The Golden Road : How India Transformed the Ancient World

I've had the pleasure of reading "The Golden Road : How Ancient India Transformed the World" by William Dalrymple. In this tale of 'Indosphere', quoting from voluminous sources, (the Notes run for almost one third of the book), William Dalrymple weaves an intricate, rich tapestry of how ideas of Ancient India (c.250 BCE - 1200s CE) transformed the then known world; from the Castles of Europe to the temples of Kampuchea, through the palace intrigues of China & the entrepots of Ancient Rome. Knowledge systems and innovations like Mathematics, Sanskrit ("Language of Gods in the World of men", as noted by Prof.Sheldon Pollock), Buddhism, Chess, Architecture, Art etc marked the influence of 'Indosphere'.

The author proposes that this Golden Road is much more relevant than the so called Silk Road, a term coined by Baron Von Richtofen in 1870s. The influence of Indic ideas permeated through time and space. For instance, Buddhism took birth in Ancient India, but the World's largest Buddhist Monument is in South East Asia (Borobudar, Java), and it was able to compete with Confucianism and Daoism as State patronized religion in Ancient China, beginning with Tang dynasty. The World's largest Hindu Temple / Monument still standing is also located in South East Asia (Angkor Wat, Siam Rep Province, Kampuchea - attributed to Emperor Suryavarman II of Khmer). Indo-Arabic Numerals, introduced in the West quickly replaced Roman Numerals and were much simpler to master, ushering in a sort of mercantile revolution.

Apart from known and well read personalities of Huien Tsang, Brahmagupta, Kumarajeeva, etc, the sketch of the lesser known (atleast in India) personalities of Empress Wu Zetian of China (7th/8th centuries CE), Barmakids of Nav Bahar and Baghdad, the industrious irrigantion engineers of Khmer dynasty make for an interesting read.     

"The Golden Road : How Ancient India Transformed the World"  William Dalrymple is worth readable.

"The Godlen Road : How India Transformed the Ancient World"

16 Saladi Jamindar Street, Palakollu

Thursday, 15th of June, 2025
Maheeth Veluvali (Sonu)

Tribute to Frederick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth (1938-2025), Source : Wikipedia

 "It is cold at six-forty in the morning of a March day in Paris, and seems even colder when a man is about to be executed by firing squad."                        - Opening Line from 'The Day of the Jackal'

Some fifteen years ago, after raking through my father's books, I finally settled on and started reading an old novel at my home, titled 'The Day of the Jackal'. And thus began my tryst with Frederick Forsyth's novels. Frederick Forsyth (1938-2025), former British spy, war correspondent, author and fiction writer passed away early this week, aged 86. Old novels of Frederick Forsyth, reeking of part dusty but absorbing old paper smell, some owned by my father, some acquired by me at various second hand book shops are a prized collection at my home, something that I find comfort that would help me escape the suffocating travails of reality. I often escape to the rich tapestry of fiction woven by the master story teller, gorging on the pages, visiting far off distant places, witnessing fictional assassinations, spy tales and rebellions.  

Reading Frederick Forsyth is a pleasure enhancing ritual, an irresistable tour de force, that transports the reader to the Forsythian World of Geo Politics and Power plays, much before the advent of Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence. The tense and slow word build up, his ruthless and lifelike characterization of people with flaws, is atypical. While a fictional assassination on the then French President Charles DeGaulle forms the plot of 'The Day of the Jackal', the theme of mercenaries ('Vive la Morte, Vive la Guerre, Vive la Sacre Mercenaire') permeats through 'The Dogs of War', an audatious kidnapping of American President's Son, with much darker forces at play is detailed in 'The Negotiator'. Although he started his career with non-fiction (The Biafra Story), it is fiction that endeared him to a generation of fiction hungry and good novel starved readers. 

It was an intense obsession with the master story teller's works that played a little role in my hobby of reading books, which inter alia, included 'The Odessa Files', 'The Afghan', 'The Icon', 'No Comebacks', 'The Fist of God', etc., No one was amazed when he declared few years back that he actually spied for the British Government! Truth is stranger than fiction!

Om Shanti and Rest in Peace, Frederick Forsyth, and rest assured, your stories continue to enthrall our minds and hearts.

 

"Tribute to Frederick Forsyth"

16 Saladi Jamindar Street, Palakollu

Thursday, 12th of June, 2025
Maheeth Veluvali (Sonu)