Gian Giuseppe Filippi

This study is the result of many years of research in India and Europe, in universities, museums, academies, libraries, and public and private foundations. Setting aside the impersonal, objective tone which a scientific work requires, I wish to express my gratitude to all those samnyasins, brahmanas, relatives of dead and dying persons, doms, and to all those living around cremation grounds, whom we cannot of course mention by name.