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Written in 1944, this little book is a survey and estimate of CF Andrew's life and work in the nearly forty years he lived in India. It describes his human traits, his many abiding friendships and his relationship with India and Indians.Gandhi called him Dinabandhu brother of the humble and according to Tagore, his love for Indians was part of that love of all mankind which he accepted as the law of Christ. Mushirul Hasans introduction provides the context within which contemporary readers can understand the relevance of Andrew's relationship with India.

Vyasa appears for the first time as the compiler of, and an important character, in the Mahabharata. Actually, he was the expansion of Lord Vishnu Himself who came in Dwaparyuga to make all the Vedic knowledge available in written form which was available in Sound form at that time. He was the son of Satyavati, daughter of a ferryman or fisherman, and the wandering sage Parashara (who is accredited for being the author of the first Purana: Vishnu Purana). He was born on the meet of two rivers Seti and Madi. The place is named after him as Vedvyas, possibly the modern-day town of Damauli in the Tanahu district of Nepal. He was dark-complexioned and hence may be called by the name Krishna (black), and also the name Dwaipayana, meaning 'island-born'.

India's lost emperor Ashoka Maurya has a special place in history. In his quest to govern India by moral force alone Ashoka turned Buddhism from a minor sect into a world religion and set up a new yardstick for government which had huge implications for Asia. But his brave experiment ended in tragedy and his name was cleansed from the record so effectively that he was forgotten for almost two thousand years. But a few mysterious stone monuments and inscriptions survived, and the story of how these keystones to the past were discovered by British Orientalists and their mysterious lettering deciphered is every bit as remarkable as their author himself. Bit by bit, fragments of the Ashokan story were found and in the process India's ancient history was itself recovered.In a wide-ranging, multi-layered journey of discovery that is as much about Britain's entanglement with India as it as about India's distant past, Charles Allen tells the story of the man who was arguably the greatest ruler India has ever known.