India 1971 [antikvár]

For the ever-increasing number of English-speaking travelers streaming into the glorious subcontinent of India, we have completely revised our Guide to India. Already in its eighth successive edition, this is the first definitive guide book of India in over one bundred years. Since then, India has rocketed from a backwater colony into the forefront of the world's leading nations, not only by virtue of her sheer size and power, but even more because of her astonishing political maturity and tenacious allegiance to high morál values in her dealings with the rest of the world. This new posiíion of India in the modern world prompted us to compile a guide book of a dimension and scope which would reílect the country's importance not only in the geographical sense but alsó as a major civilization, one which it is imperative for us to know. Of course we are concerned primarily with India as a tourist country. To draw this profilé in terms of anything but superlatives is well nigh impossible. The country-or sub-continent -has over a millión square miles of scenic sights; the world's highest mountains, most awesome rivers and most fabulous valleys. Five thousand years of continuous civilizations-somé the most sophisticated of their epoch-have left us a legacy of temples, monuments, palaces and sculptural masterpieces of inimitable esthetic grandeur. A bewildering variety of races, religions, cultures, languages and customs was produced by this uninterrupted historic process. And yet all these have somehow produced a unity of cultural traditions and a modern nation. And all this is now easy of access to every traveler for study and enjoyment. India's strongest attraction lies in an unmatched interplay of contrasts. Nowhere do the past and present coexist in more colorful promiscuity. Folklore, native árts, traditional events abound. A prodigious diversity of dress and manners keep us aware of a difTerent world. We feel certain that sightseer or fun-seeker, photographer or sportsman, mountaineer, archeologist or anthropologist will all find incomparable rewards in a visit to India. We are confident that our Guide to India will help the reader toward a better