Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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137 of 141 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous series full of insight and information. A 'must see', 9 Oct 2007
The BBC produced a whole range of TV series this summer based around the anniversary of the partition of India and Pakistan. Michael Wood's series is by far the best in every aspect. It's excellent television (goodness me, it's what we pay our licence fee for!).
Wood is an engaging, enthusiastic historian who obviously has a passion for Indian history, Indian culture, and the peoples of India. So the series traces the development of the sub-continent from its earliest days, when men first populated the area, through all the major historical events that have shaped the people and the places. Religion inevitably forms a spiritual spine to the series, but Wood manages to explain the different belief systems without patronising and keeps their impact intact.
Wood also dares to go where other 'presenters' don't dare to tread. In the course of the series he visit Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq (where he's been several times before) and Tibet, in order to better explain the historical context behind the waves of invaders who populated and influenced India. Mind you, I'm not convinced that the footage with the Dalai Lama was a first-person interview...
I found the Ganges series to be pretty but overly dramatic, and the two other 'personality' journeys into India and Pakistan, hosted by well known TV people who were tracing their family roots, to be superficial and overblown. This series is none of those things.
Instead it is colourful, engaging, entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. My one criticism is that the final episode, which deals with the days of the British Empire and partition, is maybe a little too harsh. But that's obviously because Wood is personally uncomfortable with the history of Empire... and it's a minor point.
Otherwise this is top-class documentary television. Well worth watching several times over.
And if you like it, then try Wood's book on a South Indian Journey, too!
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110 of 114 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very enjoyable series, 5 Mar 2008
Having watched this DVD I must say that this is a very impressive series. The presenter, historian Michael Wood, is really passionate about India and has an energetic style that makes this series a joy to watch. He also does well to go back as far as he does, starting off in the South and working his way around other areas of the Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan.
This series has the following 6 episodes on 2-discs.
1. Beginnings - Ancient rituals in South India and the Indus Valley Civilisation (3000BC) are explored
2. The Power of Ideas - covers the emergence of Buddhism around 500BC and the first Indian Empire led by the Maurya rulers.
3. Spice Routes and Silk Roads - India as a trading partner of Ancient Rome and Greece.
4. Ages of Gold - The Gupta and Chola Empires which marked the Golden Age of Indian history around 300-600AD.
5. The Meeting of Two Oceans - Covers the period of Mughal rule including Akbar the Great around 1600AD.
6. Freedom - covering British rule and the struggle for independence.
It is a great advert for India and it's rich history, placing it on a par with other civilizations like the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans and Chinese. There are aspects (Aryan Migration Theory and Indus Valley Civilisation) that some Indian historians will be very unhappy about (as Wood mentions briefly) but until some-one makes a comparable series with evidence to support alternative ideas, this is the best documentary out there. The reason I gave it only 4 stars was because I felt it could have had more content - I personally wanted more coverage of certain eras (such as 1000BC to 200AD) but I still recommend it highly.
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67 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
professional archaeologist/historian glorifies India, 9 Oct 2007
Michael Wood is an archaeologist/historian telling the story of India (the whole sub-continent) from the earliest times to the present. Trying to tell the whole of 5,000 years in six episodes forces selection. Michael Wood, you can see from watching him travelling in India, is in love with India. So, naturally, he picks the glories of Indian history,and describes and celebrates them.
To him glories are things like people living together peacefully and prosperously in cities, trading with far off lands, achieving great things in art, architecture, literature, science & philosophy, and having enlightened rulers promoting ideas like non-violence, welfare of the people and religious diversity - not the making of empires by war or fabulous wealth acquired by oppression and exploitation (plenty of that in Indian history but he leaves most of that sort of thing it out).
I have watched all episodes at least three times. It is a delight. I watched it in three different ways:
(1) enjoying the history of India being told in a glorious overpowering fashion through a whole range of voices, including judgments of professional historians in India, explanations given by guardians of sacred locations and the stories told by people who just happen to be living now at some historic place or other - attested historic facts, accounts that have come down by tradition that may be true, and some outright legends all blended together;
(2) using the series as a textbook of Indian history (but it works only as a starting point, a wonderful starting point, as it is selective, and tends put the best and most glorious interpretation on what it describes - having a finger on the pause button and an internet connected laptop is useful to empower your critical faculties); and
(3) relaxing and enjoying the glorious, often colourful, visuals: Michael Wood visits everywhere - places where things happened, historic cities that existed or still exist, ancient popular ceremonies and festivities that still continue - from the deep green of Kerala in the south to Afghanistan and the deserts of central Asia to trace the story - it is like a complete tour of historic India with all its mass of humanity and colour but without the heat, discomfort, etc.
A DVD for the library definitely.
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