We might need to proceed with some caution here:
- The essay suggests that Goa and the Konkan coast were central nodes in
ancient global trade networks. There indeed is evidence of trade (Arab
merchants, regional ports and Roman artifacts), yet Goa was not on the
scale of Calicut, Muziris (ancient port city of the Chera kingdom in
present-day Kerala) or Bharuch (the historic city now in Gujarat, located
on the Narmada River) in terms of trade volume.
- The essay cites Herodotus’ griffin-and-giant-ant stories and Roman
accounts of India’s wealth as evidence of India’s allure. Let us not
forget that these are legends and literary tropes, not empirical reports.
- The text portrays Gama’s arrival as a singular turning point, after
which trade was “at the tip of cannons”. While the Portuguese did
militarise trade, the reality was more gradual and complex, with
negotiations, alliances and local participation also being rather
important in shaping the coastal economy. This has been written about and
more will probably emerge too.
- Overgeneralising India's influence on the world can lead to
flattening the historical agency of other cultures in these exchanges.
- It is true that India ranks among the top economies globally by
nominal GDP (value of all goods and services produced in a country within a
given period, measured at current market prices without adjusting for
inflation) in 2025, yet using GDP alone as a measure of economic strength
is misleading. GDP does not reflect income distribution, living
standards, regional disparities or economic well-being of the people.
Vast sections of India's population face poverty, informal employment and
limited access to health and education. On the GDP itself, as an aside
(though, again, this isn't the only issue), see
https://m.thewire.in/article/economy/has-india-really-become-the-fourth-largest-economy-five-reasons-to-ask
- There is no definitive historical proof that St. Thomas actually
visited India. The “Acts of Thomas” (3rd century) and later local
traditions claim he arrived on the Malabar Coast in around 52 CE and
established Christian communities there. These sources are not
contemporary accounts and contain legendary elements as well.
Archaeological evidence (e.g. early Christian burial sites in Kerala)
exists but doesn't mean that later beliefs of Thomas in parts of Kerala
and Madras are necessarily true or that he was connected with the same.
- Dalrymple and writers of his genre offer compelling syntheses. Their
works are popular history, designed for narrative readability. They can
popularise the understanding of history; but are we treating them as the
definitive corrective to “old books”, which risks substituting literary
flair for more serious historiography?
On Thursday, 18 December 2025 at 11:58:56 UTC+5:30 Pedro Mascarenhas wrote:
> To understand the Konkan strip of yesterday and Goa of today
>
> First of all, just to remind you: Bookstores in Portugal have put on sale
> the book "The Golden Road – How Ancient India Transformed the World" by
> author William Dalrymple (See attached copy in English).
>
> Yesterday refers to the period up to the discovery of the sea route to
> East Africa by Vasco da Gama. In Malindi, Kenya, Gama established relations
> with the local leader, who gave the Portuguese a pilot who knew the way to
> Calicut, India.
>
> Today refers to Goa, after the 500-year interregnum, and an integral part
> of India, the fifth largest economy in GDP (2025) according to the
> International Monetary Fund (IMF).
>
> Why did Vasco da Gama and other conquerors put so much effort into
> reaching India? They could have stayed on the west coast of Africa. Because
> India was a magnet for the ancient world and continues to be so today as
> the fifth largest economy in GDP (2025).
>
> If understanding an arm requires knowing the entire human body, the same
> can be said of Goa (or the Konkan coast) after studying the entire history
> of India (or India/Bharat fractured) since antiquity. Goa didn't begin with
> Vasco da Gama, Afonso de Albuquerque, or Ismail Adil Shah. History and
> geography were already established there millennia ago. It was necessary to
> sift through and cross-reference information from various sources, from
> Ancient Egypt to Cambodia, passing through the once-powerful Roman Empire,
> the islands of Indonesia, and various Chinese dynasties, to narrate the
> mutual influences. This is what impartial researchers, unbiased historians,
> and above all, multidisciplinary archaeologists have been doing in recent
> times, setting aside Eurocentric interpretations that have transmitted
> erroneous versions. This is what William Dalrymple, Sanjay Subrahmanyan,
> John Keay, and other specialists have been doing for years. The book "The
> Golden Road" describes, in detail, the wealth of ancient India that
> attracted the attention and covetousness of the world, the trade between
> autonomous cities and kingdoms eager for expensive and luxurious objects.
>
>
> Herodotus and the Greek geographers said that, in India, gold was
> unearthed by giant ants and guarded by griffins, and that precious jewels
> were scattered on the ground like dust.
>
> According to the Roman historian Pliny, the Elder (23-79 BC), Rome
> imported one hundred million sesterces from India in the form of precious
> stones, pearls, spices, fine cotton, silk, exotic woods, perfumes,
> elephants, tigers, and peacocks, etc. He also said that, in his time, 120
> ships visited the ports of the west coast of India each year. There were,
> in fact, three routes, one by land (the caravan route, through Mesopotamia,
> Persia, and Afghanistan) and two by sea, one departing from Alexandria and
> the other from Bosra.
>
> But also, Indian knowledge, religious perceptions, and concepts are among
> the fundamental pillars of our world. India would teach the Arab world, and
> consequently also Mediterranean Europe, the enigmas of mathematics,
> science, and astronomy. For example, from India to Europe: chess, the
> concept of zero (shunya), decimal numbers, the Indo-Arabic numeral system,
> etc., and from the Middle East to India: St. Thomas, the disciple of Jesus
> Christ. From India to the Far East: The teachings of Buddha. Roman coins
> and other vestiges have been discovered in many locations in India,
> including Arikamedu (Tamil Nadu). In Berenice (Egypt), on the Red Sea,
> excavations in 2022 revealed artifacts from India and Sri Lanka. The Konkan
> strip, including what is now known as Goa (Gove, Govapuri, or Gomant, and
> even Sindabur), could not escape intense commercial activity, albeit on a
> smaller scale. Duarte Barbosa, a 16th-century Portuguese traveler, reports
> seeing Arab merchants in Goa.
>
> In the city of Ponda (Goa, India), Roman coins were found. In 1916, when
> some workers were digging trenches on a property, they found a pot with
> gold coins from Ancient Rome (see two attachments).
>
> From the Roman Empire to China, everything normally flowed through
> negotiation, payment, or exchange of products produced by each region. In
> trade negotiations you get what you pay for! Obviously, there were also
> pirates.
>
> With Gama's arrival, everything changed in that region. There is an
> African proverb that says: After the rat comes the snake. In this case,
> snakes were the English, French, and Dutch who followed. Trade was now at
> the tip of the cannons of caravels.
>
> The liberation of Goa on December 19, 1961, was a long road. Reading
> William Dalrymple's book "The Golden Road" will help us understand what was
> hidden and not revealed in the myths of the old books that some still
> insist on reading.
> Pedro Mascarenhas
>
>
>
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