The first chapter introduces the subject by explaining key words like research, legal research, method, and methodology. By linking knowledge with research, it brings out the purposive character of knowledge influencing research. It lists various objectives of legal research such as exploration, description, historical explanation, law reform, prediction, and publication, briefly explaining each. It traces the historical development of legal research in India thorugh ancient, medieval, colonial, and modern times. It finds that legal research became systematic and wide spread only along with orderly growth of legal education. Finally, it catalogues diverse methods of legal research under the categories of doctrinal, non-doctrinal, and integrated methods of legal research. Reader gets a basic idea about legal research, its past, present, and future potentiality and a glimpse of its wider canvas.