(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) Everything you ever needed to know about buying and running a farm in ancient India. Learn how to navigate the paper work required to buy a farm. Get advice on what to grow, and how. Hear how to pay your agricultural taxes. Until finally, work done, you can settle down to watch the crops grow and listen to a few old farmer's tales.
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) How best to get inside the shoes of ancient Indians? Through the stomach! This episode, some friends cook some ancient Indian meals and give them a tasting. Will we adopt an ancient Indian diet? Will we be up all night with indigestion? Listen and find out. (Check out Adil's craft beer and games podcast: http://www.outoflives.net/tankedup)
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) We cook a meal for some ancient Indians. From buying ingredients down the market, to working in the Kitchen, to the meal itself. We might also indulge in a bit of smoking and drinking afterwards.
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) Students from around the known world set out with their books. They are heading for one location. The great monastery in Northern India: Nalanda. We join them on their journey into the complex, and take part in debates and daily life alongside them.
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) We return to the Ajanta Caves for a second special episode. In this episode, the emperor is building his own cave, grander than all the others. The story of the cave is the story of the empire: it is constructed and for the briefest moment flourishes, before it tumbles into nothing.
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) The Ajanta Caves. A world famous collection of caves where Buddhists worshipped for years.... well, not exactly. The caves were abandoned half way through construction. They tell the story of the building of a great institution carrying the hopes of an empire, before the empire and the caves tumbled out of history.
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) This week, two empires will fall. As the grand Gupta empire retreats to the east and falls apart, we see its inner workings exposed. And we watch the small states squabble and fight over its legacy. The stage is set for long years of turmoil.
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) Two rulers fight over Northern India. The emperor of the Guptas, a gentle man devoted to Buddhism. The king of the Huns, a self-made man devoted to conquest. This week, the war between these two men, the final war between the Guptas and the huns
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) It's festival time, and the streets of Pataliputra are busy with the sound of celebration. But the celebrations won't last. Emperors will fall like flies. The empire will be filled with rebellious states. The Huns will invade India, and sweep aside the emperor's best protections, conquering to the very heart of the empire. Will the Gupta emperor survive? Will the empire strike back? Listen, and find out.
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) Ever strolled through a museum absent mindedly, when all the exhibits seem to blur into one. What would happen if you took just one exhibit found out everything you could about it: where it was originally placed, what it meant to the people who made it, what legends and meaning it brought to their mind?
This week, we take a pair of statues from a museum in Delhi and do exactly that. We hear the story of their city from its founding to its flourishing. We take a stroll through the city during the Gupta era, and come across those same two statues. And we catch a glimpse of all the many meanings statues had for the ancient Indians who walked that ground before us. Link to image: https://tinyurl.com/graaees.
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) A sculpture from an ancient Indian monastery carries us away on the wings of a bird of legend. Link to image: http://bit.ly/2jHcZbr
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com). The Didarganj Yakshi, a beautiful life-size statue of a woman. We hear how she was discovered, and became an international agent, and her place in ancient Pataliputra. Link to image: http://bit.ly/2jHWQ5R
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) Quick introduction to the mini-episodes on artworks and artefacts. Short ancient Indian story by way of compensation.
(www.historyofindiapodcast.com) The fortunes of the Gupta family are ruined. The empire has splintered into a dozen warring factions. The huns are already inside India, and at the gates of the empire. This is the tale of how emperor Skandagupta overcame all odds and saved the Gupta empire.