The study was designed to delineate the etiology of granulomatous lymphadenitis which is one of the most common lesions encountered in our routine surgical pathology practice. Fifty-seven lymph nodes diagnosed histopathologically as granulomatous lymphadenitis were cultured and stained by special histochemical stains for tuberculosis, fungus, anaerobic and aerobic bacteria. M.tuberculosis was isolated in 60-70 per cent of lesions. The remaining 30-40 per cent of the lesions failed to demonstrate any infectious agent but most of the available follow-up cases showed satisfactory response to antituberculous drugs. Ziehl-Neelsen's stain showed very low sensitivity but excellent specificity and is still recommended for use to differentiate from other infectious agents in the areas where infectious agents are prevalent.