World History
William Dalrymple, the Indian historian and travel writer, wrote a fascinating review of two new books about exhibitions of Buddhist art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013 and 2014.
- Dvaravati
Dvaravati map The Mon kingdom of Dvaravati (also called Siam) flourished in what is now Thailand from the sixth century c.e. to around the 11th century. The kingdom covered the political area of Nakhon Pathom (west of present-day Bangkok), U-Thong, and...
- Ancient India
FACTS-ABOUT-INDIA.Com has a nice subsection on the History of India. I am highlighting the Ancient India section here. It has subsections on Sources of Ancient Indian History, Pre Historic Period, Indus Valley Civilisation , and the Vedic Age. Another...
- Teaching About India
Teaching about India. This essay has ideas for teaching about India. This includes dealing with the history of India. From the site: India, a significant area of Asia in the past, is a very important part of today's world. Therefore, the peoples...
- The Bloody Legacy Of Indian Partition: New Book
Teaching Indian independence? Here's an excellent review of a new book about the parition of India by William Dalrymple for the New Yorker. Most of us learn that the British left India and that the country split into two parts--the Hindu majority...
- The English East India Company: Original Corporate Raiders
Here is a long but excellent essay about the East India Company by William Dalrymple, author of several books about India, including The Last Mughal. Dalrymple reminds us of the greed and brutality that members of the East India Company employed in conquering...
World History
Indian Influence in Afro-Eurasia
Dalrymple argues that between 400 and 1200 Indian culture and technology spread through Afro-Eurasia much the way Greece influenced Aegean Turkey and Rome.
Dalrymple suggests that "the scale and breadth of this extraordinary cultural diffusion is not as well known as it should be" and notes that the influence of India was especially "striking" in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
He points to Angkor Wat as the "most spectacular" example of this influence.
This is a fascinating story written by one of the best historians of India and he writes with a style that is colorful and readable.
For example, he notes:
But for at least seven hundred years before then, from about 400 AD to 1200 AD, India was a large-scale and confident exporter of its own diverse civilization in all its forms, and the rest of Asia was the willing and eager recipient of a startlingly comprehensive mass transfer of Indian culture, religion, art, music, technology, astronomy, mythology, language, and literature. Out of India came not just artists, sculptors, traders, scientists, astronomers, and the occasional fleets of warships, but also missionaries of three Indic forms of religion: Buddhism and two rival branches of Hinduism: Shaivism, in which Lord Shiva is revered as the Supreme Being; and Vaishnavism, which venerates Lord Vishnu.
Dalrymple suggests that "the scale and breadth of this extraordinary cultural diffusion is not as well known as it should be" and notes that the influence of India was especially "striking" in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
He points to Angkor Wat as the "most spectacular" example of this influence.
This is a fascinating story written by one of the best historians of India and he writes with a style that is colorful and readable.
- Dvaravati
Dvaravati map The Mon kingdom of Dvaravati (also called Siam) flourished in what is now Thailand from the sixth century c.e. to around the 11th century. The kingdom covered the political area of Nakhon Pathom (west of present-day Bangkok), U-Thong, and...
- Ancient India
FACTS-ABOUT-INDIA.Com has a nice subsection on the History of India. I am highlighting the Ancient India section here. It has subsections on Sources of Ancient Indian History, Pre Historic Period, Indus Valley Civilisation , and the Vedic Age. Another...
- Teaching About India
Teaching about India. This essay has ideas for teaching about India. This includes dealing with the history of India. From the site: India, a significant area of Asia in the past, is a very important part of today's world. Therefore, the peoples...
- The Bloody Legacy Of Indian Partition: New Book
Teaching Indian independence? Here's an excellent review of a new book about the parition of India by William Dalrymple for the New Yorker. Most of us learn that the British left India and that the country split into two parts--the Hindu majority...
- The English East India Company: Original Corporate Raiders
Here is a long but excellent essay about the East India Company by William Dalrymple, author of several books about India, including The Last Mughal. Dalrymple reminds us of the greed and brutality that members of the East India Company employed in conquering...