Understanding Indian Civilization is essentially an essay in methodology. In this the author critically examines a number of frameworks of enquiry which have been used in arriving at macro and micro profiles of Indian Civilization. He then turns to a number of hitherto unused approaches that could be fruitfully employed in attempts to understand the complexity, the diversity and the variety of cultural forms both in continuity and in change. He Pleads for a synthesis of the approaches of a variety of disciplines including Indology, archaeology, history, philosophy, sociology, and social anthropology . Taking selected aspects of Indian civilization he illustrates how the approach developed by him can be used.