William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road reveals that ancient India wasn’t an isolated civilization but a cultural superpower whose influence stretched across Asia for over a millennium. The acclaimed historian argues that from roughly 250 BCE to 1200 CE, Indian ideas, art, religion, and commerce transformed half of Asia through trade and cultural exchange rather than military conquest.
Dalrymple demonstrates India’s reach through striking evidence: Sanskrit inscriptions in remote Indonesian jungles, Hindu temples in Vietnam rivaling those in India itself. Buddhism, born in northern India, traveled along maritime routes to Southeast Asia and China. Chinese pilgrims like Xuanzang spent years risking death to study at Nalanda University, an institution housing one of the ancient world’s greatest libraries. After 16 years in India, Xuanzang returned with 657 Sanskrit texts that fundamentally reshaped Chinese Buddhism.
The book reveals how Indian merchants established networks connecting the Roman Empire to China. At the Red Sea port of Berenike, archaeologists found pepper, teak, and Indian pottery, showing how trade enriched Rome while introducing Indian spices to Mediterranean markets. Roman gold flowed east in such quantities that senators complained about the empire’s trade deficit with India.
Dalrymple explores Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument, where Khmer kings adopted Indian architectural styles, Sanskrit as court language, and Hindu cosmology. Temple galleries depict scenes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana—Indian epics that became as central to Cambodian identity as to India’s. This cultural transmission wasn’t imposed but eagerly adopted by rulers seeking the prestige Indian civilization offered.
The author addresses why this story disappeared. British colonial historians constructed narratives of India as eternally backward, erasing evidence of its former influence. Colonial archaeologists literally defaced inscriptions contradicting their assumptions. Islamic conquests and European colonization later disrupted the maritime networks sustaining Indo-Asian connections.
Dalrymple reveals unexpected legacies: Indian mathematical concepts including the decimal system and zero spread westward through Arab intermediaries to revolutionize European mathematics. Without India’s innovations, modern science would be unimaginable—yet most people attribute these discoveries to Arab or Greek mathematicians.
The Golden Road ultimately restores India as an ancient superpower whose ideas shaped civilizations from Indonesia to Japan through peaceful cultural exchange, leaving a legacy visible today across half the globe.
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New year resolution: write and publish a book!
Most people have a book in them. Self-publishing your book has never been easier. Do it now! Here is a step by step guide to self-publish on Lulu.
https://hellish2050.substack.com/p/new-year-resolution-write-and-publish