India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most structive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.

Mark Twain wrote these lines after visiting India, expressing his deep admiration for Indian civilization. This passage appears in his travelogue 'Following the Equator' (1897), where he described India as the birthplace of human civilization and repository of ancient wisdom. Twain was profoundly impressed by India's cultural heritage and historical continuity. Frederick Forsyth, Jeffrey Archer, and Dan Brown are much later (20th-21st century) thriller writers.