Story Of India : Beginnings

Finally after a long gap, I started the documentary I downloaded a long time ago : The Story of India; a six volume documentary series on India narrated by famous historian Michael Wood. I had first seen this series on my cousin's computer and he recommended me to watch it. I watched the first episode today : The Beginnings. In this episode, Michael tries to find the beginning civilization in Indian subcontinent and how people came here. This journey takes us from the hamlets of Kerala to ruins of Indus Valley Civilization in Pakistan and finally to mainland India. The magic of Michael wood was overshadowing the video, his unique British accent, priceless expressions and huge knowledge about the world was unmistakably charismatic. One more thing which kept me spellbound throughout the episode was the background Indian classic music composed by Howard Davidson.

The Series starts with Wood explaining about the first migrations of humans from Africa. Then, he takes us to remote villages of Kerala; one of the few regions of India still highly culturally intact. He goes to the Brahmin homes where father and sons are reciting incantations in an ancient language. This language is a very old language and there is no written mode of it. It is only known in its spoken form. It is told that this is was one of the earliest languages known to mankind and after research it has come to knowledge that it is composed of strange sounds resembling the hooting of birds. It is speculated that when the humans first came to settle down in India, they were using this language. 

Then, wood packs his bags and moves on the Indus Valley in Pakistan, where civilization is believed to have started around 3500 B.C . There he moves to ancient towns of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. In its peak of power, Indus Valley civilization is believed to have been home of around 5 million people. In his eloquent tone, Wood also describes how British archaeologists discovered this place. But suddenly the civilizations got disappeared from here and migrated to other places. The shift in climate is believed to be a major factor in this. The change in weather affected the river system in which was the lifeline of Valley. So, the people migrated to east in the interiors of India; right in the plains of mighty Ganges.

The story then takes us to the earlier capital of British India - Calcutta. The city still shows the impact of British in its architecture and culture. Wood meets some members of Asiatic Society which has lots of historical texts. Wood discovers the Rig Veda and the various theories in it about the Indian gods. Rig Veda is written in Sanskrit and is believed to have been written around 1700 - 1100 BC. It is considered to be the oldest of the holiest scriptures of Hindus. Wood compares the texts of Rig Veda with what he found in Indus Valley that people of that age tamed horses and had chariots. He even mentions Soma, a drink believed to be taken by even gods. He tries to recreate Soma in the markets of Peshawar. Soma is believed to be  prepared from plants in Central Asia and supports the strong relation between Central Asia and India. Then, he observes the fact that the people not just migrated to India alone, but even to upper Central Asia like in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan of present. Wood doesn't leaves these parts behind for his quest to uncover the mystery and goes to an Archaeological complex in Turkmenistan and meets an Russian archaeologist who is working on the same mystery. Then, he concludes the episode by going to Holi celebrations in Mathura and quotes "This is just the beginning".