Perspectives on the Silk Road

This book presents four well-researched articles that throw light on some of the major themes in the history of the ancient Silk Road. The first two papers by Dr Kenneth H. J. Gardiner, based on Chinese and Latin sources and material evidence, tell the remarkable story of  trade and diplomacy between Han China and  the Roman Empire.  Papers by Professors Sang Hyun KIM, a pioneering scholar of Korean Buddhism and Pankaj N. Mohan who published widely on Korea’s cultural linkages with its neighbours in East and South Asia, demonstrate that the Eastern Sector of the Silk Road, commencing from Gyeongju, the capital of the early Korean state of Silla,  served for several centuries as an important channel of exchange of religion, philosophy and  art,  Their papers enable us to understand how  Shamanism and Buddhist culture of Silk Road spread to the Korean peninsula in the sixth and seventh centuries and contributed to the development of Korean civilization.

Eastern Silk, Western Gold

This posthumously published work by Dr Ken Gardiner who taught ancient and early medieval Chinese history at the Australian National University for nearly three decades, is a fascinating account of relations between Qin and Han dynasties China and various states in the Eurasian Steppe, forged through war and diplomacy.  The author’s access to a broad range of primary and secondary sources in Classical and modern languages, including Latin, Classical Chinese and Japanese and  cross-disciplinary approach, combing history, archaeology, philosophy, mythology, art, literature and philology,  has enabled him to examine the complex integratory processes,  unleashed by early East-West contacts,  with extraordinary sophistication. Some of the topics that this book  analyses and addresses are: image of central Asian peoples in Chinese myths and legends;  role of Zhang Qian, envoy of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141-87 BCE)  to Central Asian states, in expanding the frontier of Chinese knowledge about the Western region; penetration of Han China into the oasis kingdoms of the Tarim basin, and further west to Parthia and Mesopotamia, in search of the celebrated “blood-sweating horses”, grapes and even slaves;   and Han China’s domination of central Asia through its frontier policy of ‘divide et impera’, disintegration of Xiongnu Confederation and military campaign against Shanyu Zhizhi in 36 BCE. 

Forthcoming Books

तुम्हारा मौन 님의 침묵

Essay on the Early Korean State of Koguryeo