South Asia Before Religion: Reflections on an Anachronistic Concept (Knowledge Commons Works, 2026) critically examines the applicability of the concept of religion to premodern South Asian culture.

The book argues that premodern South Asia did not possess a concept equivalent to religion as understood today—neither as a distinct system of religious teachings and practices nor as a fundamental cultural category separate from domains such as the secular, philosophy, or science. Drawing on examples from Āyurveda and philosophy, it demonstrates how imposing anachronistic categories on past cultures can misrepresent their internal logics and social realities. It advocates deconstructing modern notions of religion and refraining from reconstructing the past through religion as an interpretive template. At the same time, it suggests that concepts of religion can remain valuable when treated as historically situated objects of comparison or reference for premodern concepts and systems, thereby facilitating access to premodern cultures and contributing to contemporary scholarly discourse.