William Dalrymple

How are great turning points in history experienced by individuals? As Britain pulls away from Europe great British writers come together to give voice to their innermost feelings. These writers include novelists, writers of books for children, of comic books, humourists, historians, biographers, nature writers, film writers, travel writers, writers young and old and from an extraordinary range of backgrounds. Most are famous perhaps because they have won the Booker or other literary prizes, written bestsellers, changed the face of popular culture or sold millions of records. Others are not yet household names but write with depth of insight and feeling. There is some extraordinary writing in this book. Some of these pieces are expressions of love of particular places in Europe. Some are true stories, some nostalgic, some hopeful. Some are cries of pain. There are hilarious pieces. There are cries of pain and regret. Some pieces are quietly devastating. All are passionate. Conceived as a love letter to Europe, this book may also help reawaken love for Britain. It shows the unique richness and diversity of British cultures, a multitude of voices in harmony. Contributors include:Hugh Aldersey-Williams, Philip Ardagh, Jake Arnott, Patricia Atkinson, Paul Atterbury, Richard Beard, Mary Beard, Don Boyd, Melvyn Bragg, Gyles Brandreth, Kathleen Burke, James Buxton, Philip Carr, Brian Catling, Shami Chakrabarti, Chris Cleave, Mark Cocker, Peter Conradi , Heather Cooper, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Roger Crowley, David Crystal, William Dalrymple, Lindsey Davies, Margaret Drabble, Mark Ellen, Richard Evans, Michel Faber, Sebastian Faulks, Ranulph Fiennes, Robert Fox, James Fox, Neil Gaiman, Evelyn Glennie, James Hanning, Nick Hayes, Alan Hollinghurst, Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch, Will Hutton, Robert Irwin, Holly Johnson , Liane Jones, Ruth Jones, Sam Jordison, Kapka Kassabova, AL Kennedy, Hermione Lee, Prue Leith, Patrick Lenox, Roger Lewis, David Lindo, Penelope Lively, Beth Lync, Richard Mabey, Sue MacGregor, Ian Martin, Frank McDonough, Jonathan Meades, Andrew Miller, Deborah Moggach, Ben Moor, Alan Moore, Paul Morley, Jackie Morris, Charles Nicholl, Richard Overy, Chris Riddell, Adam Roberts, Tony Robinson, Lee Rourke, Sophie Sabbage, Marcus Sedgwick, Richard Shirreff, Paul Stanford, Isy Suttie, Sandi Toksvig, Colin Tudge, Ed Vulliamy, Anna Whitelock, Kate Williams, Michael Wood, Louisa Young

For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific. William Dalrymple draws from a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India's oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia. For the first time, he gives a name to this spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world. From the largest Hindu temple in the world at Angkor Wat to the Buddhism of China, from the trade that helped fund the Roman Empire to the creation of the numerals we use today (including zero), India transformed the culture and technology of its ancient world – and our world today as we know it.

FROM THE CO-HOST OF THE CHART-TOPPING EMPIRE PODCASTIndia was the forgotten heart of the ancient world For a millennium and a half, from about 250 BC to 1200 AD, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas, an 'Indosphere' where its influence was predominant. During this period, the rest of Asia was the willing recipient of a mass-transfer of Indian soft power. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific, connecting different places and ideas to one another. Like ancient Greece, ancient India came up with a set of profound answers to the big questions about what the world is, how it operates, why we are here and how we should live our lives. Out of India came holy men, monks and missionaries as well as pioneering merchants and artists, astronomers and healers, scientists and mathematicians. The Golden Road highlights India's oft-forgotten position as a crucial economic and civilisational hub at the heart of ancient Eurasia. Multiple award-winning historian William Dalrymple gives a name to this spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world; crossing political borders and influencing everything they touched, from statues of Indian ascetics erected in Roman seaports to Cambodian friezes of the Mahabharata, from the Buddhism of Japan to the Hindu rituals of Bali, from the echoes of Sanskrit poems found in Chinese poetry to the discovery of the algorithm and the observatories of Baghdad. Over half the world's population lives in areas where Indian religions and culture are, or once were, dominant. Meanwhile India's intellectual influence travelled far to the West, giving us not only crucial mathematical concepts such as zero, but also the very numbers we use to this day: arguably the nearest thing humanity has to a universal language. Drawing from a lifetime of scholarship, Dalrymple argues that India is the great intellectual and philosophical superpower of ancient Asia.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA Waterstones and TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEARA SPECTATOR and History Today BOOK OF THE YEARA revolutionary new history of the diffusion of Indian ideas, from the award-winning, bestselling author and co-host of the chart-topping Empire podcast‘Richly woven, highly readable ... Written with passion and verve’ Spectator‘Dazzling ... Not just a historical study but also a love letter’ Guardian‘An outstanding new account ... The most compelling retelling we have had for generations’ Financial TimesIndia is the forgotten heart of the ancient world. For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific. William Dalrymple draws from a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India’s oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia. For the first time, he gives a name to this spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world. From the largest Hindu temple in the world at Angkor Wat to the Buddhism of China, from the trade that helped fund the Roman Empire to the creation of the numerals we use today (including zero), India transformed the culture and technology of its ancient world – and our world today as we know it. Praise for William Dalrymple and The Anarchy‘A superb historian with a visceral understanding of India’ The Times‘Magnificently readable, deeply researched and richly atmospheric’ Francis Wheen, Mail on Sunday

ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEARNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY The Wall Street Journal and NPR The epic story of how the East India Company took over large swaths of Asia, and the devastating results of the corporation running a country. In August 1765, the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and set up, in his stead, a government run by English traders who collected taxes through means of a private army. Over the course of the next 47 years, the company's reach grew until almost all of India south of Delhi was essentially ruled from a boardroom in the city of London. The Anarchy tells one of history's most remarkable stories: how the Mughal Empire-which dominated world trade and manufacturing and possessed almost unlimited resources-fell apart and was replaced by a multinational corporation answerable only to shareholders, most of whom had never even seen India and had no idea about the country whose wealth provided their dividends. Using previously untapped sources, William Dalrymple provides a devastating portrait of the brutality that results when a company becomes a colonial power.

THE TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEARFINALIST FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2020LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019A FINANCIAL TIMES, OBSERVER, DAILY TELEGRAPH, WALL STREET JOURNAL AND TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR‘Dalrymple is a superb historian with a visceral understanding of India … A book of beauty’ – Gerard DeGroot, The TimesIn August 1765 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish a new administration in his richest provinces. Run by English merchants who collected taxes using a ruthless private army, this new regime saw the East India Company transform itself from an international trading corporation into something much more unusual: an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business. William Dalrymple tells the remarkable story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.

Finalist for the Cundill History Prize ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY The Wall Street Journal and NPR "Superb ... A vivid and richly detailed story ... worth reading by everyone." -The New York Times Book Review From the bestselling author of Return of a King, the story of how the East India Company took over large swaths of Asia, and the devastating results of the corporation running a country. In August 1765, the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and set up, in his place, a government run by English traders who collected taxes through means of a private army. The creation of this new government marked the moment that the East India Company ceased to be a conventional company and became something much more unusual: an international corporation transformed into an aggressive colonial power. Over the course of the next 47 years, the company's reach grew until almost all of India south of Delhi was effectively ruled from a boardroom in the city of London. The Anarchy tells one of history's most remarkable stories: how the Mughal Empire-which dominated world trade and manufacturing and possessed almost unlimited resources-fell apart and was replaced by a multinational corporation based thousands of miles overseas, and answerable to shareholders, most of whom had never even seen India and no idea about the country whose wealth was providing their dividends. Using previously untapped sources, Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before and provides a portrait of the devastating results from the abuse of corporate power. Bronze Medal in the 2020 Arthur Ross Book Award

The Konyaks - a once fearsome headhunting tribe in Nagaland on the border of Myanmar in northeast India - are well known for their iconic body and facial tattoos, originally earned for taking an enemy's head. This book - over four years in the making - is the personal journey of a Konyak woman who retraces the steps of her grandfather and great-grandfather by documenting her tribe's tattooing practices. She explores the Konyak's concept of beautification of the body using it as a canvas for art, with inscriptions marked on the skin as a form of rite of passage and cycle of life. With elegant and powerful portraits of elders, both men and women, this book preserves the unique but vanishing practices of the culture, together with tattoo patterns, their meanings, and the oral traditions attached to them in folktales, songs, poems and sayings. It includes descriptions and information on headhunting and tattooing practices; reasons behind them; techniques used; tattoo artists; different tattoo groups; types of tattoos; and personal stories.

‘Riveting. This highly readable and entertaining book ... finally sets the record straight on the history of the Koh-i-Noor’ Tarquin Hall, Sunday Times‘Dynamic, original and supremely readable’ Maya Jasanoff, GuardianThe first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor, arguably the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world. On 29 March 1849, the ten-year-old maharaja of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over great swathes of the richest country in India in a formal Act of Submission to a private corporation, the East India Company. He was also compelled to hand over to the British monarch, Queen Victoria, perhaps the single most valuable object on the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light. The history of the Koh-i-Noor may have been one woven together from gossip of Delhi bazaars, but it was to become the accepted version. Only now is it finally challenged, freeing the diamond from the fog of mythology that has clung to it for so long. The resulting history is one of greed, murder, torture, colonialism and appropriation told through an impressive slice of south and central Asian history. It ends with the jewel in its current controversial setting: in the crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, which was deemed too contentious to be used by Camilla, the Queen Consort, in King Charles’s coronation. Masterly, powerful and erudite, this is history at its most compelling and invigorating.

Indiska museisamlingar besitter enligt uppgifter fler romerska mynt än i något annat land utanför imperiets gränser. Exporten till Rom var så betydande att senatorer med kraft ville stoppa det valutautflöde som blev följden. Det var inte bara exklusiva tyger och kryddor som fann sin marknad i Rom och senare i Västeuropa. Under senare delen av antiken och medeltiden var Indien källan till vetenskap och abstrakta idéer, exempelvis det siffersystem som i dag används globalt och, än viktigare, insikten att även frånvaro och tomhet behöver en matematisk symbol – nollan. Vägarna från Indien sträckte sig emellertid åt flera håll än väst. Under lång tid var kulturpåverkan österut, mot Sydostasien, Kina och Japan avgörande för områdets samhällsutveckling – genom sanskritlitteratur, utveckling av politiska strukturer, hinduism och buddhism. I Guldvägen skildras Indiens centrala roll för Gamla världens utveckling under ett årtusende. Den brittiske historikern William Dalrymple sammanfattar ett livs forskning om subkontinentens betydelse och argumenterar för att utbytet på handelsvägarna som utgick från Indien var mer betydelsefullt än den som gick via den traditionella Sidenvägen.

The internationally bestselling author of The Anarchy returns with a sparkling, soaring history of ideas, tracing South Asia's under-recognized role in producing the world as we know it. For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilization, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific. In The Golden Road, William Dalrymple draws from a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India's oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia. For the first time, he gives a name to this spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world. From the largest Hindu temple in the world at Angkor Wat to the Buddhism of China, from the trade that helped fund the Roman Empire to the creation of the numerals we use today (including zero), India transformed the culture and technology of its ancient world - and our world today as we know it.

Odnim iz samykh pervykh indijskikh slov, voshedshikh v anglijskij jazyk, byl sleng khindustani, oboznachajuschij grabezh: loot. Soglasno Oksfordskomu slovarju anglijskogo jazyka, eto slovo redko mozhno bylo uslyshat za predelami ravnin Severnoj Indii do kontsa XVIII veka, kogda ono vnezapno stalo obscheupotrebitelnym terminom v Britanii. Chtoby ponjat, kak i pochemu ono prizhilos i rastsvelo v stol otdalennom landshafte, dostatochno posetit zamok Povis v Uelskikh marshakh. Poslednij naslednyj vallijskij prints, pamjatnyj po imeni Ovejn Gruffidd ap Gvenvinvin, postroil zamok Povis kak skalistyj fort v XIII veke; pomeste stalo ego nagradoj za otkaz ot Uelsa v polzu anglijskoj monarkhii. No ego samye vpechatljajuschie sokrovischa otnosjatsja k gorazdo bolee pozdnemu periodu anglijskogo zavoevanija i prisvoenija. Ved Povis prosto zavalen dobychej iz Indii - komnata za komnatoj imperskikh grabezhej, dobytykh Ost-Indskoj kompaniej (OIK) v XVIII veke. V etom chastnom dome v selskoj mestnosti Uelsa slozheno bolshe mogolskikh artefaktov, chem vystavleno v ljubom drugom meste v Indii - dazhe v Natsionalnom muzee v Deli. Sredi bogatstv - kaljany iz polirovannogo zolota, inkrustirovannye chernym derevom s vkraplenijami; velikolepnye badakhshanskie shpineli s nadpisjami i dragotsennye kinzhaly; sverkajuschie rubiny tsveta golubinoj krovi i rossypi jascherichno-zelenykh izumrudov. Zdes est golovy tigrov s sapfirami i zheltymi topazami, ukrashenija iz nefrita i slonovoj kosti, shelkovye podveski, rasshitye makami i lotosami, statui induistskikh bogov i slonovi dospekhi. Na pochetnom meste stojat dva velikikh voennykh trofeja, vzjatykh posle porazhenija i gibeli ikh vladeltsev: palankin Siradzha ud-Dauly, navaba Bengalii, ostavlennyj im posle begstva s polja bitvy pri Plassee, i pokhodnyj shater Tipu Sultana, Tigra Majsura...

'Benoy K. Behl’s remarkable photographs, painstakingly gathered and digitally restored over thirty years of hard labour, are probably the best and truest record of these fabulous treasures that will ever be created.' William Dalrymple A revised edition of a classic title, now with digitally restored photographs, showcasing the finest surviving examples of ancient Buddhist art. Since their chance re-discovery in 1819, the breathtaking paintings and sculptures of the Ajanta caves have inspired and delighted experts and amateurs alike. Ranging in date from the second century BCE to the sixth century CE, these ancient Buddhist artworks rank among the world’s most important cultural treasures. Benoy K. Behl captured the beauty and luminosity of these works using long exposures and only natural light and now presents them here digitally restored to show the paintings closer to their original glory than ever before. The exquisite murals, depicting the tales of previous incarnations of Buddha, scenes of princely processions and fantastical birds and beasts, provide virtually the only evidence of painting styles that first developed in India and remain crucially important to the understanding of Buddhist art throughout Asia. On UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, the Ajanta caves survive as a potent symbol of the great beauty of India’s rich artistic past. This new edition provides for the first time a view of some of the masterpieces of Ajanta painstakingly digitally restored by Behl. Sensitively carried out, the restoration makes the paintings clearer without interfering with their original grace and nuance, leading to a deeper appreciation of their artistry. Accompanied by expert commentaries to fully immerse the reader in the cultural context of the murals, this book will help preserve the legacy of the glorious art of Ajanta for years to come.

‘Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures’ – Don McCullin Journeys Across Roman Asia Minor is driven by an eye for beauty and an ear for history. It is an album of the most recent photographs taken by Don McCullin, informed by a life full of hard-won experience. Working the ineffable magic of a master-craftsman, he frames an ancient sanctuary known to Homer, then focuses on the broken face of an exhausted emperor, before turning his eye on the sensuous torso of a goddess. While most of us were sheltering from Covid, Don explored the mountains, valleys and coast of western Turkey, hunting out the most poignant and powerful ruins of the Roman Empire. He has created a meditation on landscape, the effects of light on ancient stone, the way clouds animate the past, but it is also inescapably about past conflict. About conquest, about imperium, about power. Journeys across Roman Asia Minor shows us a world still packed full of enchantment and wonder. He shows us pavements once trodden by Aristotle and Alexander the Great, Caesar and Sulla, St Paul and Hadrian. Through his lens we view ancient theatres cascading down the slopes of mountains, two-thousand-year-old bridges still used by hill farmers, and find spring water flowing into fountains still dominated by statues of the gods.

‘Gorgeous, spellbinding and important’ Sunday Times‘Rampaging, brilliant, passionate history’ Wall Street Journal‘Magnificent … Dalrymple has uncovered sources never used before’ Guardian‘Vivid … unmatched … revolutionary … humane’ Sunday Telegraph____________________________From multi-award-winning and bestselling historian William Dalrymple, a four-book collection chronicling the extraordinary story of the rise and fall of the East India Company. We still talk about the British conquering India, but that phrase disguises a much more sinister reality. For it was not the British government that began seizing chunks of India in the mid-eighteenth century, but a dangerously unregulated private company headquartered in one small office, five windows wide, in the city of London. Bringing together two decades of meticulous research and masterful narration, ‘The Company Quartet’ tells the remarkable story of how the Mughal empire, which then generated just under half the world’s wealth, disintegrated and came to be replaced by the first global corporate power: the East India Company. William Dalrymple’s epic, bestselling and multi-award-winning histories are now available in this magnificent paperback box set, presented in a stylish slipcase. Comprised of four individual books – The Anarchy, White Mughals, Return of a King and The Last Mughal – this essential collection spans over two hundred years of tumultuous colonial history, covert political machinations and bloody resistance. PRIZES & AWARDS: Winner of the Wolfson Prize for History Winner of the Duff Cooper Memorial PrizeWinner of the Hemingway PrizeWinner of the Ryzard Kapuscinski PrizeWinner of the Vodafone/Crossword Book awardWinner of the Scottish Book of the Year PrizeWinner of the Arthur Ross Medal of the Council on Foreign Relations. Three times longlisted and once shortlisted for the Baillie GiffordWinner of the Sykes Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society Winner of the President's Medal of the British AcademyFinalist for the Cundil Prize for History

Published to coincide with the first UK exhibition of these masterworks at The Wallace Collection, Forgotten Masters celebrates the work of a series of extraordinary Indian artists. As the East India Company extended its sway across India in the late eighteenth century, many remarkable artworks were commissioned by Company officials from Indian painters who had previously worked for the Mughals. Each had their own style, tastes and agency, and all of them worked for British patrons between the 1770s and the bloody end of the Mughal rule in 1857. Edited by writer and historian William Dalrymple, these hybrid paintings explore both the beauty of the Indian natural world and the social realities of the time in one hundred masterpieces, often of astonishing brilliance and originality. They shed light on a forgotten moment in Anglo-Indian history during which Indian artists responded to European influences while keeping intact their own artistic visions and styles. These artists represent the last phase of Indian artistic genius before the onset of the twin assaults - photography and the influence of western colonial art schools - ended an unbroken tradition of painting going back two thousand years. As these masterworks show, the greatest of these painters deserve to be remembered as among the most remarkable Indian artists of all time.