28 SOCIAL SCIENTIST as tend to focus on the cultural past/tradition as well as respect and understanding thereof. The Persian (originally, Arabic) term miras (where miras-dars, hereditary land-holders) means 'inheritance, patrimony', and may be compared with the post-sixteenth century connotations of heritage in the English language. A work of the early 17th century, for instance, mentions people' s charity as heritage, and later Byron in the 19th century poignantly writes about That heritage of woe.8 Amongst other expressions used in medieval Indian writings for denoting a more organic link with the past, one may mention Persian asar, lit. 'traces, remains'. It is not confined to the physical remains or ancient traces of the past, as for instance used by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in his classic work on the monuments of Delhi (Asar-us Sanadid). The related term ma' asir entails knowledge of the past, implying thereby that it could well be an important component in the understanding and representation of heritage beyond monuments in the literal sense of the term.9 II "THE PRESENT': How does one define "the Present"? Does it imply any sharp disjuncture? In a speech at the Centenary Celebrations of the Archaeological Survey of India delivered on the 14th December, 1961 at the International Conference of Asian Archaeology, the then Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said: "In this highly utilitarian age, how does one justify archaeology? I have no clear answer to that except that I am quite sure it is very important. There are things of the highest value, like art and goodness, which are far more important than many utilitarian objects that we have. Some years ago a matter of conscience arose for us when we were considering what we should do about Nagarjunakonda in the South. There was this buried city gradually coming out, and there was the proposal to erect a dam there and create a big reservoir which would supply water for irrigation. There was a direct conflict between the claims of today in the sense of practical utility and the claims of the past. We were troubled by the conflict. But it was inevitable that we should decide ultimately