This anthology, the first significant work of its kind, contains some of the finest Indian poetry written in the 20th century. It brings together 125 poets in English and English translation from 14 Indian languages, providing an ideal overview of the major figures, forms, and movements in Indian poetry in the last 100 years.

The poets featured range from Rabindranath Tagore and Subramania Sharati to Anuradha Mahapatra, Saleem Peeradina, and Vikram Seth. `Subaltern' poets such as Narayan Surve and Namdeo Dhasal are included, as well as three generations of women poets, from Balamani Indira Sant to Revathi Devi and Gagan Gill.

Besides displaying the diversity of modern Indian poetry, the anthology reveals its coherent patterns and developments by arranging the poets and poems in eight thematic sections which explore many of the central concerns of our times: love and desire, kinship and domesticity; the imagination and the creative process; the play of knowledge and understanding; the interdependence of human culture and natural environment.