The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World

Bestselling historian Dalrymple (The Anarchy) brings a lifetime of scholarship to bear on this magisterial and energetic account, which “aims to highlight India’s often forgotten position as a crucial economic fulcrum, and civilizational engine, at the heart of the ancient and early medieval worlds.” Dalrymple coins a term, the Indosphere, for this zone of influence—an “empire of ideas” stretching from western China to Persia and on to the Mediterranean coasts, where “Indic ideas, art, science, languages, and religions” were ever-present. (As one seventh-century Chinese monk put it, “People of distant places, with diverse customs... generally designate the land they most admire as India.”) Dalrymple foregrounds the unique ecological factors at play, noting that India lies at the center of the Asian monsoon system, where “the regularity and predictability of these winds” aided Indian vessels venturing both east and west. He offers colorful and fascinating glimpses of the period’s Indo-centric interconnectedness, from Frankish kings showing off their “Sri-Lankan garnets” to an east Indian monastery that served as a kind of international school for Buddhist monks from abroad. Dalrymple writes movingly about these ancient meetings of the minds, bringing a contagious enthusiasm and a profound humanism to his descriptions of these moments of “pluralistic and syncretic interaction.” This first-rate work is a must-read for any history lover. (Apr.)