ABSTRACT
When sociology intends to analyse the system of practices and representations that make up Hinduism, both as a social structure—the caste system—and as doctrines, beliefs and rites—the Hindu religion—, the discipline is confronted with several epistemic issues that result from the nature of this traditional society endowed with its own learned tradition, but also from the assumptions underlying the concepts and methods currently used in the social sciences. Therefore, this book would not be complete without addressing the conditions of possibility of a comparative sociology, a project that was at the core of Dumont’s oeuvre.
