The west has been fascinated with India since contact between the two was first made and its reactions have differed depending on the circumstances of history and the setting. The complex and, in some ways, contradictory Indian civilisation has been both an object of great interest and violent criticism. Impartial scientific observation of the country and its people has only been a recent development and still today expectations, prejudices and clich?s colour the outsider’s approach. The past still plays an important role in India and so knowledge of its ancient civilisation contributes to a better understanding of the present of this, one of the world’s largest countries. For five thousand years India has undergone constant transformation and this extraordinary continuity, almost unique in the world, is what strikes the student of its culture most forcibly. In an attempt to paint this immense geographical and temporal picture, the book has been divided into three sections: the first discusses the main events in the history of the sub-continent from the 3rd millennium BC until the arrival of the Moslems in the 12th c. AD; the second describes daily life, the social and political structures, village and city life, arts and aesthetics, the world of the sacred and the Indian approach to religion; and the third section provides a series of itineraries of the traveller to discover and enjoy some of the country’s most important artistic and religious sites. A set of superb photographs supported by short but exhaustive captions introduces the reader to a world of refined beauty that often veils allusions to an esoteric level of meaning. The text is supplemented by colour tables, drawings and black and white maps.
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