Author: William Dalrymple

Publisher: ‎ Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025

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Reviewed by Sital Kalantry*

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Most non-fiction books are very dry. But William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road is anything but– rather its absolutely riveting. He seamless weaves his work across disciplines—from history to archaeology to anthropology and many more. He has the gift of drawing us in through the intimate narratives of individuals and then gracefully zooming out to reveal the grand transformations of empires, religions, and civilizations over time.

 

The book covers a vast historical and geographical span— it sheds new light on India’s influence from Southeast Asia to China, and beyond from 250 BC across more than a millennium. It traces how India was the bastion of knowledge of religion, mathematics, art, and architecture and how these perspectives continue to inform modern day society globally. 

 

Few books change how we see the world. The Golden Road is one of them. Dalrymple introduces concepts such as “Indosphere” into our lexicon to explain the vast geographic influence of ancient India. I predict that years from now, his revelations will become a part of how the world understand India and how it understands itself.   

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*Dr. Sital Kalantry is a professor of law and founding director of the Roundglass India Center, Seattle University, Washington, USA. Contact: skalantry@seattleu.edu