Ancient India

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.

Today's view of history cannot account for ancient anomalies, such as the Pyramids and advanced knowledge contained in India's Vedas. But in 1894, an Indian sage gave us an explanation not only for our hidden past but for the trends of today and for our future enlightenment - the 24,000-year yuga cycle.

In 1975, at the height of Indira Gandhi’s “Emergency”, V. S. Naipaul returned to India, the country his ancestors had left 100 years earlier. Out of that journey he produced this concise masterpiece: a vibrant, defiantly unsentimental portrait of a society traumatized by centuries of foreign conquest and immured in a mythic vision of its past.

From Graham Hancock, best-selling author of Fingerprints of the Gods, comes a mesmerizing book that takes us on a captivating underwater voyage to find the ruins of a lost civilization that's been hidden for thousands of years beneath the world's oceans. While Graham Hancock is no stranger to stirring up heated controversy among scientific experts, his books and television documentaries have intrigued millions of people around the world and influenced many to rethink their views about the origins of human civilization.

Twenty-five years in the making, this anthology of centuries-old folk tales from the villages of South Asia recreate the oral traditions of old. Treat yourself to 27 old-fashioned short stories of kings, princesses, fools, wisemen, talking animals, treacherous villains, and unlikely heroes. Plucked and distilled from the anthropological literature, these tales hearken to a simpler time and faraway places, when old and young alike were entertained by fireside storytellers who wandered from village to village to ply their yarn-spinning trade.

This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time. It leads us on a fascinating journey across the world, from arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through muscular Christianity and the British Raj, to the Indian nationalist movement and the arrival of yoga in the 20th-century West. We discover how the practice reached its present-day ubiquity and how it became embedded in powerful social currents shaping the world's future.

India is a land of mystery, richness, and deep spiritual discovery. Every facet of this ancient land seems scented with the famous spices that lured European traders to its shores more than five centuries ago. Here, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, and Buddhists live shoulder to shoulder in a crowded world of multiple gods and juxtaposed pilgrimage routes, each one perfectly peaceful in their own beliefs and traditions.

From the first agricultural settlement more than 7,000 years ago to the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great and the vast Maurya Empire, ancient India tells a story interweaved with captivating legends and cultural legacy.

Begin learning about the History of India and Indian Mythology today!

A report of a fascinating find in India: an ancient manuscript, large enough to fill a library, containing prophecies concerning the lives of millions of individuals yet unborn. A careful and unbiased account, this booklet might unsettle the confidence of a few listeners in the absoluteness of our modern understanding of reality. The Book of Bhrigu, its origins hidden in the mists of time, can predict events with uncanny accuracy. Swami Kriyananda explores the origins of this incredible manuscript, including his own adventures with Bhrigu readers in India.

The Pyramid of Cheops. The largest and most enigmatic of them all. Possibly the greatest monument of all time and truly a tomb fit for a Pharaoh...or was it? Despite finding a sarcophagus in the King's chamber, many experts now believe that Khufu, the Pharaoh at the time, was never actually interred there. But if that's the case, where is he?

Take a journey of the history of the Indian subcontinent from prehistory to the colonial period and the modern era through more than 80 brilliant timelines. Timelines from Indian History navigates the history of India, through the formation of kingdoms, the establishment of empires, the struggle for Independence and the emergence of a vibrant democracy and republic.

Sita, the beloved princess of Mithila, is one of the most revered women in Indian history; so well known, yet probably the least understood. At every crossroad of her life, she chose acceptance and grace over self-pity. Her life was filled with sacrifice yet wherever she was, there was abundance. It was as if she was carved out of an intense longing for Rama, yet she had infinite patience.

Get ready to embark on a legendary adventure through ancient India – where gods, warriors, and magical creatures await! From epic battles to mischievous monkey gods, ancient India is bursting with stories of bravery, wisdom, and adventure that have inspired people for thousands of years. Wave goodbye to those boring history books – this one is packed with tales that will make you giggle, gasp, and even cheer out loud!

The oldest surviving graffiti on a cave wall immortalizing an intimate bond in the third century BCE; charred seeds and chewed animal bones that provide evidence of a peoples' food obsessions; sculptures that reveal facets of the human-animal relationship. In Time Pieces, award-winning historian Nayanjot Lahiri sifts through clues left behind by the early inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent - in plaques and inscriptions, fragments of jewellery, bones and tools, poetry, art and pottery - to reveal to us our ancient land in all its variety, splendour and contradictions.

The world's great philosophers have always wrestled with the crucial questions about human nature and the world we live in. A Short History of Philosophy takes you on an entertaining and informative journey through the landscape of western philosophy from Plato to Jean-Paul Sartre. Whether discussing the origins of metaphysics, the merits of idealism, or the questions raised by existentialism, Peter Gibson brings to life the ideas of these great thinkers and carefully explains their reasoning in straightforward, easy-to-understand language.

When one thinks of the world’s first cities, Sumer, Memphis, and Babylon are some of the first to come to mind, but if the focus then shifts to India, then Harappa and Mohenjo-daro will likely come up. These cities owe their existence to India’s oldest civilization, known as the Indus Valley Civilization or the Harappan Civilization, which was contemporary with ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt and had extensive contacts with the former, making it one of the most important early civilizations in the world.

Let’s step into the realm of ancient India where history whispers through the stones and carvings of majestic monuments. In the "Bharat Ke Aitihasic Smarak”, a captivating audio series, we delve deep into the enigmatic world of ancient Indian civilizations and the architectural marvels they have left behind. From the ethereal Taj Mahal, to the awe-inspiring Ajanta Ellora Caves, these architectural wonders have stood the test of time and have been inspiring the visitors for centuries.

Ishvari, an angry and spirited girl, is plucked out of rural poverty to be meticulously groomed by tantric monks and elected to serve as spiritual consort to Takshak, powerful monarch of Melukhha. Her tumultuous journey - from terrified peasant to glamorous High Tantrika of Melukhha - hurls her into an abyss of addiction. As she sinks into depravity, Ishvari violates the ancient Melukhhan code of honor, infuriating Rudra-Shiva, the Wild God, and calling forth Takshak's sadistic revenge.

The Maurya empire, which existed more than 2,000 years ago, was the mightiest civilization that India has ever known. It was more than one and a half times the size of modern-day India in geographical extent. The Maurya empire was established just after the death of Alexander the Great. Fear had prevented his troops from marching farther to invade the subcontinent, which became the fuel for India to reinvent itself as an indomitable mega-culture.