Ancient India and China: from golden to silk roads
Sep 30, 2024
auto_awesome
William Dalrymple, a best-selling historian, highlights India's ancient influence on global culture, discussing how art, technology, and religion shaped civilizations. Susan Whitfield brings attention to the remarkable manuscripts discovered in Dunhuang, revealing vibrant historical exchanges on the Silk Roads. Sinead Javary delves into modern Indian art, showcasing diverse responses to significant political changes from 1975 to 1998 in her upcoming exhibition. Together, they weave a narrative of India's profound, yet often overlooked, historical significance across time.
William Dalrymple emphasizes India's historical role as a significant superpower influencing arts, mathematics, and trade along ancient maritime routes.
The ongoing exhibition at the Barbican showcases how contemporary Indian artists address social justice and identity amidst political and cultural shifts.
Deep dives
The Silk Road's Diverse Cultural Tapestry
The ancient trade networks known as the Silk Roads were not just a conduit for silk between China and Rome but a rich tapestry of cultures, languages, and religions. Dunhuang, a vibrant commercial hub in northwestern China, exemplified this diversity, featuring manuscripts in over 20 languages and housing key spiritual traditions of the time, including Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and older belief systems. This cosmopolitanism illustrates the complex interactions between various civilizations along the trade routes, highlighting a more nuanced understanding of history that moves beyond simplified narratives. Rather than a singular path dominated by China, the Silk Roads represented a web of exchanges influencing arts, sciences, and philosophy across regions like India, Persia, and Central Asia.
India's Historical Influence and the Indosphere
India has played a pivotal role in the exchange of ideas and trade throughout antiquity, with the 'Indosphere' encompassing a vast region influenced by Indian civilization. William Dalrymple's analysis underscores India's longstanding maritime trade routes, which allowed for the swift transport of goods and ideas across seas to regions like Africa and Southeast Asia. The historical significance of India is further emphasized through examples of significant contributions to various fields, such as astronomy and mathematics, illustrating how Indian scholars tackled profound questions about existence and the universe. This historical framework challenges popular perceptions, suggesting that India's influence has been undervalued in contemporary discourse.
Artistic Reflections of Contemporary India
An exhibition at the Barbican focuses on the evolution of Indian art 30 years post-independence, examining how artists addressed social issues amid a rapidly changing society. Curator Sinead Javary emphasizes that the showcased works explore themes of caste, gender, and the impact of urbanization and liberalization on Indian identity. Notable artists like Nalima Shaikh engage with feminist narratives, bridging personal and social concerns while responding to the pressures of contemporary political realities. This artistic representation reflects a rich dialogue between traditional practices and modern critiques, highlighting the ongoing struggles for social justice and cultural identity.
The Political Implications of Historical Narratives
The discussions surrounding India, China, and the Silk Roads reveal how modern political climates can reshape historical narratives. The rise of nationalism in India under Modi's government has led to a reevaluation of India's ancient legacy, centering the narrative around an ideal of cultural supremacy. Scholars express concern that these politically charged interpretations could distort complex histories in favor of homogenized nationalistic stories, overlooking the multicultural influences that shaped both India and its neighboring countries. By advocating for a broader understanding of history that recognizes diverse voices and experiences, the conversation calls for a resistance against oversimplified historical interpretations that serve contemporary political agendas.
The best-selling historian William Dalrymple presents India as the great superpower of ancient times in The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. He argues that for more than a millennium India art, religions, technology, astronomy, music and mathematics spread far and wide from the Red Sea to the Pacific, and its influence was unprecedented, but now largely forgotten.
China’s significance has long been celebrated and understood, with reference to the ancient trading routes linking the east and west. The historian Susan Whitfield is an expert on the Silk Roads. She talks to Adam Rutherford about the extraordinary discovery of manuscripts in a cave in Dunhuang, in Northern China, which provide a detailed picture of the vibrant religious and cultural life of the town. An exhibition of the manuscripts, A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang, runs at the British Library until 23rd February 2025.
But what of India’s cultural and artistic influence and expression in modern times? Shanay Jhaveri is the new Head of Visual Arts at the Barbican and curator of their new exhibition, The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998 (October 2024 until January 2025). This landmark group show explores the way artists have responded to a period of significant political and social change in India in the 20th century.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.
