In this wonderful book William Dalrymple (Biography – William Dalrymple (en-GB)) describes the influence of the Indian subcontinent on global technology, astronomy, art, religion, music, mathematics, literature and mythology.
Before The Silk Road, argues Dalrymple, came India’s ‘Golden Road’, which stretched from the Roman empire in the west all the way to Korea and Japan in the far east. For more than a millennium, from about 250 BC to 1200 AD, Indian goods, aesthetics and ideas dominated a vast “Indosphere”. Indian merchants, travelling huge distances on the monsoon winds, reaped vast profits from its matchless cloth, spices, oils, jewellery, ivory, hardwoods, glass and furniture.
The author is also persuasive in showing the powerful influence of Indian religious and philosophical ideas.
Richly detailed, erudite and entertaining, this love letter to India and her culture is highly recommended.
496 pages in Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN-13 : 978-1408864418
First published 2024
