Stretching from the snowcapped Himalayas to the droughtprone state of Tamil Nadu, India is a vast and enigmatic country, full of contrasts. Portrait of India presents Ved Mehta's impressions of his native land - his first-hand report on India's villages and cities, its religions, politics and wars, its poets, philosophers, maharajas, and priests. Published in 1970 and now reissued with a new preface by its author, the book evokes the enormous variety of India for the Western reader.