William Dalrymple on the Wonder That Was India, Which We Don't Know of or Have Forgotten

William Dalrymple on the wonder that was India, which we don't know of or have forgotten: an interview to Karan Thapar on his new book 'The Golden Road' for The Wire

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Speaking about India during the period starting the 3rd century BC and ending around the 12-13th century CE, William Dalrymple says: ““What Greece was first to Rome, then to the rest of the Mediterranean and European World, so at this period India was to South East and Central Asia and even to China”. In other words, India was one of the great and dominant intellectual and cultural forces in the world, on par with other civilizations like Greece and China.



In an interview to mark the launch of his recent book ‘The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World’, William Dalrymple talks about three broad and big narratives, which are also the core of his book. They are the spread of Buddhism from India to China and Central Asia and all the way to Siberia and Mongolia, the spread of Hinduism and Sanskritik culture to South East Asia all the way to Cambodia and Java and the spread of Indian concepts of mathematics and astronomy to the Arab world and thence to Europe. I will leave you to see the interview for the details and description of these three narratives but let me tell you that William Dalrymple is fascinating and riveting when he speaks about them. His passion and his enthusiasm is infectious.



Illustrations of India’s great contribution in terms of the three narratives are plentiful. Wu Zetian, the only female Emperor of China, created, for a 40-50 year period, a sort of Indian durbar comprising Buddhist scholars from Nalanda. The Barmak family, the traditional viziers of Baghdad, and the Italian mathematician Fibonacci, helped disseminate Indian mathematics and astronomy, first right through the Arab world and then slowly but steadily into Europe. These were basically the concepts and ideas of Aryabhatt and Brahmagupta. Whilst Brahmin missionaries and, later, merchants and traders carried Hinduism and Sanskritik culture to South East Asia, resulting in the world’s largest Hindu temple at Angkor Wat and the world’s largest Buddhist temple at Borobudur. As a result you find a Kurukshetra in Laos, an Ayodhya in Thailand and by some interpretations the Mekong River is another form of Ma Ganga.



Of India’s great contribution the Chief Justice of Toledo wrote: “Over many centuries, all the kings of the past have recognized the ability of the Indians in all the branches of knowledge. The Indians … are the essence of wisdom … the Indians have made great strides in the study of numbers and geometry … they have surpassed all other peoples in their knowledge of medical science.”



William Dalrymple speaks extensively, enthusiastically and engagingly about all of this. Here’s a little nugget – just one – of what he reveals. Although China presents itself as the middle kingdom i.e. the centre of the world, during the time of the Roman Empire there was hardly any direct trade between China and the West. Indeed, they barely knew of each other. On the other hand, such was the extent of trade between the Roman Empire and India that by one estimate custom taxes may have generated one-third of the total income of the Roman exchequer. Another ‘proof’ of this is that Indian museums contain more Roman coins than any other country outside the boundaries of the Roman Empire. These facts alone amount to a significant re-setting of the India-China story.



I will stop there. This is a fascinating interview with an author and speaker who can be quite mesmerizing. You will learn an awful lot you never knew or, if you were dimly aware of it, you did not fully understand. Now, you will find out as well as grasp the full importance of it all.



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