A novel of India through the eyes of four protagonists, reincarnated several times over 2,000 years. They retain the same names and are always involved with each other. A tale of love, war, possession and dispossession. By an Indian woman writing in Urdu.

"Transcreated from the original Urdu by the author."

The Time of the Peacocks --The Greek Traveller -- The Sages' Grove -- Aryani, Goddess of the Woods -- The Autumn Moon -- Sudarshan Yakshini--Tree Sprite, Good to Behold -- Birdman of the Crossways -- The Theatre in Pataliputra -- The River -- The Marvels and Strange Tales of Hindustan -- The University Town of Jaunpur -- Hussain Shah Nayak -- "Champavati": A Sufi Allegory -- The Cavalcade -- A Poet and a Musician -- Kamal Among the Patched-smock People -- Folk Singers of Bengal -- Cyril Ashley of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge -- The Abominable Customs of the Gentoos and Mussalmans -- The Confluence of Oceans -- Nabob Cyril Ashley and his Bibi -- A Faery Tale Kingdom -- Farewell to Camelot -- The Pagoda Tree -- The Waterway of Tears -- The Queen and her Knights -- Bakht Khan, Lord Governor-General -- Champabai, Chowdhrain of Lucknow, (Photograph by Mashkoor-ud-Daulah, 1868) -- Sunset and Sunrise Over the Gomti -- The Bridge -- Shahzada Gulfam of Badshah Bagh -- A Spray of Roses -- Warren Hastings Bahadur's Haveli -- The Maharajah's Rolls Royce -- The Last Song of Vajid Ali Shah -- The Moon Garden -- Over the Waves -- Inquilab, Zindabad! -- Gautam Nilamber of Santiniketan -- Quality Street -- Inder Sabha -- The Sage's Grove -- The Forest of Arden -- Miss Champa Ahmed (Graduation Portrait by C. Mull, Hazrat Ganj, Lucknow) -- The Broken Tanpura of Sultan Hussain Shah Nayak of Jaunpur -- The Hon'ble Cyril Ashley of Sidney Sussex College -- Young Indians in Mid-century England -- Lala Rukh -- The Revolutionaries.