India has been shown up too often as a country with a baffling diversity of regions and peoples, religions and languages.  But she has always been a nation of nations with an underlying unity in all her apparent diversity.  This unity is essentially a matter of the spirit, a deep understanding of life.  The soul of Indian culture is and has always been a steady vision of synthesis and a ceaseless striving towards unity in diversity in all the movements of life.  As far back as the age of the Vedas, the synthetic outlook of Indian culture manifested itself in such perceptions as ekam sadvipra bahudha vadanti and in course of time reached its peak of perfection in the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita, having been confirmed by mystical experience and actual living.  Thus, unity in spite of diversity and harmony as well as freedom may be said to be the watchwords of Indian life at its best.  The cultural leaders of this country stood up for these ideals and realized them in their own lives, shaping the generations of their times.  Notwithstanding foreign incursions, internal conflicts, religious feuds and social barriers, Indians have always striven to conform to the highest ideals that their leaders taught them both by precept and practice.  Human nature being what it is, the essential synthesis of Indian culture was but realized with varying intensity in different periods of Indian history and has not been an accomplished fact as yet.  India is, today, seeking a greater synthesis than was ever possible before through the new dynamic nationalism, based on the best ideals of ancient Indian culture.  The greater the diversity of circumstances and the divergence of outlook, the greater has been the urge towards unity of a lasting nature.  The growing Indian nation of today is made up of several linguistic and cultural units, units that are both self-contained and interdependent.  They are drawing on the common heritage of India and are yet making their own contribution to the building up of a United India on the basis of their past heritage and their present resources.  The uniqueness of that contribution will depend on the extent to which, and the form in which, the ideals of Indian culture are realized by every State through its people-their varied life, language, literature and the fine arts.  It is well-nigh impossible to develop the different units of India to the highest pitch of culture without a full acquaintance of the respective heritages.  A knowledge of this heritage is also essential for inter-state understanding and national unity.  It is with these aims in mind that this pioneering series has been conceived.  The reader, researcher, and the scholars alike, for the first time, will be able to get a glimpse of the true cultural and ethnic diversity of this country, through these volumes.  This continuing series will attempt at including important social, ethnic and linguistic groupings from throughout the country.