0:00:04 > 0:00:11Since ancient times, Indian civilisation has been driven by great ideas,
0:00:11 > 0:00:15by the search for knowledge and truth.
0:00:15 > 0:00:21Here in South India, the people of the Jain religion pay homage to a teacher
0:00:21 > 0:00:27who was once a king, who renounced his kingdom to seek enlightenment.
0:00:29 > 0:00:36From the Buddha to Mahatma Gandhi, Indian history is full of such figures,
0:00:36 > 0:00:42men and women who contested the idea that history should only be written by the men of war.
0:00:43 > 0:00:51From the 5th century BC, these ideas shaped one of the most revolutionary times in history,
0:00:51 > 0:00:59when great empires were founded in India on these universal principles of peace and non-violence,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03the next chapter in The Story of India.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38'But our journey begins very much in the present.'
0:01:38 > 0:01:45Not Hollywood, no, a BBC documentary. Good morning. Times Of India, please.
0:01:45 > 0:01:52'Amid one of the all too common crises of our modern world, we humans are a competitive species,
0:01:52 > 0:01:57'fighting for resources and ideas, still to learn history's lessons.'
0:01:57 > 0:02:02We're heading to Varanasi, tempered slightly,
0:02:02 > 0:02:04as last night there were bombings
0:02:04 > 0:02:07at a railway station and a temple.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11Nobody knows quite why it's happened.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16But the trains are still running, so we'll see what happens.
0:02:20 > 0:02:27There are six billion people in the world now, compared with a hundred million in the 5th century BC.
0:02:27 > 0:02:33And the fulfilment of our desires has become a goal of civilisation.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38Every person has his own identity, his own needs.
0:02:38 > 0:02:44Mr Wood? Mr Wood? Ah, yes! Aren't the Indian railways wonderful?
0:02:44 > 0:02:51All the great ancient civilisations meditated on these big questions - how to live life,
0:02:51 > 0:02:57sharing the planet with other people, how to find happiness.
0:03:00 > 0:03:07For Indian people, the traditional goal of life is to live with virtue - dharma.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12To gain wealth and success - artha.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16To find pleasure - kama.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22But in the end, to seek enlightenment - moksha.
0:03:27 > 0:03:35Back in the 5th century BC, a series of kingdoms had grown up in the Ganges plain with cities.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40And in history, cities are always vehicles for change.
0:03:42 > 0:03:48India's greatest sacred city, Varanasi, was founded around 500 BC.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52It's been called the Jerusalem of India.
0:03:52 > 0:03:58Here are living continuities with the old order of Indian society.
0:03:58 > 0:04:05That order was founded on the caste system, into which all Hindus are born, marry and die.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14The caste system divides people by birth from high to low.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19It fixes their jobs and their place in society.
0:04:27 > 0:04:34We're going to meet one of the family of the Dom Rajas, the lords of the dead.
0:04:34 > 0:04:40They are the only people who can perform the funeral pyres here in Benares.
0:04:40 > 0:04:47When family comes to have cremation of a family member, the fire can only come from your family?
0:04:47 > 0:04:51Yes. Because if they could not take the fire from us,
0:04:51 > 0:04:56they cannot burn the body even if it's the prime minister.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01- Is it allowed to see?- Yes.- May we come?- Yes.- We follow you?- Yes.- OK.
0:05:01 > 0:05:08'The sacred fire from which all pyres must be lit has been burning here for thousands of years.'
0:05:08 > 0:05:15- So is this the fire here? - Yes. And the fire has been here since 3,500 years.
0:05:15 > 0:05:21'In all societies in history, religions offer a path to salvation.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26'But in practice, religions create physical and mental bonds.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31'The essence of India's ancient system was that salvation only came
0:05:31 > 0:05:36'by the performance of rituals in the right time and place.'
0:05:36 > 0:05:43Before he starts burning, he must walk around five times, because of the five elements.
0:05:43 > 0:05:49- Earth, water, wind, fire, ether? - Fire, water, air, earth, ether.
0:05:49 > 0:05:55In the ritual universe, order is vital. And so it was in the 5th century BC.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58"Know your place in the order.
0:05:58 > 0:06:05"Perform the necessary rituals. Fulfil your duty whatever caste you're born into."
0:06:05 > 0:06:10You and your family are very, very important people in India, yes?
0:06:10 > 0:06:14- In a way of thinking. - In a way of thinking.
0:06:14 > 0:06:21But in reality, people think of us as a very low caste. "We cannot touch him.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26- "We cannot..."- You are low caste? - We are untouchable. We are pariah.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31When we walk in the street, people don't like to touch us.
0:06:31 > 0:06:38So, because you do the rituals for the dead and you touch the dead, you are very low caste?
0:06:38 > 0:06:43- But everybody needs you. - Without us they cannot do.
0:06:44 > 0:06:51From ancient times, that was the Indian way. And it's lasted thousands of years,
0:06:51 > 0:06:58a system of power from the Iron Age, now being re-negotiated in modern, democratic India.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00But it was challenged before.
0:07:00 > 0:07:06People first started to question the old order in the 5th century BC.
0:07:06 > 0:07:11And not just in India. In China, there was Confucius and Lao Tzu.
0:07:11 > 0:07:18Across in the Mediterranean, the Greek philosophers. In Israel, the Old Testament prophets.
0:07:18 > 0:07:26It was a revolutionary time for humanity - the birth of conscience, putting ethics centre of the world.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32And nowhere were these questionings more intense than in India.
0:07:40 > 0:07:48Speculation about the nature of the universe and the nature of the self and the connection between the two
0:07:48 > 0:07:54is one of the oldest obsessions of Indian civilisation, even in the Bronze Age.
0:07:54 > 0:08:02But in the cities of the Ganges plain here in the 5th century BC, a host of thinkers arose,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05rationalists, sceptics, atheists.
0:08:05 > 0:08:11There were those who denied the existence of the afterlife and reincarnation.
0:08:11 > 0:08:17There were those like the Jains who believed that all living creatures
0:08:17 > 0:08:21were bonded together in a chain of being across time.
0:08:21 > 0:08:27There were scientists, closely resembling their contemporaries in Greece,
0:08:27 > 0:08:34Greek philosophers, who suggested the world was composed of atoms and that everything was change.
0:08:34 > 0:08:41And there were those who said there were immutable laws of the cosmos and all change was illusory.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46But the most influential of these thinkers was the Buddha.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01The Buddha's story is the stuff of fairytales.
0:09:01 > 0:09:08He came from a world of princely magnificence. And nowhere does princely better than India.
0:09:08 > 0:09:16Young, newly-wed, high-caste, he had everything. And then, in a sudden bolt of lightning,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21he saw the reality of human life for everyone, suffering and death.
0:09:25 > 0:09:31So there and then, young Gautam left behind his wife and family
0:09:31 > 0:09:35and set out on the road, seeking truth.
0:09:37 > 0:09:44'Six years he wandered, a long-haired dropout, until he finally came here to Bodh Gaya.'
0:09:44 > 0:09:47- How are you?- Hi.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53This one is the bird
0:09:53 > 0:09:55with Buddha himself...
0:09:55 > 0:09:58From the side of his mouth? Oh, yes.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03- So here, this is when he says, "My black hair, I cut off."- Yes.
0:10:03 > 0:10:09All right. Yeah. So he left his wife and his baby?
0:10:09 > 0:10:11Yes.
0:10:12 > 0:10:20Today, nearly 400 million people are Buddhists. From Burma and Korea to China and now the West,
0:10:20 > 0:10:25young Gautam will re-shape history, but when he first comes here,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28he's another ragged renouncer.
0:10:28 > 0:10:35The Buddha had come here to do what Indian holy men did, practising almost unbelievable austerities.
0:10:35 > 0:10:42"I ate so little those days," he said later, "that my buttocks were as knobbly as a camel's hoof.
0:10:42 > 0:10:50"The bones of my spine stuck out like a row of spindles. And my ribs looked like a collapsed old shed.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53"And much good did it do me."
0:10:53 > 0:10:58And that's his voice, a vivid, realistic turn of phrase.
0:10:58 > 0:11:06Not holier than thou. His years on the road had taught the ex-prince to speak the common language.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11So he sits here under a pipal tree,
0:11:11 > 0:11:18seeking enlightenment. It's one of the great moments in history. And this is the very place.
0:11:23 > 0:11:30- This is the diamond throne.- That throne? So this is the place where the Buddha is believed to have sat
0:11:30 > 0:11:36- and attained enlightenment?- This is where he attained enlightenment.
0:11:36 > 0:11:41This is also called "the navel of the earth".
0:11:41 > 0:11:48- So for all Buddhists, the most sacred place?- For all the Buddhists from all over the world,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52this is the most sacred place for worship and veneration.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54CHANTING
0:11:56 > 0:12:01Some of his devotees wanted a statue of the Buddha to be made.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05He then and there rejected the idea, the proposal.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10And he said that "if people need something,
0:12:10 > 0:12:15"then it should be the Bodhi Tree, which has given me shelter
0:12:15 > 0:12:21"to sit and meditate and attain the supreme bliss that I had experienced.
0:12:21 > 0:12:27"And it will also give shelter to thousands of people who are in search of truth."
0:12:27 > 0:12:34And today, Bodh Gaya is a magnet for thousands of people from all over the world,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38whether seeking truth or simply curious.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40And it's a luminous place -
0:12:40 > 0:12:45magical, and yet, full of life.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54It's great, isn't it, all the monks enjoying themselves?
0:12:56 > 0:13:02How often we make our history the story of the great conquerors, the men of violence -
0:13:02 > 0:13:04Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08That's what we teach our children in their history books.
0:13:08 > 0:13:15But here's one man who sits under a tree, thinking, and changes the world.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17But this is an Indian story.
0:13:21 > 0:13:29By the morning, the Buddha had crystallised in his mind what he called the four noble truths.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33In essence, the idea was very simple.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38The nature of the human condition, he thought, is suffering.
0:13:38 > 0:13:45And suffering is caused, in the end, by human desire, by attachment, by covetousness,
0:13:45 > 0:13:50in the inner life, and in the outside world.
0:13:50 > 0:13:57"Free yourself from those desires," the Buddha thought, "and you can become a liberated human being.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00"But it can only come from within."
0:14:04 > 0:14:09Ultimately, inner happiness, inner satisfaction,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12must be created by oneself.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15You could be a billionaire,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18but deep inside, very lonely person,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20very lonely feeling.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25So therefore, as a human being,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28regardless believer or non-believer,
0:14:28 > 0:14:33these inner human values are very essential
0:14:33 > 0:14:36in order to have happier individual,
0:14:36 > 0:14:41happier family, happier society or happier nation.
0:14:45 > 0:14:52The core of the Buddha's ideas was the Eightfold Path - respect for living things,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56compassion, truth, non-violence,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00ethical action. It's so easy to say, isn't it?
0:15:00 > 0:15:04But we're still struggling for it today.
0:15:04 > 0:15:11He's still on his own at this point, so he travels from Bodh Gaya to Sarnath.
0:15:13 > 0:15:20Here in the Deer Park he picks up five old friends from his time on the road.
0:15:20 > 0:15:25They become his first disciples. And he tries his ideas out on them.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30And on this spot, now marked by the Great Stupa,
0:15:30 > 0:15:35he gives what becomes known as the First Sermon.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40This was called the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44It means "setting the wheel of doctrine in motion".
0:15:44 > 0:15:50Setting the wheel of doctrine, or law, in motion. The wheel, yes.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55And the teaching of Buddha is not only for monks, it is for all.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59For the well-being of many.
0:15:59 > 0:16:05- For the next more than 40 years, the Buddha journeyed and preached. - 45 years.
0:16:05 > 0:16:0745 years, journeyed and preached.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10- He never stayed at one place.- Yes.
0:16:21 > 0:16:27And now it becomes a great Indian story. The real journey begins.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31He wanders, no possessions, on foot, begging,
0:16:31 > 0:16:36through the small world of the Iron Age kingdoms of the Ganges plain.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42THUNDER RUMBLES
0:16:42 > 0:16:47But the thing to remember is, he's a protestor.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52Through Indian history, there's a tension between the rulers
0:16:52 > 0:16:59and those who fought for social justice. From the medieval saints to the freedom fighters
0:16:59 > 0:17:07and the flood of modern poets and agitators, he's the first of India's million mutineers.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Then he comes here to Rajgir,
0:17:12 > 0:17:17invited by the king, who saw something in him.
0:17:19 > 0:17:24The king gave him some land on which to build a hut,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27a bamboo grove. It's still here.
0:17:27 > 0:17:34It was a place where monks lived all the time. We know of places in this grove which are still here,
0:17:34 > 0:17:39the squirrel's nesting place, the peacock's dancing place.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42You can imagine what it was like.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48Every year he went back to the same place, so people knew where he was.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51It was a good time for monks to re-gather.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56And if anybody wanted to be with the Buddha, they could come here.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01It's impressive. He's got about 1,000 disciples by that time.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05The king comes to meet him as with tradition.
0:18:05 > 0:18:11And now politicians go to meet religious leaders, not the other way round.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15The king said, "I had five wishes. The first was to be king.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20"And the second was to be able to receive an enlightened person.
0:18:20 > 0:18:27"The third was to hear him speak. The fourth was to understand it. The fifth was to be grateful for that."
0:18:28 > 0:18:35In the hills above Rajgir, there's a little cave where the Buddha lived through the monsoon seasons.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39The Buddha really loved this place.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43It was a little higher than the surrounding area.
0:18:43 > 0:18:50It was one of his favourite places for meditation. He even said so. He loved watching the sunset from here.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57And he just came again and again just for the sheer pleasure of it.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02You can know that the Buddha was in this cave.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06As you go into the cave, there's a little sort of...
0:19:06 > 0:19:10It's low, then it gets deeper, so you can stand up.
0:19:10 > 0:19:16You can just sit here and meditate for hours and just be with the Buddha.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21You can feel his breath even though he was here 2,500 years ago.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25You can really feel his presence in this cave now.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36And again that realistic voice - "Be your own lamp," he said.
0:19:36 > 0:19:43"Seek no other refuge but yourselves. Let truth be your light."
0:19:50 > 0:19:53BELL CHIMES
0:20:22 > 0:20:27For me, it's one of the never-failing miracles of history
0:20:27 > 0:20:35that a human mind from so long ago can still speak to us directly in his own voice
0:20:35 > 0:20:42and mean something now in our time of change. But then his was a time of change too.
0:20:46 > 0:20:53Buddhism is based on pure morality, what we'd call universal values, trust, truthfulness, non-violence.
0:20:53 > 0:21:00And those ideas were very attractive to the rising class of merchants and traders
0:21:00 > 0:21:03in the cities of the Ganges plain.
0:21:06 > 0:21:13But it's also atheistic. The logic of the Buddha's message is that belief in God itself
0:21:13 > 0:21:16is a form of attachment,
0:21:16 > 0:21:18of clinging, of desire.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23And in the land of 33 million gods or is it 330 million,
0:21:23 > 0:21:29that eventually would prove a step too far.
0:21:56 > 0:22:01But all things must pass, as he would say.
0:22:01 > 0:22:08No-one in history was clearer about that. No promise of heaven. No threat of hell.
0:22:10 > 0:22:15He's an old man now, around 80. And this was his last journey,
0:22:15 > 0:22:22among the scavengers and the dispossessed, with their unending struggle for mere survival.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Around 486 BC, according to the traditional date,
0:22:28 > 0:22:32he headed back across the plain towards the Himalayas.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37Now he's heading north back to the land of his childhood.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44Perhaps he was consciously heading home.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47He knew he was going to die.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54HORNS BLARE
0:23:04 > 0:23:11The Buddha's story ends in an endearingly scruffy little town on the Ganges plain, Kushinagar.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15On the stalls, India's deities old and new.
0:23:15 > 0:23:21And he's become one of them, against his wishes, of course.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26One of the Buddha's disciples begged him to hold on a bit longer.
0:23:26 > 0:23:32"It's a miserable place, stuck in the middle of nowhere," he said.
0:23:32 > 0:23:38"Couldn't you die in a famous place where they could give you a great funeral?"
0:23:38 > 0:23:42The Buddha said, "A small place is fitting."
0:23:47 > 0:23:51He took some food in the house of a blacksmith - pork.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55Like most ancient Indians, the Buddha was a meat eater.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57And he fell ill.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04Again the tradition marks the very spot, on the edge of Kushinagar.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11At the end, his disciples can't bear to let him go.
0:24:11 > 0:24:17"What more do you want of me?" he says. "I've made known the teaching.
0:24:17 > 0:24:24"Ask no more of me. You are the community now. I've reached the end of my journey."
0:24:24 > 0:24:31There are several versions of the Buddha's last moments. One says he exposed the upper part of his body
0:24:31 > 0:24:38to show how age and sickness had wasted it to remind his followers of the human condition.
0:24:38 > 0:24:43But all versions agree that his last words were these -
0:24:43 > 0:24:48"All created things must pass. Strive on diligently."
0:24:55 > 0:25:01Meanwhile, far to the west, tremendous events were changing the world.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06At the time of the Buddha's death, the Persian Empire invaded Greece.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10And in the following century, the Greeks came east,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12looking for revenge.
0:25:14 > 0:25:20And Europe faced Asia in the perennial battleground of Iraq.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25What happened here would change the story of India.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38Great ideas in history don't always spread beyond their own country.
0:25:38 > 0:25:45The ideas of the Buddha remained a local cult in the Ganges plain for 200 years after his death.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50And the catalyst for change, as so often in history, was war.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56On the 1st of October, 331 BC,
0:25:56 > 0:26:03the greatest battle of antiquity was fought here near the little village of Gaugamela.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07It was waged between the might of the Persian Empire,
0:26:07 > 0:26:12which ruled as far as the Indus Valley and the plains of India,
0:26:12 > 0:26:20and an army which had marched from Greece under an extraordinary young general, Alexander the Great.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43Alexander's invasion of the East was a true clash of civilisations,
0:26:43 > 0:26:50a different model for history, one that we in the West have always been seduced by,
0:26:50 > 0:26:55the East as the other, the heroic leader as superman.
0:26:56 > 0:27:03The man whose giant ego literally overwhelms the Persian divine king, Darius,
0:27:03 > 0:27:08and subdues history itself to his will.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23Alexander was a globalist.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28Alexander would thoroughly understand the world today.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33The thing that unifies all armies is the will of the commander.
0:27:33 > 0:27:39Even in a battlefield like this of 150,000 to 200,000 individuals,
0:27:39 > 0:27:42on this plain at that time,
0:27:42 > 0:27:46it came down to a contest of wills between two individuals.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49- And they both understood that?- Yes.
0:27:49 > 0:27:56And they could actually see each other and the spears thrusting into the faces of the Persians.
0:27:56 > 0:28:04At which point, Darius takes flight and drives his chariot out and away back down to the river.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12Alexander's guru, Aristotle, another great teacher,
0:28:12 > 0:28:18a seeker after truth and reason, had a different take on the world from a Buddha.
0:28:18 > 0:28:25"The Greeks have strength and reason," he said, "so it's right they should rule the world."
0:28:25 > 0:28:32So Alexander went on over the mountains, over the Khyber Pass, and down into the plains of India.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40It was the first meeting of India and the West.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50Alexander finally stopped in the Punjab, near today's Amritsar.
0:28:50 > 0:28:57The Greek army reached the River Beas here, beginning of September, 326 BC.
0:28:59 > 0:29:04But it wasn't any Greek army that you've imagined before.
0:29:04 > 0:29:11Some of them were wearing Central Asian clothes, Persian trousers, Indian cotton tunics.
0:29:11 > 0:29:19This isn't a classical Greek army, it's like a science fiction army, an ancient version of Mad Max.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23And in the middle, Alexander the Great in his uniform,
0:29:23 > 0:29:29with his ram's horn helmet with its white plumes, and on his armour the Gorgon's head,
0:29:29 > 0:29:33which was supposed to turn to stone anybody who gazed into his eyes.
0:29:33 > 0:29:40There was one person who wasn't turning to stone. A young Indian had come to Alexander's camp.
0:29:40 > 0:29:49He was deeply impressed by this spectacle of imperialism, by the glamour of Alexander's violence.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54And he would become one of the greatest figures in Indian history,
0:29:54 > 0:30:01who would create the greatest Indian Empire before modern times. His name - Chandragupta Maurya.
0:30:08 > 0:30:15In time, Chandragupta seized power, drove Alexander's successors out of India,
0:30:15 > 0:30:19and ruled from the Khyber to Bengal.
0:30:19 > 0:30:24And his state is the first forerunner of today's India.
0:30:24 > 0:30:30In 300 BC, the Greeks sent their ambassadors to him, bearing gifts.
0:30:30 > 0:30:35And they give the first ever account of India from the outside.
0:30:35 > 0:30:42From Stone Age tribes in the Himalayas to the cities of the plains, a land of 118 nations,
0:30:42 > 0:30:48rich and fertile, with rivers so wide, they couldn't see the other side.
0:30:48 > 0:30:54"One of them," the Greeks said, "worshipped by all Indians, the Ganges."
0:30:55 > 0:31:01The embassy eventually arrived at Chandragupta's capital, Patna.
0:31:02 > 0:31:07The Greek ambassadors were amazed by what they saw.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12The city stretched nine or ten miles along the bank of the Ganges.
0:31:12 > 0:31:17And all along the river frontage, they saw palaces, pleasure gardens.
0:31:17 > 0:31:24The Greek ambassador, Megasthenes, said, "I've seen the great cities of Asia. I've seen Susa in Persia.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27"But nothing compares with this."
0:31:27 > 0:31:34And if Megasthenes' description is accurate, this was indeed the greatest city in the world.
0:31:37 > 0:31:44The city stood at the junction of four rivers and measured 22 miles in circuit.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50In the king's camp were over 400,000 men
0:31:50 > 0:31:53with 3,000 war elephants.
0:31:53 > 0:32:00And he never travelled in state except with his bodyguard of female warriors, Indian Amazons,
0:32:00 > 0:32:02loyal only to him.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28Good morning.
0:32:39 > 0:32:44Patna today has almost turned its back on the Ganges,
0:32:44 > 0:32:50the silted shore of the ancient city now high and dry.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54Fantastic.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56There's the edge of old Patna.
0:32:56 > 0:33:03Of course, in the days when the Greek ambassadors came, you've got to remember it was a new city then,
0:33:03 > 0:33:08a new imperial city. There would've been brick kilns everywhere
0:33:08 > 0:33:12that would've been needed in a great city like this.
0:33:18 > 0:33:24Today's Patna is right off most people's tourist trail.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26But what a place it is.
0:33:28 > 0:33:35It's an amazing city, Patna, because you've got the layers of the past sort of superimposed here.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40Tombs of Muslim saints sit on ancient Buddhist mounds.
0:33:40 > 0:33:46It's a city where all India's communities have mixed over centuries
0:33:46 > 0:33:53and left the tangled roots of history, as so often in India, all still alive.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58With its crumbling palaces and merchants' mansions,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02it's like wandering through an Indian version of Ancient Rome.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05What a beautiful building.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Hello.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13How old is the house?
0:34:13 > 0:34:16SPEAKS IN LOCAL LANGUAGE
0:34:16 > 0:34:21- 105 years.- 105 years, all right. It's a lovely house, anyway.
0:34:26 > 0:34:31But what about the very earliest layer of Patna?
0:34:31 > 0:34:36The imperial city of Chandragupta visited by the Ancient Greeks?
0:34:36 > 0:34:44In a forgotten corner of the city is the last pleasure lake of Chandragupta's capital.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49And here, on a little island, is an ancient Jain shrine.
0:35:03 > 0:35:11Tucked away here are the remains of a temple going back to the time of Chandragupta himself.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15The shrine is dedicated to Chandragupta's guru
0:35:15 > 0:35:20and it holds the key to the tale of how at the height of his power,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23the king renounced his empire.
0:35:23 > 0:35:28India, so the story goes, was ravaged by famine.
0:35:28 > 0:35:35The powerless king turned to a Jain guru and bowed to him, as in the end, all Indian rulers must.
0:35:35 > 0:35:42And so he left his throne and headed south in penance to the mountain of Sravanabelgola,
0:35:42 > 0:35:47where in the myth, the ancient king, Bahubali,
0:35:47 > 0:35:52had also renounced his kingdom for "moksha" - salvation.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59His mother had a dream in which the goddess told her,
0:35:59 > 0:36:03"You have to go and seek the blessings of Lord Bahubali."
0:36:03 > 0:36:08Chandragupta Maurya, he took a bow and arrow
0:36:08 > 0:36:15and then he shot the arrow only where he could see the impression of the statue.
0:36:16 > 0:36:23And then he got the artist who could carve this statue of Lord Bahubali.
0:36:28 > 0:36:35So Chandragupta Maurya became a naked holy man on a windy mountain top,
0:36:35 > 0:36:40seeking "moksha" - liberation through knowledge.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42CHANTING
0:36:47 > 0:36:52Chandragupta Maurya, when he came here,
0:36:52 > 0:36:54he wanted to renounce everything.
0:36:54 > 0:37:00And for himself, he wanted to get into the penance and then "moksha".
0:37:04 > 0:37:10They say he stood there, denouncing his whole kingdom, everything.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16While he is doing penance, nobody eats anything.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24- Finally they attain "moksha". - Did they die?- They die, yes.
0:37:29 > 0:37:35The first great king of India starved himself to death in this cave,
0:37:35 > 0:37:43witness to the age-old injunction to pursue knowledge and liberation above all other things.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01Chandragupta made the first great Indian state,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05a template of all future Indias right down to today,
0:38:05 > 0:38:12a religious renouncer at the end, but what he bequeathed the future was the idea of secular authority,
0:38:12 > 0:38:17a universal king who was the source of power and of law.
0:38:23 > 0:38:31But 20 years after Chandragupta's death, his grandson would take those secular ideas,
0:38:31 > 0:38:38join them to the ethics of the Jains and Buddhists and put that synthesis at the heart of politics.
0:38:38 > 0:38:43This astonishing story was only rediscovered in modern times.
0:38:43 > 0:38:49The tale takes us to Calcutta in the days of the East India Company.
0:38:49 > 0:38:57It was here that the lost script of the Mauryan Empire was deciphered in 1837 in the Asiatic Society.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03A young Briton with a talent for codes and ciphers
0:39:03 > 0:39:10became fascinated by mysterious inscriptions on great pillars in Delhi and Allahabad.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13His name was James Princep.
0:39:13 > 0:39:21Princep's attention was drawn to a carved boulder, which turned out to be India's Rosetta Stone.
0:39:21 > 0:39:28The decipherment came, like so many great examples of code-breaking, by a hunch.
0:39:28 > 0:39:35Princep guessed that this unknown script contained a form of early Sanskrit.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38He began to put two and two together.
0:39:38 > 0:39:45He realised that this strange squiggle with an inverted "T" and a dot next to it
0:39:45 > 0:39:52was probably the sign for a gift. "Danam" in Sanskrit - the gift of somebody of something.
0:39:52 > 0:39:59He realised that this strange hooked "C" was a possessive - "so and so's gift".
0:39:59 > 0:40:06And then he cracked an absolutely crucial phrase, which occurred over and over in these inscriptions
0:40:06 > 0:40:14and on the great pillars in Delhi and Allahabad, the phrase, which begins this inscription here,
0:40:14 > 0:40:18"Devanamapiya Piyadasi Laja evam aha."
0:40:18 > 0:40:22"The Raja Piyadasi, beloved of the gods, says this."
0:40:22 > 0:40:27It was a king. And a king, who judging by the inscriptions,
0:40:27 > 0:40:34had ruled from the Himalayan foothills, almost to the south of India.
0:40:34 > 0:40:41And a king whose memory had completely vanished from the historical record in India.
0:40:44 > 0:40:50The name of the beloved of the gods was none other than Chandragupta's grandson, Asoka.
0:40:52 > 0:40:57And back in Patna, the capital of his empire,
0:40:57 > 0:41:00he had never been forgotten.
0:41:00 > 0:41:06And here I was expecting a dry, dusty archaeological site.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09That's India for you.
0:41:09 > 0:41:17The place is an ancient sacred well still used by the people of Patna for their marriage ceremonies.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24It's now an auspicious place.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29But it's remembered in legend as a place of torture, a living hell.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31The name of the king who built it?
0:41:33 > 0:41:35SPEAKS IN LOCAL LANGUAGE
0:41:38 > 0:41:43He told us the well was constructed by Asoka.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45The well was built by Asoka?
0:41:48 > 0:41:50Namaskar.
0:41:50 > 0:41:55- This is the well?- Yes. - Can we have a look?- Yes.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03According to the legend told here,
0:42:03 > 0:42:11Asoka built what was called "a hell on Earth", which was on this spot, a prison with great high walls,
0:42:11 > 0:42:18within which terrible tortures were devised for people who went against his rule.
0:42:20 > 0:42:26The great King Asoka had 500 beautiful young women in his harem.
0:42:28 > 0:42:35One spring day, he found his thoughts lingering on the seductive forms around him.
0:42:35 > 0:42:41But the great king had a flaw. He had bad skin.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Horrid to touch. Ugly Asoka. SHE LAUGHS
0:42:46 > 0:42:51Wrap them all in hot copper plates and burn them.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54Majesty!
0:42:54 > 0:42:59A king should build a proper execution chamber
0:42:59 > 0:43:05and appoint executioners to carry out his commands.
0:43:07 > 0:43:14Asoka agreed. And in Patna he built a torture chamber that he called "hell on Earth".
0:43:15 > 0:43:20When the people saw this, they called him Chand Asoka,
0:43:20 > 0:43:23"Asoka the Cruel".
0:43:27 > 0:43:32The legend of Asoka the Cruel has been told for centuries.
0:43:32 > 0:43:38But the edicts deciphered by Princep give us real history.
0:43:38 > 0:43:43They tell of Asoka's attack on the kingdom of Kalinga, today's Orissa.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49- So if Asoka is going to invade Kalinga, this river he must cross? - Yes.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53- So this was the entry point for the Mauryan army?- Yes.
0:43:53 > 0:43:59So the real story begins with a brutal war of aggression.
0:44:02 > 0:44:09And only in the last year have archaeologists in Orissa found the first evidence for the fighting.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13Wow. That's...
0:44:13 > 0:44:16That's very clear, isn't it?
0:44:16 > 0:44:21- And what does it say?- It is clearly written, "Tosali Nagar".- Nagar.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25And we know that Tosali is the capital of Kalinga
0:44:25 > 0:44:28- at the time of Asoka?- Yes.
0:44:28 > 0:44:33This Tosali, it is the name that appears in holy inscriptions.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36And this is a weapon.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39This is an arrowhead.
0:44:39 > 0:44:46- This also resembles Mauryan weapons.- So this kind of thing has been found in the Ganges valley?
0:44:46 > 0:44:50- So all this metalwork has come from a very small area?- Yes.
0:44:50 > 0:44:55A host of spearheads, arrowheads, bits of weaponry.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58This is only a tiny sample.
0:44:58 > 0:45:05The Mauryan army fired an immense amount of weaponry at the people of Kalinga!
0:45:15 > 0:45:21The king, the beloved of the gods, attacked Kalinga.
0:45:21 > 0:45:27150,000 living persons were carried away captive. 100,000 were killed in the war
0:45:27 > 0:45:31and almost as many died afterwards.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34But after the Kalingas had been crushed,
0:45:34 > 0:45:41there arose in the king a great conflict, a regret for his conquest,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44and a yearning for justice.
0:45:54 > 0:46:01"In war," said Asoka, "everyone suffers. There is killing and injury.
0:46:01 > 0:46:08"People are cut off forever from the ones they love. War is a tragedy for everyone."
0:46:08 > 0:46:15Asoka had hit on one of the most dangerous ideas in history - non-violence.
0:46:27 > 0:46:34The legend says Asoka now turned to Buddhism and built memorial stupas in atonement.
0:46:34 > 0:46:41And the archaeologists have also found their remains on the hills above the battlefield.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45Three letters are clearly visible.
0:46:45 > 0:46:50One is "A". The second is "so". And the other "ka".
0:46:50 > 0:46:53The name "Asoka" is clearly visible.
0:47:01 > 0:47:07"All we human beings," says Asoka, "whatever our station in life,
0:47:07 > 0:47:12"share the same human values - love of parents, respect for elders,
0:47:12 > 0:47:19"kindness and attachment to friends and neighbours, even to servants and slaves.
0:47:21 > 0:47:27"From now on," says Asoka, "I desire non-violence for all creatures.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31"And I resolve to conquer by persuasion alone."
0:47:31 > 0:47:37But one should always take the words of politicians with a pinch of salt,
0:47:37 > 0:47:42especially when they've waged an aggressive war.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47But Asoka's words are so self-recriminating
0:47:47 > 0:47:52that it's hard not to think that it's his voice speaking to us.
0:47:52 > 0:47:57"When the war in Kalinga was over," he says, "and the people conquered,"
0:47:57 > 0:48:03he felt inside him "a great crisis, a striving for meaning and remorse".
0:48:09 > 0:48:15So like his grandfather, Asoka goes on pilgrimage across India,
0:48:15 > 0:48:17seeking a guru, a teacher.
0:48:18 > 0:48:26And by the riverbank, he met the son of a perfume seller from Varanasi, a Buddhist monk.
0:48:26 > 0:48:33And the monk told him to go and sit beneath the Bodhi Tree where the Buddha had found enlightenment.
0:48:33 > 0:48:41And there the power of ideas and the power of the state came together in a uniquely Indian way,
0:48:41 > 0:48:48a rejection of the path of violence, indeed, of a whole way of understanding history.
0:49:01 > 0:49:09While he was here, Asoka gave rich gifts to the poor and the sick of this part of Bihar.
0:49:09 > 0:49:16He consulted with the local communities about proper governance, about good conduct,
0:49:16 > 0:49:19citizenship, I suppose, we'd call it today.
0:49:21 > 0:49:29Forming in his mind now was an idea for a political order, such had never been conceived of before,
0:49:29 > 0:49:32in the history of the world.
0:49:37 > 0:49:44All over India, he carved his edicts on rocks and great stone pillars.
0:49:44 > 0:49:50He erected stupas where he enclosed portions of the ashes of the Buddha,
0:49:50 > 0:49:55symbols of the source of his moral authority.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03Copies of the edicts are still being discovered,
0:50:03 > 0:50:0520 of them in the last 40 years.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10This one is near the battle site in Orissa.
0:50:12 > 0:50:19One of the great documents in the history of the world. One of the great ideas in history.
0:50:19 > 0:50:26The forerunner, the first forerunner of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
0:50:26 > 0:50:33This amazing outpouring of ideas all boils down to one idea - all humans are one family.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37As Asoka says, "All men are my children."
0:50:42 > 0:50:47Does that make Asoka's India sound a bit like a nanny state?
0:50:47 > 0:50:54Well, maybe. But as Asoka said, "It's hard to persuade people to do good."
0:50:56 > 0:51:02His edicts didn't just cover humans. His are the first animal rights laws in the world.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05POLICE SIREN
0:51:06 > 0:51:09He even had police to enforce them.
0:51:13 > 0:51:20This is a police raid on a load of bird shops and animal shops, pet dealers.
0:51:20 > 0:51:25People trying to escape up into the roof and over the roof.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29Nothing illegal! Legal.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33- So exotic birds...- Exotic birds. - ..is OK?
0:51:33 > 0:51:36The amazing thing is that in Asoka's day
0:51:36 > 0:51:43they had a network of police to enforce these rules in the 3rd century!
0:51:45 > 0:51:50As a result, India has the oldest animal hospitals in the world.
0:51:50 > 0:51:58- So this is Raja, who's the oldest inmate in here.- Almost the oldest inmate here. Hi, Raja.- Hello, Raja.
0:51:59 > 0:52:06There's a fantastic passage in one of Asoka's edicts where he says, "I have made these provisions,
0:52:06 > 0:52:10"which are to ban the killing of certain animals.
0:52:10 > 0:52:16"But the greatest thing we could do is to protect ALL living things."
0:52:16 > 0:52:23- He talks about practical things, but then the ideal.- He understood if you're cruel to animals,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26you'll be cruel to humans as well.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29Since animals are powerless,
0:52:29 > 0:52:33it shows your true nature in your interaction with them
0:52:33 > 0:52:36as you can be your true self.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43LOUD BARKING
0:52:51 > 0:52:56In history there have been many empires of the sword.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00But only India created an empire of the spirit.
0:53:00 > 0:53:06And from the edicts we learn that Asoka didn't even stop there.
0:53:06 > 0:53:13He sent embassies to the kings of Greece and Macedonia, North Africa, Syria, Babylonia.
0:53:13 > 0:53:19All part of his project for the brotherhood of man and world peace.
0:53:27 > 0:53:35Asoka also asked for religious tolerance. "We must respect all religions," he said,
0:53:35 > 0:53:41"for all religions in the end have the same goal, which is enlightenment."
0:53:41 > 0:53:48And it's fitting that here at the sacred confluence of the Rivers Ganges and Jumna,
0:53:48 > 0:53:56where Indian kings made acts of charity to all faiths, his greatest pillar edict still stands today.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05There's a key idea that lies behind all these edicts of Asoka.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10And it simply is this - the message isn't from God.
0:54:10 > 0:54:16What Asoka's doing is taking the ideas of the Buddhists,
0:54:16 > 0:54:21the Eightfold Path, truthfulness, compassion, right conduct,
0:54:21 > 0:54:28and the teachings of the Jains on non-violence, and making them not only the core of personal morality,
0:54:28 > 0:54:30but of politics.
0:54:35 > 0:54:40The social welfare legislation, the teachings on religious toleration,
0:54:40 > 0:54:47even the ecological measures on the conservation of species, from the rhino to the Ganges porpoise,
0:54:47 > 0:54:53the conservation of forests, the preservation from needless destruction,
0:54:53 > 0:55:00it's moving the sphere of politics away from the sanctions of religion to the rule of reason and morality.
0:55:00 > 0:55:07What's on that pillar is an extraordinary product of an extraordinary time, the Axis Age.
0:55:12 > 0:55:17And when the time came to free India from British rule,
0:55:17 > 0:55:23what better symbol for the national flag than Asoka's wheel of law?
0:55:30 > 0:55:33As for the man himself,
0:55:33 > 0:55:35his last days are a mystery.
0:55:35 > 0:55:40But the legends tell of an old man stripped of everything.
0:55:40 > 0:55:45In the end, all the great King Asoka had left
0:55:45 > 0:55:47was one half of an amalaka fruit.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51Broken-hearted, he summoned his ministers.
0:55:51 > 0:55:58- Who now is Lord of the Earth? - Your Majesty, without question, of course it is you,
0:55:58 > 0:56:02the great Emperor Asoka himself!
0:56:02 > 0:56:04Liar!
0:56:04 > 0:56:12I have lost all my power. This piece of amalaka fruit in my hand is all that I can call my own.
0:56:14 > 0:56:21Now I understand when the Buddha says, "All fortune is the cause of misfortune."
0:56:34 > 0:56:39All things must pass, even Buddhism itself.
0:56:39 > 0:56:46It became the greatest religion of the ancient world. It's still a power in Asia.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51But in the Middle Ages it died in the heartland of India.
0:56:54 > 0:57:00In the 18th century, when British explorers came seeking its lost history,
0:57:00 > 0:57:05they dug in the jungle here at Kushinagar where he died.
0:57:05 > 0:57:12And under the forest they found an astonishing image of the Buddha in the moment of death,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15the moment of nirvana.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20And that would begin the next cycle of the story,
0:57:20 > 0:57:26spreading the Buddha's message to new lands of the West
0:57:26 > 0:57:31and to continents the Buddha had never dreamed of.
0:57:41 > 0:57:48All across the world now, there is a big interest in the Buddha, in Western people also.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51Why do you think this is?
0:57:51 > 0:57:53Buddha's message is true.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56So all people accept it.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00- The Buddha's message is true?- Yes.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09Next in The Story Of India -
0:58:09 > 0:58:12silk roads, spice routes and China ships.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Epics of the South
0:58:15 > 0:58:18and lost empires of the North.
0:58:18 > 0:58:25Ancient India goes global in the happiest time in the history of the world.
0:58:49 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2007
0:58:53 > 0:58:56Email us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk