By reconsidering the epistemic implications underlying the marginal status to which the materials produced by South Asian exponents of various forms of 'dissenting' or 'anti-traditional' intellectual activity have been consigned, in this essay I propose revisiting our understanding of why many South Asian traditions that do not adhere to a dominant doxa have been omitted or given a permanent status of subordination. From this perspective I here argue the paucity of textual materials produced by the 'dissenters' -which now survive only in fragments -is the most striking proof that over the centuries these elements have not been considered as what they really are.