
In his new book The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World, historian William Dalrymple argues that India was not built on conquest, but on profound intellectual, religious and commercial influence — thus occupying a unique place in history.
He asserts that many innovations long attributed to other civilizations, such as chess, the concept of zero, and even early notions of a heliocentric solar system (sun being at the centre of the solar system), originated in India, not in Greece or Egypt.
Speaking to CNN's Fareed Zakaria, Dalrymple describes India as the “cultural superpower of Asia” during the era between 200 BCE and 1200 CE, when Sanskrit served as the common scholarly language across vast swathes of Asia much like Latin did in medieval Europe. He notes that if you were a diplomat or scholar in 7th-century Afghanistan or 10th-century Java, you would have communicated in Sanskrit.
He also emphasises how Hindu and Buddhist ideas travelled far beyond India’s borders through trade, pilgrimage, and cultural exchange rather than military expansion.
Religious and philosophical traditions from India left palpable marks all over Southeast Asia: from Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and Indonesia’s Borobudur, to the Garuda emblem in Indonesian iconography, he points out.
He also mentions that during the time, if one travelled across continents, they would share stories from India's great epics, adding that the Mahabharata and Ramayana were recounted and revered throughout Asia, with stories from these epics depicted on temple walls in Thailand and Sumatra.
On mathematics and science, Dalrymple highlights India’s foundational role. He points out that figures like Aryabhatta and Brahmagupta laid the groundwork for algebra, algorithms, and the binary system — so influential, that medieval Islamic Spain praised Indian scholars as masters of mathematics.
Dalrymple also frames India’s legacy as resonant even today. Over half the world’s population lives in regions shaped by Hindu and Buddhist civilisations, he notes. “Buddhism not only spread across Southeast Asia - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, but also reached China itself," he says.