The volumes of the Project of the History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization aim at discovering the main aspects of India’s heritage and present them in an interrelated way. These volumes, in spite of their unitary look, recognize the difference between the areas of material civilization and those of ideational culture. The Project is not being executed by a single group of thinkers who are methodologically uniform or ideologically identical in their commitments. In fact, contributions are made by different scholars with different ideological persuasions and methodological approaches. The Project is marked by what may be called ‘methodological pluralism’. In spite of its primarily historical character, this Project, both in its conceptualization and execution, has been shaped by scholars drawn from different disciplines. It is for the first time that an endeavour of such a unique and comprehensive character has been undertaken to study critically a major world civilization like India. The volume ‘India’s Interaction with Southeast Asia’ edited by Professor G.C. Pande provides a much needed synthesis of new research on ancient Indian contact with Southeast Asia. This volume situates Indo-Southeast Asian interchange within a global civilizational perspective, in which the old notion of the Indic ‘motherland’ sustaining the Southeast Asian civilization is discarded in favour of a ‘reciprocal’ model that explores the uniqueness of the lands on both sides of the Bay of Bengal. The volume gives equitable academic space to both dimensions of Indo-Southeast Asian contacts: the Indic influences that shaped Southeast Asian cultures as well as the native genius of southeast Asians that refined Indian art and architecture into the wonders of Angkor Vat and Borobudur. The contributions to the volume come from art historians, archaeologists, linguists, historians and philosophers well known in their field. The volume is relevant for the specialist as well as the layman.
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