The Opera Minora series of the century-old Harvard Oriental Series aims at the swift publication of important materials that cannot be included in the mainly text-oriented Harvard Oriental Series. Therefore, Opera Minora include the publication of seminal conferences, archeological reports, important dissertations, currently controversially discussed topics in Indology and South Asian studies, biographies of outstanding scholars, supporting materials such as linguistic or historical atlases or indexes of important works. 

The past 9 volumes, not always of 'minor' size, contain examples of most of these topics, for example an archeological report on recent excavations in South Asia and Iran related to the Indus civilization 2600-1900 BCE), a large volume with papers of the 5th Vedic workshop, a language atlas of South Asia with detailed statistical data, two volumes with work in progress on the second oldest Indian text (Paippalāda Atharvaveda), or a discussion of the ever-controversial topic (in India) of "Aryans versus non-Aryans".