This is the second volume of my collected papers. The first was published under the title Language, Texts, and Society: Explorations in Ancient Indian Culture and Religion, in the same series as this volume. That volume included papers dealing with Indian culture and religion in general and with ancient Sanskrit texts. The present volume brings together papers dealing specifically with Indian asceticism. This volume was also the brainchild of Federico Squarcini. I thank him for his assiduous work on both volumes.

The papers included in this volume span thirty years. Many represent my earliest work. It is quite natural that as one matures both in years and, hopefully, in wisdom, one's approaches and theoretical models change. It would have been impractical and unwise to rewrite all my earlier papers. Wherever necessary I have added notes to indicate my evolving views; sometimes I have improved my prose; and frequently, I have updated the bibliography and added the Sanskrit text to translations. I have deleted portions that were redundant because of other works I have published subsequently. Even though some of these papers are now dated, I hope bringing them together in a single volume will prove to be helpful to scholars and students.

Most of the individuals who have helped my intellectual development over the years I have thanked in the preface to the first volume of my collected papers.