While the concept of non-duality is central to many religious and philosophical traditions, it has found some of its most sophisticated and diverse expressions in South Asia. Drawing on a rich body of sources across multiple languages, communities, and traditions, this handbook maps, for the first time, the wide-ranging forms and functions of non-duality in South Asian traditions.
Written by leading scholars, the volume brings together traditions often studied separately, including brahmanical, Buddhist, tantric, Sikh, Islamic, and vernacular movements. Its chapters examine non-duality not as a single doctrine, but as a flexible and contested category, articulated in ontological, cognitive, phenomenological, soteriological, devotional, ethical, and narrative contexts. The volume also introduces key concepts, technical vocabularies, and interpretive frameworks through which non-duality has been defined, debated, practiced, and reimagined.
By placing these traditions in conversation, the volume reorients the study of non-duality in premodern South Asia. It offers a comprehensive, accessible, and interdisciplinary resource for scholars, students, and readers interested in Indian philosophy, religion, literature, and the history of contemplative and devotional thought.
