Semiotica Indica is the first attempt to describe the semiotics of Indian culture. It is meant to provide some basic ideas, concepts and material for the study of nonverbal communication in India. It draws from works on semiotics but revolves around the core concept of com­munication.

The book is about Indian actions, how actions become gestures and how gestures transmit messages. It covers much of the literature in Sanskrit and modern Indian languages on nonverbal communication and organizes it in a fashion useful for three purposes: (a) to provide an ‘ancient overview’ of the nonverbal communica­tion; (b) to map nonverbal continuity in India from Bharata’s time to the present day; and (c) to establish a conceptual base into which new findings may be integrated.

This Encyclopaedic Dictionary is a survey of Indian semiotics from Rgvedic times to the present day sketching the theoretical (Sastra) and practical (Prayoga=loka) approaches of the leading semioticians with respect to their differ­ing objectives: classifying the Sastra and the loka; establishing the philosophical sign system for canonical representation of human thought; devising Puranas for the creation of new ideas; gaining insight into the conditions of human knowledge; increasing the efficiency of sahitya, sangita, citra, vastu, ayurveda, jyotisa, darsana and the various branches of the arts; extending communication into agama, nigama, tantra, yonija and ayonija species. The underlying world-view has crystallized in certain concepts, reflect­ing the understanding of body and soul, of space and time, of indriya and atindriya, of the part and the whole, of the body and the senses.

This book contains nearly 6000 terms, the complex ones are supported by illustra­tions. The entries are ordered alphabet­ically, but each of the reference is guard­ed by numerous cross-references. The main focus is on producing penetrating insights into semiotics in general and nonverbal communication in particular.

Written in simple elegant prose and strikingly illustrated, this Encyclopaedic Dictionary is full of practical insights for the understanding of theoretical and prac­tical aspects of body-language in India.