Plasma physicists are initiated into the field with the line that plasma is the fourth state of matter since it is produced by the three-stage process of melting a solid into a liquid, evaporating a liquid into a gas, and ionizing a gas into a plasma. Astronomers have long known that the universe originated from a very hot soup of plasma and radiation. The other three states of matter, namely gas, liquid, and solid, came into being, in that order, as the universe expanded and cooled. It is high time that we set the record straight and coronate plasma as the first state of matter. Some may ask: Does it make a difference? It just might. Plasmas are already playing a tremendous role in creating new materials. In the face of rapidly depleting conventional energy sources, plasmas emerge as the last hope for mankind to generate green energy. This paradigm shift from solid–liquid–gas–plasma to plasma–gas–liquid–solid is likely to usher in a completely novel way of dealing with the material world. The universality of plasmas has however not made it any easier to understand them. Astronomers consider plasmas, at best, an unavoidable presence and reluctantly accept the plasma often without the plasma phenomena. Here, in this book, I have attempted to introduce the subject of physics of the plasmas to graduate and undergraduate students in an accessible style in the hope of catching them young. Each chapter stands on its own for the most part.