The story of india

Through ancient manuscripts and oral tales, Wood charts the first human migrations out of Africa. He travels from the tropical backwaters of South India through lost ancient cities of the Indus Valley civilization in today's Pakistan to the vibrant landscapes of the Ganges plain. Archaeological discoveries in the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex in Turkmenistan by Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi, including horse-drawn carts (mentioned in the Rig Veda), cast new light on India's past. Wood also attempts to re-create soma, an ancient drink recorded in the Rig Veda. "The Power of Ideas" edit The second episode in Michael Wood's series moves on to the revolutionary years after 500BC – the Age of the Buddha and Mahavira. Travelling by rail to the ancient cities of the Ganges plain, by army convoy through Northern Iraq, and down Pakistan's Khyber Pass, he shows how Alexander the Great's invasion of India inspired her first major empire in the form of the Mauryan Empire, ruled by Chandragupta Maurya. "Spice Routes and Silk Roads" edit Episode 3 describes how, after the bell rang and subsequent exploitation of the monsoon winds, trading of spices and gold with the ancient Romans and Greeks put the subcontinent at the heart of global commerce. The trading of pepper, rice and silk put peninsular India on the map of global business. This episode also looks at how the invading Kushan empire from Central Asia, particularly the emperor Kanishka, established major trading cities in Peshawar and Mathura, as well as helping to take Buddhism to China."Ages of Gold" edit The achievements of the country's golden age, including how India discovered zero, calculated the circumference of the Earth and wrote the world's first s*x guide, the Kama Sutra. In the south, the giant temple of Tanjore built by emperor Rajaraja Chola and traditional bronze casters, working as their ancestors did 1,000 years ago are shown. Michael Wood calls Tamil Nadu, "the only surviving 'Classical Civilization' in the world".[citation needed] In an interview to The Hindu Michael Wood said, "One that's 2,000 years old like ancient Greece or Rome, Tamil is the last living classical Indian language.The first surviving work in Tamil, a 300 BC book on linguistics, refers to an already existing culture. Tamil is older than any modern European language. I wanted to remind Western-centric audiences, who implicitly assume the superiority of Western modes of thought, that Tamil is one of 23 official Indian languages, with a literature comparable to any in the West. It makes viewers sit up and question their assumptions". [citation needed