This is the first book dealing with the foreign influence on ancient India. Discusses the foreign invasions of India by the Achaemenians, Greeks, Sakas, Kushans, Sassanians, Pahlavas and the Hunas, and also the peaceful impact of the Romans on India. The book advances a theory that ancient India never provided any casus belli to the foreigners to attack her. It was India's weakness and an implied confidence in future victories that kept the invaders coming to India one after another. But these foreigners have also influenced India in the field of administration, religion, philosophy, astronomy, language, script, trade and commerce, and above all the way of life of the people of India, which is the main subject of the book. This book suggests that after the partition of this sub-continent, the name `India' which continued to be used for this country is a misnomer when the river INDUS after which the country was so named, went to Pakistan. This book also finds is real nature the matrimonial alliance between Seleucus and Chandra Gupta Maurya and gives possible solutions to some riddles of Indian history. The origin of the name of KIDAR has also been discovered for the first time. The book tells us in a poetic language how ‘the golden age of the Guptas was converted into a molten age of destruction and confusion’ by the Hunas. What remained of our culture after so much turmoil and changes is before us.

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As India rises to great power status in the emerging multipolar world order, what influence will its rich and ancient culture have on the country’s foreign policy? This book reveals that cultural values have greater explanatory power than previously thought and describes the nature of their influence. Excavating thousands of years of history, the monograph identifies enduring values that are relevant to contemporary foreign policy. It examines three critical areas of Indian foreign policy – nuclear policy, humanitarian intervention and relations with the Middle East. Major decisions were shaped by cultural values – sometimes at the expense of strategic interests. India’s choice to test nuclear weapons was not purely because of China or Pakistan: hierarchy also played a role. From a hierarchical worldview shaping Delhi’s approach to international law on arms control to pluralism facilitating simultaneous friendships with America and Iran, values thread their way throughout India’s foreign relations. Non-violence underpins Delhi’s soft power in both the West and the Middle East, while having spurred India’s opposition to Western intervention in Iraq. Analyzing state behavior and interviewing diplomats, the book charts culture’s evolving influence from Rajiv Gandhi to Narendra Modi.

The Theme Of This Book Is That From The Most Ancient Times India Has Drawn On Other Lands To The West Of Her For A Number Of Techniques, Institutions And Ideas, For From Being Isolated In The Past, She Has Assimilated Alien Influences Subsequently Endowing Them With The Stamp Of Her Own Native Genius.

The author, a historian of repute, confronts important issues of Indian history in this classic work. He raises such questions as "Was there an Aryan Invasion of India in the past?", "Is the caste system a bane or a boon?", "Did Indian women enjoy equal rights in ancient times?", "Was Democracy an alien concept to Vedic Indians?", "Why Buddhism became extinct in the country of its origin?", "What is India's lasting contribution to the field of Science, Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine, Chemistry, Metallurgy, etc.?", "Was Indian Culture greatly impacted by foreign religions?", "How did India influence its neighbouring Eastern and Western countries?", "Is Sanskrit only an off-shoot of the Indo-European Languages Group?", "What was the scale of the social, economic and political implosion detonated by two centuries of British Colonial Rule?". The author has answered the above vexing questions based on an intensive study of Archaeology, Epigraphy, Numismatics, original records in different languages and the travelogues of foreign visitors. (Translator's Note).