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

The internationally bestselling author of The Anarchy returns with a sparkling, soaring history of ideas, tracing South Asia’s under-recognized role in producing the world as we know it.

For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilization, 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.

In The Golden Road, 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.©2025 William Dalrymple (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Ancient Asia India South Asia Southeast Asia Royalty Imperialism Ancient History Middle Ages China Africa
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Great book, I learned tons. Highly recommend for those looking to expand their knowledge of Asian history or even world history in general.
At first it bothered me that he was pronouncing the Chinese names wrong (you-ay-zee instead of Yuezhi, for example), but I could get through, but now I'm in Chapter 4 and the story begins with the life of a Chinese monk, and I'm going to pull my hair out. Did he really not know a single Chinese speaker who could tell him how to say these names? If that's going to bother you I recommend reading the book yourself instead of getting the audio.

fascinating history but why did he not learn to pronounce the Chinese names?

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The Silk Route was not the whole story. The Roman Empire had another trading partner one that eventually broke the bank. No one knew this story until now.

Completely unknown until now

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This book ranges over a fascinating set of periods and regions, ranging from Southeast Asia to Muslim Spain. The author also turns out to be a wonderful speaker with a very lively narration style. One of the best audible books I have listened to.

Great Book with Excellent Narration

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