As a people, we Indians are rather incapable of presenting our true achievements to the rest of the world. Many of us have long claimed that our ancients invented the atomic bomb or developed the Internet. This is all rather ridiculous when you consider that ancient India had many truly spectacular achievements to display in all areas of human endeavor.

One of the first to draw our attention to India as a civilizational power was the famous historian AL Basham through his book, The wonder that was Indiapublished 70 years ago. More recently, another well-known historian, Michael Wood, has dwelt at length on the important role that ancient India played in shaping the world through his fascinating 2007 television series and his eponymous book, History of India. However, it took William Dalrymple’s time The Golden Age – How Ancient India Transformed the Worldpublished earlier this year, to give us an almost complete picture of India’s central place in everything that happened in the ancient world up to the early stages of the rise and rise of Islam.

Heart of commerce

One of the important points Dalrymple makes in his book is that India, not China, was the heart of ancient trade. It was the sea routes from India, rather than the overland Silk Road from China, that boosted international trade, much of which was carried out on Indian ships. Reading Dalrymple and his descriptions of maritime traditions, particularly of the daring Tamils ​​of ancient times and of the Cholas in particular later, should convince anyone that India was indeed a maritime power in antiquity, touching Egyptian ports to the west and Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia alongside it. East.

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

An interesting insight that emerges from Dalrymple’s book is the extent to which China admires India. This led many Indian astronomers, mathematicians, and Buddhist missionaries to serve Chinese emperors and institutions. Among the most influential, Dalrymple tells us, were “probably Bodhiruci, a south Indian monk and scholar gifted in incantations”, honored and respected by Empress Wu (602-705 CE) of the Zhou dynasty and “Gautama Siddhartha.” , the Supervisor of Astronomy”; between 665 and 698 CE.

Dominant influence

Dalrymple’s book contains enough verifiable evidence to establish that until the advent of Islam, India was the dominant influence in Southeast Asia, with Hinduism – and later Buddhism – becoming the the main religion in large parts of the region, particularly Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia, with Sanskrit recognized as the language of the royal family.

Without the contributions of Indian mathematicians like Chajaka, possible author of the Bakhshali manuscript (224-383 CE?) and astronomer-mathematicians like Aryabhata (476-550 CE), it is quite possible that the astonishing advances in science and the technology we see today could have happened. took much longer to achieve this. Many of these advances, particularly in mathematics – the invention of zero being just one famous example – were, as Dalrymple’s book shows, fundamental to human progress.

Throughout the ages, scholars and scholars, emperors, kings and caliphs around the world, from China to Western and Central Asia, including Moorish and later Christianized Spain, have generously admired the India as a major center of knowledge. Even after the advent of Islam and its spread, India’s rich mathematical and astronomical traditions continued to dazzle the world. Here, Dalrymple’s book builds on the fascinating work of Frederick Starr, Lost Lights: Central Asia’s Golden Age, from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlanewhich makes several references to much admired Indian mathematicians.

Careful research

For the vast period it covers, Dalrymple’s book is short – easy to read, well-argued and illuminating. About half is devoted to notes and sources that most readers will rarely skim. However, this is what gives The Golden Age evidence-based gravitas – those hallmarks of careful research and good scholarship.

The golden road is a wonderful and timely book. Dalrymple has done an excellent job of connecting little-known facts with known facts to bring out how ancient India was as great and as dynamic a civilization as China was at a time when the West was barely in the account.

As we finish reading the book, we must ask ourselves a question from Needham: “Why did India, like China, steadily fall behind the West throughout medieval and modern times?” It’s a question we must answer, and answer it honestly, if we wish to recapture a past glory that we know was real enough thanks to Dalrymple.

The examiner taught public policy and contemporary history at IISc Bengaluru

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

Author: William Dalrymple

Pages: 484

Editor:Bloomsbury