Echoes Of India: A History Podcast

By IVM Podcasts

What's Echoes Of India: A History Podcast about?

Echoes of India is the story of India like you've never heard it before. Host Anirudh Kanisetti takes you on a journey through its wonders, from the Greek art of Afghanistan  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.

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Echoes Of India: A History Podcast episodes:

09.20.2021
Beloved of the Gods: Ashoka Maurya in His Time and Ours
In the Season 3 Finale, we explore South Asia at the time of its most famous ancient figure: Ashoka Maurya
09.13.2021
The Emperor is Naked: How History Forgot the Ajivikas and Remembered the Mauryas
The forgotten religion of the Ajivikas can tell us a great deal about the religions and empires of the early Gangetic Plains.
09.06.2021
Alexander the Brute: Building Empires in the Ancient World
The invasion of Alexander III of Macedon is a landmark event in South Asian history.
08.30.2021
Thrones of Blood: Ajatashatru's Wars and the First Buddhist Council
How did the kingdom of Magadha lay the foundations for India's first empire?
08.23.2021
The Great Extinguishing: Memories of the Death of Buddha and the Rise of Magadha
Death inevitably comes to us all. But how do memories of the dead shape our world
08.16.2021
So I Have Heard From the Blessed One: Anirudh Speaks to the Buddha
What might Siddhartha Gotama, the Buddha, have actually thought of himself?
08.09.2021
Nun of Your Business: Women, Society, and the Sangha in Early Buddhism
Witness the burgeoning power of the Buddhist Sangha in the early Gangetic Plains
08.02.2021
Buddha the Prophet: The Republics, Slaves and Ethics of Early India
In Episode 3 of Echoes of India, we'll begin to follow the extraordinary career of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.
07.26.2021
Gargi's Fires: Gender, Caste, Rebirth, and the Metaphysics of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
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.
07.19.2021
Buddha Goes to Sarnath: How Cities and Civilisations are Born
The Season 3 premiere for Echoes of India returns us to the vibrant world of ancient India.
05.29.2019
Harsha's Laughter
What happened in India after the fall of the Gupta Empire? Some of the most incredible states and people in the subcontinent's history emerged. This is their story. Notes and sources are at https://www.anirudhkanisetti.com/home/episode-22 Or get...
05.22.2019
End of an Era
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...
05.15.2019
A Day in Ancient Ujjain
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 Asia's oldest cities,...
05.08.2019
When The Huns Invaded India
In the 5th century, two of the ancient world's 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...
05.01.2019
A Game of Thrones and Temples
The same century that saw the collapse of the Western Roman Empire also saw the rise of the great temple-building movements that transformed India's society and economy - but these played out in a deadly family drama that would lead...
04.24.2019
A Chinese Monk in Ancient India
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 60-year old Chinese monk...
04.17.2019
A Forgotten Queen
The 5th century Queen Prabhavati-Gupta, 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...
04.10.2019
Vishnu on Earth
This is the story of the spectacular Gupta astro-religio-political 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...
04.03.2019
Language of the Gods
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...
03.27.2019
King Of Kings
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 Samudra-Gupta, as Sanskrit courtly culture flourishes and war breaks out across the...
02.06.2019
Season Finale: Rise and Fall
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...
01.30.2019
Maitreya the Messiah
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 India's...
01.23.2019
A Buddhist Shahenshah
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...
01.16.2019
Kushana, Son of God
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...
01.09.2019
The Lost City of the Tamils
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...
01.02.2019
A South Indian Buddha
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 Roman-style...
12.24.2018
The War of the Words
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 widely-spoken languages of power and culture, in a time of political and cultural innovation....
12.17.2018
The Shadow of Andhra's Stupas
This is the story of how South India's 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...
12.10.2018
An Indian Lady in Ancient Rome
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...
12.03.2018
The Glory of a Deccan Queen
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...
11.26.2018
Buddha Goes to Afghanistan
Sometimes, the most beautiful art is paid for by the most brutal of conquerors. This is the story of how ancient India's most remarkably globalised art was born. In this episode, the tale of Gandhara continues to unfold as the...
11.19.2018
The Greeks Who Became Indians
Most histories of post-Vedic India start with Alexander the Great and then start with the story of North India under the Mauryas. But this story stays with Alexander's army. This episode explores the North-West of the Indian subcontinent, where South...
11.13.2018
Introduction
Echoes is a history podcast like no other. It's by Indians, about Indians, for Indians: A 700-year journey from the invasion of Alexander to the Gupta Empire, from the sublime Greek art of Gandhara to the pearl-white Buddhist stupas of...

What's Echoes Of India: A History Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Echoes Of India: A History Podcast episodes:

Beloved of the Gods: Ashoka Maurya in His Time and Ours

The Emperor is Naked: How History Forgot the Ajivikas and Remembered the Mauryas

Alexander the Brute: Building Empires in the Ancient World

Thrones of Blood: Ajatashatru's Wars and the First Buddhist Council

The Great Extinguishing: Memories of the Death of Buddha and the Rise of Magadha

So I Have Heard From the Blessed One: Anirudh Speaks to the Buddha

Nun of Your Business: Women, Society, and the Sangha in Early Buddhism

Buddha the Prophet: The Republics, Slaves and Ethics of Early India

Gargi's Fires: Gender, Caste, Rebirth, and the Metaphysics of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Buddha Goes to Sarnath: How Cities and Civilisations are Born

Harsha's Laughter

End of an Era

A Day in Ancient Ujjain

When The Huns Invaded India

A Game of Thrones and Temples

A Chinese Monk in Ancient India

A Forgotten Queen

Vishnu on Earth

Language of the Gods

King Of Kings

Season Finale: Rise and Fall

Maitreya the Messiah

A Buddhist Shahenshah

Kushana, Son of God

The Lost City of the Tamils

A South Indian Buddha

The War of the Words

The Shadow of Andhra's Stupas

An Indian Lady in Ancient Rome

The Glory of a Deccan Queen

Buddha Goes to Afghanistan

The Greeks Who Became Indians

Introduction