Among world cultures, Indias is a rare one: it has not been afraid of idols and images, masculine and feminine; benevolent and fierce; natural, tribal, sophisticated commingling in a holistic, non-conflicting life-style, flowing like a river all over the vast land. To Europeans who were here three centuries ago, it was a wonder par excellence, because they were not accustomed to such playful phenomenon of great variety, and many studies in their spare time, and wrote in detail about them.

The present work was published exactly 200 years ago. The author was a part of the British government, posted in Pune. He collected hundreds of idols and thousands of pictures, and penned over 2 lakh words in this book. Here is published an abridged version, with select pics, draws by a Royal Academy artist, from over 250 given in the original.