The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World is a 2024 history book by William Dalrymple. It discusses the ways in which India's ideas and influences spread throughout and shaped Eurasia.^[1]

The book argues that the primary route connecting Eurasia from 250 BC to 1200 AD^[2] was a route going through India referred to in the book as the "Golden Road"; this route facilitated an Indian sphere of influence, referred under the name Indosphere.

India's outward influence began with the west coast of India interacting with the outside world, with the Roman Empire's conquest of Egypt in the 1st century establishing the peak of Indo-Roman trade;^[3] the fall of Rome in the 5th and 6th centuries then forced Indian traders to turn their attention eastward, resulting in significant influence upon Southeast Asia. By the 7th century, Buddhism had penetrated China, with the reign of Wu Zetian resulting in a brief Indianization of the royal court and a general explosion of learning from India.^[4][5] And by the 13th century, Indian mathematical and astronomical ideas had gone through the Arab world^[6] and reached Europe,^[7] but in the same century, conquests put an end to the heretofore peaceful expansion of Indian influence. Mongol conquests in Eurasia ended India's centrality by paving the way for the Silk Road, giving China greater prominence as it thus gained access to the Mediterranean,^[4] while Muslim armies temporarily interrupted trade routes to India's west and took over North India.^[8]

Dalrymple was inspired to write the book after a visit to Angkor Wat, the largest Hindu temple in the world.^[9] He spent five years travelling throughout the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia to do research for the book.^[10]

• Indo-Mediterranean

• William Dalrymple Explains | The ancient history behind the maritime trade route between India and Europe