The Story of India

S01E03: Spice Routes & Silk Roads

In this episode Michael Wood traces India in the days of the Roman Empire. In Kerala the spice trade opened India to the world, whilst gold and silk bazaars in the ancient city of Madurai were a delight for visiting Greek traders. From the deserts of Turkmenistan Michael travels down the Khyber Pass to Pakistan to discover a forgotten Indian Empire that opened up the Silk Road and at Peshawar built a lost Wonder of the World.

Overview

For over two millennia, India has been at the centre of world history. But how did India come to be? What is India? These are the big questions behind this intrepid journey around the contemporary subcontinent. In this landmark series, historian and acclaimed writer Michael Wood embarks on a dazzling and exciting expedition through today's India, looking to the present for clues to her past, and to the past for clues to her future. The journey takes the viewer through majestic landscapes and reveals some of the greatest monuments and artistic treasures on Earth. From Buddhism to Bollywood, from mathematics to outsourcing, Michael Wood discovers India's impact on history - and on us.

Episodes

S01E01 Beginnings

August 24, 2007 60 min
Michael Wood journeys through the subcontinent, tracing the incredible richness and diversity of its peoples, cultures and landscapes. Through ancient manuscripts and oral tales Michael charts the first human migrations out of Africa. He travels...

S01E02 The Power of Ideas

August 31, 2007 60 min
Michael Wood’s epic series moves on to the revolutionary years after 500BC - the Age of the Buddha. Travelling by rail to the ancient cities of the Ganges plain, by army convoy through Northern Iraq,...

S01E03 Spice Routes & Silk Roads

September 7, 2007 60 min
In this episode Michael Wood traces India in the days of the Roman Empire. In Kerala the spice trade opened India to the world, whilst gold and silk bazaars in the ancient city of Madurai...

S01E04 Ages of Gold

September 14, 2007 60 min
Michael Wood seeks out the achievements of the country's golden age, discovering how India discovered zero, calculated the circumference of the Earth and wrote the world’s first sex guide, the Kama Sutra. In the south,...

S01E05 The Meeting of Two Oceans

September 21, 2007 60 min
This episode charts the coming of Islam to the subcontinent and one of the greatest ages of world civilisation: the Mughals. Michael Wood visits Sufi shrines in Old Delhi, desert fortresses in Rajasthan and the...

S01E06 Freedom & Liberation

September 28, 2007 60 min
This episode examines the British Raj and India's struggle for freedom. Michael Wood reveals how in South India a global corporation came to control much of the subcontinent, and explores the magical culture of Lucknow,...

Cast

Michael Wood
Michael Wood

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