India s progressive emergence on the world stage, intermsunimaginable just a few
decades ago, obliges us to reconsideritsimage as nurtured by the West for over
two thousand years:aprestigious image maybe, but also greatly reductive,
astheprivileged home of occult knowledge, ecstasy and asceticism, or?quite the
opposite of fabulous riches and voluptuouspleasures.Rather than getting to know
India, the West has preferredto dreamof it: one result has been that Indian
thought, albeitunanimouslycelebrated as the seat of the highest wisdom, has
notbeen grantedeven the smallest place on the great stage of thehistory
ofphilosophy. The book presents the thought of pre-modernIndia firstand foremost
by outlining the cultural parameters withinwhich itarose and developed, and
should