I had long felt the inadequacy of our so called Indian histories…for many years, I was planning an elaborate history of India in order…that the world might catch a glimpse of her soul as Indians see it. The history of India is not the story of how she underwent foreign invasions, but how she resisted them and eventually triumphed over them…. To be a history in the true sense…the work must be the story of the people inhabiting a country. It must be a record of their life from age to age presented through the life and achievements of men whose exploits become the beacon lights of tradition…the central purpose of a history must…be to investigate and unfold the values which age after age have inspired the inhabitants of a country to develop their collective will…such a history of India is still to be written.