This book contains an exhaustive history of India’s evolution with respect to the rest of the world. Home to one of the oldest civilizations in known history, India’s tryst with the rest of the world began at a time when most of its people were still engaged in a nomadic lifestyle. India’s flourishing spice trade with great empires like Rome, Egypt and China has been proven, thanks to the recovery of Roman coins at archaeological sites in Harappa and Mohenjodaro. However, this book takes readers through the 5000 years of contact between India and the civilizations, near and far, that established relations with it. It also looks at the foreign invaders who plundered the land, others who made it their home, the respective religions that held sway over India at different times and their contributions to the art, music, literature and social structure of India. As the book aptly states, India’s is a synthetic culture, which has come about over the course of time through the infusion of several cultures, similar and contradictory, concocting a heritage that is unique in many respects.