Most of the essays that make up this volume have appeared until now under the title The Foundations of Indian Culture. That title was not Sri Aurobindo's. It was first used when those essays were published as a book in New York in 1953.

The present volume consists of three series of essays and one single essay, published in the monthly review Arya as follows:

The Renaissance in India, August November 1918.

Indian Culture and External Influence, March 1919.

"Is India Civilised?", December 1918 February 1919.

A Defence of Indian Culture, February 1919 January 1921.

Sri Aurobindo revised the four essays making up The Renaissance in India and published them as a booklet in 1920. He later revised "Is India Civilised?" and the first eight and a half chapters of A Defence of Indian Culture. These revised chapters were not published during his lifetime. In 1947 some of the later chapters of A Defence of Indian Culture, lightly revised, were published in two booklets. The four essays on Indian art appeared as The Significance of Indian Art and the four essays on Indian polity as The Spirit and Form of Indian Polity. The rest of the series was only sporadically revised. When its publication was proposed to him in 1949, Sri Aurobindo replied:

The Defence of Indian Culture is an unfinished book and also I had intended to alter much of it and to omit all but brief references to William Archer's criticisms. That was why its publication has been so long delayed. Even if it is reprinted as it is considerable alterations will have to be made and there must be some completion and an end to the book which does not at present exist.

The desired alterations were never made.

The text of the present edition has been checked against the Arya and the revised versions.

A number of photographic reproductions of Indian architecture, sculpture and painting have been included to illustrate references in the text.