The author resorts to the historical method and surprisingly encounters not staticity, but a continuing, dynamic, and even explosive process, within which history and geography have worked to create dissimilar communities and endless conflicts.In the process of research he works exhaustively with Indian ethnic communities.The account has the kaleidoscope quality of a motion picture, linking all historic events from Aryan migration up to Nehru's death in a coherent, though shifting perspective, which also reveals that the grip of established tradition on all communities has not relaxed. Yet the highlight of this book is undoubtedly the author's imaginative interpretation of the Hindu personality based on original sources. Chaudhuri's language is forceful and expressive, and his arguments are well defined and lucid. The Heart Of India is without doubt, one of this controversial author's most compelling and authoritative work—a landmark in Indian literary history. The book was originally published as "The Continent of Circe".

    It is divided into six parts on the following: pre- Maurya; Maurya, Sunga, early Andbra and Scytho-Parthian (Ksatrapa); Kusana, later Andbra and Gupta; early medieval, medieval, Rajput painting and later arts and crafts; Kasmir, Nepal, Tibet, Chinese Turkistan and the Far East; farther India, Indonesia and Ceylon. With 400 illustrations on 128 plates and 9 maps.