Indian Gods and Kings: The Story of a Living Past

India cannot be put between the covers of a volume. The land and its history is as dramatic and varied as its people. If the outer history of India, the stories of its Gods and Kings, is to have meaning, it must be understood by the background of thought and custom- the same that still moulds the lives of the brightly dressed, ambling people today. For the past in India is never entirely past. The people follow ancient ways for more closely than anywhere else in the world. The centuries one all there. The country treasures everything and discards nothing. Odds and ends of habit that have lost all meaning or use are held equally precious with some great verity. The present volume is an attempt to bring together simply and compactly some of the material available in scholarly studies of many periods and phases of India. It means to suggest the past still alive in the present of India as the basis of understanding today. The method will be to tie some detail which the traveler may see-whether a living custom or remaining architecture or art-to a casual story from the past. The book would thus give a sense of beauty which is there and the drama which has been.