The Golden Road

April 1, 2024

Award-winning Delhi-based Scottish historian Dalrymple (The Anarchy) returns with a cultural, religious, and intellectual history of India. In what amounts to a travelogue as well, he takes readers to the monasteries where Buddhism took hold, traces trade routes, and explores the innovations in math, art, science, and more that shaped civilization. With a 175K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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February 15, 2025
A historian argues for the vital impact of India on the ancient world. In his latest book, the esteemed author ofThe Anarchy (2019) and other titles makes a case for the "centrality of the Indian subcontinent as one of the two ancient economic and cultural hubs of Asia." Because the 19th-century concept of the "Silk Road"--the overland trade route from China to the Mediterranean--is so universally recognized, the influence of India, to the south, is often overlooked, says Dalrymple. The Scottish historian, who lives in India, posits that the "regularity and predictability of [Asian monsoon] winds...have allowed millennia of Indian sailors to raise their sails and propel themselves at speed across the oceans that surround them; then, when the winds reverse, safely back again." With them, they brought pepper, spices, ivory, cotton, gems, teak, and sandalwood--all in great demand in the Roman Empire. The resulting trade vastly enriched Indian coffers, subsidizing artistic output. This "Golden Road" then ferried Indian religious beliefs and culture eastward to China and Southeast Asia, where the "spectacular" temple complexes of Borobudur in Java (Buddhist) and Angkor Wat in Cambodia (Hindu) are evidence of the "ever-widening Indosphere where ideas and forms and stories first dreamed up in South Asia were being discussed, appreciated, adopted and adapted very far from home." Perhaps the most influential of all exports, according to the author, are mathematical concepts such as zero, fostered by thinkers like Aryabhata (476-550) and Brahmagupta (c. 598-c. 668), which made their way to the Arab world and then to Spain and the West. The ancient world, too, was a global village. Although the book is dense with far-flung names, dates, places, and ideas, Dalrymple's writing is always animated, enlivened by color plates that allow readers to readily envision the sights evoked here. A passionate tribute to the glories--and influence--of ancient India.

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Starred review from March 1, 2025
Historian Dalrymple's comprehensive and meticulously researched examination of ancient India reveals momentous and ubiquitous influences. He begins with significant archaeological finds in Ajanta Cave 10, which contains the oldest surviving murals depicting the "different lives of the Buddha." Siddhartha Gautama (aka, the Buddha) lived in approximately the fifth century BCE and founded one of the world's largest religions, the eponymous Buddhism. Dalrymple chronicles far-reaching impacts of Buddhism in the Indosphere, which includes South, Central, Southeast and Eastern Asia. With sought-after resources and "a great network of navigable sea roads and maritime trade routes"" along with land routes to other countries, India became a "confident exporter of its own diverse civilization." Dalrymple reviews ancient India's substantial contributions, pointing to impressive developments in mathematics (including number symbols, the number zero, and trigonometry), astronomy, medicine, philosophy, and much more. Dalrymple also highlights Wu Zetian (624-705), who embraced Buddhism and was the only female emperor to rule China. Why is ancient Indian history not better known? There could be many reasons, Dalrymple suggests, including colonialism, and/or perhaps the tendency to silo areas of influence into separate disciplines. When considered holistically, as Dalrymple does so well, it's clear that India's impacts cannot be understated and have shaped the world for thousands of years.

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