Introduction

Against the backdrop of previous research this introduction discusses the historical relevancy the Theosophical Society played in cross-cultural interchanges during the nineteenth century. While sharing a number of the imperialistic tendencies of Orientalist approaches to Asia, the Theosophical Society represents another important aspect of the reception of Asian cultures and ideas that in turn had an impact upon the original Asian contexts and later Western imaginations. Much more still needs to be uncovered about the Theosophical Society and its relation to Asia, as the introduction outlines, but it entertained its own particular esoteric imagination of “the East” as the primary source of an ancient wisdom, which played into (1) the Theosophical reception of ideas, (2) representations of “the East,” and (3) interactions with “the East.” These three areas constitute the core parts of the book and are outlined in this introduction.