‘Indian numbers are arguably the nearest thing the world has to a universal language’

Historian William Dalrymple believes that while Indian ideas are among the crucial foundations of our world, more often than not, ancient Greece and China are touted as the most important sources of many critical existential answers

The Silk Road, that network of trade routes connecting the East to the West and synonymous with the Chinese civilisation, is often thought of as the first truly global trade route in history because many believe that it played a pivotal role in the promulgation of various cultures, ideas, and, of course, goods like silk. William Dalrymple, however, is sceptical of this idea.

“What people don’t realise is that the notion of a silk road only dates from the 1870s,” says the Scottish historian and writer to the vast crowds thronging the waterfront at the Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru, where his session, one of the most popular ones of the 13th edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival, took place.

No classical source

According to him, the German geographer and traveller Ferdinand von Richthofen first coined the term Silk Road, “not any classical source.” He believes that while Indian ideas, Indian philosophy, Indian mathematics, and Indian art are among the crucial foundations of our world, more often than not, ancient Greece and China are touted as the most important sources of many critical existential answers as well as perceived wisdom.

Ancient Greece’s influence in our history was tom-tommed by colonial powers, “not just British but also French, Dutch and Portuguese,” he says. And yes, “there’s also the answers provided by China,” says Dalrymple.

He claims that one of the reasons for the accepted view of the pre-eminence of the role of ancient China in shaping our worldview is that the country has been excellent at putting out its version of the world, one which makes the Red Dragon the centre of it. “Of all the ways in which it managed to do this, the idea of a Silk Road is probably the most important,” he says.

Roman coins

That the Silk Road was the first thing that broke down “the silos of nationalistic history, connecting East and West, creating a narrative of globalisation centuries before we think globalisation takes place,” is a persistent one, says Dalrymple, sharing a map taken from one of the many books focusing on this ancient trading route.

This map, completely bereft of the many ports that studded India’s coastline back then, gives the impression “very clearly, that the action, the real story of trade and the passage of ideas, took place between Rome and China, of which India made no part of the network,” says Dalrymple.

And yet, as another map he puts out depicting the presence of Roman coins across the world, including in places like Israel, Spain, France, Yemen and Afghanistan, indicates, “No Roman coin has ever been found in China,” he says, comparing this to India where vast quantities of these coins have been excavated, clearly proving that “Rome was the trading partner of India.”

So active was the trade between Rome and India back then that Pliny, the Elder, the Roman writer, historian, naval commander and naturalist who died in 79 CE while trying to conduct a rescue operation during the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius, seems to have complained about the impact of this partnership on Rome’s economy and its people’s moral moorings.

“He [Pliny] claims that India is the sink of all precious things in the world…the drain of all the gold in Rome,” he says. In Dalrymple’s opinion, all this evidence points to the need to expand our ideas of ancient trade and trade ideas. “We need to put India right at the centre of it,” he says.

Spread of Buddhism

The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World, Dalrymple’s latest book, does exactly that, proposing that India had a significant role in shaping and reshaping the ancient and medieval world.

In his view, besides trade in commodities like pepper and ivory, of course, three major Indian exports revolutionised the world: Buddhism, Sanskrit and Hinduism, and mathematics. “Indian numbers, numbers that we in the West call Arabic numbers, which we often got from Arabs, are arguably the nearest thing the world has to a universal language,” he says.

Dalrymple then proceeds to expand on these ideas, starting with the genesis and spread of Buddhism. “One of the strange things about Buddhism is that it’s almost invisible in the first two or three hundred years,” he says. “It is only with Ashoka that this begins to change.” This “waterfall of words” across pillars, boulders and cave walls transformed the fate of what was until only “a relatively minor local faith,” he adds.

With the help of Ashoka’s edicts and emissaries, Buddhism soon fanned across the country, seeping into parts of the arid, rocky Deccan Plateau and even landing on the shores of sea-fringed Sri Lanka, thanks to the efforts of Ashoka’s first-born son, Mahinda, who ended up converting the island country’s king, Devanampiya Tissa.

“So Sri Lanka becomes the centre for Buddhist missionary activity,” he says. “And you see this extraordinary spread of Indic ideas across Asia... out of Kandahar, up to Bactria and through China, right through Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia…” he argues.

Stories and more

Dalrymple also offers insights into the structure, functioning and legacy of Nalanda University, one of the greatest bastions of learning in the ancient world, located near the city of Rajagriha, close to Pataliputra (now Patna), claiming later universities like Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard were planned similarly.

Another fascinating story gleaned from the talk is how Buddhism spread across China, thanks to the efforts of the Chinese monk Xuan Zang or Hiuen Tsang, who visited Nalanda University in the 7th Century and Wu Zetian, a minor concubine in the Chinese royal harem during the Tang dynasty, who ultimately became the country’s first and only empress.

He also brings up an ancient Buddha statue discovered two years ago in a temple dedicated to the ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis, located in the port city of Berenike, “as multicultural an object as you ever imagine.” Sharing a picture of this statue, Dalrymple uses it to expand on the idea of India’s internationalism in the ancient world: the statue, largely Gandhāran in style, is carved in Alexandria, using marble from what is now modern Turkey to celebrate the arrival of a sea captain from India.

Dalrymple briefly expands on India’s other significant contributions, Sanskrit and Hinduism, to Southeast Asia, stating that many people in this region adopted this faith. As a result of this, “stories from this part of the world, including the Ramayana and Mahabharata, become second nature to vast numbers of people there,” he says, the remnants of this cultural shift still lingering in temples like Prambanan in Indonesia and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Maritime Prowess

India’s ally in its globalisation quest was its strategic geographical location and an understanding of monsoon winds and currents that lent to its maritime prowess. He says that the sheer scale of the Tibetan plateau gave India a gift that no other country had: a wind system that moves very fast in both directions, making it easy for Indian coastal communities to sail across the world.

He talks about the fabled city of Muziris, the ancient port of the Cheras, which many experts today say was located in Pattanam in Kerala’s Ernakulam District. “It is currently being dug up by P.J. Cherian,” says Dalrymple, who visited this very site only a week ago, referring to the work of the archaeologist.

These ancient maritime trade networks were transformative for the Indian economy “because your ancestors badly overcharged my ancestors (Scotland too was part of the Roman Empire),” he quips, a statement that elicited much applause, cheers and laughs from the crowd.

Published - December 18, 2024 08:00 am IST