This exploration of key terms related to social and political order found in early Indian texts challenges the idea of a unified ancient India and a unified national identity at that time.This collection explores what may be called the idea of India in ancient times. Its undeclared objective is to identify key concepts which show early Indian civilization as distinct and differently oriented from other formations.The essays focus on ancient Indian texts within a variety of genres. They identify certain key termssuch as janapada desa vara dharma bhavain their empirical contexts to suggest that neither the ideas embedded in these terms nor the idea of Bharatavarsha as a whole are given entities but that they evolved historically.Professor Chattopadhyaya examines these texts to unveil historical processes.