Indology as a Cross-Cultural Catalyst: A New Task of Indological Studies: Cross-Cultural Fertilisation

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Indology as a discipline is now about two centuries old. During this time it has made considerable progress, but is has not changed its basic structure. It can look back on pioneering work of the eighteenth century, on astonishing achievements of the nineteenth, and on valuable and in one sense definitive insights of the first seven decades of the present century. This scholarship of the past has laid the foundations of all future work. Without minimising its importance I should, however, like to suggest that the time is now ripe for a new step, a re-orientation of indic studies as a whole, and a re-shaping of its fundamental patterns. In the past, these studies have been a highly specialised science relating to a strictly delimited geographical and historical area. Now, however, the social, political and cultural changes of our times make it imperative not only to broaden the scope of indic studies, but to be ready for a radical mutation in the self-understanding of indology itself. It is with this conviction that the present writer has undertaken the project of preparing a Handbook of Fundamental Terms of Indian Tradition with the collaboration of experts from all over the world. This handbook, in lexicon form, will, it is hoped be a significant contribution, offering some of the materials needed in this task of reorientation-a task I should like to sum up in the following points. I. Time and History: Indologists cannot ignore the fact that the civilisation of ancient India-unlike some other ancient civilizations