‘India is the forgotten heart of the ancient world’
William Dalrymple is a Scottish historian based in India and an accomplished author, television host, and a well-known literary figure. In India, he is also known as the founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival and for his best-selling books such as The White Mughals, The Last Mughals, Nine Lives, The Anarchy, The Age of Kali, all of which look at Indian history in a refreshing way, a style which is lucid and poetic yet packed with historical facts. Through his latest book, The Golden Road, Dalrymple has turned his gaze towards the time period c. 250 BCE to 1200 CE, to write about Indian art, religion, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology, which ‘blazed a trail across the world—through a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific.’
The book begins by examining the rise and spread of Buddhism to Tibet, China, Korea and other countries. Then it goes on to explore the shift of the ruling elite of South-east Asia into worshipping Hindu deities, India’s trade with the Roman empire and finally to the spread of its scientific ideas rather than the spiritual ones to Europe which stood out most dramatically. It talks about the great library of Nalanda which was a site of international dissemination of Indian ideas. Finally, it devotes one full chapter to the passing on of Indian mathematics, the number symbols, the decimal system, algebra, trigonometry, the algorithm and astronomical discoveries, spreading from India to Abbasid Baghdad. In ten chapters, it encapsulates the forces, individuals, and historic situations which facilitated the spread of Indian ideas.
INDIA’S ZONE OF INFLUENCE
The author uses the term, ‘Indosphere’ to highlight the areas of the world touched by the Indian ideas which flourished, blossomed and propagated by their sheer power, and not by the sword. It was as if India was a central garden from which the seeds of new ideas originated. Indosphere is the cultural zone that spread over political borders and within which, ‘Indian culture and civilisation transformed everything they touched’. The book does not focus
on how India came to be the land that ‘people of distant places, with diverse customs most admire’ as reported by the Chinese monk Xuanzang of the seventh century CE; but emphasises the journey of Indian ideas and how they became the most dominant ones. Traversing the pathways on lands, across Himalayas, through the choppy waterways of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, the book explores the Indian ideas of spirituality, mathematics, medicine and astronomy, which were robust enough to take the arduous journeys, and took root and spread across foreign soil, and which were original and elite enough to be enthusiastically followed by eager practitioners who looked towards the great influencer that was India. Though the book does not glorify or eulogise India’s exalted position in all domains of import yet by presenting facts dug out of faraway sources, unraveling linkages and building arguments, it gets validated on its own.
The stories of India’s connection to the Arab world, the South-East Asian countries are so layered and have such a rich tapestry that they never fail to inspire a deep sense of wonder and awe. For example, a papyrus found in Oxyrhynchus (modern day Al-Bahnasa in Egypt), gives the precise details of a cargo sent from India to Berenike in Egypt. It included a shipment consisting of four tons of ivory, a consignment of tortoise shells, eighty boxes of aromatic oil extracted from a Himalayan plant and 790 pounds of Indian textiles and its total value ‘worth a small fortune’. The largest ships that crossed the oceans had the capacity to ‘carry 1000 passengers and 3000 amphorae and had the capacity to make the journey to Red Sea or South China Sea and back again’. It can be safely concluded that this evidence indicates the exalted state of science and technology of ancient India.
Lyrical titles of the ten chapters such as ‘A Gale of Stillness’, ‘The Treasury of the Books of Wisdom’ and ‘Fruits of the Science of Numbers’, evoke curiosity and nudge the reader to read on. The writing evokes strong imagery, and it is easy to flow with the story. References do not make the text heavy or bog it down but give it wings. Each chapter begins someplace, which seems too distant to be linked with India, however, the author deftly links one thing to the other, a reference here, an observation there and magically the reader is able to see the patterns emerge, the vision becoming clearer as we gaze into the crystal ball. It is the craft of the writer that he is able to bring the complexity of the whole historical scenario within the gambit for the reader to comprehend and enjoy. For example, chapter 8 starts with an introductory sentence. ‘In the north-west of Cambodia, beyond the waters of the Great Lake, a line of blue mountains rises abruptly from the rich plains of ripe paddy that stretch up from the banks of the Mekong.’ From here the story moves on to the Khmers of Angkor Wat, to maritime trade, to Indian Brahmins living in the Malay peninsula to the export of learning in astrology, astronomy, scientific texts, the Shaka calendar system and Indian methods of counting and higher mathematics, finally to Pallava dynasty and Vaikuntha Perumal temple in Kanchipuram, thus making a complete circle. Credit must be given to the author for having a holistic rather than a fragmentary approach.
Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
CELEBRATING AUTHENTIC SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS
Another realisation that comes to the reader while reading the book is, if we need to understand India, its enduring legacy, traditions and contribution, we need not restrict ourselves to India, our ken should focus much beyond, into the Arab world, China, South-East Asia and Europe also because India’s influence resonates at all these sites too.
We have often wondered the reasons that even after more than 75 years of our independence we have not been able to bring the richness of Indian legacy in different domains into the consciousness of the masses, into our classrooms and popular imagination. And when we do write books, we go overboard and bring unverified glorification into our writing. Dalrymple gives us a lesson and puts before us a model worth emulating on how writing about ‘Indian Science’ or ‘Indian knowledge systems’ should actually be done. It goes without saying that such impressive writing needs deep research, rigour, thoroughness and great scholarship of writing. For writing about India’s past with mass appeal, we should be ready to tread this disciplined path.
Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
This captivating account also presents an understanding of the fluid nature of history, and the myriad ways vide which these historical forces manifest themselves through local characters, traders, Brahmins, sailors, craftsmen and through everyday dealings of religious practices, business, education, marriages, journeys, coming together and separations. These historical narratives are not mere facts but are inextricably also tied to the human experience. What a rich treasure house it is for creating beautiful imagery, unforgettable stories, historical fiction, and movies enthralling the readers and audience, firing their imagination, forever etching on their mindscape the untarnished image of India as an intellectual superpower.
Why did such a vibrant civilisation fall from the pedestal, become subjugated, swing from Indosphere to Anglosphere and is at a loss to find a firm footing in research? The author deals with these questions, though doesn’t dwell much on it. The invasion and destruction by later Mongols armed with siege and artillery equipment, large scale desecration of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist monuments, destructions of the monasteries of Odantapura and Vikramshila, loss of manuscripts and books of great institutions of learning, iconoclasm—all led to the fall from grace, though the cultural continuity carried on.
Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
COLLECTIVE LAPSE OF MEMORY
To the question, why did the world forget about the illustrious position of India and how it transformed the world, the author offers the explanation that it was in favour of the colonising imperialist powers to encourage collective amnesia. Though it does not explain why Indians themselves brushed the pride aside which comes from the knowledge of the glorious contribution of our country to the world. The author does not shy away from raising the issue of left-leaning Congress supporting figures writing the academic histories in Indian textbooks during the Nehruvian rule in 1950s and 1960s and also underlines the right-wing BJP government which harps about only the destruction of temples (page 291). Both these extremes are to be shunned because the history of India is so multi-layered, nuanced and beautiful in its diversity that to see it with a single right or left lens will make us poor and the profoundness of the legacy we have inherited will be denied to us.
Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
The book is a tome, meticulously referenced, enlisting more than 800 citations and devoting 53 pages to references alone and the notes section comprising 100 pages containing almost 1000 notes. In addition, 15 pages of glossary and index make it a very comprehensive volume drawing from primary sources and scholarly studies. The beautiful thing about the writing is its engaging style, which holds even the lay reader in its sway while imbuing loads of research in each sentence, equally making it a treasure trove for researchers, experts and serious readers. For history enthusiasts, readers interested in Indian civilisation or anyone seeking to understand ancient India’s global significance, the book is an enjoyable read. A total of 48 coloured pages with images that illustrate the point in question and bring lucidity to the reader, maps and artwork greatly enhance the quality of the book. I especially liked that the author has taken the trouble of placing together images of artifacts of different cultures, so that the reader can have an idea of the original source from India and the way it was imitated in faraway lands. The book is beautifully designed.
Dalrymple leaves the reader with a provocative question: For a thousand years, India’s ideas spread along the Golden Road transforming all that came within its ever-growing circle of influence, can we do it again? It is for the Indian readers to contemplate and more than that act in that direction.
*The author teaches at Panjab University, Chandigarh. She can be reached at jayantiduttaroy@yahoo.co.in
