While South Asian cultures and religions have provided much material for the field of cultural studies, these analyses have hardly challenged the colonial framework. Broadly ignoring the epistemic and hermeneutic frameworks that underpin cultural presuppositions, most studies continue to treat South Asia as a field that lacks its own reflective awareness. Patil's groundbreaking research challenges these presuppositions: he demonstrates the closely linked relationship of religion and philosophy in classical India, and provides compelling arguments to link epistemology as a framework for soteriological issues. The text thus promises to shift the paradigm, and the arguments that evolve throughout are convincing in this regard. In meeting this challenge, the text is neatly organized, with the first part of the study examining epistemological issues (chapter 1), Nyāya epistemology (chapter 2), and the Buddhist critique against Īśvara (chapter 3). The second part of the text, “Language, Mind, and Ontology,” introduces the Buddhist theory of linguistic comprehension in light of wider epistemological issues (chapter 4), examines the central tenets of Ratnakīrti's philosophy (chapter 5), and explores the significance of Buddhist epistemology (chapter 6). Patil's transdisciplinary work helps us unravel the nature of interreligious debate between Hindu and Buddhist philosophers in classical India, allowing the reader to enter the minds of great Buddhist thinkers, such as inline image and Dharmakīrti, along with a central focus on Ratnakīrti's thoughts. Patil points out the epistemic link between the process of refining intraschool position and critiquing the presuppositions of the rival schools, demonstrating a process of developing multilayered response to issues such as the creator God and omniscient being. This work is thus a compelling example of what classical India has to offer to contemporary discursive practice.
