freinds,
michael wood-a contemporary historiographer of oxford university has made a fantastic modern potrayal of indian history. a six part programme now being retelecasted in discovery channel. the six parts are
1.the beginnings: traces earliest human arrival and madurai genogramme study, the kerala brahmins vedic ritual practice, indus valley, and aryan arrival from tajikistan.
2.the contacts and trade with external world: the thiruvanchikulam-roman connections,madurai, the kanishka empire are described.
3. age of reasoning: advent of buddhism and asoka’s history traced.
4. age of gold: the gupta period and the cholan period are shown. dr.wood has paid encomiums to cholan and tamil heritage for 40 minutes of the 60 minute programme. wood calls cholamandalam as a model for the culture of india as a whole. even to the extent of calling it as a wonder of the world!
5. meeting of oceans: arrival of islam and muslim empires are discussed.
6. modern period: the arrival of europeans and the english paramountancy,independence and post independent emerging free market india.
michael wood’s sereis is a masterpiece in history. future indologists and tamilologists will have to quote this documentary programme. i wish all of us see this or buy the CD available in chennai .
gandhi