In many regards, the North Indian Ganges Plain is the heartland of South Asian civilization, both geographically and culturally. Since times immemorial, the fertile plains framed by the Himalaya in the North and the Vindya Mountains in the South have been the stage for major cultural developments which significantly shaped the civilization of South Asia from the time of the ancient Aryan kingdoms (mahājanapadas) until the rise of European colonial power. Not surprisingly, it was there that the encounter between India and Islam gave rise to some significant phenomena of cross-cultural communication thereby providing evidence of the livelihood characterizing the parts involved. Thus, the intellectual discourse in which the affiliates of the orders rooted in the esoteric sciences of Islam (ʿilm al-bāṭin) on one side (ṭuruq, pl. of ṭarīqa) and the initiatory disciplines of Hinduism (saṃpradāya) on the other engaged over the centuries resulted in a series of interesting elaborations which provide a fascinating ground for investigation, for the spiritual seeker as well as for the academic observer.