The Golden Road

"This is another book that tells a really big story. It has a very good introduction that gives a sense of what the book is about, and then, in subsequent chapters, goes into great detail with multiple, very lively examples. The argument is that ancient India made foundational contributions to the development of many countries around Asia, and that this hasn’t been recognized sufficiently. For example, it reminds us that India, the wellspring of Buddhism, and Indian Buddhist monasteries, played a fundamental role in shaping the development of Buddhism in China—where Buddhism ultimately became a much more important religion than in India. It shows the role of Indian science in shaping practices across both Asia and Europe, looking, for example, at mathematics. For instance, the notation that we think of as ‘Arabic numerals’ actually originated in India. Modern mathematics, which Europe encountered via Arabic science, ultimately came from India. Many contributions shaping the cultures of countries all around Asia, and Europe as well, can be traced back to ancient India. Dalrymple’s title, The Golden Road, is meant to offer an alternative to the better-known expression, ‘the Silk Road.’ This largely maritime ‘golden road’ spread India’s ideas, practices, and knowledge all around Asia."

"Another history book out recently I enjoyed is The Golden Road by William Dalrymple, who specialises in India and writes for a popular audience. Dalrymple previously wrote an excellent book called The Anarchy , detailing how it was not Britain but (even worse) a corporation backed by a private army—the British East India company—that colonised Mughal India in the 18th century . The Golden Road also tries to put history to rights. It makes the case for India as a major driver of cultural change from about 250 BCE to 1200 CE. It tracks two things: the spread of Buddhism and the spread of Indian mathematics across the region and around the world. I recently read the Chinese classic, The Monkey King or Journey to the West , which is based on the travels of a 7th-century Chinese monk, Xuanzang, to seek Buddhist wisdom and texts in India. In terms of Indian science, an excellent book giving a global history of maths, The Secret Lives of Numbers, was on my list of best nonfiction books of 2023. So while I was familiar with the broad outlines of the story told in The Golden Road , most of the details I was not. Once I got past the introduction, I found the book hard to put down."