We take a bird's eye view of different identity-based encryption (IBE) and hierarchical identity-based encryption (HIBE) protocols that are available in the literature and use bilinear pairing as the principal building block. We start with the seminal work on IBE by Boneh-Franklin. The concept of IBE has been generalized to HIBE and we illustrate this with Gentry-Silverberg HIBE. The salient features of the security reductions are also discussed along with the protocols. These initial protocols were proven secure in the adaptive setting using random oracle. A non-adaptive security model called the selective-ID model was developed later and protocols secure in this restricted security model are discussed along with an insider's view on their proof technique. Finally, protocols secure in the adaptive setting without the use of random oracle are introduced and their security discussed. The (H)IBE protocols available in the literature are generally shown to be secure against chosen plaintext attack. Generic as well as endogenous techniques from the existing literature are briefly discussed on how to achieve chosen ciphertext security for these protocols.