This set of four volumes reflects the scholarship of one of the foremost historians of our time. It is a comprehensive collection of lectures and essays by Romila Thapar, with each focusing on a theme—Historiography, Pre-Mauryan and Mauryan India, Social and Cultural Transactions, and Religion and Society. Each of these includes an interview of the author by an expert in the field, who also introduces the essays in that volume.
In a general introduction to the four volumes, Romila Thapar touches on various aspects of her approach to writing early Indian history. She analyses some of the trends in historical thought that have shaped the last six decades of such writing.