Alexandra Soteriou's involvement with paper goes back to her days as a student of Douglass Morse Howell. Over the past fourteen years much of her energy has gone into researching handmade paper in the Indian subcontinent. Opening the dramatic black clamshell box that holds Gift of Conquerors, one is immediately drawn into a vibrant and entrancing world. This long awaited work is a sensitive mirror of India's visual richness.   In her foreword, Soteriou writes of her initial interest in Indian paper. "I secretly wanted to prove to the world that, historically, India had superb papers that we simply hadn't seen much of." She does not mention what drew her to India in the first place, but the attraction was strong. Over five years beginning in 1985 she made several trips to the subcontinent searching for the roots of paper and observing its present situation. The book's title foreshadows Soteriou's emphasis on the Muslim invaders who brought their culture, religion, and art, including the art of papermaking, to northern India beginning with Mahmud of Ghazni (997-1030 C.E.). The Muslim religion relied on paper to record the Prophet's teachings, just as Buddhism in China, Korea and Japan fostered papermaking to preserve the Buddha's words. India's indigenous Hindu religion, valuing oral over written transmission, had not created the same need.   Soteriou's first two sections, on the roots of Indian paper and paper's path, provide an overall summary of paper's place in the Near and Far East. She then looks at the rise and fall of traditional Indian papermaking, using Noor Mohammad Kagzi's family as emblematic of papermaking's story in India. In the sixteenth century Babur, the first great Muslim ruler, brought Noor Mohammed's ancestors into Kashmir and then Sialkot, now in Pakistan. "Kagzi," from the Persian word for paper, is the surname of India's traditional papermaking families. Soteriou surveys their growth and decline across northern India, the central plateau, the Bombay region in the west and Bengal in the east. In cities that used to be papermaking centers, the old kagzis cried as they recalled for the author their days making paper. Their children are not interested in carrying on. The pay is too low. They have better things to do. She is told that paper has disappeared without a trace. Nevertheless, she visits villages and finds abandoned ruins - paper vats, fermenting wells, holding tanks, and bleaching platforms. Her journeys through India would have been impressive even if she had not found these ruins. These discoveries, an important contribution to paper history, open the way for further investigation.    Soteriou's third section covers the technology of handmade paper. She starts with fibers and moves through equipment, formation methods, and surface techniques - burnishing, sizing, marbling, stenciling, and coloring paper. There is a general description of the "chapri," or twined screen, but no indication of the fineness of the reeds, the distance between chain lines, or how these variables effect the finished sheet. Though Soteriou discusses papermaking fibers, her information on what parts of the plants were used and how they were harvested and prepared is sketchy. There is no mention of comparative fiber length and toughness or how the use of particular plants influenced the paper. Those interested in the specific qualities that made the traditional kagzi paper so beautiful and so well adapted to its uses will have to look elsewhere.    The text in this section is otherwise strong, full of information and insight. Soteriou evokes many marvelous details, such as the smell of fenugreek seeds lingering in old albums of Indian marbled papers, and the pure unsized sheets made for the Jains who refuse to harm any life and so will not use paper made with gelatin or animal glue from hides, hooves, or bones. "I began to see the connections and overlays between the simple craft of making paper and a millennium of Indian history," she writes in her introduction. In this section we begin to see it, too.    In her fourth section Soteriou looks into recycled paper, both the old tradition of repulping used sheets and Gandhi's vision of Indian self-sufficiency through, among other things, using recycled material for papermaking. S. B. Khodke, a Gandhian papermaker, hoped to "take any kind of waste and turn it into wealth." This chapter closes with information on recycling paper to make papier-mâché boxes, pen cases, and other items.    The fifth chapter records what Soteriou calls "mountain paper," made using a technique that originated in China and entered India's mountainous northeast by way of Tibet and Nepal. She mentions that Bengali papermaking moulds resemble those used by the Chinese rather than those used by the Arabs. This may be an indication that the Himalayan influence was more influential than is often supposed. Though Soteriou's historical insights are stimulating, this section is not as strong as the previous one on central India. Soteriou's description of the Himalayan paper has subtle inaccuracies, giving the impression that she has not herself seen this method used.   In the sixth section Soteriou discusses the near-death of Indian paper in this century, under British rule. The British policies of importing their own machine-made paper as well as having Indian prisoners make paper in jails undermined the market for the kagzis' paper. These other papers were inferior to the kagzi paper but were cheap. The demand for account books made with handmade paper created the one stable market for traditional paper during the worst years. Soteriou elaborates on the physical strain of making traditional kagzi paper - bleeding feet from stamping pulp, blistered hands from burnishing paper. Though the kagzis were proud of their work, their occupation was considered low class.    Gandhi's influence prevented the almost certain death of hand papermaking in India. The kagzis had made fine paper for use in the princely courts. That market fell away as royalty began to emulate Western lifestyle. Though Gandhi kept paper alive, he cared more about the politics than the aesthetics of paper. His approach lowered paper's quality while making it more available. Gandhi's followers introduced the deckle box, a simpler technology, and alternative raw materials. The new Hindu workers who had not made paper before were not bothered by these changes.    After independence in 1947, Gandhi's Congress Party followers set up the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), which supported village papermaking in many parts of India, including traditional Muslim kagzi villages. Several kagzi villages, such as Kagzipura and Junnar in Maharashtra where papermaking still continues, have resisted the newer technology and continue to make paper much as their ancestors did, though their raw materials have changed. The KVIC has emphasized the production of vast amounts of paper regardless of quality. The push was for paper that looked as close to machine-made as possible. This is not surprising in a country that has struggled to enter the industrial age as quickly as possible. Fortunately the KVIC kept papermaking alive. Without parallel government support, papermaking in Pakistan is almost gone, despite the influx of traditional papermakers who fled there after Partition, in 1947. Unfortunately, the KVIC passed up the opportunity to support the finest of Indian handmade paper.     In her last few pages Soteriou mentions a comparatively recent shift in Indian papermaking. The newer paper uses Hollander-beaten cotton cuttings dyed in a range of colors with flower petals, jute or other fibers added for surface interest. These contemporary papers are finding a market both within India and elsewhere. Their production provides employment, a major benefit to Indian workers. Though attractive, they are quite different from the traditional kagzi papers in texture, softness, and weight. In her enthusiasm for these papers and the jobs they create, Soteriou seems to overlook the important qualities of the traditional papers that are no longer made. Soteriou mentions her own company, World Paper, and its role in developing the new papers. This is her first reference to her role as designer and entrepreneur. A description of how she got involved and some of her considerations as to types of papers made, technology used, employment standards, and market assessment would have been useful for others hoping to establish similar businesses.   For centuries there was a chasm in India between the rural poor, including the kagzis, and their wealthy patrons. These patrons were very sensitive to India's artistic traditions, supporting the best in paintings, textiles, and books. With the end of the princely states and the rise of a growing middle class, this dichotomy is breaking down. The increasing middle class, if it is educated in the best of India's cultural traditions, might support fine craft, including hand papermaking. Over many centuries Indian art and craft has set standards for the world. Before we lose the last of the traditional papermakers, it is my hope that a few mills will again make paper comparable to the old kagzi paper. Like fine paper in Japan, this paper would find a market among conservators, painters of miniatures, and people deeply interest in Indian culture within India and outside, even if it were more expensive than the new cotton papers.   The greatest strength of Soteriou's book is the excellent visuals. Her brilliant color photographs of the papermaking process and the papermakers themselves tell the story of India's handmade paper in the most direct way possible. They present information while allowing the reader to enter intimate moments, such as the body language between two boys washing pulp. The photos place us in India, beside the drying walls and at the vats. Soteriou has included wonderful historic photographs and these ground us in the past. The reproductions of classical paintings and books bring us the fine detail, gilded borders, and calligraphic rhythm of great Indian works on paper.   The book's layout is innovative and elegant. Vertical text blocks, laid against various handmade papers on the horizontal page, are inviting and easy to read. The book's large format is very much in keeping with the size of the subject. The use of contemporary papers as background for the text along with the historic reproductions give the reader a sense of the colors and textures of India's traditional and contemporary papers. Actual handmade paper appears only on the cover and lining of the clamshell box. This paper seems too soft for that application; the box seems to need another container to protect it.   Mapin Publishing, among the most respected in the area of Indian arts, crafts, and culture, has invested a great deal in the production of this book. Given the beauty of the book's extensive color illustrations, it is a shame they skimped on copy-editing and proofreading. There are misspellings, spelling inconsistencies, incomplete sentences, and commas placed or omitted so that the text is sometimes difficult to read. Soteriou's commitment to the travel, research, and writing for this book deserve better.   After reading Gift of Conquerors, I am left confused as to its intended audience. The price, though not out of line with its production, puts the book out of range for most potential Indian readers, whether papermakers or paper lovers. For readers unfamiliar with India there are other problems. Quotations full of archaic language, culled from the author's extensive research, break the flow of the narrative. Words from various Indian languages are not defined. The unfamiliar names of invaders, rulers, towns, cities and historical references are not explained. A glossary would have been an enormous help. There is no index, a serious lack in a book so encyclopedic with details. The map, though helpful, seems generic. Many places mentioned in the text are not indicated, nor are political boundaries drawn. Given the book's scope, a series of historical maps showing changing boundaries, or maps of important papermaking regions drawn to a larger scale would also have been useful. In addition, a time line of Indian history would had added to the reader's understanding. Though the Fiber List is sketchy, the Bibliography is thorough and will be of use to readers planning further research. The List of Working Handmade Paper Centres as of April 1992 seems a questionable use of nine pages, given the other information that might have been included.   Alexandra Soteriou has put together an extremely ambitious book based on her prodigious research. The book is a compendium of historical moments, deeply moving stories, and amazing tidbits. This attention to detail gives vibrancy to the text. At times, however, these very details distract from a deeper understanding of the vast sweep of Indian history and a sense of why paper rose so high, fell so low, and is now undergoing something of a rebirth.    Unanswered questions arise. In most of Asia, the number of hand papermakers has sharply declined over the past century. India is unusual in undergoing a resurgence of papermaking but with new materials, new methods, and a different population of papermakers. What is life like for the new Hindu papermakers who do not come from the kagzi tradition? Is papermaking becoming a cultural identity for them as it has been for the kagzis, or is it merely a job? Soteriou comments on the huge labor force involved in making paper today. What was the size of the historic labor force? How many people are involved today?    India has a textile tradition of extraordinary beauty, complexity, and grace. The same things that devastated the papermakers, i.e. British rule, industrialization and Partition, also devastated the weavers and dyers. Somehow the cloth tradition has continued, despite the loss of some skills. Today textile artists are creating innovative work that grows out of the old tradition. Why have papermaking and the scribal arts been less able to rise from their own roots? Might the Khadi and Village Industries Commission change its approach as it sees the growing market for export paper? Might they spearhead the revival of more traditional paper for use by conservators and artists?   Gift of Conquerors is a remarkably beautiful book that will reward readers with a wealth of information. The pictures and their captions bring alive the amazing story of hand papermaking in India. Alexandra Soteriou has accomplished her secret goal of opening the unknown world of Indian papermaking. She has pointed the way for further archaeological investigation. Her book lays the groundwork for future works that will delve into the questions of how paper functioned in past Indian society, the changes that have occurred in this century, and what its place might be in the future. Gift of Conquerors is an inducement for those who want to study papermaking in India to begin their own journeys. For people who prefer to stay at home, turning its pages is the next best thing to a passage to India.