Cataloguing a Voice: What an Index Does An index is more than a list. It is a way of imposing order on creative production so readers can trace themes, locate motifs, and follow a writer’s intellectual and emotional development. For a poet or playwright like Dharamveer, an index might include titles of poems and plays; dates and places of composition; first publication venues; critical responses; translations; stage productions; and recurring images or lexical clusters (e.g., rivers, marketplaces, labor, faith). By assembling this information, the index performs three functions: it records; it highlights connections; and it invites interpretation.