Sit by the ruins, and the inscriptions in the caves, and listen. Listen to the seers and the folklorists, to the waters of the perennial rivers and the echoes from the immortal gigantic mountains. Look at the personifications of prayer carved out of marble or stone, and lie under a banyan tree, and listen. Listen to India, a country with 5,000 years of history, the largest democracy in the world today, and the world’s most ancient civilization.
Nowhere on earth can you find such a rich and multi-layered tradition that has remained unbroken and largely unchanged for at least 5,000 years. A civilization united by its diversity, India has always been known as a land where history echoes itself with all its wonders in every piece of stone and every particle of dust. This spirit has been wonderfully captured by the words of the French philosopher Romain Rollard, who lived in the early 20th century. He said, “If there is one place on the face of this Earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when Man began the dream of existence, it is India.”
