The theme of ‘tradition’ in the South Asian context, with the variety of its expressions, is the subject of this collection of essays. It is a fundamental topic on which many have reflected and much has been written. However, because of its very centrality, I believe that it can never receive enough attention. In fact, the function performed by the device of ‘tradition’ has been and is still indispensable for the great majority of the South Asian forms and systems of knowledge and meaning, since it is their main foundation of guarantee and validation. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the details and the dynamics of this function in order to effectively grasp the logic of those forms and systems of knowledge.

These are, in short, the principal motives that have led me to return once again to the theme of ‘tradition’.

Now, in order to counterbalance the terseness of the above statements, it would be appropriate to explain the intentions, goals and reasons that have guided the construction of this volume on ‘tradition’. However, a mere list of programmatic declarations would not do justice to the complexity of the theme and to the wide range of contexts that have been examined and discussed; it would actually generate various kinds of misunderstandings.

This does not mean that the organisation and arrangement of the following collection of essays did not follow any ‘guideline’ —namely, a precise programmatic intent. Quite the contrary.