The Golden Road Audiobook By William Dalrymple cover art

The Golden Road

How Ancient India Transformed the World

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The Golden Road

By: William Dalrymple
Narrated by: William Dalrymple
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About this listen

Bloomsbury presents The Golden Road written and read by William Dalrymple.

FROM THE AWARD-WINNING, BESTSELLING AUTHOR AND CO-HOST OF THE CHART-TOPPING EMPIRE PODCAST – A REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF THE DIFFUSION OF INDIAN IDEAS
‘A master storyteller’ Sunday Times

India is the forgotten heart of the ancient world

For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific.

William Dalrymple draws from a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India’s oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia. For the first time, he gives a name to this spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world. From the largest Hindu temple in the world at Angkor Wat to the Buddhism of China, from the trade that helped fund the Roman Empire to the creation of the numerals we use today (including zero), India transformed the culture and technology of its ancient world – and our world today as we know it.

©2024 William Dalrymple (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Ancient Asia India South Asia Southeast Asia Imperialism Ancient History
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A complex story with multiple threads told with huge skill and love for all the beauty and mystery that human civilization has created. Read by the author, the story is presented with great passion, and while some of the more lyrical flights can be a bit much, the narrator's gusto and clear excitement about the material presented holds it together.

shifting the paradigm

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The spread of Buddhism to China, Hindu culture to SE Asia and trade with Middle East and SE Asia highlight India’s strategic geography. The flux of migration and exchange shaped the subcontinent and enriched its culture. This is true with any country which is open to trade and new ideas, historically and currently.

An interesting review of cultural influence of India throughout the history

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