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The Story of India
In this landmark six-part series for PBS and the BBC, Michael Wood will embark on a dazzling and exciting journey through today's India, "seeking in the present for clues to her past, and in the past for clues to her future."
The Story of India website features an interactive photo gallery and timeline that weaves together a series of interrelated themes, events, and individuals that helped shape India's history. Visitors can interact with the website in two areas:
"Your Stories" allows visitors to submit their own personal stories and recollections of India
"Ask Michael Wood" provides visitors with a chance to ask Michael about his approach to making the documentary
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enjoyable viewing for the whole family.
I just want to express my gratitude and happiness in finding PBS shows..such as The Story of India...I too am in the film business and find it very difficult to find shows that my 82 year old mother will watch and enjoy...I find it more difficult as society changes to find morally responsible journalism..written, film or otherwise...I must say it has been exciting to discover PBS on HD..Thank you
Story of India- Great Show!
Michael Wood did a fantastic job in reavealing the history and philosophy of India. I have seen several shows on India, but this really catch my attention. Being away from home and being a very proud Indian, I cannot wait to share my India stories with my family. I am going to buy the series and share it with my family here in USA. Thanks a lot for highlighting great continuity of our culture and history and paint such a splendid picture. Looking forward to seeing more stories like this one.
Thanks,
Sujata Dunn
Story of India
This stuff "Story of India" is changed now. European historian cooked up as Aryan Invation of India and pushing the Dark people of the continent south and light sking people inposing their will.
This is not true at all, this is about human migration brought about by climate change as Michael Wood says.
Earlyer europiens cooked up the Invation story and later adopted by Hitler and made a racist and associated the name "Aryan" to white Aryan race. Which is now completely false.
In truth, it was the europeans from Main Land Europe (Presently France and Germany) invaded the England and drove teh Irish North and imposed their own Language and culture upon them.
They applied the same theory to India so they can devide and conquer.
Story of India
That Aryans were a fair, nomadic warrior race their noble known as the Kshattriyas, which swept the Indo Gangetic plains uprooting a dark indigenous people, is well documented in all annals and ancient literature and substantiated by practices and customs inherited over the ages from Vedic times. They reduced the conquered, many more advanced and urbanized, to a state of vassals segregating them in society by laws embraced in social codes, forbidding intermarriages as proscribed in Gita itself: thus creating the caste system. They revered and patronized the horse, worshipped sun and fire, which trace them to cold regions in quest for pastures. They had as we do today Gods which links them to Greeks, Romans and Scandinavian mythologies. They created the Sanskrit language (around 5000 BC) only once they had wrested enough territory established kingdoms (right unto Pataliputra) and could divert from warfare to arts and philosophy. Sanskrit was not the common man's language. It had kinship with European languages and Old Farsi. E.g., Iran is a derivative from Aryan (the word itself meaning noble), Eire also from Arya etc.
All this negates any arguments that Aryans were an indigenous people from the subcontinent. Such a theory is scientifically unsubstantiated and stems from a recent trend to distort issues for political mileage. With vote bank politics in a society where the traditionally segregated communities far outnumber the sum of the first three Hindu castes politics cashing on religious sentiments is attempting to downplay or deny the realities of the past. There are no more any of the Aryans of the past in Indian society. The closest perhaps can still be found in remote villages in Skardu, Baltistan, Kargil or Himachal. The Konkan Brahmins and warriors from Coorg could be another group.
Aryan Invasion
Aryan Invasion theory is really a figment of imagination on the part of early Europeans who as mentioned in the program were surprised to find a highly advanced civilization in India. As the program mentions, there is no evidence of an invasion in Harrappa or Mohenjodaro. There is evidence of climate change that forced people to move. The program also shows that the origin of Sanskrit is not easily identified. There are similarities with Latin, however the birth of this language is not well known.
Aryans were not a people, rather a civilized or refined being. It is also interesting to note that the program makes no mention of Tamil and the fact that tamil literature and Rishi Agastya are an integral part of Hindu tradition. Also the program is very shallow on a lot of issues. There is mention of Buddhism, but no mention of the five philosophical branches of Hindu thought. Also there is no mention of Ayurveda, Yoga and other sciences that are part of the vedic tradition. The program takes a very simplistic view of the great Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. These are myths and myths are not stories of fiction. Myths are correctly interpreted as stories of human individual evolution. Look at Joseph Campbell's work on Mythology and you will see the thread that connects all the myth in the world.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=227781013595028167
For example, Ravana is not a real being, but a manifestation of Ego. With the 10 heads representing the 5 senses and their objects. The same goes for Duryodhana..
The program very well states that there was a lot of thought given in India to the question of Life.
Spotty research
Series is beautiful to look at, Mr, Woods apparently likes India and is cognizant of the damage dome to it by British colonialism (yes, some good came of it), and tried to show acheological proof of Aryans coming form the NW.
Perhaps they did, however the merger of the 'Aryas' and the other group was harmonious; just look at Hinduism - it is an amalgam of Harappan & Aryan icons. The fact is Hinduism is the link between people of Bharat (india) formulated by sages form all corners of India, and Hinduism basic belief is all religions are equal, hence you don't find Hinduism trying ot spread their religon by sword or evangelical means.
But, sadly Mr. Woods glossed over the 600 years of continous attacks on India by Muslim invaders.
American historian Will Durant in The Story of Civilization: "...the Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. I
t is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex order and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within.
The Hindus had allowed their strength to be wasted; which unnerved them for the tasks of life; they had failed to organize their forces for the protection of their frontiers and their capitals, their wealth and their freedom, from the hordes of Scythians, Huns, Afghans and Turks hovering about India's boundaries and waiting for national weakness to let them in,
Not researched enough
Mr.Wood's documentary though shows beautiful images and colors of India and captures all the hues and colors of present day India, lags quite a bit in capturing the true story behind India's past.
The concept of Aryans invading India was formulated without any archaelogical proof by British historians over 150 years ago and is still propagated as evidenced by Mr.Wood.
Still there is no proof of Aryan invasion of India and subjugating indiginous population. He tries pretty hard to go to Kazakshtan and talks quite elaborately about Soma Herb and it's non-availability in present day India!!
He does not address the fact that all of India's past revolves around huge river called Saraswati. Which is about 150 KM east of Harappan civilization. Due to weather changes, Saraswati dried up (as evidenced by a recent NASA and Indian Geo-stationary satellites) and civilizations moved further east towards Ganges.
Also, him using the term, Mahabharata as a "Great Myth" was uncalled for. Even though later in the program he says Kurukshetra (where great Mahabharata's final war is fought) exists and there is proof of that now. At least linguistic mistakes like these should be corrected.
Also, in one instance he says, "it is believed Buddha sat under this Peepal tree". It's a known fact that the current tree is where Buddha achieved enlightnment and carbon dating shows this particular tree is from Buddha's time. Fortunately the priest set Mr.Wood straight right away.
Overall I felt, though Mr.Wood took lot of pains to travel all over the place, didn't really use the current research or at least didn't do due diligence other than follow 150 year old theories of British Historians.
Thanks,
Raj
Aryan Invasion in India
Yes, it is true that most history has succeeded to evade the truth here! The Indus Valley remains were discovered in the 1920's, two years before King Tut's tomb was discovered. King Tut's tomb was such a rich discovery full of gold and treasure that overshadowed the Indus Valley discovery and thus was left with little research compared to other discoveries of that time.
I have done a semesters worth of research on the subject and there is evidence of ax and sword wounds on the fossils of the natives that do prove that the war like Aryans came and took over the land that was the first land to have agriculture, a working sewer system, and a great bath. Ideas that were then stolen to be taken to Greece to be glorified as if it were their own invention. Of course history is written by modern Aryans, so preserving the true beliefs were hard, thus formed the Upanishads or "going back to the roots". Research on this subject is hard to find, but I have been to many college libraries to read books that support my claims that have never been formed as fact either way.
Raj's Comments
Raj:
I'd welcome any further sources of your information. While I enjoyed the program I have no way of knowing whether any of what the narrator says is true or researched properly.
As a Westerner I tend to be skeptical of Western historians interpreting the East-particulatrly previous colonialists.
Thanks for shharing.
Stephen
I first saw one of Michael
I first saw one of Michael Wood's productions on the history of early English rulers while I was living in England during the 1980s. With the Story of India, he did not disappoint. Since my mother was a small child, and a 'displaced person' during World War II, she and her family came to India in the 1940s. The vibrant colors, ancient music and beautiful culture that she spoke of many times truly came to life in this visually powerful production.