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.