Proceedings of a seminar held at Shimla during 29 September-1 October 2003.

Papers on Indian knowledge systems -- Vedic traditions -- Sanskrit knowledge -- Indian philosophy -- Hindu intellectual traditions -- Classical sciences -- Culture and civilization.

India has continuous and cumulative intellectual traditions in many domains of knowledge. This tradition has its beginning in the Rigveda, the first attested Indo-European document, and continues to be alive in the life, practices and learning of the Indian people. The power and pertinence of knowledge systems in this tradition are attested by the existence of innumerable texts and thinkers that continue to be the subject of study in major contemporary universities round the world. Not many today are aware of this rich heritage of thought. The Academy therefore produces rootless young minds that at best are ignorant and at worst have contempt for their own traditions of thought. The two volumes, comprising 34 articles by distinguished scholars, expound some major Indian knowledge systems viz. Logic, Philosophy of Language, Technology and Crafts, Polity and Governance, Ethics and Sociological texts, Architecture, Poetics and Aesthetics, Law and Justice, Mathematics and Astronomy, Agriculture, Trade and Commerce and Medicine and Life Science. Under its seven sections — (i) Indian Knowledge Systems (Ex)Positions; (ii) Science; (iii) Medical Science in India; (iv) Psychology, Polity and Sociological Texts; (v) Aesthetics and Poetics; (vi) Philosophy, Logic and Language; and (vii) Knowledge Formation, Dissemination and Practice — it makes available the first statements that articulate their validity for the contemporary Indian and Western reality.