A country with diverse climate and vegetation, with a recorded history and literature spanning five thousand years, with 850 languages and dialects, populated by peoples of widely different racial origins and the birthplace of several important religions, India is unmatched in its diversity.

In A Book of India, renowned scholar Dr B.N. Pandey draws upon the country's broad literatures, including the legacies left by the explorers, missionaries, scholars and administrators of the Raj, to etch a coherent picture of the vast panorama that is India.