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Echoes Of India: A History Podcast

U • History • Arts

Powered By EPIC ON. Echoes of India is the story of India like youve never heard it before. Host Anirudh Kanisetti takes you on a journey through its wonders, from the Greek art of Afghanistan to the to the thriving ports of Tamil Nadu. Along the way, monks debate, queens boast, and armies roar. From philosophy to politics to economics, the past comes back to life noisy, breathing, as thriving as the Indian subcontinent is today.

  • King Of Kings
    32 min 52 sec

    The Season 2 premiere of Echoes of India begins with the rise of the Himalaya mountains and ends with the victorious campaigns of the mighty North Indian ruler SamudraGupta, as Sanskrit courtly culture flourishes and war breaks out across the...

  • Language of the Gods
    18 min 28 sec

    How did Sanskrit become a language of power and knowledge, patronized by everyone from kings to monks through half of Asia for a thousand years This is the story of how the Guptas used its splendid syllables to turn language itself into masterful...

  • Vishnu on Earth
    26 min 31 sec

    This is the story of the spectacular Gupta astroreligiopolitical node of Udayagiri, where, in the 5th century CE, a new idea of Indian kingship was born. Here, through a series of brilliant innovations, the God of Time was experienced and identified...

  • A Forgotten Queen
    21 min 29 sec

    The 5th century Queen PrabhavatiGupta, daughter and granddaughter of kings, mother and grandmother of Queens, was one of the most remarkable women in Indian history. This is the story of her dramatic, extraordinary life. Notes and sources are...

  • A Chinese Monk in Ancient India
    27 min 26 sec

    How did South Asian Buddhism catch on in China How did the interaction between South and East Asia shape the intellectual and economic evolution of Eurasia Luckily for us, in the early 400s CE, the remarkable 60year old Chinese monk Faxian actually...

  • A Game of Thrones and Temples
    30 min 23 sec

    The same century that saw the collapse of the Western Roman Empire also saw the rise of the great templebuilding movements that transformed Indias society and economy but these played out in a deadly family drama that would lead to the end of the...

  • When The Huns Invaded India
    31 min 3 sec

    In the 5th century, two of the ancient worlds superpowers Rome and India were threatened by massive migrations of nomadic peoples. But while the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the Gupta Empire managed to defeat them. How The answer lies in the...

  • A Day in Ancient Ujjain
    23 min 18 sec

    What was life in an ancient Indian city like What were its sights and smells, and what kind of eccentric characters would it have been home to Join us on a walk through Ujjain, one of South Asias oldest cities, to find out. Notes and sources are...

  • End of an Era
    24 min 12 sec

    This is the story of the Hun who tried to be an Indian emperor, and a story of the human costs of war: a story of grief, destruction, and of creation and inspiration against all odds. Notes and sources are...

  • Harsha's Laughter
    26 min 44 sec

    What happened in India after the fall of the Gupta Empire Some of the most incredible states and people in the subcontinents history emerged. This is their story. Notes and sources are at https://www.anirudhkanisetti.com/home/episode22 Or get...

  • Introduction
    1 min 49 sec

    Echoes is a history podcast like no other. Its by Indians, about Indians, for Indians: A 700year journey from the invasion of Alexander to the Gupta Empire, from the sublime Greek art of Gandhara to the pearlwhite Buddhist stupas of Andhra to the...

  • The Greeks Who Became Indians
    21 min 52 sec

    Most histories of postVedic India start with Alexander the Great and then start with the story of North India under the Mauryas. But this story stays with Alexanders army. This episode explores the NorthWest of the Indian subcontinent, where South...

  • Buddha Goes to Afghanistan
    19 min 40 sec

    Sometimes, the most beautiful art is paid for by the most brutal of conquerors. This is the story of how ancient Indias most remarkably globalised art was born. In this episode, the tale of Gandhara continues to unfold as the IndoGreeks are uprooted...

  • The Glory of a Deccan Queen
    17 min 54 sec

    History is written by kings. What if a queen could tell us her story In this episode, the rush of Central Asian nomads into India is halted by the first true empire based in the Deccan. But it would not be the last. And the most remarkable aspect of...

  • An Indian Lady in Ancient Rome
    17 min 11 sec

    1900 years after she was carved, an Indian ivory statuette was uncovered in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. How did she come there, and how much had the world changed since the eruption of Vesuvius buried her This is her story: a story of the...

  • The Shadow of Andhra's Stupas
    20 min 41 sec

    This is the story of how South Indias grandest Buddhist monument was built: the story of a time when Buddhism dominated the Indian subcontinent, and South Indian Buddhism reached out to shape the art and religion of millions. Episode 5 of Echoes of...

  • The War of the Words
    21 min 19 sec

    How did languages shape the way ancient Indians thought and behaved Episode 6 of Echoes of India recounts the dramatic evolution of Sanskrit and Prakrit as widelyspoken languages of power and culture, in a time of political and cultural innovation....

  • A South Indian Buddha
    25 min 36 sec

    How did Buddhism catch on in South India Episode 7 of Echoes of India explores the life of the Andhra teacher Nagarjuna, called a Second Buddha, his fascinating philosophy of zeroness, and the ancient South Indian dynasty who built Romanstyle...

  • The Lost City of the Tamils
    19 min 51 sec

    This is the story of the jewel of ancient South India: the great Tamil trading city of Puhar. Episode 8 of Echoes of India brings to life a city sung about in poetry for thousands of years, at a time when one of the most important elements of Indian...

  • Kushana, Son of God
    20 min 43 sec

    This is the story of the rise of the Kushan Empire: the most powerful South Asian state since the fall of the Mauryan Empire. Episode 9 of Echoes of India brings to life the remarkable religious syncretism of one of the ancient worlds most globalized...

  • A Buddhist Shahenshah
    23 min 36 sec

    A Central Asian king revered by Indians as the Second Ashoka This is the story of the ruthless conqueror Kanishka, who led the Kushan Empire to its apogee, and ruled over most of North India but also built the worlds most splendid Buddhist stupa....

  • Maitreya the Messiah
    23 min 2 sec

    At the same time that Christianity and other savior cults emerged in West Asia, ancient India had its own Buddhist savior. This was Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future. This is his story, a story of life in ancient Indias most cosmopolitan region....

  • Season Finale: Rise and Fall
    23 min 10 sec

    The Season 1 Finale of Echoes of India is a rollercoaster ride through 600 years of Indian history, of the rise and fall of empires and ideas until the eve of the Gupta Empire in 300 CE. From art to religion to language, the finale sets the stage for...

  • Buddha Goes to Sarnath: How Cities and Civilisations are Born
    30 min 5 sec

    The Season 3 premiere for Echoes of India returns us to the vibrant world of ancient India.

  • Gargi's Fires: Gender, Caste, Rebirth, and the Metaphysics of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
    37 min 25 sec

    The Episode 2 of Echoes of India brings us to the 8th century BCE, where we will see the origins of many of the ideas that shape India today.

  • Buddha the Prophet: The Republics, Slaves and Ethics of Early India
    39 min 45 sec

    In Episode 3 of Echoes of India, well begin to follow the extraordinary career of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.

  • Nun of Your Business: Women, Society, and the Sangha in Early Buddhism
    37 min 58 sec

    Witness the burgeoning power of the Buddhist Sangha in the early Gangetic Plains

  • So I Have Heard From the Blessed One: Anirudh Speaks to the Buddha
    35 min 13 sec

    What might Siddhartha Gotama, the Buddha, have actually thought of himself

  • The Great Extinguishing: Memories of the Death of Buddha and the Rise of Magadha
    34 min 48 sec

    Death inevitably comes to us all. But how do memories of the dead shape our world

  • Thrones of Blood: Ajatashatru's Wars and the First Buddhist Council
    31 min 5 sec

    How did the kingdom of Magadha lay the foundations for Indias first empire

  • Alexander the Brute: Building Empires in the Ancient World
    34 min 4 sec

    The invasion of Alexander III of Macedon is a landmark event in South Asian history.

  • The Emperor is Naked: How History Forgot the Ajivikas and Remembered the Mauryas
    31 min 24 sec

    The forgotten religion of the Ajivikas can tell us a great deal about the religions and empires of the early Gangetic Plains.

  • Beloved of the Gods: Ashoka Maurya in His Time and Ours
    1 hr 7 min 7 sec

    In the Season 3 Finale, we explore South Asia at the time of its most famous ancient figure: Ashoka Maurya

Language

English

Genre

History, Arts

Seasons

3

Author