The Story of India
PBS is running a six part series called ‘The Story of India‘ which premiered in the US tonight.
The Story of India already aired in the UK in 2007, and is narrated by historian Michael Wood and shows (attempts to, at least) the history of the Indian subcontinent over the past few thousand years.
Two hour long episodes were telecast tonight, of which i saw the first one and tivo-d the other. The first episode marked the beginnings of civilization in India, and was rather interesting.
To begin with, the logistical stuff for US readers. This series is broadcast on PBS. You can check what channel that would be here. For New York city, it happens to be channel 13 (WNET) for Time Warner cable. For those who missed today’s episodes, i am not sure if they will be repeat telecast, but do check out the rest of the series, if nothing else, for bright visuals and rich music.
(Image courtesy: pbs.org)
Going back to the show, the first episode talked about the origins of Indian civilization.
The journey starts off in Kerela with the proclamation that originally life began in Africa, and moved to India from there. Any non Africans are descendants of Indians. Holy mother of civilization! Fascinatingly the proof lies in a certain M130 gene pool.
Fascinating too was the map where Sri Lanka was labeled as Tamil Nadu. Ah well, maybe they were talking of historical times?
From the south we go northwards to find out the roots of India, and travel to Harappa in Pakistan. Damn Them Pakis got the place where Indian civilization traces its roots! Of course they travel in a dilapidated third class coach of the train, just to experience the real Pakistan/India, the one that the west loves to see and portray.
They talk about the city of Harappa which was so rich and developed that they call it the Manhattan of its day. Interesting to know was the reason the civilization died away – the monsoons. The rainfall from the monsoons were the reason life flourished in the region, and when that dwindled, the civilization too lost its glory.
We move onto language, and the mother of them all, Sanskrit. Apparently Sanskrit is very similar to Latin and Greek, prompting theories of a common origin of these languages outside India. (Great, now they take away our language too!) They cite the Rig Veda and how clues in the book point in that direction. The taming of horses, chariots, non Indian gods, and such.
To explore the theory, we travel to Afghanistan and later to Turkmenistan in Central Asia where they find Som, which is supposedly related to the Som Rasa that our gods are so fond of drinking. In Central Asia they find archaeological evidence suggesting that this was where it all began.
Long story short: The Aryans came to India from Central Asia and brought with them their language and culture.
Aryans left little mark in the DNA of India, but influenced the culture and language of ancient India.
Like so many India renditions we see these days, there’s the cliched displays of buffaloes (bathing in the Ganga alongside people). The poor people and the shabby old houses. The sadhus. The sitar and the tabla. The wildness of holi.
They travel to Hastinapur and come up with this fascinating conclusion because of the worn down houses.
Hastinapur was recognizable in the India of today
All said and done, this was an interesting show to watch. As it progresses we would hopefully learn more about the history of the great Indian civilization. I am no historian, but would take the facts presented in this show with a grain of salt. History has a way of getting distorted by people.
I will end with this famous quote from the great writer Mark Twain.
India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!
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Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
“Aryans left little mark in the DNA of India, but influenced the culture and language of ancient India.” Hmm…I have doubts about someone coming from outside.. I am not sure but some of the “myths” I have heard from Older people makes me think that it wasnt a myth cause its a more plausible explanation since the recent discovery of dried up Saraswathi. But, the West has to tell the story from a West Centric mentality, just like I like telling from the East Centric mentality.
The program here is at 3 AM. guess I will get the DVD from the Library.
I will comment after the end of the series. But my son a history buff was none too impressed with parts of it. He was not happy with the omission of River Saraswathi and the arrival of the Aryans. As soon as he heard the word he rolled his eyes
But it was fun and the Russian archeologist who is considered like a God among historians discovering a new dig was just great.
to you and chat with you when the series finishes.
So Somas
I would catch the series and comment
I don’t like the idea of misinforming or omitting. It’s history, and it should be reported rightly.
Sounds interesting! I will check if I can see these episodes on my cable TV in Montreal, Canada. As for Aryan theory, no matter what many recent historians claim, aryan invasion theory makes the most sense to me. But, as you also mentioned, nobody really knows or can ever know what really happened.
@Tom – Thanks!
@Mysoul – Good point about west centric vs east centric. Everybody likes to present things the way they view them, which might not be consistent. I will need to do some reading to learn more about these topics, so cant really comment more on the genuineness of this story of India.
@My3- I saw the second episode yesterday and got the feeling that it was very disconnected, like they miss out big chunks of history altogether. I too will have a better opinion once the series is done.
@Kiran – I read this interesting quote by ambrose bierce
“God alone knows the future, but only an historian can alter the past”
@Dev – I hope they telecast the show in Canada as well. Otherwise there are the DVDs! There is a book as well.
I just hope they also explain why our civilisation went into a downspin in the 1800′s, when India was the richest land mass in the world. Why do I have a feeling that they won’t!!
Hey,
its nothing new.there is always a tendency to own what others have achieved specially the developed west. But the reality is reality and needs tobe pointed out.
Fascinating!! So they will be showing about the times after the Harappan civilization vanished?
@Nita – I too have the same feeling. Will update once the series is done.
@Amit – It is an interesting show for sure. They will cover a lot of the recent history, right up to India’s independence, and some more.
So they will be showing about the times after the Harappan civilization vanished?