The Golden Road

William Dalrymple

£12.99

We send all orders via Royal Mail: within the UK, choose from 1st Class, 2nd Class or Special Delivery; for the rest of the world, International Standard or International Tracked. Delivery and packaging charges are calculated automatically at the checkout.

To collect orders in person from the Bookshop, choose Click and Collect at the checkout.


Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
5 June 2025
ISBN: 9781408864432
Paperback
496 pages

From the publisher

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Waterstones and TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR
SPECTATOR and History Today BOOK OF THE YEAR

A 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 generationsFinancial Times

India is the forgotten heart of the ancient world.

In the millennium and a half from c. 250 BC to 1200 AD, Indian art, religion, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world – a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific.

Here, 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 culture and technology of not only its ancient world, but of the world as we know it today.

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