As a people, we Indians are quite incapable of presenting our real achievements to the rest of the world. Many among us have long been making fanciful claims that our ancient people invented the atomic bomb or developed the Internet. This is all pretty frustratingly absurd, considering that ancient India had so many truly magnificent achievements to show for it in every field of human endeavor.

One of the first people to draw our attention to India as a center of civilization was the famous historian AL Basham. Wonder of IndiaIt was published 70 years ago. More recently, another well-known historian, Michael Wood, has elaborated extensively on the important role ancient India played in shaping the world through his fascinating 2007 television series and book of the same name: India’s Story. However, William Dalrymple The Golden Age – How Ancient India Transformed the WorldIt was published earlier this year to give an almost complete idea of ​​how central India was to everything that happened in the ancient world right up to the early stages of the rise of Islam.

heart of trade

One of the important points emphasized by Dalrymple in his book is that India, not China, was at the center of ancient trade. It was the sea routes radiating from India, rather than the overland silk route from China, that drove international trade, much of it by Indian ships. Reading Dalrymple and his descriptions of the maritime customs, especially of the daring ancient Tamils ​​and especially the later Cholas, suggests that India in antiquity was indeed a maritime power extending west to the ports of Egypt, Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia. It should convince everyone. East.

Among the best parts of Dalrymple’s book is his account of the surprisingly close ties forged between India and Southeast Asia over the centuries through the intense religious, political, and commercial exchanges initiated by India. A highly visible result of this partnership was the construction of the world’s largest Hindu (and later Buddhist) temple complex, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and the world’s largest Buddhist temple, Borobdur, in Indonesia.

An interesting idea that emerges from Dalrymple’s book is how much China respects India. This led to many Indian astronomers, mathematicians and Buddhist missionaries serving Chinese emperors and institutions. Among the most influential, Dalrymple tells us, are “Bodhiruci, probably a monk from Southern India and a scholar with the gift of magic,” and “Gautama Siddhartha,” honored and revered by Empress Wu of the Zhou dynasty (AD 602-705). There was. Astronomy Responsible”; Between 665 and 698 AD.

dominant influence

Dalrymple’s book shows that until the emergence of Islam, India was the dominant influence in Southeast Asia, and Hinduism – and later Buddhism – became the main religion in much of the region, especially Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and India. has sufficient verifiable evidence to establish that it has become Vietnam and Indonesia adopted Sanskrit as their royal language.

It is quite possible that the astonishing advances we see in science and technology today would have occurred had it not been for the contributions of Indian mathematicians such as Chajaka (224-383 AD?), the probable author of the Bakhshali Manuscript, and astronomer-mathematicians such as Aryabhata (476-550 AD). It took much longer to arrive. Many of these advances, especially in the fields of mathematics – the invention of zero is just one famous example – were, as Dalrymple’s book reveals, fundamental to human progress.

Throughout the ages, scholars and scholars, emperors, kings and caliphs all over the world, from China to Western and Central Asia and even to Moorish and later Christianized Spain, have lavishly admired India as the principal center of knowledge. Even after the advent and spread of Islam, India’s rich traditions of mathematics and astronomy continued to dazzle the world. Here Dalrymple’s book builds on the fascinating work of Frederick Starr: The Lost Enlightenment: The Golden Age of Central Asia from the Arab Conquests to TamerlaneContaining various references to highly acclaimed mathematicians of India.

painstaking research

Dalrymple’s book is a short one in terms of the broad period it covers; easy to read, well argued and enlightening. About half of this is devoted to notes and sources that most readers will rarely glance at. But this is what gives the Golden Age its evidentiary weight; hallmarks of rigorous research and good science.

Golden Road A timely and wonderful book. Dalrymple has done a wonderful job of combining little-known facts with the known to reveal what a great civilization ancient India was, and as dynamic as China, at a time when the West was little reckoned with.

At the end of reading the book, we need to ask ourselves a Needham question: “Why did India, like China, constantly lag behind the West in the Middle Ages and modern times?” This is a question we must answer, and answer honestly, if we are to regain a past glory from Dalrymple that we know is real enough.

The reviewer taught public policy and contemporary history at IISc Bengaluru

Title: The Golden Road – How Ancient India Transformed the World

Writer: William Dalrymple

Pages: 484

Publisher: Bloomsbury