Using multicol in the index

Question

Can I use multicol to make the index split into two? I tried to use multicol but LaTeX keeps spitting some numbers in square brackets. I had to stop after the numbers count reached 15k.

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{book}
\usepackage{xkeyval}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{index}
\usepackage{multicol}

\setmainfont[Script=Devanagari]{Sanskrit 2003}
 \makeindex
\newcommand\alsoindex[1]{\index{#1}#1}
\begin{document}

\begin{multicols}{2}
  \printindex
\end{multicols}

\chapter*{प्रथमाध्यायः}


\index*{धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे} समवेता \index*{युयुत्सव:} । \\
\index*{मामका:} पाण्डावश्चैव \index*{किमकुर्वत सञ्जय }॥ १ ॥
\end{document}

Answer 1

By default, \printindex uses \twocolumn which shouldn't be used inside a multicols environment. If you aim at balanced columns, use my idxlayout package. (Since version 0.4b, idxlayout is compatible with the index package.)

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{index}
\makeindex

\usepackage{idxlayout}

\begin{document}

\chapter*{foo}\index{foo}

\index*{aa} bb \index*{cc}

\index*{dd} ee \index*{ff}

\printindex

\end{document}