The following pages contain fifteen essays originally written on various themes of Indological interest: Indology, literature, philosophy and Buddhist and Jaina studies and presented before national and international gatherings of scholars during the past three decades. These papers delineate some essential features of Indian culture enshrined in our ancient texts.

The first paper entitled ‘Indology in the next Millennium’ was presented at an Asiatic Society Scholars’ congregation, two papers related to the spectrum of Buddhist Studies and circulated before the International Buddhist Conference (1978) and as a Presidential Address to the Pali and Buddhist Section of the All India Oriental Conference, Jaipur Session (1982). The article on ‘The character of Bharata in the Valmiki Ramayana’ was broadcast on the All India Radio, Gorakhpur Station and the last paper entitled ‘Siddhas and the Nirguna Hindi Poets’ was written for the Sixth World Hindi Conference, London (1999). The paper on A Buddhist Response to the Modern Socio-Ecological Imbalances presented at the International Conference on Rethinking Indian Culture: Challenges and Responses’ at Cuttack (1999). Other papers were presented at the various sessions of the All-India Oriental Conference. The paper entitled ‘Modern Indian Attitude towards Sanskrit Literary Traditions’ was presented at a Sahitya Akademi Seminar on Contemporary Trends in Indian Literature, Ujjain (1986). Other papers were presented at some national seminars organised by some Universities/Institutes.