The Golden Road

Couple of years back while I was visiting Japan I had the good fortune of visiting few really beautiful Buddhist temples / shrines. It struck me then how far had Buddhism travelled, from Uttar Pradesh to Japan (in an age without any digital communication) and that too in the 6th century.

The Golden Road presents a well researched account of the India’s trading and cultural exports in the 5th / 6th century. If you have ever wondered why Thailand’s current monarch called Rama X or Angkor Wat came to be you must read this. As Dalrymple puts it in the book, India had a large trading footprint in Europe / Central Asia (until the advent of the Persian Empire and emergence of Islam) and later when that was disrupted its influence found its way to South East Asia through spread of Indic religions, language, ideas and epics. And all of this without the use of military power. This was the Golden Road which India created to spread its influence in the world.

In fact Dalrymple also argues that the idea of the the Silk Route is manufactured and there is little archeological evidence to support its existence. Peter Frankopan may not agree to this though ;)

Dalrymple is one of my favorite authors when it comes to Indian history and like always this is a most enjoyable read.