India has a rich history worthy of preservation. The number of temples, mosques, tombs, ancient city ruins, palaces and other monuments, is staggering in India. Even today, archeologists are finding ruins of great monuments in remote and not so remote locations.

Sadly, various factors such as development, erosion etc. have caused and are causing damage to our ancient heritage. Unplanned expansions of cities, building of new roads and shopping malls and residential areas, unrestricted tourism, all often end up eroding what is left of our archeological heritage.

In this book we introduce to the reader some concepts related to preservation of ancient buildings and monuments. We discuss about the archeological survey of India, its history and objectives. We introduce world agreements such as the Venice Charter and Burra charter that relate to the principles for preservation of heritage. Then we go through some of the actual preservation and restoration techniques, showing their application in preserving and restoring some famous monuments and not so famous monuments.

It is hoped that this book will provide the interested reader with useful information about the concepts and techniques of preservation.