The Story of India - Season 1 (2007)

At the 60th independence anniversary of the largest democracy, Michael tells how it entered the world stage. Some 75,000 years ago, curious men from Africa followed the shore to southern Indian, thriving as it was fertile. Some of its prehistorical 'cultural' heritage remains, e.g. in some of the Brahmin caste's Hindu traditions, as in some genes. 10,000 years later, agriculture started sedentarisation and cities, perhaps the oldest being present Pakistan's Harappa, which civilization peaked in the third millennium BC. Also Mohenjo-Dara, capital of a vast, 5,000,000 ...

Since the fifth century BC, India developed an Iron Age pacifist model: individuals seek dharma (virtue), artha (richess and success), kharma (pleasure and joy) and ultimately moksa (enlightenment). In the holy Ganges cities, Michael contemplates the hierarchic, controversially fatalistic Hindu caste system and ritualistic tradition. The philosophical rise of moralism and meditation culminated in Buddhism, the teaching of prince Gautama turned wandering ascetic preaching detachment. After Alexander conquered the Persian empire, Indian admirer Chandragaupta Maurya ...

In 150 BC, the Greek Hippalos discovered strong monsoons that allowed seafaring using improved Roman wooden ships from the Red and Arab Seas to the spice coast of modern Kerala and back. This enabled trade in what made the subcontinent as rich as silk-home China. Herbal products like peppers, ginger, cardamom and other conservation - and seasoning ingredients, worth up to their weight in gold, plus gems, paid mainly in metals and wine. India's fertile south conserves the Ancient Tamil language and metropolitan capital then, Manduarai. North of the Himalaya, the Kushan...