Book excerpt: Dr. John A, Karkakala, born in India, was educated at Bombay, London, and Columbia Universities. He served in India's Foreign Missions in London, Geneva and UN in New York for seven years. As Professor of Comparative Eurasian Lit., he taught at the State University of NY, and Columbia University. Currently he is a member of two Columbia University Seminars - Shakespeare, and South Asia. He has published two novels, a volume of poetry, literary portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru; essays on Indo-English Lit., and Bibliography of Indo-English Lit. 1800-1966,jointly with Leena A, Karkala, Adjunct Prof. of English, NY Institute of Technology. His Anthology of Indian Literature, from Vedas to Gitanjali, published by Penguin Books, was adopted as text in several colleges in USA and Canada and English medium colleges in Asia.