boisselier. Currently he is working on two projects on Indian Buddhist Caves.

Mr. Chakraborty is also a painter and is living in Paris since 1976.

Dr Purushottama Bilimoria, PhD is a Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Deakin University and Senior Fellow at Melbourne University. He has held fellowships and has lectured in universities in the USA, UK, Europe, Canada, and India. Dr Bilimoria is a visiting professor at State University of New York, Stony Brook and Columbia University. He is an editor-in-chief of Sophia, an international journal for metaphysical theology; and co-editor of the two-volume compendia on Indian Ethics, and the Routledge History of Indian Philosophy. He is currently editor of  "Studies of Classical India Series."

Mark Long is an internationally recognized expert in the field of electronic communications. He is the author of a dozen technical reference books pertaining to the transmission and reception of video, voice and data over wireless networks. Mark Long's technical background is complemented by a keen interest in Mahayana Buddhism, which first flowered during the early 1970's when he was introduced to the religion and its practices by students of Suzuki Roshi - the founder of the Tassajara Zen Buddhist Mountain Center in Northern California.

Dr K.C. Jain, (April 1930-April 2012) in Maroth of Nagore District of Rajasthan, completed his graduation with a scholarship from Rajasthan University in the year 1951 and post graduation in 1953. He was awarded Ph.D. and D.Litt. in 1956 and 1963 respectively, from the Rajasthan University. He joined Vikram University in 1964 and served as Professor and Head, School of Studies in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Vikram University, Ujjain. He was appointed Senior Fellow by the Indian Council of Historical Society for a period of three years (1990-1993).

He has been a member of International Conference of Orientalists, All India Oriental Conference, Indian History Congress, Institute of Historical Studies, Epigraphical Society of India, Rajasthan History Congress and Madhya Pradesh Itihas Parishad.

An author of international acclaim, his other main books include: Jainism in Rajasthan (1963), Ancient Cities and Towns of Rajasthan (1972), Malwa through the Ages (1972), Lord Mahavira and His Times (1976), Prehistory and Protohistory of India (1979), Kalidas and His Times (1990), Madhya Pradesh Through the Ages (1997), Prachin Bharat mein Samajik evam Arthik Sansthayein (sixth edition, 2000), Jain Dharma ka Itihas (Hindi, 3 vols.) (2005), and Age of Vikramaditya (2009). Besides, he has more than 110 research papers to his credit published in national and international journals.

He is the recipient of awards from the State Governments of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Photographs credit: American Institute of Indian Studies, Gurgaon.

Dr. S. S. Gupta is an expert in archaeology. He has travelled extensively in the course of his involvement with archaeological explorations and rock art studies in India as well as abroad. He has a rich experience of working in the archaeological museums of Amaravati, Gwalior and Sarnath. At present, he is  Deputy Superintending Archaeologist in Archaeological Survey of India, Bhopal. He has published numerous articles in reputed journals.

Dr (Mrs) Mukta Biswas is a Reader in the Department of Sanskrit, Gauhati University, Assam. She has authored a number of research papers on ancient Indian culture, philosophy, literature and language. She has participated in numerous national seminars and conferences and has been honoured with gold medals for her scholarship. She is the winner of awards including Dr V. Raghavan award for best paper at the 42nd session of All India Oriental Conference held in Varanasi, 2004.

Suchita Chopra Chatterjee, Ph.D., is professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Kharagpur (India). She has worked on various aspects of sociology in India with an abiding interest in Indian philosophical thought. She has authored three books and published several national and international papers. Her latest works include a co-edited volume on Discourses on Ageing and Dying (Sage). She can be reached at her email: suhitacc@yahoo.co.in.

Damodar Suar, Ph.D., is professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Kharagpur (India). He is an associate editor of the journal Psychological Studies. His research focuses on social issues. He has authored over 70 scientific/professional articles including book chapters and his books include Psychological Aspects of Polarisation Phenomenon, Management through Interpersonal Relationships (co-editor), and Psychology matters: Development, Health and Organization (co-editor). He has handled more than 30 research/consultancy projects, and co-ordinated more than 15 training programmes. He can be reached at his email: ds@hss.iitkgp.ernet.in.

Dr. Sadasiva Biswal, a retired principal, born 1945 in Orissa, got his PhD degree from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. He worked as the Reader and Head of the Department of Physics of several Colleges in Orissa and has produced five PhDs. He has published thirty-five research papers and more than two hundred articles on science besides 14 books in Physics. Dr Biswal is associated with many scientific and research organisations in India and abroad, and is in the Research Board of Advisers of the American Biographical Institute Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

Mihir K. Jena holds a PhD in ethnobotany from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. For more than ten years Dr. Jena did extensive fieldwork on indigenous knowledge of several tribes of Orissa and worked as a consultant for Indian and foreign Non-governmental organisations. At present he is Director of a post graduate course in Bhubaneswar, Orissa.

Mr K.I. Isaac, an administrative officer by profession with a penchant for electronics, has keen interest in religious and spiritual matters in life. Being a member of the Indian Orthodox Church, he engages in congregational service and social charities as well. He has authored numerous articles and books in Malayalam as well as in English. One of his works has been published by the Malankara Orthodox Church publication under the title, Death and Life Thereafter (in Malayalam).

Dr. V.K. Jain teaches history at Motilal Nehru College, University of Delhi. His two other books include Trade and Traders in Western India, New Delhi, 1990 and Cities and Sites of Ancient and Early Medieval India - A Historical Profile, New Delhi, 1998.

Dr M.S. Bhattacharya, a well-known social activist and author, has contributed to many journals and anthologies on topics related to child labour, child abuse, juvenile delinquency, psychological well-being of the children and various contemporary social problems. Primarily known as an art historian his works like North-East India and Her Neighbours (1995), Art of Bengal (2002) and Studies in Microhistory (2006) have aroused much intellectual curiosity in India and abroad. All his works bear the hallmarks of in-depth research. Born in 1956 and resident of Kolkata Dr Bhattacharya is now the editor of the Historical Review, a biannual journal of history and archaeology.

Professor K. Satchidananda Murty has taught philosophy at Andhra University for a quarter century. He was the Vice-Chancellor of S.V. University (1975-78), Vice-Chairman of the UGC (1986-89), and the Chairman of Indian Philosophical Congress (1980-94). He was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1984 and Padma Vibhushan in 2001.

Professor Satchidananda Murty is the most thought-provoking philosopher of our times, whose books on Indian philosophy, culture, religion - particularly Vedanta - contain an instructive and penetrating analysis. Four Indian universities, including the Benaras Sanskrit University have conferred on him the Hon. D. Lit., apart from Wittenberg University in Germany, Sofia University of Bulgaria, Russian Academy of Sciences, and People's University of China.

Gudrun Buhnemann is a Professor of Sanskrit and South Asian Religions in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Her recent publications include The Iconography of Hindu Tantric Deities (2 volumes, E. Forsten, 2000-2001) and Mandalas and Yantras in the Hindu Traditions (E.J. Brill, 2003; revised edition by D.K. Printworld, 2007).

A post-graduate in Economics, Nitya Menon studied Vedanta under Swamini Sharadapriyananda. She has travelled across India in her wish to learn from spiritual masters. Among such masters are Swami Chinmayananda, Swami Ramakrishnananda of Cuddapah, Nitya Chaitanya Yati, Jiddu Krishnamurti, U.G. Krishnamurthi and Shiva Yogini Amma herself. She has been inspired by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in whom she has found total spiritual synthesis. At present, she teaches the Indian spiritual tradition to seekers.

Professor B.B. Chaubey, recipient of Certificates of Honour from the President of India, is an eminent Sanskritist and an authority on Vedic language, literature and culture. He was Professor-Director of Vishveshvaranand Vishva Bandhu Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies, Panjab University, Hoshiarpur. He has been elected several times as the Sectional President of the All India Oriental Conference for Vedic Section; Religion and Philosophical Section; South-East Asian Studies; Technical Sciences and Fine Arts; and the Manuscriptology Sections (twice).

Professor Chaubey has received several state and national level honours and awards including the Himotkarsh Parishad's 'National Integration Award' in 2000 and the 'President's Award' in 2004. He has also been honoured with 'Sastra-Vidvanmani-Sammana' by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams and 'Siromani Sanskrit Sahityakara Puruskara' by the Language Department of the Government of Punjab. Recently he has been conferred the title of 'Professor Emeritus' by the Panjab University. He has edited and authored more than 30 books related to Vedic literature which include critical editions of the Bhasikasutra with the commentary of Mahasvamin and Anantabhatta; Asvalayana Srautasutra with the commentary of Devatrata; Vadhula-Srautasutra; Vadhula Anvakhyana; Vadhulagrhyagamavrtti-rahasyam of Narayana Mishra; and many other texts belonging to the Vadhula tradition for the first time.

Prof. Dr Shashiprabha Kumar has been teaching Sanskrit and Indian philosophy for the past forty years, formerly in Delhi University and currently in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has penned more than 100 articles and authored/edited more than twenty books. Her select publications are: Bharatiya Darshanam; Vaisheshika Darshana mein Padartha Nirupana; Vaisheshika Darshana Parishilana; Vaidika Anushilana; Vaidika Vimarsha; Self, Society and Value; Facets of Indian Philosophical Thought; Veda as World; Sanskrit Across Cultures; Sanskrit and Other Indian Languages and Classical Vaisheshika: On Knowing and What is to be Known (U.K.).
For her contribution, Prof. Kumar has won many acclamations and received many awards like the ßShankara Puraskaraû of K.K. Birla Foundation, New Delhi and ßRama Krishna Sanskrit Awardû from Canadian World Education Foundation, Canada. Thirty-five students have obtained Ph.D and M.Phil degrees and three students have completed post-doctoral research under her guidance, while she continues to supervise many more students of Ph.D and M.Phil degrees.
She has recently been nominated Vice-Chairperson of Delhi Sanskrit Academy by the Department of Art, Culture & Language, Govt. of National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Dr Sarla Kumar was a Lecturer and Reader in English Literature in various colleges of Delhi University. She has been a disciple of Swami Lakshman Joo for about 40 years, and since her retirement she is devoting all her time to the study and practice of Kashmir Shaivism. She is also President of the Trika Interreligious Trust which engages in the teaching of Kashmir Shaivism.

Purushottam G. Patel, specialized in Psycholinguistics-Neurolinguistics for his PhD at the University of Alberta. This background is reflected in his recent monograph, Reading Acquisition in India: Models of Learning and Dyslexia. Previously he co-authored with Donald G. Doehring the book Reading Disabilities: The Interaction of Reading, Neuropsychological and Language Deficits. At the moment he is working on the draft manuscript of The Brahmi Writing System: Ancient Indian Phonetics with Modern Currency.

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Dilip Rajgor is a PhD in Indian numismatics, M.A. in archaeology and P.G. Diploma in linguistics. He has contributed sixty research articles to various journals and books. He has also published 13 books on Indian numismatics. Dr Rajgor was awarded the Lowick Memorial Grant of the Royal Numismatic Society, UK in 1991; and the Indological Research Fellowship of the Asiatic Society of Bombay in 1994-95. Presently, he is working as Director of University of Mumbai Dinesh Mody Numismatic Museum, and is editing ICS Newsletter.

Victoria Lysenko (1953 - ) received her Ph.D. (1982) and D.Litt (1998) degrees from the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), where she presently works as a research professor at the Centre of Oriental Philosopies. Among her publications are five books on Vaisheshika and Early Buddhism and around 200 papers on different subjects of Indian philosophy in Russian, English and French. She has translated into Russian Prashastapada's Padarthadharmasamgraha with Nyayakandali of Sridhara.

Michel Hulin (1936 - ) was born in northern France on 31st January 1936. A former pupil of the "Ecole Normale Superieure" in Paris, he graduated in philosophy and Indology. After a training period at the French Institute of Indology at Pondicherry (1969-1971) he became a Reader and later on a full Professor of Indian and Comparative Philosophy at the University Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), from 1981 up to his retirement in 1998.

Professor K. Srinivas (1955) is currently Head of the Department of Philosophy at Pondicherry University, Pondicherry. He received his PhD degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in the year 1983. His areas of interest include: Indian philosophy, analytic philosophy, epistemology (East & West), philosophy of science, and modern logic.  He has published a number of papers and books on the above mentioned areas. His books include: A.J. Ayer's Logical Positivism (1990), A Dictionary of Philosophy (1993), and P.T. Raju (2001). Professor Srinivas travelled widely and presented papers at the International seminars held in the U.S.A., West Indies, Germany, Austria,and Thailand. He was a visiting faculty at the University of Oregon (U.S.A.), Chemnitz Technological University (Germany), and Assumption University (Thailand).

Professor V. Kutumba Sastry (1950) is currently Vice-Chancellor, Rashtriya Samskrit Samsthan, New Delhi. He is a well-known Vedic scholar. His areas of interest include philosophy in general and Advaita Vedanta  and Sanskrit poetics in particular. His publications include monographs, anthologies, and research papers on Advaita Vedanta. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards from several State Governments in India as well as one from the Windsor University, Canada for promoting Sanskrit studies. Recently he has been elected as the President of International Association of Sanskrit Studies, Paris. Professor Sastry travelled widely to spread the message of the Vedas and the Advaita Vedanta in countries such as U.S.A., England, Kazakhstan,  Finland, Thailand, and Scotland.

Dr Indrani Sanyal, Professor of Philosophy and Co-ordinator, Centre for Sri Aurobindo Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, is in the teaching profession for more than thirty years now. Her areas of specialisation include Philosophy of Language, Metaphysics, Ethics, especially Indian Ethics and Aurobindonian Studies.

Dr Sanyal has many published books to her credit, among them are: On Essentialist Claims; Understanding Thoughts of Sri Aurobindo; Sri Aurobindo and His Contemporary Thinkers; Ethics and Culture: Some Indian Reflections; Sri Aurobindo: The Poet, Philosopher and Yogi. She has also edited with an Introduction, 'A Collection of Essays' by Arabinda Basu.

Navin Doshi is an aerospace engineer, trader in financial asset management and philosophical thinker. In 1958 Doshi came to the United States and pursued postgraduate studies in engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and at UCLA. During his career as an aerospace engineer, he was the recipient of several NASA awards and US patents. In 1999, Navin and his wife, Pratima, endowed the Doshi Chair of Indian Studies in the Department of History at UCLA. The Doshis have also endowed a professorship at the Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, which administers the annual Doshi Bridge Builder Award. In 2008, Doshi founded Nalanda International, a non-profit organisation for promoting excellence and research in Indic Studies. Recipient of numerous honours in India and USA, Doshi is the author of the book Transcendence: Saving Us from Ourselves (Ithaca Press, 2009). Doshi's numerous articles on investment, economics, and philosophy have been published in various periodicals and are posted at www.nalandainternational.org.

B.P. Choudhury was professor of botany at PG Department of Botany, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. In association with the research project he gave guidance and provided laboratory facilities for the identification of plants.

A. Rath is an anthropologist who was mainly responsible for the socio-cultural survey among the Juang. He is presently working in the interior of Orissa.

A. Biswal is a botanist who was extensively involved in identifying plants and their uses in field surveys.

D. B. Giri is an anthropologist who assisted in  observation, interviewing, statistics and the recording of case histories.

Ratna Dutta Sharma is Professor of Philosophy of Jadavpur University. She is the author of Philosophical Discourse (2000). She is also the author of several articles on varied subjects, and is co-editing a book Sruti as the Foundation of Hindu Social and Moral Tradition.

Subhash Kak is a widely known scientist and historian of ideas. Currently Donald C. & Elaine T. Delaune Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor in the Asian Studies Program at Louisiana State University, he has authored fourteen books and more than 250 research papers in the fields of information theory, neural networks, Vedic studies, and history of science. His books include The Ashvamedha: The Rite and its Logic, The Architecture of Knowledge, and the co-authored In Search of the Cradle of Civilization.

Poet, critic and translator, Dr Goutam Ghosal (b. 1953), D. Litt., Professor of English, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, is presently the Editor-in-Chief of The Visva-Bharati Quarterly. He is an interpreter of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy and literature. His major books include Sri Aurobindo's Prose Style; Sri Aurobindo and World Literature; and Notes on Prayers and Meditations, the last being a detailed textual commentary on the Mother's famous diary prayers. Of late, he has translated from Bengali a series of poems, which are illustrations of the paintings of Jogen Choudhury. His other areas of interest are Tagore and Shakespeare, on whom he has written extensively.

John McLeod was born in Toronto, Canada, and in 1993 received his PhD in Indian history from the University of Toronto.  In 1995 he joined the University of Louisville, U.S.A., where he is now chair of the Department of History.  Besides Sovereignty, Power, Control, he is the author of The History of India and (with Kenneth Robbins) of African Elites in India.

Rabindra Nath Pati is an eminent Social Anthropologist of Orissa who started his career as Assistant Director, Population Research Centre, Utkal University, Orissa (India) in 1983. As a development consultant, he has directed good number of evaluation and diagnostic research as well as development projects supported by the government  and international agencies like NORAD, DANIDA, and World Bank. He has authored at least 12 books and 56 research articles published in different international journals and books. He has been invited as a Speaker to address various International Conferences held at Switzerland, USA, Norway, Netherlands, Ghana and Kuala Lumpur.

Dr Pati has been awarded PhD in Anthropology from Utkal University and prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award as best Social Scientist by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in 2003.

Odile Schwarz-Herion (1970- ), working as Account Manager in an international enterprise, received her PhD degree in economic sciences, focusing on Sustainability and Environmental Management, from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim. An MBA as well as an undergraduate in law, Schwarz-Herion is speaker at several international sustainability conferences as well as author and co-author for international journals and books on Sustainability and Environmental Management. Her scientific focus is on Corporate Social Responsibility and social-ethical aspects in private business transactions within and outside the company.

Ananda Wood, as his name suggests, is one of those people with a rather mixed background. He was born and brought up in India, studied mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, and went on to a Doctorate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. After completing his university education, he returned to India, where he has now settled down to concentrate on a long-standing interest, in the modern interpretation of Advaita philosophy. He is currently a moderator on the Advaitin e-group at yahoo.com. And most of his books and articles may be accessed at: http://www.advaitin.net/Ananda/

Dr Gyani Lal Badam, a leading quaternary geologist and palaeontologist in India has got vast experience of excavating and studying various palaeontological sites through the length and breath of the country. After obtaining his PhD degree on the Siwaliks of N-W India from the Panjab University, Chandigarh, he moved on to establish the discipline of palaeontology at the renowned Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, Pune, where his academic interests got diversified to various river valleys in Central and Peninsular India.

Dr Badam's work is recognized both by the national and international scientific community. He has pioneered research on taphonomy in India in the last couple of decades. He was a Fullbright Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Oregon, USA in 1984 and a visiting fellow to many Institutions abroad.

After a tenure at the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal, and the Dept. of Culture and Archaeology, Govt. of Chhattisgarh, Raipur, Dr Badam is presently assisting the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi to establish nexus between natural and social sciences and is providing scientific inputs in cultural informatics.

Dr Sunil Gupta (b. 1961- ) is Assistant Keeper at the Allahabad Museum, an autonomous institution of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Dr Gupta completed his PhD in Archaeology from the Deccan College, Pune in 1998. He had been Nehru Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1997) and JSPS Post-Doctoral Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto (1998-99). Dr Gupta is widely travelled, having done archaeological fieldwork in Japan, China and East Africa. He was co-director of excavations of the Early Historic port-site of Kamrej (Gujarat) in 2003. He has chaired sessions in international conferences and has been invited as PhD examiner by the universities of Uppsala (Sweden) and Bergen (Norway). Dr Gupta has papers in referred journals and in prestigious edited volumes published in India and abroad. He is the co-editor of the Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology. His current focus is the archaeology of  "trade and civilization" in the context of the early Indian Ocean world.

Dr Bhupender Heera (1976- ) completed his School Education at Katra, the base camp of Shri Mata Vaishnavi Devi Shrine, in Jammu & Kashmir State. After graduating from Govt. Degree College Udhampur, Dr Heera successfully received three year Diploma in Architecture Engineering. Subsequently, in 2001, he obtained M.A. Degree in Buddhist Studies with First Class from the University of Jammu. In 2005, he was awarded the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Buddhist Studies from the same university. Dr Heera also obtained M.A. Degree in Philosophy from Gurukul Kangri University Haridwar with First Class in year 2007.

Raimundo (now Raimon) Panikkar, who holds three doctorates, is the son of a Catalan mother and a Hindu Nair father. He has been a prominent advocate of interreligious dialogue throughout his distinguished life, in the course of which he taught at the Universities of Madrid and Rome in Europe and then at Harvard University (1967-1971) and the University of California-Santa Barbara (1971-78). He has published more than 40 books and 900 articles and currently lives in the mountain resort of Tavertet, near Barcelona.

KONISHI Masatoshi, born in 1938 in Akita Prefecture, Japan is Ex-fellow of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and Professor Emeritus, Rikkyo University, Tokyo. Konishi studied in Graduate Schools of University of Calcutta (MA in Archaeology) and University of Tokyo (Ph.D course in South Asian Cultural Anthropology and Cultural History) and has conducted extensive fieldworks in archaeology and anthropology in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain. Konishi's major publications include: Afghanistan (1968); Arts and Crafts of India (1977); Indus Civilization: Fountainhead of the Civilization of India (1980); Diverse World of India (1981); Aspects of the Indian Folk Culture (1986); History and Culture of Bengal (1986); Cultural History of Roads in India (1995); Primordial World of India: Life, Beliefs and Art (1995); Folk Performances of India (2002); and many other edited works.

OKI Morihiro, born in 1929 in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan is a member of Japan Professional Photographer's Society. He has made more than 100 visits to India as a freelance photographer, focusing on Mother Teresa's life, and the folk life and cultures of India. Oki officially participated in the Festival of India held in Japan in 1988 and also held many exhibitions to his credit in major cities in Italy, Spain, Portugal and other European countries since 1998. His major publications include: Mother Teresa and Her Sisters (1978); Mother Teresa - Affluent Love (1981); Mother Teresa - Love Without Limit (1987); India - Fairs and Festivals (1988); Ancient Buddhist Sites of Sanchi and Barhut(1992); International editions of Mother Teresa in English, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (1998-99); Folk Paintings from the Indian Earth (with Konishi, 2001); Unknown India: Ritual Performance and the Crafts (with Konishi, in press); and many others.

Wagish Shukla teaches mathematics at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is a student of the Indian Classical Mind as revealed through Sanskrit, Persian and Hindi literature. He has published more than fifty articles in English and Hindi on these subjects. He is closely associated with the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies at JNU as a member of several committees and is Associate Chief Editor of the Encyclopaedia of Indian Poetics, an ongoing project of the Sahitya Academy, New Delhi.

Madhav M. Deshpande is Professor of Sanskrit and Linguistics in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan, where he has been on the faculty since 1972 teaching all levels of Sanskrit as well as Pali, Prakrit and Hinduism. His research relates to the fields of Paninian, historical, and socio-linguistics, as well as the cultural and linguistic history of India. Besides his research publications Aryan and Non-Aryan in India; Kaundabhatta on the Philosophy of Nominal Meaning; and Evolution of Syntactic Theory in Sanskrit Grammar. Professor Deshpande has participated in Shastric and literary debates and has also published Sanskrit poems and plays.

Dr S.K. Jolly is Principal of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College, Delhi University with specialization in History of Punjab and Sikhism. She has presented several research papers in National and International conferences and is recipient of various awards in recognition of her services as a scholar and administrator. Dr Jolly is the author of Sikh Revivalist Movements, Sikh Itihas Dian Vangian, Reading Gandhi (edited), among others.

Mrinal Kaul earned his M.A. degree in Sanskrit from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi and M. St. degree in Oriental Studies (Classical Indology) from the University of Oxford. He also studied Indian Logic and Manuscriptology in the University of Pune. He maintains his interest in Indian Philosophical literatures and Kashmirian Shaiva schools.

Ashok Aklujkar received his M.A. degree in Sanskrit and Pali from the University of Poona and his PhD degree in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard University. He taught courses in Sanskrit language and in the related mythological and philosophical literatures (occasionally also in Indian belles lettres in general) at the University of British Columbia from 1969 to 2006. His published research is mostly in the areas of Sanskrit linguistic tradition and poetics. Advanced students have worked under his guidance in the areas of Buddhist and Brahmanical philosophy, religion and mythology.

Madhumita Chattopadhyay is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Jadavpur University from where she completed her PhD on Liar Paradox. Dr Chattopadhyay was a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla in 1999. She visited Japan with the Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Fellowship in 2002. She taught at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA under the Fulbright Visiting Lecturer Scheme in 2004. She has also visited Budapest, Hungary in 2007 under the Indo-Hungarian Educational Exchange Program.

Her areas of interest are philosophical logic, Buddhist philosophy, Indian ethics and Comparative Religion. She has authored two books - What to do with the Liar and Ratnakirti on Apoha. She has co-edited two other books - Ethics : An Anthology and Siksaksetre Parasparik Samparka (in Bengali). She has also published numerous scholarly articles in reputed journals.

Retiring as a Senior Reader from Indraprastha College for Women in 2006, Manjula Saxena has taught philosophy with aplomb for about 40 years. She also had the privilege of lecturing to post-graduate students on three subjects of her special interest, namely, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics. As a student too, her career has been noteworthy. She enjoyed a national scholarship as she pursued her post-graduate studies which she completed, as expected, in the first division. What is more, she has contributed articles, fairly regularly, to some national and international journals, besides giving frequent talks on various subjects on A.I.R. Above all, she has all along been popular with her students, essentially because of her ability to explain intricate philosophical problems in simple language.

Dr Sugandha is an expert in maritime security, particularly India's multidimensional defence and security. She has actively participated in numerous seminars and conferences held in different parts of India.

Professor M.H. Shastri was born in 1911 in  of Kerala. He earned his masters degree in Sanskrit grammar with first rank from the Government Sanskrit College, Trivandram in 1931. He became the Head of the Department of Grammar of that very same college. Even after retiring from this post, Professor Shastri remained active and became the Head Teacher of the Brahmavidyalaya at Sivagiri, Varkala, which is a centre originally conceived by Narayana Guru to teach Brahmavidya. There he spent many years learning and teaching the works of Narayana Guru. It was there that he began writing commentaries on some of Narayana Guru's works to be published in Malayalam. His published Sanskrit works include: Harihara-pitriyam Stotrakavyam, Rajaguna-nirupanam, Citra Mimamsa-khandana-khandanam, and Tinanta-rupavali. He has also been honoured by the President of India for his outstanding contributions to the Sanskrit language.

Valentine Teisseire (1979- ), who received the blessed name of "Puja" from Sri Sri Sadguru Swami Advaitananda, is a French disciple who has been following in His footsteps for the last four years. It is her first attempt to offer her Master's nectarful words for the welfare of all.

Dr B.K. Kaul Deambi, born on 1st February 1937 in Srinagar, obtained his Masters degrees with distinction in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology; and also in Sanskrit from Panjab University. He further completed his PhD from there under the able guidance of the epigraphy stalwart of northern India Prof. Jagan Nath Agrawal. He worked as Professor of Sanskrit and Hindi in Gandhi Memorial College, Srinagar; rose to become Reader and then Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University. He was finally Visiting Faculty member in the Department of History, Kumaun University. His works include Corpus of the Sharada Inscriptions of Kashmir; History and Culture  of Ancient Gandhara and Western Himalayas, both of which were awarded by the Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, Jammu & Kashmir State. He was  awarded Senior Fellowship in Epigraphy by the Department of Culture, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Govt. of India for writing the current work. His ensuing publications include Studies in Indian Epigraphy containing author's selected papers on Indian epigraphy published in reputed journals and books; and Catalogue (Vol. I) of the Sanskrit manuscripts preserved in the Manuscripts Library of the Directorate of Libraries, Museums and Archaeology, Jammu & Kashmir, Srinagar.

Colonel Ashok Kaul is an alumnus of Government Engineering College, Jabalpur, and Indian Military Academy. A steadfast Signaller who in his long soldiering career has held numerous appointments in the Indian Army including the action-filled stint with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka and command of two field units in Jammu and Kashmir and in the North-East.

An ardent student of Kashmir Shaivism, he has painstakingly attempted to present the current volume of the exposition of an important and revered treatise on the subject in an easy-to-comprehend form keeping deliberately at bay the technical jargon and the convoluted expression.

Prof. Korada Subrahmanyam has been at the Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies University of Hyderabad, since 1988. Right from an early age, the teacher was imparted education in Gurukula system and he is a blend of Oriental and Occidental types of Education. Paniniyan Grammar, Philosophy of Language, Translation, Linguistics, Indian Literary Theories, Vedangas, Darshanas and Machine Translation - are some of his subjects of interest. Prof. Subrahmanyam was a UGC Visiting Fellow at  MS University of Baroda during 2000-01. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, drafted him for Visiting Professorship abroad in 2005. The teacher was honoured with 11 Panditasammanas at different places across India.

His other works are  - Mahavakyavicarah Vakyapadiyam (Brahmakanda, English Trans.); Four Vrttis in Panini, Pramanas in Indian Philosophy (in process).

Dr Fr. George Praseed ims is presently the Rector of the Jnana Bharati Gurukul, IMS Study House, Pitampura, Delhi. He holds a Doctorate in Systematic Theology with specialization in Pastoral Liturgy, from the Institute of Pastoral Liturgy, Abbey of St. Justine, Padua, incorporated into the Faculty of Sacred Theology of the Pontifical University of St. Anslem, Rome. He was the dean of studies in the Vishwa Jyoti Gurukul, IMS Philosophate, Varanasi and Director of the Jnana Bharati, Regional Theology Centre, Varanasi, an extension centre of Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi. Besides presenting several papers in the national and international conferences/seminars he has contributed articles in the journals of national and international repute.

A.S. Bisht, did his postgradute studies in Art conservation in Sydney under an Australian Government Senior Fellowship. After serving the Archaeological Survey of India for four years, he joined the National Museum, New Delhi, in 1958 and was the head of its Conservation Department from 1978 till his retirement in 1991 as the Chief Restorer. Mr Bisht is an authority on conservation and is well known in India and abroad. He has authored three books, Conservation Science; Scientific Aspects of Heritage study; and Conservation of Indian Miniatures and Illustrated manuscripts.

Dr Sindhu Phadke holds a Doctorate in Social Work from the University of Southern California, USA. She worked as a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Work, M.S. University of Baroda, and thereafter as a Reader, Delhi School of Social Work for 12 years.

She joined UNICEF in 1968, and during her long tenure of 20 years, was responsible for planning and implementation of UNICEF's involvement with Central and State Governments in different programmes related to family and child welfare, health, nutrition, water supply, women's empowerment, education, etc. This book is inspired by her extensive travels in the seven North-Eastern States as UNICEF's East Zone Representative.

Shaikh Abdul Ghani is a scholar of Sanskrit and Hindi who has combined his knowledge of them along with that of Urdu to come up with research works on the contribution of Muslims to Sanskrit literature and inter-lingual translations.

Mr R.N. Kogata and Mrs Lalita Kogata have probably the world’s biggest creation and collection of more than 7800 types of statues/idols and paintings of Lord Ganesha. They run a Ganesha Gallery as well in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Other books authored by them are Maa - the Mother, Pati - the Husband in the eyes of Wife, Patnee - the Wife in the eyes of Husband, Insaan and Indian Marriage: Customs and Rituals.

The Kogata couple have already created 1,000 different paintings of Lord Ganesa based on the 1,000 names of the elephant-faced god Ganesha as given in Hindu Scripture. Mr Kogata is a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary by profession and Mrs Kogata is a post-graduate and a part Company Secretary. They have two sons, Devashish and Kushagra. Devashish is also an artist and has already made more than 700 pencil sketches on Lord Ganesa.

Mr R.N. Kogata and Mrs Lalita Kogata have probably the world’s biggest creation and collection of more than 7800 types of statues/idols and paintings of Lord Ganesha. They run a Ganesha Gallery as well in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Other books authored by them are Maa - the Mother, Pati - the Husband in the eyes of Wife, Patnee - the Wife in the eyes of Husband, Insaan and Indian Marriage: Customs and Rituals.

The Kogata couple have already created 1,000 different paintings of Lord Ganesa based on the 1,000 names of the elephant-faced god Ganesha as given in Hindu Scripture. Mr Kogata is a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary by profession and Mrs Kogata is a post-graduate and a part Company Secretary. They have two sons, Devashish and Kushagra. Devashish is also an artist and has already made more than 700 pencil sketches on Lord Ganesa.

Singh, Bal Ram, is the Director of Center for Indic Studies at University of Massachusetts,  Dartmouth As a Professor of Biophysical Chemistry and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, and the Director of Botulinum Research Center, he has been conducting research since 1990 on botulinum and tetanus neurotoxins, and lately also on yoga, mind, and consciousness.

Prof. D.D. Sharma (b. 1924) is a renowned scholar of Sanskrit and Linguistics. Besides a PhD in Sanskrit from the Benaras Hindu University, PhD and D.Litt in Linguistics from the Panjab University, Chandigarh - where he served for nearly 28 years - he holds diplomas in French, German and Persian. He also earned the highest Oriental title of Sahityacarya.

Prof. Sharma is well acquainted with nearly two dozen Indian and foreign languages and has to his credit 48 research volumes and scores of research papers on the subjects of different languages, cultures and literatures.

He was awarded the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1984-86) to undertake the linguistic survey of the Himalayan languages from Ladakh in the west to Bhutan in the east.

On his retirement (1989), he was awarded Emeritus Fellowship by the UGC for the completion of his 12-volume research project on Himalayan languages, of which 10 volumes have already appeared.  He is also working on a 9-volume project on Socio-Cultural History of Uttarakhand, of which 5 volumes have already been published. His ambitious project, Cultural Encyclopaedia of Uttarakhand (5 vols.) is also under preparation.

The present volume is an outcome of the research project for which he was awarded the Indira Gandhi Memorial Fellowship for the years 2001-2003 by IGNCA.

Dr Thakur Prasad Verma, born in a village presently in District Siddharth Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, completed his M.A. in first class from Banaras Hindu University in 1958. He was awarded a Ph.D. degree from the same university in "ancient script writing" in the year 1967. He retired from this university itself as an Asst. Professor (Reader) from the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology in 1993.

Thakur Prasad Verma specialized in script writing as well as in numismatics. He was associated with Numismatic Society of India as Secretary, General Secretary etc. for almost twenty years editing a Journal which was being published by them for eighteen years. At present he is the President (All India) of All India History compilation scheme. He has edited many books and magazines handling distribution of at least half a dozen of them. Around 150 of his articles have been published in different magazines.

Ram Lakhan Maurya is a Socialist who has conducted an important research on the Harijans and widows of Kashi. He has successfully completed study of many villages for a combined project of Indira Gandhi National Centre of Art and UNESCO on "Study of Rural India," besides writing many essays on social issues. Presently he is Secretary of the Nirmal Kumar Bose Memorial Foundation, Varanasi, thence the Chief Editor of Sacred Science Review also.

Prof. Prakash Pandey, the editor and translator of a rare Rudradhyaya, is a renowned scholar in Veda, Tantra, Shaivism, philosophy and ancient scripts. He has authored and edited many interesting publications like Kalipujapaddhati, Mudravimarsha, Vrddhsvachandasamgrahatantram and Sanketakaumudi. Apart from this Prof. Pandey has also edited Merutantra, Kavyaprakasha ki Shitikanthavibhodanatika and Adbhutasagara. He is also engaged in translation and editing of a unique grantha Bodhatavi (on astrology) written in Sharada script prevalent in the in Punjab and Kashmir. Prof. Pandey's research style on classical literature presents him as an expert scholar in traditional and modern studies.

He is presently serving as Principal of the Rastriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Garali (Himachal Pradesh).

Prof. Laxmi Narayan Gupt after completing his basic education from Kanpur went to Christchurch College to complete his M.Sc. in Mathematics in 1965. He studied in IIT, Kanpur for one year and left for America to complete his higher education. He completed his Ph.D in Mathematics from The Royal College, Buffalo, New York (1972), and joined as a professor in his subject at Rochester Institute of Technology in 1980.

Laxmi Narayan Gupt has been a lover of literature since his childhood. As a teenager he wrote many poems, while his creative tendencies were awakened once again when he came in contact with Ram Chaudhary in 1991 who was an officiating editor with International Hindi Council publishing their house periodical.

He completed translation of Gita in 1996 after his strenuous efforts of three years. Some of his poems have been published in Vishwa, Vishwa-Viveka, Bhashasetu and Hindijagat. Many of his poems have been published in the electronic books like Anubhuti, Boloji, Kalayan, E-kavita, Hindi Forum, etc. His translation of Ishavasyopanishad is also available on 'Boloji.' His poetry, essays and blogs can be read on www.kavyakala.blogspot.com.

Sh Soti Virendra Chandra, born in a family having strong belief in Vedic culture, obtained a Diploma in Social Service and Village Upliftment from Allahabad University and also a Diploma in Journalism from Punjab University, Chandigarh.

After completing M.A. in Ancient History and Culture from Lucknow he was honoured with the title of "Visharad" by Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayag for his achievements in Hindi. Retiring after a long service from the posts of a Gazetted Registrar in the Rajkiya Kala Evam Shilp Mahavidyalaya, Lucknow and as a reputed officer from Vrindavan Research Institute, Vrindavan, he kept himself busy with his regular studies and writings.

He was awarded by the Central Government for his book Bhartiya Samskriti ke Mool Tattva; the first Bhartendu Harish Chandra award was given to him by the Central Information and Broadcasting Ministry for his book Bhartiya Rashtriya Ekta; and he also received an award for his book Bhartiya Samskrti ki Sugandha from the Hindi Directorate of Uttar Pradesh Government.

His other publications include: Rudraksha Mahatmya, Hockey Samrat Dhayanchand, Arya evam Arya Samskriti and Swami Satya Prakash Saraswati.

Mark Dyczkowski was born in London in 1951. After completing his schooling in 1969 he went to India for his spiritual development and to study Sanskrit, Indian philosophy and music. After receiving his first degrees from Banaras Hindu University in 1975, he returned to England for his doctoral research at the University of Oxford in Kashmiri Saivism.  He is well known for his publications in this field. Since 1979 he has continued to work and live in India. He has been associated with the IGNCA since 1993. At present he supervises and contributes to the input of an on-line digital library of Tantric texts for Muktabodha Indological Research Institute. The site is muktabodha.com. Recordings of his lectures on Kashmiri Saivism and some of his publications can be downloaded from his site markdkashi.com.

Peter Kakol (b. 1967) lived in Geelong, a city in the Australian state of Victoria. Raised a Catholic, he began early to question his faith, and this led to an interest in philosophy and world religions.

Christianity and Buddhism were the traditions which most fascinated him. But the only religion in which he could truly believe was one of his own creation. Hence he began to develop a blend of process thought and Buddhism. This culminated in his doctoral dissertation at Deakin University.

A year before his death from cancer, in 2002, Peter Kakol completed his PhD.

Uma Chattopadhyay is currently Reader in Philosophy, University of Calcutta. Educated at Jadavpur University, Dr. Chattopadhyay has a long teaching career in Calcutta University-affiliated undergraduate colleges, including Bethune College and Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata. She also taught at the post-graduate classes of Philosophy in Rabindra Bharati University and Jadavpur University. She has contributed papers in seminars organized by many centres of higher learning including the one at the Department of Theology, Philosophy of Religion at the Uppsala University, Sweden. For a short period, she was a Fellow at Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris in 2005. Her current research interests include Indian Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics (particularly Applied Ethics). The author specially enjoys studying philosophy, both Indian and Western, from local and global perspectives. She has published papers in many academic journals and anthologies.

Vijayakumar Somasekharan Nair, Masters in Quaternary and Prehistory (Italy), MA Archaeology, PGDA (ASI, New Delhi), UGC/NET, is a versatile young scholar in archaeology and history. He is the recipient of prestigious Erasmus Mundus Scholarship promoted by the European Union. His in-depth knowledge in the history of Indian temples inspired him to co-author the present work in a rather meticulous way. His previous publications include various scholarly articles and research reports related to prehistoric and historical periods. Currently he is active in archaeological research in India and abroad, particularly in Italy.

Kuldeep Singh Thind, born in an agriculturalist family of Village Barna, District Kurukshetra, Haryana is a man of passion for justice to all the organisms maintaining ecosystem of nature and struggling for their natural rights.

He is keenly interested in the evaluation of the neglected and suppressed classes of the Society like artisans, workmen and peasants, while they played a pivot role in the making of human civilization.

He is a product of the Kurukshetra University, from where he did his Ph.D. on the theme titled Artisans and Craftsmen of North India. Presently, he is teaching Post Graduate classes and working as Head, Department of History, at Government PG College, Ambala Cantonment.

Winand M. Callewaert is Prof. emeritus of Sanskrit and Hinduism at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He has been studying and working in India since 1965, holding degrees in Sanskrit and Philosophy from Ranchi, Varanasi and Pune. His PhD. and D.Lit degrees are from the KU Leuven. Besides numerous research articles he has published 18 books in English or Hindi (mainly on Bhakti literature) and 14 books in Dutch. Forthcoming book to be published by D.K. Printworld is Bhakti : From Chant to Script.

Swapna Sharma, born in Vrindavan, obtained her PhD degree in Hindi from University of Agra in 1991, with a study on Gadadhar Bhatta. From 1996 to 2007 she worked on the Dictionary of Bhakti in Leuven and is currently teaching in Chicago and Yale. She has several publications to her credit.

Mrs. Sethu Ramaswamy is the author of the celebrated autobiography Bride at Ten, Mother at Fifteen: Autobiography of an unknown Indian Woman (Roli Books: 2003).  In Jan. 2009, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a documentary on her life produced by Sarmishta Subramanian titled 'A woman of no consequence'. At 86 she continues to read and write and has just completed a manuscript titled 'The Needle-thin Boy and other Stories' meant for children and teenagers. She has also written 'The Tales of Krishna' again targetted at a young audience both of which are awaiting publication. Sethu Ramaswamy lives with her daughter and son-in-law in the Jawaharlal University Campus in New Delhi and delights in cooking for the family.

Dr. G. Kamalamma has admirably translated this commentary from Malayalam into clear Hindi. He is a senior teacher and office bearer of Kerala Hindi Prachara Sabha.

Dr (Ms) Rama Venkataraman has translated with great clarity and lucidity seven major Upanishadic plays from Tamil and provided the summaries for each at the beginning of the play to bring out the themes and concepts to the reach of English knowing populace and the younger generation alike.

She was aided in her efforts by Shri A.V.V.S. Kamaraju who illustrated the text with his sketches which brought out further clarity to many an abstract portion of the play.

The author has a Doctorate in Environmental Sociology and is an avid practitioner of Acupuncture. She has several easy to understand books to her credit on this forte too.

The other publication to her credit is Ladakh - A Himalayan Treasure, a socio-cultural book dealing with tourism aspects.

Dr Zaheda Khanam (b. 1971) is a born artist. She had her education mostly in Varanasi. After obtaining BA and BEd degrees from Banaras Hindu University she did her Masters in Fine Arts from Aligarh Muslim University with a first division and received her doctorate from the BHU under the supervision of Prof. T.K. Biswas. Her parents are educationists - her mother Hamida Khanam has established the Modern Education Junior High School in Varanasi.

Zaheda as a painter tries to express her dissatisfaction with the social conditions prevailing around her. Her expression being symbolic and powerful is devoid of unnecessary details, and the colours dominant in her expression are subdued. She has exhibited her paintings at various reputed institutions in Uttar Pradesh, and received several awards as well.

Geetha Rajagopal's tryst with south Indian classical music began during her formative years in Bangalore when she quickly picked up the subtle nuances of this rich art form. She moved to Chennai after her education where she began a distinguished professional career that spanned teaching, animal rights awareness, writing (in leading journals) and finally her passion - Carnatic music. In 2000 she took over as Director of "Sampradhaya," one of the world's rich Carnatic music archives, and revitalized the organization with a series of programmes and workshops. She also embarked on an ambitious Sangeet Natak Akademi's research project that put the spotlight on music tradition in south Indian temples. She has travelled extensively across south India to gather insights for her research project and continues to be actively involved with south Indian art forms and culture in her administrative role with the National Folklore Support Centre, Chennai.

Dr. Suren N. Dwivedi is the Board of Reagents Eminent Scholar, Professor and the Director of UL Lafayette's Virtual Reality and Product Realization Laboratory and also is a Professor in UL Lafayette's Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

He has done extensive meaningful research in Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma, organized many technical workshops and seminars, and has consulted major corporations, such as Ford Motor Co., GM, GE, and IBM. He has published more than 200 research papers in the broad domain of Product Development, Green Manufacturing, Shipbuilding and Robotics and had edited several conference proceedings. He has guided over 100 students at MS and Ph.D. levels. Dr. Dwivedi has been involved in countless research projects from NSF, DOE, BoRSF, DARPA, NASA, US-Army, and Navy. He founded the International Society for Productivity Enhancement, International Journal of Agile Manufacturing and the International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Systems and serves as Chief Editor of the latter. He was also a co-founder and Associate Editor for the International Journal of Concurrent Engineering: Research and Applications.

Dr. Dwivedi was the recipient of more than 30 awards for teaching and research, professional activities and community services including the Outstanding Researcher Award for 1990-91 and 1991-92 at West Virginia University, and he also received the Outstanding Leadership Award there in 1993. Recently he has been awarded with the most honorable award by Louisiana Engineering Foundation for faculty professionalism award.

He has a passion to see every child receive an education, and he engages in many public services including his involvement in The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, a program in India providing education to children across the country. In addition, Dr. Dwivedi is serving as President of the World Association for Vedic Studies (WAVES), a collective scholastic effort to explore and educate the past, present and future.

As a professor, he teaches challenging courses, but also maintains an admirable relationship with his students. He believes that there is no shortcut in life, we have to work hard. Everybody can't be Einstein, but everyone can work hard.

LES has affirmed that Dr.Dwivedi is a person of great influence at the university, the engineering community and the global community at large.

Satish C. Misra: an Expert Mathematical Statistician at the US Food and Drug Administration since 1989, is an Adjunct Professor at the American University, Washington, D.C, with over 40 publications. He is Secretary of International Hindi Association, and President of Federation of Indian Associations - National Capital Region.

Bhu Dev Sharma: Founder President of WAVES, former President of Hindu University of America, Mathematics Professor in USA, West Indies, and India. Edited three volumes on Indian Studies, published over hundred articles on mathematics and statistics, guided 23 Ph.D. students, and is Editor of several journals.

Dhirendra Shah: Graduate of London School of Economics and Harvard Business School, President of Suruj International Inc., USA, President of India Awareness Foundation, USA, and former Director and Treasurer of WAVES. He has written several articles for magazines and newspapers in India and USA.

Dr (Mrs) Anita Khanna, is Professor of Japanese at Jawaharlal Nehru University specializing in classical Japanese literature. She has worked extensively on the presence of Indian themes in Japanese literature with special focus on Buddhist discourse narratives called Setsuwa. She has been engaged in the comparative study of Indian and Japanese discourse narratives based on the landmark collection of Konjaku Monogatarish (12th century) and has authored Jataka Stories in Japan (1999). She has also authored works like "Ancient Japanese Literature, A critical Survey 2002", and Japani Sahitya (An Overview of Japanese Literature from Ancient to Modern) 2003. She has been editor of some of the Journals devoted to teaching Japanese language and literature and has authored several research articles.

She has been Japan Foundation Research Fellow at Osaka University, International Institute of Japanese Culture Kyoto, and Fellow Researcher at National Institute of Japanese Literature, Tokyo.

She is the Chairperson of Centre for Japanese, Korean and North-East Asian Studies at School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, her alma mater, where she teaches Japanese language and literature.

Bijoy H. Boruah is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Currently he is Visiting Professor of Philosophy at IIT Delhi. Professor Boruah has published papers on a wide range of topics in philosophy and literature. He has published a book entitled Fiction and Emotion: A Study in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Mind (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988) and has edited a book entitled Social Reality and Tradition (Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2006).

D.C. Srivastava is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Christ Church College, Kanpur.  He holds a doctorate in Philosophy from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (Thesis entitled "Dharmakirti's Theory of Anumana-Pramana: A Study of Nyayabindu)". He has also edited a book entitled Readings in Environmental Ethics: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives (Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2005) and has published papers on different topics of Indian philosophy. His recent interest of research is in the area of Indian ethics.

Sri Ramakrishna devotee and IITian Arun Deva Bhattacharya (born 1942 at Allahabad) had a knack for spiritualism and music from an early age which made him run to profoundly wise people frequently. As such spirituality co-existed in this technocrat's life.

Entry to spiritualism and divinity was easier for him since he had free movement in English, Hindi and Bengali along with working knowledge of Sanskrit. Out of his presentations Bengali translations of Ramacaritamanasa and Bhagavata Purana, and Bhagavater Manimukuta and Bhagavata Ratnavali (in Bengali) are worth mentioning.

Sheikh Jameil Ali is a scholar of Islamic Studies who has been involved in research on aspects of Islamic history, thought and movements. He has authored and presented several papers on the subject in national seminars and conferences.

Dr S. Ramaratnam is the Vice-Chancellor Designate of the proposed Jagadguru Kripalu University in Orissa. Earlier to this, he was working as the Vice-Chancellor of Sri Sri University, Bhubaneswar. Having worked as the Director of a Management Institute and Principal of Colleges, he has more than 40 years of experience in the academic world. He has 5 Postgraduate degrees including M.B.A. and M.Phil. in Management and M.A., Ph.D. in Sanskrit, as well as degrees and diplomas in as many as 12 subjects. He has been awarded a number of titles such as Samskrta Ratna and Bharata Kala Nipuna. He was also a Visiting Professor at Oxford University for two terms.  He has presided over sessions at International Conferences held in Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Australia, USA, South Africa and Malaysia. He has published a number of books and more than 50 articles in leading Journals.

Mohit Srivastava (b. 1978) since 2004 has been working as a Curator with the Indraprastha Museum of Art and Archaeology, New Delhi. He did his MA in 'Ancient Indian History' and also in 'Museology'; and cleared UGC-NET Exam (1999). Mr Srivastava was earlier Asst. Curator-cum-Manager (2002-04) with the International Roerich Memorial Trust at Naggar, Kullu (Himachal Pradesh). He has also published research articles in different journals of India.

Shiva Rijal (1974), a PhD on cross-cultural theatre and lecturer at the Central Department of English (Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal) has written books, half a dozen journal articles and over a hundred newspaper articles on Nepali theatre and performance culture. He also practises Nepali theatre and teaches Performance Studies at the Department.

Dr Umakant Narsingrao Netragaonkar is a senior lawyer by profession. He got his doctorate in law from Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad. After serving the Bar of the Bombay High Court for several years, he took up teaching law at the Ambedkar College of Law in Aurangabad. He is a consulting lawyer on the panels of several organizations. He also has Masters degrees in Sociology and Criminology.

Dr Netragaonkar is a well-known social worker and a human rights activist in Aurangabad, and has been honoured with several awards and prizes by various institutions in Maharashtra.

He has written profusely on socio-legal subjects and his articles have appeared in leading newspapers and weeklies in the Marathwada region. He has presented research papers at about twenty national and state level conferences and seminars.

Dr Netragaonkar is recipient of the "International Human Rights Millennium Award" with Gold Medal given by the International Association for World Peace affiliated to the United Nations Organization. He serves as an honorary professor at the Indian Institute of Human Rights, New Delhi, since 2000.

L.S. Rajagopalan (1922-2008) enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as an authority on the traditional theatre and music of Kerala.  He studied and explored these arts all his life - in temple precincts, the countryside, and the by-lanes of town and city - and sought to unravel their meaning through his writing, lectures, and personal guidance in scholarly fieldwork.  Rajagopalan's special interests lay in Krishnattam, Kutiyattam, Kathakali, and the folk music and musical instruments of Kerala. He had also delved deep into the musical aspects of Vedic chanting and Carnatic music.

Rajagopalan's publications include Women's Role in Kutiyattam (1997), and Kutiyattam: Preliminaries and Performance (2000). He published articles on various topics concerning the arts of Kerala, and contributed the entry on Kutiyattam in the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Theatre and Performance (2003) edited by Dennis Kennedy.

A. Purushothaman and A. Harindranath grew up in the temple town of Guruvayur in Kerala, watching Krishnattam plays and generally imbibing the culture of the land.  They have written on the traditional arts of Kerala, translated writings from Malayalam sources, photographed performances and propagated them through print and audio-visual media. By profession, A. Purushothaman is a chemical engineer currently working in Mumbai, while A. Harindranath is a professor of physics at Calcutta.

Cover Photographs (by A. Harindranath):

Front  cover:   Musicians play the Maddalam and Chengila - drums and gong - to announce a Krishnattam performance at the Guruvayur temple in Kerala.

Back cover: The gopivastrapaharanam episode from the Krishnattam play Kaliyamardanam enacted at Guruvayur. The accompanying musicians are seen playing the Maddalam, Itakka, and Chengila.

Ramendra Narayan Sanyal (b. 1926) began his professional career in a college after successfully completing his Masters in Economics from Calcutta University. Later he went on to compete in the State Civil Services examination that led him to begin a long association with the West Bengal State Police Service and then with the Intelligence Bureau, Government of India. Over the course of nearly three decades he served in various capacities handling many sensitive assignments of national and international importance. Awarded the Indian Police Medal for Distinguished Service, Police Medal for Meritorious Service and the Police (Special Duty) Medal, Manipur. Since his retirement, he has been a prolific writer on diverse subjects including a recently published in-depth analysis of the intelligence network in the Mahabharata and its relevance in the present geo-political risks that India faces.

Vedula V. L. N. Murthy is a noted teacher and principal, architect as well as a prolific writer. He has been working in the Department of Technical Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh since 31 years. To his credit, he has authored works on self-inspiration as well as books on architectural themes.

ABHA SINGH is a Professor of Philosophy at Magadh University, Bodh Gaya. She has been awarded National Merit scholarship in intermediate arts and at the graduate level (philosophy honours), as well as gold medal in postgraduate philosophy and has received her PhD in 1986 and D.Litt. in 2003. She received a Residential Fellowship from Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi, and has completed two research projects sponsored by University Grants Commission as well. She is currently serving on the editorial board of the journal World of Philosophy. Singh is the author of Nature of Ethical Arguments in Meta-ethics (1998) and Ramanujacharya, Edmund Husserl and Jean Paul Sartre on Consciousness - A Study (in press). Also authored by her include more than three dozen research papers. The recent focus of her work has been on gender studies.

Harsha V. Dehejia has a double doctorate, one in medicine and the other in Ancient Indian Culture, both from Mumbai University. He is a practising Physician and Professor of Indian Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON., Canada. His main interest is in Indian Aesthetics. His publications include: 1.The Advaita of Art. (Motilal Banarasidass, Delhi, 1996) 2. Parvatidarpana (The Mirror of Parvati), (Motilal Banarasidass. Delhi,.1998) 3. Parvati, Goddess of Love (Mapin, Ahmedabad, 1999) 4. Despair and Modernity, Reflections on Modern Indian Paintings. (Motilal Banarasidass, 2000) 5. The Lotus and the Flute: Romantic Moments in Indian Poetry and Painting. (Mapin, Ahmedabad, 2002) 6. A Celebration of Love: The Romantic Heroine in the Indian Arts (Roli Books, 2004) 7. Saundarya: The Theory and Praxis of Beauty (Samvad 2004) 7. Celebrating Krishna: Sensuous Images and Sacred Words (Mapin, 2005) 8. Leaves of the Pipal Tree: Aesthetic Reflections on Some Hindu Myths and Symbols (Motilal Banarasidass, 2005) 9. Gods Beyond Temples (Motilal Banarasidass, 2006) 10. A Festival of Krishna (Roli, 2008) 11. Mumbai Footpaths: Paths of Courage, Journeys of Hope (Vira Books, 2009) 12. Akriti to Sanskriti, The Journey of Indian Forms (Niyogi Books 2009) 13. Krishna's Forgotten Poets (Roli).

Anirban Ganguly's, interests lie in the areas of historical, civilisational, educational and cultural studies. He has written and spoken extensively on these issues and is presently occupied in trying to trace the evolution of the Indian nationalism and also the impact of globalisation on local cultures. A research scholar at the Centre for Sri Aurobindo Studies, Jadavpur University, Anirban is currently associated with a leading New Delhi based think-tank.

Dr. Girish Nath Jha is Associate Professor at the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), specialising in computational linguistics. He has an honorary appointment at the Center for Indic Studies, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA, as Mukesh and Priti Chatter distinguished Professor of History of Science. Dr Jha has studied computational linguistics from JNU and from University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, and has worked as software engineer in USA before joining JNU in 2002. Dr Jha has publications from Springer Verlag, Cambridge Scholar Publishing, Lambert Academic Publishing, among others, and is on the editorial board of a leading journal from Springer.

Dr. Umesh Kumar Singh obtained his doctorate in Sanskrit from Delhi University and has worked as a research associate for the Center for Indic Studies, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA. His earlier education (M.Phil.) has been from Delhi, Banaras and Allahabad universities. Dr Singh has been awarded JRF from the UGC and has worked as a linguist in a machine translation project sponsored by the Dept. of IT (Govt. of India) at Special Centre of Sanskrit Studies, JNU.

Diwakar Mishra is a Ph.D. student at the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies in JNU in the area of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics. He is working towards developing a Sanskrit Text to Speech (TTS) system for his Ph.D. in collaboration with Microsoft Research India where he worked as a research intern. He has also worked as a research associate for the Center for Indic Studies, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA. His M.A. and M.Phil degrees are in Sanskrit with specialisation in Sanskrit Computational Linguistics from the Sanskrit Centre in JNU.

Debashish Banerji is a professor of Indian Studies and Dean of Academic Affairs at the University of Philosophical Research, Los Angeles. He is also an adjunct faculty in Art History at the Pasadena City College; and a Research Fellow in Asian and Comparative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco. Banerji is the author of the book The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore (Sage, 2010).

Chikafumi Watanabe received his M.A. degree from the University of British Columbia and Ph.D. from the University of Calgary. His primary research interest is Mahayana Buddhism. He teaches Religion and related Subjects at Osaka University.

Michele M. Desmarais received her Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. She is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is the author of Changing Minds: Mind, Consciousness and Identity in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra and Cognitive Neuroscience.

Yoshichika Honda received his Ph.D. from Hiroshima University. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Indian Philosophy, Graduate School of Letters, Hiroshima University.

Radhavallabh Tripathi is one of the senior-most professors of Sanskrit in the country. At present he is working as Vice-chancellor of the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (deemed university) at Delhi. Widely acclaimed for his original contributions to the study of Natyashastra and Sahityashastra, he has published 129 books, 187 research papers and critical essays as well as translations of more than 30 Sanskrit plays and some classics from Sanskrit into Hindi. He has received more than 25 national and international awards and honours for his literary contributions. He has been authoritatively referred in various research journals on Indology. Research for Ph.D. has either been completed or is being still carried out on his creative writings in Sanskrit, in a number of universities. Some literary journals have published special numbers dedicated to his life and writings.

Dr. Merlin Franco, F., is an Ethnobiologist hailing from a beautiful village near Kuzhithurai of Kanyakumari District. He earned a Ph.D in Ethnobotany from the University of Madras through Madras Christian College (MCC). He has published more than 10 papers in refereed journals and has worked with research institutes of repute such as the CIKS and the Earthwatch Institute. Franco is interested in understanding the various relationships between nature and human beings and believes that the primary goal of science is to empower people so as to achieve social justice.

Dr. D. Narasimhan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Plant Biotechnology at MCC. He has a Ph.D in Plant Taxonomy from the University of Madras, earned through MCC. He is a well acclaimed expert in the fields of Angiosperm Taxonomy, Ethnobotany and Medicinal plants with more than 34 papers in refereed journals. Dr. Narasimhan has been studying the Flora of Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests and Southern Western Ghats as well as Medicinal Plant Markets of Tamil Nadu. Two plant species Þ Anoectochilus narasimhanii and Orophea narasimhanii Þ have been named after him by his students as a fitting tribute.

Sharda Narayanan received a firm foundation in Sanskrit literature, Nyaya and Vedanta from the late Vidwan C. Anantacharya. Academically brilliant right through, she received Master's degrees in Physics and Sanskrit from Bangalore University and later researched Vakyapadiya at JNU, New Delhi. She has taught Physics at Notre Dame Academy, Patna and Mount Carmel College, Bangalore for several years and also taught Sanskrit at the JNU. Fluent in Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Sanskrit and English, as also very active in Sanskrit drama she has a keen interest in travel and English literature. She is most suited to studying and interpreting Sanskrit texts and has already several published research papers to her credit.

Bhavatosh Indraguru received his Ph.D from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He specialises in Comparative Poetics, Comparative Linguistics and Comparative Literature. He has taught at Universities at Itanagar, in Arunachal Pradesh and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. Presently he is teaching at the Department of English and Other European Languages, University of Saugar, Sagar in Madhya Pradesh.
 

Dr. Vandana Rajoriya is Lecturer of English, S.R. Government Polytechnic College, Sagar, M.P. She was selected for the said post through M.P.P.S.C. in the year 2008. She did her PhD from Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar, M.P. in the year 2009. She has had six papers of national repute published in different anthologies. Besides, she has also contributed twenty-seven research papers and articles in the journals of national and international repute. She has attended fifteen national and international seminars, workshops, conferences and training programmes organized by various universities of India. She is author of the books D.H. Lawrence and Psychonalysis: The Moral Dimension, Serious Timings Beautiful Rhymings (a collection of poems) and Tiny Droplets (A collection of poems).

Aparna Banerjee is Associate Professor in Philosophy, University of Calcutta. She is the author of Explanation and Understanding in the Social Sciences (2002). She has also co-edited the book Ethics: Classical and Contemporary Issues (2010). Another anthology, entitled Morality and Religion: Some Reflections has been co-edited by her which is presently in the press. She has also authored various articles which have been published in various reputed anthologies and journals. Many of these articles are on Sri Aurobindo's philosophy. Her areas of interest are primarily Phenomenology, Social and Political Philosophy, Ethics and Contemporary Indian Philosophy.

Swamini Atmaprajnananda Saraswati, a first class science graduate, joined as a Probationary Officer in a Public Sector Bank in 1978, and worked in various managerial capacities in India until 1992. After completing MBA (1991) in Finance and Marketing from XIMB, she joined a multinational Bank in Muscat. A chance meeting with Swami Dayananda Saraswati in Muscat in 1996, brought about a life transformation. She resigned and studied Vedanta and Panini under Swamiji, in his gurukulas at Rishikesh, Coimbatore and Saylorsburg, before taking Sannyasa in 2008. In the meantime she completed Masters (2005) and PhD (2012) in Sanskrit. Her other areas of interest are — Vedic chanting, Temple Architecture, and Buddhism.
A Vedantin, a committed scholar and an enthusiast of Indian culture the Swamini set up her Arsha Vidya Vikas Kendra in 2004. Besides organizing national conferences on Vedas, Vedanta and Indian culture she is actively involved in various community services in the field of health and education.

Sir Monier Monier-Williams (b. 1819-1899) in his earlier career taught Asian languages at the East India Company College, and delved deep into the cultural heritage of India, its religious practices in vogue, including modern Hinduism. His aims being practical rather than speculative and his vast practical knowledge of India and her people, earned him the professorship of the Boden Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford University where he studied, documented and taught Asian languages and also compiled one of the most widely used Sanskrit-English dictionaries. In 1883, he also founded the Indian Institute at Oxford University that provided a perfect training ground for studies focused on Indology.

Bimal Krishna Matilal (1935-1991) was an eminent Indian philosopher. The upadhi (degree) of Tarkatirtha (master of Logic) was awarded to him in 1962. Matilal secured a Fulbright Fellowship and completed his PhD under Ingalls on the Navya Nyaya doctrine of negation, between 1962 and 1965. During this period he also studied with W.V.O. Quine. Subsequently, he was professor of Sanskrit at the University of Toronto, and in 1977 he was elected as Spalding Professor at Oxford University, succeeding Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and R.C. Zaehner.

Dr Angela Marcantonio is Associate Professor of linguistics at the University of Rome 'La Sapienza'. Her principle area of research, and teaching, is 'historical linguistics', with particular reference to the Indo-European and the Uralic language families, as testified by numerous articles and two major volumes: The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics (Oxford / Boston: Blackwell (2002)), and Angela Marcantonio (ed),  The Indo-European Language Family: Questions about its Status (Monograph series 55, Journal of Indo-European Studies, Washington DC (2009)). Angela is a member of the 'Philological Society' and the 'Società Italiana di Glottologia'. She is also in the editorial board of Rivista di Studi Ungheresi, Vedic Venues and Journal of Eurasian Studies, and is a consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary.

Manidipa Sen teaches Philosophy at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her research interests are: philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and epistemology. Her publications include Thinking about the World: An Essay in de Re Thought and the Externalist-Internalist Debate (2008), and Knowledge, Truth and Realism: Essays in Philosophical Analysis by Pranab Kumar Sen (2007), which she co-edited with Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty and Madhucchanda Sen.

Ramesh Chandra Pradhan is at present Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hyderabad. He previously taught at Utkal University and Karnatak University. He took his PhD in 1977 from Banaras Hindu University and had his post-doctoral studies at the University of Oxford as a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellow during 1990-91. He was also Member-Secretary of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi, during 2000-2003.
Prof. Pradhan specializes in Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind and Wittgenstein. He has authored several books in this area and edited several volumes. He has contributed many research papers to journals in philosophy. Among his books are Recent Developments in Analytic Philosophy (2001), The Great Mirror: An Essay on Wittgenstein's Tractatus (2002); Language, Reality and Transcendence: An Essay on the Main Strands of Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy (2008); and Metaphysics (2009).

R.P. Singh is Chairperson, Centre for Philosophy, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. His areas of specialization include Modern Western Philosophy, Postmodern Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, specially Upaniùads, Buddhism and Advaita Vedànta. He has to his credit 16 books and 125 articles published in India and internationally.

Betty Heimann studied Sanskrit and cultural epistemology (philology) in Kiel, Heidelberg, Göttingen and Bonn. In 1919, Heimann got PhD from Kiel University, where her thesis was on Upanishad Bhashya. Besides, she was the founder of the Department of Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit at the University of Ceylon, where she taught for several years. Her major works are: Studies for the Characteristic of Indian Thinking (1930); Indian and Western Philosophy — A Study in Contrasts (1937); and Facets of Indian Thought (1964).

Lopa, a post-graduate in physics from IIT Kanpur, is conversant in English, French, Sanskrit and a number of Indian languages. She has many short stories, essays and poems to her credit and has scripted and produced a few documentary films.

P. Pratap Kumar is Professor of Hinduism and Comparative Religions in the School of Religion Philosophy and Classics, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. In addition to several scholarly essays and articles his publications include The Goddess Lakshmi in South Indian Vaishnavism (Scholars Press, Atlanta, GA USA, 1997); Hindus in South Africa: Their Traditions and Beliefs (Durban: University of Durban-Westville, 2000); Methods and Theories in the Study of Religions: Perspectives from the Study of Hinduism and other Indian Religions (Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan Publications, 2004); Religious Pluralism and the Diaspora (ed.), (Leiden: E.J, Brill, 2006). He was also one of the editors of the Numen Book Series of the International Association for the History of Religions (Brill, 2004-07). He is also an Associate Editor of South Asian Diaspora Journal (Routledge).

Jonathan Duquette is currently a Visiting Researcher at the Asien-Afrika-Institut from the University Hamburg, Germany. He received his PhD in Religious Studies with Prof. Trichur S. Rukmani as his supervisor and has also been her research assistant for several years. His research interests include Advaita Vedanta, Indian Buddhism, Sanskrit commentarial literature and the interaction between natural sciences and religions. He has published articles in Numen, Philosophy East and West, Journal of Indian Philosophy and Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science.
 

Professor Thomas G. Fraser, MBE, is Emeritus Professor of History and Honorary Professor of Conflict Research at the University of Ulster. He was formerly Provost of the University of Ulster's Magee campus. Educated at The University of Glasgow (MA, Ewing Prize) and The London School of Economics (PhD), in 1983-1984 he was Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at Indiana University South Bend. Widely published, he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
 

Prof. Ramesh Chandra Sinha (1944–) has obtained his PhD from the Banaras Hindu University in 1969. He was appointed as temporary Lecturer in 1966-1968 in the Post-graduate department of Indian Philosophy and Religion, College of Indology, BHU. He worked as Lecturer, Reader and Professor from 1970 to 2004 in the Patna University. He was awarded Guest Fellowship by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, and Senior Fellowship by Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi. He has attended and presented several papers in the universities of Canada, London, USA and South Korea. He has three books to his credit and a number of his articles have been published in different research journals. He has been awarded “Loknayak Samman” by the Vice-President of India and “Vidyabhushan” by Vidwat Parishad, Varanasi.

Acharya Bhagawatsharan Shukla, PhD, is known as Navyavyakaranacharya, Navyanyayashastri, Sangeetpraveen (Flute), traditional or vaidic karmakanda specialist, dharmashastra and jyotish knowledge holder and artist of Akashvani (Varanasi). He has been educated in music by late Pandit Bholanath “Prasanna”. He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Vyakarana of Kashi Hindu Vishwavidyalaya. He has composed Paribhasharth Chandika, Mahabhashyatattva Vimarsha, Siddhanta Kaumudikaraka Prakaranatika, Vaidic-tattvavimarsha, Pariharshashthivrata-katha (with commentary), Saudamini Shodhpatrika, etc. Acharya Shukla has been credited with titles like Vyakarana Shastrarth, Vedapandit, and Sanskrit Maha-mahopadhyaya. His compositions have been published in national and international journals.

Dr. Shri Krishan Sharma, born in 1954, is a dedicated Professor of Indology in Kurukshetra University with vast experience in teaching and intensive research on various branches of Indological studies. He is a perfect blend of traditional Sastra learning and modern university education.
He has written/edited/compiled sixteen titles on different branches of Indic studies. His major work, the critical edition of the Aksharatantra, one of the Pratisakhya of Samaveda, has brought approbation from Vedic scholars. Besides, he has written forty research papers in Sanskrit, Hindi and English, related to various aspects of Indology for well-reputed journals, felicitation and commemoration volumes, and proceedings of 14th World Sanskrit Conference, Japan. He has visited Finland, Thailand, Scotland, Indonesia and Japan to present various research papers in World Sanskrit Conferences and other international conferences.
Under Dr Sharma’s supervision, sixteen research scholars have obtained PhD and twelve MPhil students have submitted their dissertations.
He was honoured by Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, New Delhi, in recognition of his academic achievement and received the Bana Bhatta Award (2009) from Haryana Sanskrit Academy.

Seema Bawa is an Associate Professor at Sri Aurobindo College, University of Delhi. She has written extensively on Indian art and artists. Her research papers and articles, especially on gender and sexuality in early Indian art, have been part of many scholarly books, and published in various newspapers and journals. She is also a regular columnist on art in Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle. She has authored a book, Religion and Art of the Chamba Valley. Dr Bawa is also documenting the art and architecture of the Western Himalayan Region under the aegis of the German Research Foundation. She received the Indo-German Cultural Exchange Fellowship to read at the Institute of Oriental Art History, University of Bonn. She has been associated with the National Institute of Design, as researcher for Discovery of India Exposition at the Nehru Centre, Mumbai. Dr Bawa has edited ARTimes, and also co-curated Shatadru: Feminine Sensibilities in Indian Art for Lalit Kala Akademi and National Crafts Museum among other shows.

Kodai Konishi: Born in 1975 in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Research Fellow formerly at Oriental Research Institute, University of Tokyo, now at Centre for Contemporary Indian Area Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, obtaining Ph.D degree in social anthropology. Also studied at J.N. University, New Delhi under the Government of India Scholarship. Has conducted extensive fieldworks in social anthropology among the Bhils in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India, also in Bali Island, Indonesia, as well. Contributed many essays in major academic journals and the relevant publications, often as a co-author.
 

Kulpreet Yadav’s short stories have appeared in many literary magazines from around the world. He is the founder and co-editor of Open Road Review, a literary journal. He also co-edits Under the Banyan Tree, an online forum of true stories. In 2011, Kulpreet’s short fiction won a special commendation in the competition ‘The Best Short Writing in the World’, by Fleeting magazine. He lives in New Delhi.

Harsh Agarwal is a young writing enthusiast who made his debut in the publishing industry at the age of nineteen.  ‘An excursion of insight’ is his second novel.

Harsh, basically a third year Mechie from NIT Assam, always aims to present out of the box stories. He is a voracious reader, a professional freelancer, and a book-reviewer as well. He currently owns a literary organization ‘Asylum’ (www.theasylum.in) which is dedicated to aspiring authors.

He is also the project head for ‘Time’s Lost Atlas’ (anthology of short stories) and chairperson of a charitable project, ‘Project Humming Bird’

Apart from writing, Harsh finds interest in music, travelling and networking. You can write to him on harsh7lian@gmail.com. Also, feel free to trouble him anytime on www.facebook.com/harsh7agl

Vasudev Murthy has authored books on subjects as varied as music and business management, and articles that dwell on history, sociology, the occult, philosophy and the like. A prolific writer of short stories, he is a management consultant and a Guest Faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
 

Dr Bina Biswas is a Professor and the Head of the Department of English, TRR Group of Educational Institutions, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad. She is an alumnus of the University of Delhi and has a Doctorate from Andhra University. She is a Tagore scholar and a well-known author. Her monumental works comprise Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Meghnad Badh Kabya’s translation into English and Tagore’s Heroines: Portraits of Gender Orientation which are ready to be published by March 2013.

Trained to be an Engineer, Sudhir Kekre realised that he couldn’t differentiate between a monkey wrench and a monkey’s ass. But he was passionate about travel. So working abroad was a natural option. Working in the USA and the UK broadened his horizons and strengthened his belief that under different colours of the skin, all people are the same. There are nutcases everywhere.

Writing was a talent he was born with. Sadly, it took him five decades to realise it.

Dr. Sayantan Gupta is a Consultant Gynaecologist by profession and also a Laparoscopic Surgeon, at present residing in and practicing at Malda, West Bengal, India.

Writing prose, poetry and drama being his passion, some of his plays have made successful stage productions. His poems have been published in different online magazines and anthologies; including the recently published Where the Rainbow Ends. Short stories written by him have been well acclaimed by readers worldwide.

His novels, The Physician – Legacy of the Healer God and The Abode of Kings, are in the process of publication. He is also working on the translation of Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Bengali epic Meghnad Badh Kabya. He is an ardent Rotarian and has been writing for the Rotary Club as well.

Tripuraneni Gopichand (1910-62) won the Sahitya Akademi Award 1963 for his last novel, Pandita Parameswara Sastri Veelunama. Novelist, short story writer, editor, essayist, playwright and also a film director, his works are remarkable for an interplay of values, ideas and ‘isms’ – materialism, hedonism, existentialism, spiritualism, realism, and humanism – to mention some. This novel, Merupula Marakalu – published a year before his death – became instantly popular and raised a major controversy.

D.S. Rao, Ph.D., is a literary critic, editor, author, translator, and teacher of English literature. After serving Sahitya Akademi from 1956 to 1991, he retired as Editor, Indian Literature. His writings appeared in leading newspapers and journals. In 2003, his English translation of Gopichand’s Asamardhuni Jivayatra has been hailed as ‘a milestone’ by Prof. M. Sivaramakrishna. In 2005, his Five Decades has been called ‘a brilliant historical study’ by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India.
 

A Masters in English Literature and a Ph.D. in Aesthetics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Nandita Bose has had a rich career in academics, corporate training and running her own HR consultancy. As a writer, her special area of interest is romance novels which reflect our society and how human relationships develop within it.

Mahamandaleshwar Swami Veda Bharati (D.Litt.), Chancellor, HIHT University, Dehru Dun is a world visionary, having been known to recite and teach the systems of Indian philosophy, language, literature and scriptures from the age of nine. A graduate from the London University, Swamiji is a D.Litt. from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. In one of his sojourns in the US, as professor of Sanskrit at the University of Minnesota, Swamiji met Sri Swami Rama of the Himalayas his Gurudeva. Swami Rama, recognizing the potential of Swamiji, initiated him to the highest path of dhyana-yoga.
For the last sixty-eight years, Swamiji has been lecturing on meditation and Yoga, worldwide, and establishing meditation centres across the globe. He has authored numerous books and articles. His two ashrams in Rishikesh are well recognized as the authentic seats for learning the depths of meditation in the tradition of Himalayan Masters.

Dr Pusuluri Boaz (b. 1953), a recipient of State Meritorious Teachers Award, has taught philosophy for thirty-two years in American Baptist Mission College, Ongole, Andhra Pradesh. Boaz has published numerous articles on philosophy and art, being himself a good painter and editor.

Archana Malik-Goure is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Mumbai. Her specialization is Indian philosophy with special reference to ethics and contemporary schools, logic and analytic philosophy. She has also been working in her area of specialization from the perspective of gender debates. Her book entitled Status of Women Asceticism in Jaina and Buddhist Tradition, (2012), examines the position of women in Jaina and Buddhist traditions; it also brings out the gendered implications of their ethical codes. She has published and presented research papers at national and international fora. She is currently working on a comparative study of Indian and Greek conceptions of virtue.

Anita Singh is Professor, Department of English and Co-Coordinator, Centre for Women's Studies and Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. Her areas of interests are Indian Feminist Theatre, Gender Studies and Performance Studies. She is both  a critic and creative writer, and has published many articles, translations, book reviews, anthologies and short stories in various journals and magazines. Currently, she is working on a project sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, on “Staging Gender: Performing Women in Ramlila of Ramnagar”.
 

Tarun Tapas Mukherjee is Assistant Professor,  Department of English, Bhatter College, Dantan. His research areas are Literary Criticism, Digital Technology for Literature, e-Literature and Cyber Culture. He is also the Editor of Rupkatha journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities.

Dr Kamakhya Kumar, an eminent Yoga scholar and researcher, is a senior faculty member at the School of Yoga and Health at Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar. Having an extensive research experience in Yoga science, in which he holds a PhD as well, he guides researchers in five universities, in India.
Dr Kumar has an extensive experience in  teaching Yoga in various universities, facilitating Yoga training and addressing workshops on Positive Attitude, Life Management, Stress Management, Mind Management, etc.
Dr Kumar is the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Yoga and Allied Sciences, and has over ten books and about fifty research papers to his credit. He has handled various administrative and organizational posts, including the Chief Co-ordinator of Yoga Arogya Polyclinic at Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya.

Dr. Kurian Kachappilly is the Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the DVK, Bangalore, India; and Associate Director, Research Centre, Christ University, Bangalore, India. He holds Master's Degrees in English Literature and Psychology, and a Licentiate and Doctorate in Philosophy from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Bangalore University, Bangalore; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Belgium Fakultät für Informatik & Wirtschaftsinformatik, Würzburg Germany; the University of Santo Tomas Manila, the Philippines; and other institutions.
Dr. Kachappilly is a prolific writer with several books and many scientific articles to his credit. Some of the books include God of Love  Revisited (1998),  Between Partners (1999), Word of God Retold (2001), God of Love: A Neoclassical Inquiry (2002), God-Talk Reconstructed: An Introduction to Philosophy of God (2006), Process: Implications and Applications (2006), etc. His major areas of research are ‘Indian Roots of Process Philosophy’, ‘Whitehead and Philosophical Doctrines of Buddhism’, ‘Innovative Experiments in Pedagogy’, ‘Religion vis a vis Society’, ‘Inquiry into Religious Experience’ and ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’.
 

Dr. Larry D. Harwood is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA, and specializes in Philosophy of Religion, Asian Philosophy, History of Religion, and Religion and Aesthetics. In addition to fictional writing, he has published articles on Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, C.S. Lewis, Confucianism, postmodernism, the problem of evil, and the meaning of life. His book entitled Denuded Devotion to Christ: The Ascetic Piety of Protestant True Religion in the Reformation is scheduled for publication by Wipf and Stock in 2013, and he is currently at work on a book on Bertrand Russell and religion. In the spring term of 2008 he was an American Fulbright Scholar at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, where he taught in the Program in Theory of Literature. In 2004 he made the first of several trips to Asia and has returned on three occasions bringing in tow almost forty students.
 

Malhar Kulkarni is Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay. He is a specialist in Paninian grammar and has worked on Sanskrit Wordnet.

Chaitali Dangarikar received her PhD from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay. She has worked on the Jatisamuddesha of Bhartrihari's Vakyapadiya.
 

Dr K.G. Paulose (b. 1946),  presently a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, was the first Vice-Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam. He also held various key positions like Registrar, Sree Sankaracharya University, Kalady; Chief Editor — Publications, Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal; Chairman, Chinmaya International Sodha Sansthan; and Principal of Government Sanskrit College, Tripunithura. He specializes in Comparative Aesthetics, Natyashastra, Ancient Theatre and Kutiyattam. He has authored twenty and edited over fifty books and published many research papers. He was the Chief Editor of three research journals — Purnatrayi, Aryavaidyan and Dhimahi. Two of his important  publications  are Natankusha: A Critique of Dramaturgy (1993) and Kutiyattam Theatre: The Earliest Living Tradition (2006). Dr Paulose is an awardee of Kerala Sahitya Akademi and Kerala Sangeet Natak Akademi. Thirupati Sanskrit Viswavidyalaya conferred on him the title of ßVachaspatiû in 2009.
 

Wilfried Huchzermeyer has studied Indology, Philosophy and Comparative Religion in Germany, the US and India. He completed his Sanskrit studies at Pune University with a dissertation on the Mahabharata.
Between 1970 and 1985 he had many long stays at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. During this period he translated several major works of Sri Aurobindo, including The Secret of the Veda and The Foundations of Indian Culture.
In 1985 he wrote The Mother — A Short Biography, which became a very popular introduction, published in several languages. His Sanskrit-German reference books Yoga-Lexikon and Yoga-W”rterbuch have been widely recognized as standard works.

Dr (Mrs) Satnam Kaur has served Mata Sundri College for Women (University of Delhi) for forty-one years, first as a teacher of philosophy and then as Principal. Dr Kaur has a good deal of important academic work to her credit.
Her first book, Three Basics of Sikh Religious Thought: Faith, Grace and Prayer (1997), has been well received.  She edited two books Bani Guru Guru hai Bàni and Guru Angad Devji da Yogdan, both in Punjabi.