Page 135 - EW May 2025

Books

Absorbing THE GOLDEN ROAD: HOW of Jewels, exploring the
great library of Nalanda’,
magnum opus ANCIENT INDIA TRANSFORMED Dalrymple recounts the
THE WORLD
William Dalrymple extraordinary odyssey of
Chinese historian Xuan-
ILLIAM BLOOMSBURY zang who visited Nalanda,
Dalrymple is a Rs.616 Pages 457 which he described “as the
Wmaster story- most magnificent and sub-
teller. This, he has proved lime of all the thousands
time and again through his the theory, aggressively of monasteries in India”.
seven epochal books. For propounded by China and Dalrymple weaves Xuanzang’s translations
the many fans of history, numerous historians, that an enthralling tale of Buddhist texts into
he surpasses himself in it was the ‘Silk Route’ that of how Indian trade, Chinese languages which
this new book. was the main transnation- commerce, creeds, have survived in China,
The Golden Road is a al highway which enabled philosophies, science but mostly destroyed in
spell-binding compila- Asian-Western trade and and mathematics India, influenced the rul-
tion of facts, research and commerce. Dalrymple spread east and west ers of successive dynasties
anecdotes that support his states that a millen- circa 1300 BCE in China to the extent of
contention that contem- nium ago Indian sailors, establishing Buddhism,
porary India with none merchants and adventur- the official religion of the
so poor to do it reverence ers who sailed westwards from around the world. empire.
these days, circa 1300 across the Arabian Sea Archaeological dis- Unlike most subcon-
BCE was the world’s most and eastwards across the coveries stretching from tinental historical narra-
advanced and influential Bay of Bengal with their Egypt (Berenike, Isis) to tives which have a north
landmass, rich in trade merchandise, monks, the Gandhara, Burma, the India focus, Golden Road
and commerce, culture philosophies of Buddhism, Central Steppes, to South- also narrates the histo-
and knowledge, sciences Jainism, Shaivism, Hindu- East Asia reveal that ries of peninsular India
and technology which ism, their art and culture, Buddhist monasteries also and their global impact,
transformed the world. and sciences to the Middle served as major commer- bringing to life the great
This assertion is supported East, Central Asia, Afghan- cial centres of learning, Pallava dynasty that ruled
by a huge bibliography of istan, Mongolia and China, trade and commerce and from Kancheepuram and
references, notations and Korea and Japan. technology development. Mammalapuram. Their
archaeological data. The Golden Road pres- Flourishing trade brought largely unsung rulers such
In this magnum opus, ents this sweeping history great prosperity and was as Mahendravarman and
Dalrymple weaves an in ten chapters, each as the life blood of the early Narasimhavarman com-
enthralling tale of how engrossing as the next. In Buddhist nations. missioned the shore stone
Indian trade and com- ‘A Gale of Stillness’, the au- Dalrymple also uncov- temples and finely carved
merce, creeds, philoso- thor describes the acciden- ers a world of flourishing images of Hindu gods,
phies, advances in science, tal discovery of the Ajanta Indo-Roman trade and establishing Hinduism
mathematics, astronomy, Caves in 1819 from which commerce ranging from as the major religion of
astrology spread through unfolds the story of the precious diamonds and the era which was subse-
maritime routes from the Buddha, Buddhism and jewellery to fiercest beasts, quently taken ashore to
Arabian Sea westwards to the subsequent spread of art, culture and textiles Burma, Java, Malaysia,
the shores of the Graeco- Buddhism through emis- that so seduced the Roman Thailand, Laos, Vietnam
Roman empire, and from saries of Emperor Ashoka empire that the historian and Cambodia. The epic
the Bay of Bengal, east- beyond the boundaries of Pliny, commented “there tales of the Mahabharata
wards to South-East Asia, India through sea and land is no year that Indian mer- and Ramayana began to
Suvarnabhumi, China and routes. Dalrymple writes chandise does not drain spread across South Asia
Japan. Across the Himala- that these 7th century our empire of at least 50 and soon temples and
yas, over land and deserts, murals indicate that India million sesterces” (£50 monuments depicting
Indic influences traversed was not a self-contained million). Hindu gods and the epics
westwards through Cen- peninsula, but already a Ancient India’s scholar- became common imprints
tral Asia to the borders of cosmopolitan and urban ship is also extolled by this of Indian civilisation
Russia. society to which traders clearly Indophile author. across South-East Asia.
Dalrymple challenges and pilgrims were drawn In the chapter ‘The Sea In the chapter titled

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