1 00:00:07,757 --> 00:00:09,349 WOOD: Since ancient times, 2 00:00:09,437 --> 00:00:13,032 Indian civilisation has been driven by great ideas, 3 00:00:13,117 --> 00:00:15,756 by the search for knowledge and truth. 4 00:00:18,277 --> 00:00:19,596 Here in South India, 5 00:00:19,677 --> 00:00:24,114 the people of the Jain religion pay homage to a teacher who was once a king, 6 00:00:24,197 --> 00:00:27,314 who renounced his kingdom to seek enlightenment. 7 00:00:31,677 --> 00:00:35,909 From the Buddha to Mahatma Gandhi, Indian history is full of such figures, 8 00:00:35,997 --> 00:00:38,192 men and women who contested the idea 9 00:00:38,277 --> 00:00:41,713 that history should only be written by the men of war. 10 00:00:45,157 --> 00:00:47,193 From the 5th century BC, 11 00:00:47,277 --> 00:00:51,395 these ideas shaped one of the most revolutionary times in history, 12 00:00:53,277 --> 00:00:55,950 when great empires were founded in India 13 00:00:56,037 --> 00:01:00,508 on these universal principles of peace and non-violence. 14 00:01:01,237 --> 00:01:03,910 The next chapter in the story of India. 15 00:01:35,557 --> 00:01:38,867 But our journey begins very much in the present. 16 00:01:38,957 --> 00:01:40,436 MAN: Making a Hollywood film? 17 00:01:40,517 --> 00:01:43,077 WOOD: Not Hollywood, no, no. BBC documentary. 18 00:01:44,837 --> 00:01:47,112 Good morning. Times of India, please. 19 00:01:47,197 --> 00:01:50,587 WOOD: Amid one of the all-too-common crises of our modern world, 20 00:01:50,677 --> 00:01:55,546 we humans are a competitive species fighting for power, resources and ideas, 21 00:01:55,637 --> 00:01:58,026 still to learn history's lessons. 22 00:01:58,877 --> 00:02:01,471 Well, we're heading to Varanasi on the River Ganges. 23 00:02:01,557 --> 00:02:03,036 Tempered slightly 24 00:02:03,117 --> 00:02:06,792 because last night there was a terrible series of bombings in the city, 25 00:02:06,877 --> 00:02:09,391 the railway station and in one of the temples. 26 00:02:09,477 --> 00:02:12,071 Nobody knows quite why it's happened, 27 00:02:13,077 --> 00:02:14,669 but we think the trains are still running, 28 00:02:14,757 --> 00:02:16,793 so we'll see what happens. 29 00:02:21,757 --> 00:02:25,067 There are over six billion people in today's world, 30 00:02:25,157 --> 00:02:28,388 compared with 1 00 million in the 5th century BC. 31 00:02:28,837 --> 00:02:32,955 And the fulfilment of our desires has become a goal of civilisation. 32 00:02:33,037 --> 00:02:36,393 Every person has his own identity, his own needs. 33 00:02:39,757 --> 00:02:41,349 Mr Wood... 34 00:02:41,437 --> 00:02:45,430 Mr Wood... Ah, yes, here. Indian Railways, wonderful. 35 00:02:46,877 --> 00:02:51,155 All the great ancient civilisations meditated on these big questions. 36 00:02:51,557 --> 00:02:54,788 How to live life, sharing the planet with other people. 37 00:02:55,677 --> 00:02:57,508 How to find happiness. 38 00:03:01,917 --> 00:03:03,475 For Indian people, 39 00:03:03,557 --> 00:03:07,789 the traditional goal of life is to live with virtue, dharma, 40 00:03:09,837 --> 00:03:12,829 to gain wealth and success, artha, 41 00:03:14,597 --> 00:03:17,111 to find pleasure, kama, 42 00:03:19,397 --> 00:03:22,912 but in the end, to seek enlightenment, moksha. 43 00:03:30,717 --> 00:03:32,708 Back in the 5th century BC, 44 00:03:32,797 --> 00:03:37,234 a series of kingdoms had grown up in the Ganges Plain with cities. 45 00:03:37,317 --> 00:03:40,787 And in history, cities are always vehicles for change. 46 00:03:44,397 --> 00:03:49,266 India's greatest sacred city, Varanasi, was founded around 500 BC. 47 00:03:49,597 --> 00:03:52,065 It's been called the Jerusalem of India. 48 00:03:52,157 --> 00:03:54,034 And here you can find living continuities 49 00:03:54,117 --> 00:03:57,348 with the old ritual order of Indian society. 50 00:03:58,477 --> 00:04:01,230 That order was founded on the caste system, 51 00:04:01,317 --> 00:04:05,708 into which all Hindus are born, marry and die. 52 00:04:06,797 --> 00:04:09,516 (MEN CHANTING) 53 00:04:10,397 --> 00:04:14,515 The caste system divides people by birth, from high to low. 54 00:04:16,877 --> 00:04:19,914 It fixes their jobs and their place in society. 55 00:04:31,277 --> 00:04:34,633 We're gonna meet one of the family of the Dom Rajas, the lords of the dead. 56 00:04:34,717 --> 00:04:40,269 They are the only people who can perform the funeral pyres here in Benares. 57 00:04:41,237 --> 00:04:44,946 When family comes to have cremation of family member, 58 00:04:45,037 --> 00:04:48,507 the fire can only come from your family. 59 00:04:48,597 --> 00:04:51,395 Because if they could not take the fire from us, 60 00:04:51,477 --> 00:04:55,516 it means he could not be burn the body even prime minister die. 61 00:04:55,597 --> 00:04:57,553 -Even the prime minister. -Even prime minister die. 62 00:04:57,637 --> 00:04:59,673 -Is it allowed to see? -Yes, allowed to see. 63 00:04:59,757 --> 00:05:00,826 -May we come? -Yes. 64 00:05:00,917 --> 00:05:02,873 -We follow you? Okay. -Yes. 65 00:05:02,957 --> 00:05:06,029 The sacred fire from which all funeral pyres must be lit 66 00:05:06,117 --> 00:05:09,712 has been kept burning here continuously for thousands of years. 67 00:05:09,797 --> 00:05:12,027 -WOOD: So is this the fire here? -This is the fire, here. 68 00:05:12,117 --> 00:05:16,747 And in the fire momently keeping here since 3,500 years. 69 00:05:17,277 --> 00:05:21,509 WOOD: In all societies in history, religions offer a path to salvation. 70 00:05:21,597 --> 00:05:25,954 But in practice, religions create bonds, both physical and mental. 71 00:05:28,197 --> 00:05:30,233 The essence of India's ancient system was that 72 00:05:30,317 --> 00:05:34,708 salvation only came by the precise performance of the right rituals 73 00:05:34,797 --> 00:05:36,947 in the right time and place. 74 00:05:39,117 --> 00:05:42,826 Before he start burning, he must walk around five time, 75 00:05:42,917 --> 00:05:45,067 because of the five element. 76 00:05:45,597 --> 00:05:51,069 -Earth, water, wind, fire, ether. -Fire, water, air, earth, ether. 77 00:05:51,157 --> 00:05:54,229 In the ritual universe, order is vital, 78 00:05:54,317 --> 00:05:57,593 and so it was with society in the 5th century BC. 79 00:05:58,037 --> 00:06:02,030 Know your place in the order, perform the necessary rituals, 80 00:06:02,757 --> 00:06:06,193 fulfil your duty, whatever caste you're born into. 81 00:06:07,157 --> 00:06:11,753 WOOD: You and your family are very, very important people in India. 82 00:06:11,837 --> 00:06:14,749 In a way of thinking. 83 00:06:14,837 --> 00:06:16,429 -In a way of thinking. -In a way of thinking. 84 00:06:16,517 --> 00:06:19,873 But in a way of naturality, if you say, people think us... 85 00:06:19,957 --> 00:06:23,711 We are the very low caste, we cannot touch him, we cannot... 86 00:06:23,797 --> 00:06:25,469 You are low caste, you are... 87 00:06:25,557 --> 00:06:28,515 Yes, we are untouchable. If we are a pariah, if the people... 88 00:06:28,597 --> 00:06:31,714 When we walk in a street, people don't like to touch us. 89 00:06:31,797 --> 00:06:33,674 -That is the biggest things. -Really. 90 00:06:33,757 --> 00:06:36,430 So even though... Because you perform... 91 00:06:36,517 --> 00:06:39,111 You do the rituals for the dead and you touch the dead, 92 00:06:39,197 --> 00:06:40,755 -you are very low caste. -Low caste. 93 00:06:40,837 --> 00:06:44,113 -But everybody needs you. -Without us, they cannot do. 94 00:06:47,517 --> 00:06:50,634 From ancient times, that was the Indian way 95 00:06:50,717 --> 00:06:54,835 and it's lasted thousands of years, a system of power from the Iron Age, 96 00:06:54,917 --> 00:06:58,546 now being renegotiated in modern, democratic India. 97 00:06:59,357 --> 00:07:01,552 But it was challenged before. 98 00:07:02,917 --> 00:07:07,468 People first started to question the old order in the 5th century BC, 99 00:07:07,557 --> 00:07:09,195 and not just in India. 100 00:07:09,277 --> 00:07:12,235 In China, there was Confucius and Lao-Tzu. 101 00:07:12,317 --> 00:07:15,115 Across in the Mediterranean, the Greek philosophers. 102 00:07:15,197 --> 00:07:17,665 In Israel, the Old Testament prophets. 103 00:07:17,757 --> 00:07:20,555 It was a revolutionary time for humanity, 104 00:07:20,637 --> 00:07:25,188 the birth of conscience, putting ethics at the centre of the world. 105 00:07:29,757 --> 00:07:33,716 And nowhere were these questionings more intense than in India. 106 00:07:42,277 --> 00:07:46,793 Speculation about the nature of the universe, the nature of the self 107 00:07:47,157 --> 00:07:49,387 and the connection between the two 108 00:07:49,477 --> 00:07:51,832 is one of the oldest obsessions of Indian civilisation. 109 00:07:51,917 --> 00:07:54,636 They were at it even in the Bronze Age. 110 00:07:54,717 --> 00:07:59,393 But in the cities of the Ganges Plain here in India, in the 5th century BC, 111 00:07:59,477 --> 00:08:02,116 a host of thinkers arose. 112 00:08:03,317 --> 00:08:06,434 Rationalists, sceptics, atheists. 113 00:08:07,877 --> 00:08:10,914 There were those who denied the existence of the afterlife 114 00:08:10,997 --> 00:08:12,794 and reincarnation. 115 00:08:12,877 --> 00:08:16,950 There were those, like the Jains, who believed that all living creatures 116 00:08:17,037 --> 00:08:21,394 were bonded together in a chain of being across time. 117 00:08:22,197 --> 00:08:23,869 There were scientists, 118 00:08:23,957 --> 00:08:25,948 very closely resembling their contemporaries 119 00:08:26,037 --> 00:08:29,268 in the Ionian Islands in Greece, the Greek philosophers, 120 00:08:29,357 --> 00:08:32,474 who suggested that the world was composed of atoms 121 00:08:32,557 --> 00:08:34,627 and that everything was change. 122 00:08:34,717 --> 00:08:37,948 And there were those who said there were immutable laws of the cosmos 123 00:08:38,037 --> 00:08:40,187 and all change was illusory. 124 00:08:40,917 --> 00:08:43,431 But the most influential of these thinkers, 125 00:08:43,517 --> 00:08:46,589 in the history of India and in the history of the world, 126 00:08:46,677 --> 00:08:48,395 was the Buddha. 127 00:09:00,237 --> 00:09:03,309 The Buddha's story is the stuff of fairy tales. 128 00:09:03,877 --> 00:09:06,391 He came from a world of princely magnificence 129 00:09:06,477 --> 00:09:09,196 and nowhere does princely better than India. 130 00:09:09,277 --> 00:09:12,314 Young, newlywed, high caste, he had everything. 131 00:09:13,317 --> 00:09:16,275 But then, in a sudden bolt of lightning, 132 00:09:16,357 --> 00:09:19,269 he saw the reality of human life for everyone, 133 00:09:19,357 --> 00:09:21,154 suffering and death. 134 00:09:28,717 --> 00:09:32,426 So there and then, young Gautam left behind his wife and family 135 00:09:32,517 --> 00:09:35,554 and set out on the road, seeking truth. 136 00:09:39,077 --> 00:09:41,910 Six years he wandered, a long-haired dropout, 137 00:09:41,997 --> 00:09:43,908 until he finally came here, to Bodh Gaya. 138 00:09:43,997 --> 00:09:46,306 (GREETING IN TIBETAN) 139 00:09:47,077 --> 00:09:48,749 -How are you? -Hi. 140 00:09:51,717 --> 00:09:55,995 This one is the birth, when Buddha himself... 141 00:09:56,077 --> 00:09:59,387 Oh, from the side of his mother? Oh, yes, here. 142 00:09:59,477 --> 00:10:02,071 So here, he's... This is when he says, 143 00:10:02,157 --> 00:10:04,830 ''My black hair, I cut off.'' 144 00:10:04,917 --> 00:10:07,147 -Yeah, yeah. -Yeah, right. 145 00:10:08,957 --> 00:10:11,391 So he left his wife and his baby. 146 00:10:14,317 --> 00:10:17,548 Today, nearly 400 million people are Buddhists. 147 00:10:17,637 --> 00:10:21,073 From Burma and Korea to China and now the West. 148 00:10:21,157 --> 00:10:23,625 Young Gautam will reshape history. 149 00:10:23,717 --> 00:10:26,470 But at this moment, when he first comes here, 150 00:10:26,557 --> 00:10:28,787 he's another ragged renouncer. 151 00:10:29,597 --> 00:10:33,351 And the Buddha had come here to do what Indian holy men did, 152 00:10:33,477 --> 00:10:36,310 practising almost unbelievable austerities. 153 00:10:36,957 --> 00:10:40,586 ''I ate so little those days,'' he said later, 154 00:10:40,677 --> 00:10:44,272 ''that my buttocks looked as knobbly as a camel's hoof, 155 00:10:44,397 --> 00:10:48,470 ''the bones of my spine stuck out like a row of spindles, 156 00:10:48,557 --> 00:10:51,629 ''and my ribs looked like a collapsed old shed. 157 00:10:52,797 --> 00:10:54,992 ''And much good did it do me.'' 158 00:10:56,437 --> 00:10:57,950 And that's his voice. 159 00:10:58,037 --> 00:11:01,507 A vivid realistic turn of phrase, not holier than thou. 160 00:11:03,717 --> 00:11:05,833 His years on the road had taught the ex-prince 161 00:11:05,917 --> 00:11:08,147 to speak the common language. 162 00:11:09,917 --> 00:11:14,388 So he sits here, under a pipal tree, seeking enlightenment. 163 00:11:14,477 --> 00:11:18,709 It's one the great moments in history and this is the very place. 164 00:11:25,197 --> 00:11:27,028 This is the diamond throne. 165 00:11:27,117 --> 00:11:29,347 -WOOD: The throne? -The throne, the diamond throne. 166 00:11:29,437 --> 00:11:32,713 So this is the place where the Buddha is believed to have sat and attained... 167 00:11:32,797 --> 00:11:37,188 Not believed, this is the place where he sat and attained enlightenment. 168 00:11:38,157 --> 00:11:41,229 This is also called the Navel of the Earth. 169 00:11:42,917 --> 00:11:45,385 So, for all Buddhists, the most sacred place? 170 00:11:45,477 --> 00:11:47,274 For all the Buddhists from all over the world, 171 00:11:47,357 --> 00:11:51,396 this is the most sacred place for worship and veneration. 172 00:11:51,877 --> 00:11:54,391 (PEOPLE CHANTING) 173 00:11:59,597 --> 00:12:02,828 Some of his devotees wanted a statue of the Buddha to be made. 174 00:12:02,917 --> 00:12:06,193 He, then and there, rejected the idea, the proposal. 175 00:12:06,277 --> 00:12:11,590 And he said that if at all people need something, 176 00:12:11,677 --> 00:12:16,228 then it should be the bodhi tree, which has given me shelter underneath 177 00:12:16,317 --> 00:12:19,434 to sit and meditate and attain the supreme bliss 178 00:12:19,837 --> 00:12:21,987 that I had experienced. 179 00:12:22,077 --> 00:12:25,752 And it will also give shelter to thousands and thousands of people 180 00:12:25,837 --> 00:12:27,953 who are in search of truth. 181 00:12:30,077 --> 00:12:31,305 And today, 182 00:12:31,397 --> 00:12:35,185 Bodh Gaya is a magnet for thousands of people from all over the world, 183 00:12:35,277 --> 00:12:38,713 whether seeking truth or simply curious. 184 00:12:39,957 --> 00:12:43,074 And it's a luminous place, magical. 185 00:12:43,557 --> 00:12:45,388 And yet full of life. 186 00:12:51,477 --> 00:12:55,311 It's great, isn't it? All the monks enjoying themselves. 187 00:12:58,717 --> 00:13:02,107 How often we make our history the story of the great conquerors, 188 00:13:02,197 --> 00:13:06,156 the men of violence, Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler. 189 00:13:06,237 --> 00:13:10,230 That's what we teach our children in their history books, isn't it? 190 00:13:10,317 --> 00:13:14,549 But here's one man who sits under a tree, thinking, 191 00:13:14,637 --> 00:13:16,628 and changes the world. 192 00:13:16,717 --> 00:13:18,867 But this is an Indian story. 193 00:13:23,837 --> 00:13:25,031 By the morning, 194 00:13:25,117 --> 00:13:29,907 the Buddha had crystallised in his mind what he called the four noble truths. 195 00:13:31,077 --> 00:13:33,671 In essence, the idea was very simple. 196 00:13:34,917 --> 00:13:38,671 ''The nature of the human condition,'' he thought, ''is suffering.'' 197 00:13:40,037 --> 00:13:45,589 And suffering is caused, in the end, by human desire, by attachment, 198 00:13:45,677 --> 00:13:47,315 by covetousness, 199 00:13:48,837 --> 00:13:52,147 in the inner life and in the outside world. 200 00:13:53,277 --> 00:13:56,110 ''Free yourself from those desires, '' the Buddha thought, 201 00:13:56,197 --> 00:13:59,234 ''and you can become a liberated human being. 202 00:13:59,317 --> 00:14:01,706 ''But it can only come from within. '' 203 00:14:06,957 --> 00:14:11,109 DALAI LAMA: Ultimately, inner happiness, inner satisfaction, 204 00:14:11,197 --> 00:14:13,153 must create by oneself. 205 00:14:14,597 --> 00:14:16,474 You could be a billionaire, 206 00:14:16,557 --> 00:14:21,108 but deep inside, very lonely person, very lonely feeling. 207 00:14:24,117 --> 00:14:29,510 So therefore, as a human being, regardless believer or non-believer, 208 00:14:30,317 --> 00:14:34,435 these inner human value is very essential 209 00:14:34,517 --> 00:14:38,908 in order to have happier individual, happier family, 210 00:14:38,997 --> 00:14:41,465 happier society or happier nation. 211 00:14:49,637 --> 00:14:52,993 WOOD: The core of the Buddha's ideas was the Eightfold Path. 212 00:14:53,077 --> 00:14:56,752 Respect for living things, compassion, truth, non-violence. 213 00:14:59,157 --> 00:15:02,593 Ethical action, it's so easy to say, isn't it? 214 00:15:02,677 --> 00:15:05,430 But we're still struggling for it today. 215 00:15:06,597 --> 00:15:11,273 He's still on his own at this point. So he travels from Bodh Gaya to Sarnath. 216 00:15:16,877 --> 00:15:18,196 Here in the deer park, 217 00:15:18,277 --> 00:15:21,349 he picks up five old friends from his time on the road. 218 00:15:21,437 --> 00:15:25,794 They become his first disciples and he tries his ideas out on them. 219 00:15:28,437 --> 00:15:31,907 And on this spot, now marked by the great stupa, 220 00:15:31,997 --> 00:15:35,307 he gives what becomes known as the First Sermon. 221 00:15:35,397 --> 00:15:39,595 This first sermon is called Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. 222 00:15:40,477 --> 00:15:45,597 It means Setting the Wheel of Doctrine in Motion. 223 00:15:45,677 --> 00:15:49,590 Setting the Wheel of Doctrine, or Law, in Motion? 224 00:15:49,677 --> 00:15:51,076 -The wheel, yes. -Yes. 225 00:15:51,157 --> 00:15:54,069 The teaching of Buddha is not only for monks, 226 00:15:54,157 --> 00:15:55,636 it is for all. 227 00:15:57,357 --> 00:16:00,315 Bahujanahita means, ''For the well-being of many.'' 228 00:16:00,397 --> 00:16:05,596 And for the next more than 40 years, the Buddha journeyed and preached. 229 00:16:05,677 --> 00:16:07,713 -Yeah, 45 years. -45 years. 230 00:16:07,797 --> 00:16:09,867 -Journeyed and preached. -He walked, he never... 231 00:16:09,957 --> 00:16:12,551 -Never stay at one place. -Yeah, yeah. 232 00:16:22,757 --> 00:16:26,113 And now it becomes a great Indian story. 233 00:16:26,797 --> 00:16:28,913 The real journey begins. 234 00:16:28,997 --> 00:16:32,148 He wanders, no possessions, on foot, begging, 235 00:16:32,237 --> 00:16:36,469 through the small world of the Iron Age kingdoms of the Ganges Plain. 236 00:16:45,317 --> 00:16:48,753 But the thing to remember is he's a protestor. 237 00:16:48,837 --> 00:16:50,475 Through the whole of Indian history, 238 00:16:50,557 --> 00:16:55,426 there's a tension between the rulers and those who fought for social justice. 239 00:16:55,517 --> 00:16:58,873 From the wandering medieval saints to the freedom fighters, 240 00:16:58,957 --> 00:17:02,472 and the flood of modern poets and agitators, 241 00:17:02,557 --> 00:17:05,913 he's the first of India's million mutineers. 242 00:17:11,317 --> 00:17:14,673 Then he comes here to Rajgir, invited by the King, 243 00:17:14,757 --> 00:17:16,793 who saw something in him. 244 00:17:22,797 --> 00:17:25,470 The King gave him some land on which to build a hut, 245 00:17:25,557 --> 00:17:28,549 a bamboo grove, it's still here. 246 00:17:30,517 --> 00:17:32,826 It was a place where there were monks living all the time. 247 00:17:32,917 --> 00:17:37,115 We know a place in this grove, like the Karanda Tank, which is still here, 248 00:17:37,197 --> 00:17:40,075 the squirrels' nesting place, the peacocks' dancing place... 249 00:17:40,157 --> 00:17:42,671 So you can imagine what it was like. 250 00:17:45,517 --> 00:17:47,269 Every year, he went back to the same place. 251 00:17:47,357 --> 00:17:49,507 So people knew where he was. 252 00:17:50,877 --> 00:17:52,674 It was a good time for monks to regather 253 00:17:52,757 --> 00:17:54,987 and if anybody wanted to be with the Buddha, for example, 254 00:17:55,077 --> 00:17:57,511 they could come to the same place. 255 00:17:57,757 --> 00:17:58,792 It's quite impressive. 256 00:17:58,877 --> 00:18:02,916 He's got about 1 ,000-1 ,250 disciples by that time. 257 00:18:05,477 --> 00:18:08,389 The King comes to meet him, as was tradition, and even tradition now. 258 00:18:08,477 --> 00:18:11,389 I mean, kings or powerful politicians go and meet religious leaders, 259 00:18:11,477 --> 00:18:12,830 not the other way around. 260 00:18:12,917 --> 00:18:16,307 The King says, ''I had five wishes. The first was to be king, 261 00:18:16,397 --> 00:18:19,275 ''and the second was to be able to receive an enlightened person. 262 00:18:19,357 --> 00:18:21,871 ''The third was to be able to hear him speak. 263 00:18:21,957 --> 00:18:23,993 ''The fourth was to be able to understand that. 264 00:18:24,077 --> 00:18:27,547 ''And the fifth was to be able to be grateful for that.'' 265 00:18:30,197 --> 00:18:33,985 WOOD: In the hills above Rajgir, there's a little cave 266 00:18:34,077 --> 00:18:37,353 where the Buddha lived through the monsoon seasons. 267 00:18:38,717 --> 00:18:40,912 SETH: The Buddha really loved this place. 268 00:18:40,997 --> 00:18:44,194 It was a little higher than the surrounding area. 269 00:18:45,397 --> 00:18:49,595 It was one of his favourite places of meditation, he even says so. 270 00:18:49,677 --> 00:18:52,316 He loved watching the sunset from here. 271 00:18:53,517 --> 00:18:58,033 And he just came again and again, just for the sheer pleasure of it. 272 00:18:59,397 --> 00:19:00,830 This cave, actually, is lovely, 273 00:19:00,917 --> 00:19:04,751 because you can know that the Buddha was in this cave. 274 00:19:04,837 --> 00:19:08,273 SETH: As you go into the cave, it's a little, sort of, 275 00:19:08,357 --> 00:19:10,587 lower in height in the beginning and then it gets deeper. 276 00:19:10,677 --> 00:19:12,747 So you can stand up inside. 277 00:19:13,517 --> 00:19:15,633 And you can just sit here and meditate for hours and hours 278 00:19:15,717 --> 00:19:18,709 and just be with the Buddha, you can really feel the breath of the Buddha. 279 00:19:18,797 --> 00:19:21,709 Even though he was 2,500 years ago, you can really feel his presence 280 00:19:21,797 --> 00:19:23,435 in this cave now. 281 00:19:33,237 --> 00:19:36,149 WOOD: And again, that realistic voice. 282 00:19:36,237 --> 00:19:38,148 ''Be your own lamp, ''he said. 283 00:19:38,237 --> 00:19:40,910 ''Seek no other refuge but yourselves. 284 00:19:41,797 --> 00:19:43,992 ''Let truth be your light. '' 285 00:19:52,837 --> 00:19:54,156 (CHIMING) 286 00:20:25,277 --> 00:20:28,747 For me, it's one of the never-failing miracles of history, 287 00:20:28,837 --> 00:20:33,308 that a human mind from so long ago can still speak to us directly 288 00:20:33,397 --> 00:20:38,232 in his own voice and mean something now in our time of change. 289 00:20:40,637 --> 00:20:43,549 But then his was a time of change, too. 290 00:20:47,877 --> 00:20:51,153 Buddhism is a system based on pure morality, 291 00:20:51,237 --> 00:20:53,148 what we would call universal values. 292 00:20:53,237 --> 00:20:56,673 Trust, truthfulness, non-violence, that sort of thing. 293 00:20:58,037 --> 00:21:01,507 And those ideas were very attractive to the rising class of merchants 294 00:21:01,597 --> 00:21:04,634 and traders in the cities of the Ganges Plain. 295 00:21:07,797 --> 00:21:09,628 But it's also atheistic. 296 00:21:09,717 --> 00:21:11,867 The logic of the Buddha's message 297 00:21:11,957 --> 00:21:16,553 is that belief in God itself is a form of attachment, 298 00:21:17,517 --> 00:21:22,830 of clinging, of desire, and in the land of 33 million gods 299 00:21:22,917 --> 00:21:25,306 or is it 330 million? 300 00:21:26,677 --> 00:21:29,510 That eventually would prove a step too far. 301 00:21:59,517 --> 00:22:02,554 ''But all things must pass, '' as he would say. 302 00:22:02,637 --> 00:22:05,310 No one in history was clearer about that. 303 00:22:05,397 --> 00:22:08,389 No promise of heaven, no threat of hell. 304 00:22:12,237 --> 00:22:16,788 He's an old man now, around 80. This was his last journey. 305 00:22:16,877 --> 00:22:19,675 Among the scavengers and the dispossessed, 306 00:22:19,757 --> 00:22:23,466 with their unending struggle for mere survival. 307 00:22:25,957 --> 00:22:29,586 Around 486 BC, according to the traditional date, 308 00:22:29,677 --> 00:22:33,113 he headed back across the plain towards the Himalayas. 309 00:22:34,317 --> 00:22:38,868 Now he's heading north, back to the land of his childhood. 310 00:22:42,677 --> 00:22:45,430 Perhaps he was consciously heading home. 311 00:22:46,517 --> 00:22:48,712 He knew he was going to die. 312 00:22:51,517 --> 00:22:53,030 (HORNS HONKING) 313 00:23:06,077 --> 00:23:09,706 The Buddha's story ends in an endearingly scruffy little town 314 00:23:09,797 --> 00:23:12,516 on the Ganges Plain, Kushinagar. 315 00:23:13,237 --> 00:23:16,434 On the stalls, India's deities, old and new, 316 00:23:16,517 --> 00:23:20,192 and he's become one of them, against his wishes of course. 317 00:23:23,437 --> 00:23:25,587 One of the Buddha's faithful disciples begged him 318 00:23:25,677 --> 00:23:27,872 to hold on a bit longer and not die here. 319 00:23:27,957 --> 00:23:31,233 ''It's a miserable, wattle-and-daub little place stuck in the jungle, 320 00:23:31,317 --> 00:23:32,909 ''in the middle of nowhere,'' he said. 321 00:23:32,997 --> 00:23:35,147 ''Couldn't you die in a famous place 322 00:23:35,237 --> 00:23:38,149 ''where they could give you a great funeral?'' 323 00:23:38,917 --> 00:23:42,034 And the Buddha said, ''A small place is fitting.'' 324 00:23:50,517 --> 00:23:53,827 He took some food in the house of a blacksmith, pork. 325 00:23:53,917 --> 00:23:56,909 Like most ancient Indians, the Buddha was a meat-eater. 326 00:23:56,997 --> 00:23:58,635 And he fell ill. 327 00:24:00,157 --> 00:24:04,355 Again the tradition marks the very spot on the edge of Kushinagar. 328 00:24:09,317 --> 00:24:13,026 At the end, his disciples can't bear to let him go. 329 00:24:13,117 --> 00:24:17,588 ''What more do you want of me?''he says. ''I've made known the teaching. 330 00:24:17,677 --> 00:24:21,067 ''Ask no more of me. You're the community now. 331 00:24:21,157 --> 00:24:23,796 ''I have reached the end of my journey. '' 332 00:24:24,797 --> 00:24:27,914 There are several versions of the Buddha's last moments. 333 00:24:27,997 --> 00:24:31,387 One of them says that he made a gesture and exposed the upper part of his body 334 00:24:31,477 --> 00:24:34,549 to show how age and sickness had wasted it, 335 00:24:34,637 --> 00:24:37,709 to remind his followers of the human condition. 336 00:24:39,077 --> 00:24:43,389 But all versions agree that his last words were these. 337 00:24:44,037 --> 00:24:49,828 ''All created things must pass. Strive on diligently.'' 338 00:24:57,637 --> 00:24:59,548 Meanwhile, far to the west, 339 00:24:59,637 --> 00:25:02,754 tremendous events were changing the world. 340 00:25:02,837 --> 00:25:05,192 At the time of the Buddha's death, the Persian Empire, 341 00:25:05,277 --> 00:25:08,587 the greatest the world had ever seen, invaded Greece. 342 00:25:08,677 --> 00:25:09,996 And in the following century, 343 00:25:10,077 --> 00:25:12,910 the Greeks came east looking for revenge. 344 00:25:12,997 --> 00:25:14,988 (MAN CHATTERING ON RADIO) 345 00:25:16,797 --> 00:25:21,268 And Europe faced Asia in the perennial battleground of Iraq. 346 00:25:21,357 --> 00:25:24,633 What happened here would change the story of India. 347 00:25:35,957 --> 00:25:40,075 Great ideas in history don't always spread beyond their own country. 348 00:25:40,157 --> 00:25:44,753 The ideas of the Buddha remained a local cult in the Ganges Plain 349 00:25:44,837 --> 00:25:47,351 for 200 years after his death. 350 00:25:47,437 --> 00:25:51,430 And the catalyst for change, as so often in history, was war. 351 00:25:55,037 --> 00:26:00,589 1 st October, 331 BC, the greatest battle of antiquity was fought here, 352 00:26:00,677 --> 00:26:03,589 near the little village of Gaugamela. 353 00:26:03,677 --> 00:26:05,747 A true war of the worlds. 354 00:26:05,837 --> 00:26:09,227 It was waged between the might of the Persian Empire, 355 00:26:09,317 --> 00:26:13,196 which ruled as far as the Indus Valley and the plains of India, 356 00:26:13,277 --> 00:26:15,745 and an army which had marched from Greece 357 00:26:15,837 --> 00:26:21,514 under an extraordinary young general, the 25-year-old Alexander the Great. 358 00:26:39,157 --> 00:26:43,833 Alexander's invasion of the East was a true clash of civilisations. 359 00:26:44,477 --> 00:26:46,991 A different model for history. 360 00:26:47,077 --> 00:26:50,387 One that we in the West have always been seduced by. 361 00:26:50,957 --> 00:26:55,587 The East as the other, the heroic leader, a superman. 362 00:26:59,757 --> 00:27:02,794 The man whose giant ego literally overwhelms 363 00:27:02,877 --> 00:27:05,596 the Persian divine king, Darius, 364 00:27:05,677 --> 00:27:08,908 and subdues history itself to his will. 365 00:27:23,357 --> 00:27:25,632 MAN: Alexander was a globalist. 366 00:27:25,717 --> 00:27:29,187 Alexander would thoroughly understand the world today. 367 00:27:30,557 --> 00:27:34,470 The thing that unifies all armies is the will of the commander. 368 00:27:34,957 --> 00:27:39,314 Even in a battlefield like this, which comprised at that stage 369 00:27:39,397 --> 00:27:44,232 maybe 1 50 to 200,000 individuals on this plain at that time, 370 00:27:44,317 --> 00:27:47,992 this all came down to a contest of wills between two individuals. 371 00:27:48,077 --> 00:27:50,875 -WOOD: And they both understood that? -Oh, I think they entirely... 372 00:27:50,957 --> 00:27:52,231 -And they can see each other? -Exactly. 373 00:27:52,317 --> 00:27:55,036 -Actually see each other, don't they? -And the spears thrusting into the faces 374 00:27:55,117 --> 00:27:56,755 of the Persians. 375 00:27:56,837 --> 00:27:59,397 At which point Darius takes flight 376 00:27:59,477 --> 00:28:03,152 and drives his chariot out and away back down to the river. 377 00:28:10,397 --> 00:28:13,833 Alexander's guru, Aristotle, another great teacher, 378 00:28:13,917 --> 00:28:16,226 a seeker after truth and reason, 379 00:28:16,317 --> 00:28:19,036 had a different take on the world from the Buddha. 380 00:28:19,117 --> 00:28:21,585 ''The Greeks have strength and reason, '' he said. 381 00:28:21,677 --> 00:28:24,510 ''So it's right they should rule the world. '' 382 00:28:26,317 --> 00:28:28,990 So Alexander went on, over the mountains, 383 00:28:29,077 --> 00:28:32,706 over the Khyber Pass and down into the plains of India. 384 00:28:38,197 --> 00:28:41,553 It was the first meeting of India and the West. 385 00:28:46,317 --> 00:28:50,276 Alexander finally stopped in the Punjab, near today's Amritsar. 386 00:28:53,517 --> 00:28:58,432 The Greek army reached the River Beas here, beginning of September, 326 BC. 387 00:29:01,197 --> 00:29:04,587 But it wasn't any Greek army that you've imagined before. 388 00:29:04,677 --> 00:29:07,316 Some of them were wearing Central Asian clothes, 389 00:29:07,397 --> 00:29:10,992 Persian trousers, Indian cotton tunics. 390 00:29:12,077 --> 00:29:14,272 This isn't a classical Greek army. 391 00:29:14,357 --> 00:29:19,909 It's close to a science fiction army. An ancient Greek version of Mad Max. 392 00:29:19,997 --> 00:29:21,715 And in the middle of them, Alexander the Great 393 00:29:21,797 --> 00:29:23,913 in his parade uniform 394 00:29:23,997 --> 00:29:28,707 with his ram's horn helmet with its great white plumes. 395 00:29:28,797 --> 00:29:31,595 And on his armour, the head of the gorgon 396 00:29:31,677 --> 00:29:35,829 which was supposed to turn to stone anybody who gazed into its eyes. 397 00:29:36,397 --> 00:29:38,991 Well, there was one person here who wasn't turned into stone. 398 00:29:39,077 --> 00:29:41,750 A young Indian had come to Alexander's camp. 399 00:29:41,837 --> 00:29:46,592 He was deeply impressed by this spectacle of imperialism, 400 00:29:46,677 --> 00:29:50,033 by the glamour of Alexander's violence. 401 00:29:50,317 --> 00:29:53,912 And he would become one of the greatest figures in Indian history 402 00:29:53,997 --> 00:29:58,149 who would create the greatest Indian empire before modern times. 403 00:29:58,237 --> 00:30:00,876 His name, Chandragupta Maurya. 404 00:30:11,957 --> 00:30:14,471 In time, Chandragupta seized power, 405 00:30:14,557 --> 00:30:16,912 drove Alexander's successors out of India 406 00:30:16,997 --> 00:30:19,750 and ruled from the Khyber to Bengal. 407 00:30:19,837 --> 00:30:23,716 And his state is the first forerunner of today's India. 408 00:30:26,557 --> 00:30:31,108 In 300 BC the Greeks sent their ambassadors to him bearing gifts. 409 00:30:31,597 --> 00:30:35,510 And they give the first ever account of India from the outside. 410 00:30:36,437 --> 00:30:40,510 From Stone Age tribes in the Himalayas to the cities of the plains. 411 00:30:40,597 --> 00:30:45,034 A land of 1 1 8 nations, rich and fertile, 412 00:30:45,117 --> 00:30:48,746 with rivers so wide, they couldn't see the other side. 413 00:30:50,317 --> 00:30:55,471 ''One of them, '' the Greeks said, ''worshipped by all Indians, the Ganges. '' 414 00:30:58,397 --> 00:31:02,868 The embassy eventually arrived at Chandragupta's capital, Patna. 415 00:31:04,717 --> 00:31:08,312 The Greek ambassadors were amazed by what they saw. 416 00:31:08,597 --> 00:31:12,988 The city stretched 9 or 1 0 miles along the bank of the Ganges. 417 00:31:14,397 --> 00:31:19,107 And all along the river frontage, they saw palaces, pleasure gardens. 418 00:31:19,877 --> 00:31:23,392 The Greek ambassador Magasthenese said, ''I've seen the great cities of Asia, 419 00:31:23,477 --> 00:31:28,107 ''I've seen Susa in Persia, but nothing compares with this.'' 420 00:31:29,357 --> 00:31:32,110 And if Magasthenese's description is accurate, 421 00:31:32,197 --> 00:31:35,234 this was indeed the greatest city in the world. 422 00:31:38,557 --> 00:31:41,117 The city stood at the junction of four rivers 423 00:31:41,197 --> 00:31:43,665 and measured 22 miles in circuit. 424 00:31:47,797 --> 00:31:53,667 In the king's camp were over 400,000 men with 3,000 war elephants. 425 00:31:55,837 --> 00:32:00,831 And he never travelled in state except with his bodyguard of female warriors, 426 00:32:00,917 --> 00:32:03,715 Indian Amazons, loyal only to him. 427 00:32:28,277 --> 00:32:29,710 Good morning. 428 00:32:40,917 --> 00:32:44,512 Patna today has almost turned its back on the Ganges. 429 00:32:44,597 --> 00:32:48,556 The silted shore of the ancient city now high and dry. 430 00:32:53,917 --> 00:32:56,909 Fantastic. There's the edge of old Patna. 431 00:33:00,037 --> 00:33:02,710 Of course, in the days when the Greek ambassadors came, 432 00:33:02,797 --> 00:33:05,834 you've got to remember it was a new city then. 433 00:33:05,917 --> 00:33:09,387 A new imperial city, there would've been brick kilns everywhere 434 00:33:09,477 --> 00:33:12,514 that would be needed in a great city like this. 435 00:33:21,597 --> 00:33:25,067 Today's Patna is right off most people's tourist trail. 436 00:33:25,197 --> 00:33:27,188 But what a place it is! 437 00:33:29,397 --> 00:33:34,596 It's an amazing city Patna because you've got the layers of the past 438 00:33:34,677 --> 00:33:37,032 sort of superimposed here. 439 00:33:37,117 --> 00:33:40,553 Tombs of Muslim saints sit on ancient Buddhist mounds. 440 00:33:43,077 --> 00:33:47,389 It's a city where all of India's communities have mixed over centuries 441 00:33:48,397 --> 00:33:54,916 and left the tangled roots of history, as so often in India, all still alive. 442 00:33:56,477 --> 00:33:59,867 With its crumbling palaces and merchants' mansions, 443 00:33:59,957 --> 00:34:03,791 it's like wandering through an Indian version of ancient Rome. 444 00:34:05,357 --> 00:34:07,393 What a beautiful building! 445 00:34:07,557 --> 00:34:09,309 (PEOPLE CHATTERING) 446 00:34:10,717 --> 00:34:11,866 Hello. 447 00:34:13,877 --> 00:34:15,310 How old is the house? 448 00:34:15,397 --> 00:34:16,989 (SPEAKING HINDI) 449 00:34:19,437 --> 00:34:22,554 1 05 years, right, right, right. It's a lovely house anyway. 450 00:34:30,277 --> 00:34:33,394 But what about the very earliest layer of Patna, 451 00:34:33,477 --> 00:34:37,709 the imperial city of Chandragupta, visited by the ancient Greeks? 452 00:34:38,277 --> 00:34:42,156 In a forgotten corner of the city is the last pleasure lake 453 00:34:42,237 --> 00:34:44,273 of Chandragupta's capital. 454 00:34:45,237 --> 00:34:49,753 And here, on a little island, is an ancient Jain shrine. 455 00:35:05,397 --> 00:35:07,115 Tucked away here, 456 00:35:07,197 --> 00:35:10,826 the remains of a temple going back to the time of Chandragupta himself. 457 00:35:14,157 --> 00:35:17,991 The shrine is dedicated to Chandragupta's guru. 458 00:35:18,077 --> 00:35:20,545 And it holds the key to the incredible tale 459 00:35:20,637 --> 00:35:24,027 of how, at the height of his power, the king renounced his empire. 460 00:35:24,117 --> 00:35:25,994 Only worshipping the feet, there's no image of... 461 00:35:26,077 --> 00:35:29,592 India, so the story goes, was ravaged by famine. 462 00:35:29,677 --> 00:35:33,226 The powerless king turned to a Jain guru and bowed to him 463 00:35:33,317 --> 00:35:35,911 as, in the end, all Indian rulers must. 464 00:35:38,557 --> 00:35:41,833 And so he left his throne and headed south in penance 465 00:35:41,917 --> 00:35:44,477 to the mountain of Shravanabelgola, 466 00:35:44,557 --> 00:35:47,071 where, in the myth, the ancient King Bahubali 467 00:35:47,157 --> 00:35:51,548 had also renounced his kingdom for moksha, salvation. 468 00:35:56,557 --> 00:36:01,677 His mother had a dream in which the Goddess told her, 469 00:36:01,757 --> 00:36:05,432 ''You have to go and seek the blessings of Lord Bahubali.'' 470 00:36:07,237 --> 00:36:09,626 Chandragupta Maurya, he took a bow and arrow 471 00:36:09,757 --> 00:36:13,955 and then he shot the arrow on the... Where he could see that... Just... 472 00:36:14,037 --> 00:36:16,835 He could see the impression of the statue. 473 00:36:18,477 --> 00:36:23,631 And then he got the artist who could carve this statue of Lord Bahubali. 474 00:36:31,757 --> 00:36:36,751 So Chandragupta Maurya became a naked holy man on a windy mountain top, 475 00:36:36,837 --> 00:36:40,352 seeking moksha, liberation through knowledge. 476 00:36:40,437 --> 00:36:42,348 (CHANTING) 477 00:36:50,357 --> 00:36:55,431 Chandragupta Maurya, when he came here, he wanted to renounce everything. 478 00:36:55,997 --> 00:37:01,993 And for himself he want to get into the penance and then moksha. 479 00:37:07,197 --> 00:37:11,588 That's why he stood there renouncing his whole kingdom, everything. 480 00:37:13,797 --> 00:37:17,346 While he is doing penance, nobody eats anything. 481 00:37:20,277 --> 00:37:23,474 Finally, they attain moksha. Not one or two... 482 00:37:23,557 --> 00:37:25,946 -WOOD: They die or... -They die. Yeah. 483 00:37:31,917 --> 00:37:36,274 The first great king of India starved himself to death in this cave, 484 00:37:36,357 --> 00:37:40,589 witness to the age-old injunction to pursue knowledge and liberation 485 00:37:40,677 --> 00:37:42,588 above all other things. 486 00:37:58,597 --> 00:38:02,431 Chandragupta made the first great Indian state. 487 00:38:02,517 --> 00:38:05,987 The template of all future Indias, right down to today. 488 00:38:07,277 --> 00:38:09,666 A religious renouncer at the end. 489 00:38:09,757 --> 00:38:14,911 But what he bequeathed the future was the idea of secular authority, 490 00:38:14,997 --> 00:38:19,229 a universal king who was the source of power and of law. 491 00:38:26,197 --> 00:38:28,836 But 20 years after Chandragupta's death, 492 00:38:28,917 --> 00:38:32,273 his grandson would take those secular ideas, 493 00:38:32,357 --> 00:38:35,110 join them to the ethics of the Jains and the Buddhists 494 00:38:35,197 --> 00:38:38,507 and put that synthesis at the heart of politics. 495 00:38:41,877 --> 00:38:45,711 This astonishing story was only rediscovered in modern times. 496 00:38:46,837 --> 00:38:51,194 The tale takes us to Calcutta, in the days of the East India Company. 497 00:38:51,797 --> 00:38:54,948 It was here that the lost script of the Mauryan Empire 498 00:38:55,037 --> 00:38:59,315 was deciphered in 1 837 in the Asiatic Society. 499 00:39:02,757 --> 00:39:06,033 A young Briton with a talent for codes and ciphers 500 00:39:06,117 --> 00:39:08,995 became fascinated by mysterious inscriptions 501 00:39:09,077 --> 00:39:11,955 on great pillars in Delhi and Allahabad. 502 00:39:12,037 --> 00:39:14,107 His name was James Prinsep. 503 00:39:16,077 --> 00:39:19,114 Prinsep's attention was drawn to a carved boulder 504 00:39:19,197 --> 00:39:22,473 which turned out to be India's Rosetta Stone. 505 00:39:23,797 --> 00:39:27,790 The decipherment came like so many great examples of code-breaking, 506 00:39:27,877 --> 00:39:29,515 by a hunch. 507 00:39:30,437 --> 00:39:36,910 Prinsep guessed that this unknown script contained a form of early Sanskrit. 508 00:39:37,637 --> 00:39:42,870 He began to put two and two together. He realised that this strange squiggle 509 00:39:42,957 --> 00:39:46,916 with an inverted ''T'' and a dot next to it was probably 510 00:39:46,997 --> 00:39:50,831 the sign for a gift, dhanam, in Sanskrit. 511 00:39:50,917 --> 00:39:54,114 The gift of somebody, of something. 512 00:39:54,197 --> 00:40:00,591 He realised that the strange hooked ''C'' was a possessive, so-and-so's gift. 513 00:40:01,077 --> 00:40:04,308 And then he cracked an absolutely crucial phrase 514 00:40:04,397 --> 00:40:07,195 which occurred over and over again in these inscriptions 515 00:40:07,277 --> 00:40:10,394 and on the great pillars in Delhi and Allahabad. 516 00:40:10,757 --> 00:40:14,067 The phrase which begins this inscription here... 517 00:40:14,157 --> 00:40:16,717 (SPEAKING SANSKRIT) 518 00:40:19,437 --> 00:40:23,953 ''The Raja Piyadasi, beloved of the Gods, says this.'' 519 00:40:25,357 --> 00:40:29,509 It was a king, and a king who, judging by the inscriptions, 520 00:40:29,597 --> 00:40:33,715 had ruled from the Himalayan foothills almost to the south of India, 521 00:40:33,797 --> 00:40:37,346 from the Bay of Bengal almost across to Afghanistan. 522 00:40:37,437 --> 00:40:40,554 And a king whose memory had completely vanished 523 00:40:40,637 --> 00:40:42,548 from the historical record in India. 524 00:40:45,637 --> 00:40:47,195 The name of the beloved of the Gods 525 00:40:47,277 --> 00:40:50,633 was none other than Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka. 526 00:40:56,557 --> 00:40:59,151 And back in Patna, the capital of his empire, 527 00:40:59,237 --> 00:41:01,307 he'd never been forgotten. 528 00:41:02,637 --> 00:41:08,234 And here I was expecting a dry-as-dust archaeological site. 529 00:41:08,317 --> 00:41:10,512 That's India for you. 530 00:41:10,597 --> 00:41:14,590 The place is an ancient sacred well, still used by the people of Patna 531 00:41:14,677 --> 00:41:17,908 in their thousands for their marriage ceremonies. 532 00:41:22,517 --> 00:41:24,712 It's now an auspicious place, 533 00:41:24,837 --> 00:41:29,228 but it's remembered in legend as a place of torture, a living hell. 534 00:41:30,997 --> 00:41:33,431 And the name of the king who built it... 535 00:41:34,757 --> 00:41:36,907 (SPEAKING HINDI) 536 00:41:39,477 --> 00:41:44,312 He told us that well was constructed by King Ashoka. 537 00:41:44,397 --> 00:41:47,594 MAN: Ashoka. WOOD: The well was built by Ashoka? 538 00:41:51,077 --> 00:41:55,195 -Namaskar. This is the well? -This is the Agam Kuan. 539 00:41:55,277 --> 00:41:56,869 -Can we have a look? -Yeah. 540 00:41:56,957 --> 00:41:59,187 (MAN SPEAKING HINDI) 541 00:42:02,957 --> 00:42:07,030 According to the legend told here, Ashoka decided to build 542 00:42:07,117 --> 00:42:10,348 what was called a hell on earth, which was on this spot. 543 00:42:10,437 --> 00:42:12,871 A kind of prison with great high walls within which 544 00:42:12,957 --> 00:42:17,075 terrible tortures were devised for people who went against his rule. 545 00:42:22,277 --> 00:42:28,068 WOMAN: The great king Ashoka had 500 beautiful young women in his harem. 546 00:42:30,117 --> 00:42:33,871 One spring day, he found his thoughts lingering 547 00:42:33,957 --> 00:42:36,425 on the seductive forms around him. 548 00:42:37,077 --> 00:42:40,911 But the great king had a flaw, he had bad skin. 549 00:42:42,437 --> 00:42:45,395 Horrid to touch. Ugly Ashoka. 550 00:42:45,477 --> 00:42:47,433 (CHUCKLING) 551 00:42:49,437 --> 00:42:52,747 Wrap them all in hot copper plates and burn them. 552 00:42:53,877 --> 00:42:55,674 Majesty, 553 00:42:55,757 --> 00:43:00,308 a king should build a proper execution chamber 554 00:43:00,917 --> 00:43:04,956 and appoint executioners to carry out his commands. 555 00:43:08,717 --> 00:43:13,268 Ashoka agreed. And in Patna he built a torture chamber 556 00:43:13,957 --> 00:43:16,187 that he called hell on earth. 557 00:43:17,277 --> 00:43:21,589 When the people saw this, they called him ''Chand Ashoka''. 558 00:43:22,677 --> 00:43:24,668 Ashoka the Cruel. 559 00:43:30,837 --> 00:43:34,625 The legend of Ashoka the Cruel has been told for centuries. 560 00:43:34,717 --> 00:43:38,676 But the edicts deciphered by Prinsep give us real history. 561 00:43:38,757 --> 00:43:42,432 And they tell of Ashoka's attack on the eastern kingdom of Kalinga, 562 00:43:42,517 --> 00:43:44,030 today's Orissa. 563 00:43:44,437 --> 00:43:47,156 So if Ashoka is going to invade Kalinga, 564 00:43:47,237 --> 00:43:49,797 -this river he must cross? -Yeah. Yeah. 565 00:43:49,877 --> 00:43:53,233 Yeah. So, this was the entry point for the Mauryan army. 566 00:43:53,317 --> 00:43:54,511 Yeah, yeah. 567 00:43:56,957 --> 00:44:00,552 So the real story begins with a brutal war of aggression. 568 00:44:03,437 --> 00:44:06,474 And only in the last year have archaeologists in Orissa 569 00:44:06,557 --> 00:44:09,355 found the first evidence for the fighting. 570 00:44:13,237 --> 00:44:16,866 Wow, that's... That's very clear, isn't it? 571 00:44:17,637 --> 00:44:19,036 And what does it say? 572 00:44:19,117 --> 00:44:23,668 And it is clearly written, ''Toshali Naga.'' 573 00:44:23,757 --> 00:44:24,826 Naga... 574 00:44:24,917 --> 00:44:27,829 We know that Toshali is the name of the capital of Kalinga 575 00:44:27,917 --> 00:44:29,828 -at the time of Ashoka. -Yeah. 576 00:44:29,917 --> 00:44:34,752 This Toshali, it is the name which appears in the holy inscription. 577 00:44:34,837 --> 00:44:37,635 MAN: See, this is a weapon. 578 00:44:38,637 --> 00:44:40,753 PRADHAN: This is your arrowhead. 579 00:44:40,837 --> 00:44:44,671 This is our metallurgical equal, resembling with Mauryan iron equipments. 580 00:44:44,757 --> 00:44:47,476 So this kind of thing has been found in the Ganges valley? 581 00:44:47,557 --> 00:44:50,276 So, all this metal work has come from a very small area of excavation? 582 00:44:50,357 --> 00:44:52,154 MAN: Very small. PRADHAN: Yes, very small. 583 00:44:52,237 --> 00:44:56,196 A host of spearheads, arrowheads, bits of weaponry. 584 00:44:57,117 --> 00:45:01,076 This is only a tiny sample that the Mauryan army 585 00:45:01,157 --> 00:45:05,708 fired an immense amount of weaponry at the people of Kalinga. 586 00:45:18,037 --> 00:45:21,916 The King, the beloved of the Gods, attacked Kalinga. 587 00:45:21,997 --> 00:45:25,990 1 50,000 living persons were carried away captive. 588 00:45:26,077 --> 00:45:30,548 1 00,000 were killed in the war and almost as many died afterwards. 589 00:45:33,157 --> 00:45:36,069 But after the Kalingas had been crushed, 590 00:45:36,157 --> 00:45:39,194 there arose in the King a great conflict, 591 00:45:39,277 --> 00:45:41,313 a regret for his conquest 592 00:45:42,157 --> 00:45:44,387 and a yearning for justice. 593 00:45:47,437 --> 00:45:50,315 (SCREAMS) 594 00:45:57,077 --> 00:46:01,036 ''In war, ''said Ashoka, ''everyone suffers. 595 00:46:01,117 --> 00:46:03,187 ''There is killing and injury. 596 00:46:03,277 --> 00:46:06,587 ''People are cut off forever from the ones they love. 597 00:46:06,677 --> 00:46:09,111 ''War is a tragedy for everyone. '' 598 00:46:10,477 --> 00:46:14,311 Ashoka had hit on one of the most dangerous ideas in history, 599 00:46:15,037 --> 00:46:16,789 non-violence. 600 00:46:29,197 --> 00:46:32,428 The legend says Ashoka now turned to Buddhism 601 00:46:32,517 --> 00:46:35,270 and built memorial stupas in atonement. 602 00:46:35,797 --> 00:46:38,595 And the archaeologists have also found their remains 603 00:46:38,677 --> 00:46:40,747 on the hills above the battlefield. 604 00:46:40,837 --> 00:46:44,273 -Many architectural members are found. -Yeah. 605 00:46:44,357 --> 00:46:46,917 Three letters are clearly visible. 606 00:46:46,997 --> 00:46:51,275 One is ''A,'' second is ''Sho,'' and there a ''Ka.'' 607 00:46:51,357 --> 00:46:53,871 The name Ashoka is clearly visible. 608 00:47:04,437 --> 00:47:08,715 ''All we human beings, ''says Ashoka, ''whatever our station in life, 609 00:47:08,797 --> 00:47:14,155 ''share the same human values. Love of parents, respect for elders, 610 00:47:14,237 --> 00:47:17,229 ''kindness and attachment to friends and neighbours, 611 00:47:17,317 --> 00:47:19,547 ''even to servants and slaves. '' 612 00:47:24,637 --> 00:47:30,189 ''From now on, ''says Ashoka, ''I desire non-violence for all creatures. 613 00:47:30,837 --> 00:47:34,034 ''And I resolve to conquer by persuasion alone. '' 614 00:47:36,157 --> 00:47:38,591 Of course, one should always take the words of politicians and leaders 615 00:47:38,677 --> 00:47:42,829 with a pinch of salt, especially when they've waged an aggressive war. 616 00:47:42,917 --> 00:47:45,385 But in this case, Ashoka's words are so personal, 617 00:47:45,477 --> 00:47:48,833 so self-recriminating and so idiosyncratic 618 00:47:48,917 --> 00:47:52,671 that it's hard not to think that it's his voice speaking to us. 619 00:47:52,757 --> 00:47:57,228 When the war in Kalinga was over, he says, and the people conquered 620 00:47:58,277 --> 00:48:04,989 he felt inside him a great crisis, a striving for meaning and remorse. 621 00:48:11,957 --> 00:48:16,473 So like his grandfather, Ashoka goes on pilgrimage across India, 622 00:48:16,557 --> 00:48:18,627 seeking a guru, a teacher. 623 00:48:20,997 --> 00:48:25,115 And by the riverbank, he met the son of a perfume seller from Varanasi, 624 00:48:25,197 --> 00:48:26,789 a Buddhist monk. 625 00:48:28,077 --> 00:48:31,274 And the monk told him to go and sit beneath the bodhi tree 626 00:48:31,357 --> 00:48:34,076 where the Buddha had found enlightenment. 627 00:48:35,957 --> 00:48:38,676 And there the power of ideas and the power of the state 628 00:48:38,757 --> 00:48:41,749 came together in a uniquely Indian way. 629 00:48:42,557 --> 00:48:44,627 A rejection of the path of violence, 630 00:48:44,717 --> 00:48:47,834 indeed, of a whole way of understanding history. 631 00:49:06,797 --> 00:49:09,914 While he was here, Ashoka gave rich gifts 632 00:49:09,997 --> 00:49:13,034 to the poor and the sick of this part of Bihar. 633 00:49:13,117 --> 00:49:15,312 He consulted with the local communities 634 00:49:15,397 --> 00:49:19,026 about proper governance, about good conduct. 635 00:49:19,117 --> 00:49:21,950 Citizenship, I suppose, we'd call it today. 636 00:49:23,877 --> 00:49:28,667 Forming in his mind now was an idea for a political order, 637 00:49:28,757 --> 00:49:32,989 such had never been conceived of before in the history of the world. 638 00:49:40,797 --> 00:49:45,552 All over India, he carved his edicts on rocks and great stone pillars, 639 00:49:45,637 --> 00:49:50,153 and he erected stupas where he enclosed portions of the ashes of the Buddha, 640 00:49:50,237 --> 00:49:53,195 symbols of the source of his moral authority. 641 00:50:01,477 --> 00:50:03,866 Copies of the edicts are still being discovered, 642 00:50:03,957 --> 00:50:06,391 20 of them in the last 40 years. 643 00:50:07,917 --> 00:50:10,715 This one's near the battle site in Orissa. 644 00:50:13,557 --> 00:50:17,027 One of the great documents in the history of the world. 645 00:50:17,637 --> 00:50:21,232 One of the great ideas in the history of the world. 646 00:50:21,317 --> 00:50:26,311 The forerunner, the first forerunner, of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. 647 00:50:26,837 --> 00:50:32,150 This amazing outpouring of ideas all boils down to one idea, 648 00:50:32,757 --> 00:50:34,554 ''All humans are one family.'' 649 00:50:34,637 --> 00:50:37,356 As Ashoka says, ''All men are my children.'' 650 00:50:45,557 --> 00:50:49,232 Does that make Ashoka's India sound a bit like a nanny state? 651 00:50:49,317 --> 00:50:52,195 Well, maybe. But as Ashoka said, 652 00:50:52,277 --> 00:50:55,075 ''It's hard to persuade people to do good. '' 653 00:50:58,517 --> 00:51:00,906 His edicts didn't just cover humans, 654 00:51:00,997 --> 00:51:04,194 his are the first animal rights laws in the world. 655 00:51:08,597 --> 00:51:11,111 He even had police to enforce them. 656 00:51:15,917 --> 00:51:18,477 This is a police raid on a load of bird shops 657 00:51:18,557 --> 00:51:20,866 and animal shops, pet dealers. 658 00:51:22,157 --> 00:51:23,590 People climbing up... 659 00:51:23,677 --> 00:51:26,908 People trying to escape up into the roof and over the roof. 660 00:51:29,397 --> 00:51:33,436 -Not illegal, legal. -So exotic birds... 661 00:51:33,517 --> 00:51:35,872 -Exotic birds. -...is okay? 662 00:51:35,957 --> 00:51:38,187 The amazing thing is that in Ashoka's day, 663 00:51:38,277 --> 00:51:41,667 they had a network of police to enforce these rules 664 00:51:41,757 --> 00:51:43,475 in the 3rd century! 665 00:51:46,877 --> 00:51:50,836 As a result, India has the oldest animal hospitals in the world. 666 00:51:52,477 --> 00:51:53,876 WOOD: So this is... This is... 667 00:51:53,957 --> 00:51:55,675 This is Raja, who's the oldest inmate here. 668 00:51:55,757 --> 00:51:58,715 Almost the oldest inmate, yes. Hi, Raja. 669 00:51:58,797 --> 00:52:00,549 -WOOD: Hello, Raja. -Hi, Raja. 670 00:52:02,877 --> 00:52:05,789 There's a fantastic passage in one of Ashoka's edicts, 671 00:52:05,877 --> 00:52:09,108 where he says, ''I have made these provisions 672 00:52:09,197 --> 00:52:12,985 ''which are to ban the killing of certain animals. 673 00:52:13,077 --> 00:52:18,390 ''But the greatest thing we could do is to protect all living things.'' 674 00:52:18,477 --> 00:52:22,595 He talks about practical things, but then the ideal. 675 00:52:22,677 --> 00:52:25,145 He understood, if you're cruel to animals 676 00:52:25,237 --> 00:52:27,705 you will be cruel to humans as well. 677 00:52:27,797 --> 00:52:29,708 Since animals are powerless it shows your true nature 678 00:52:29,797 --> 00:52:31,594 in your interaction with them. 679 00:52:31,677 --> 00:52:33,235 Because since they can't do anything back to you 680 00:52:33,317 --> 00:52:36,070 and you don't have to be worried about anybody reacting, 681 00:52:36,157 --> 00:52:37,954 you can be your true self. 682 00:52:53,677 --> 00:52:57,067 In history there have been many empires of the sword. 683 00:52:57,677 --> 00:53:01,113 But only India created an empire of the spirit. 684 00:53:04,717 --> 00:53:08,027 And from the edicts we learn that Ashoka didn't even stop there. 685 00:53:08,117 --> 00:53:12,395 He sent embassies to the kings of Greece and Macedonia, 686 00:53:12,477 --> 00:53:14,866 North Africa, Syria, Babylonia... 687 00:53:15,597 --> 00:53:17,428 All part of his project 688 00:53:17,517 --> 00:53:20,429 for the brotherhood of man and world peace. 689 00:53:30,197 --> 00:53:33,712 Ashoka also asked for religious tolerance. 690 00:53:33,797 --> 00:53:36,072 ''We must respect all religions, '' he said, 691 00:53:36,157 --> 00:53:38,751 ''for all religions in the end have the same goal, 692 00:53:38,837 --> 00:53:41,112 ''which is enlightenment. '' 693 00:53:41,197 --> 00:53:43,757 And it's fitting that here at the sacred confluence 694 00:53:43,837 --> 00:53:45,793 of the Rivers Ganges and Yamuna, 695 00:53:45,877 --> 00:53:50,905 where Indian kings traditionally made great acts of charity to all faiths, 696 00:53:50,997 --> 00:53:54,876 his greatest pillar edict still stands today. 697 00:54:02,717 --> 00:54:06,790 There's a key idea that lies behind all these edicts of Ashoka. 698 00:54:07,357 --> 00:54:10,986 And simply it's this, ''The message isn't from God.'' 699 00:54:15,397 --> 00:54:18,150 What Ashoka's doing is taking the ideas of the Buddhists, 700 00:54:18,237 --> 00:54:22,355 the Eightfold Path, truthfulness, compassion, right conduct 701 00:54:22,797 --> 00:54:25,436 and the teachings of the Jains on non-violence, 702 00:54:25,517 --> 00:54:30,432 and making them not only the core of personal morality but of politics. 703 00:54:36,397 --> 00:54:41,266 The social welfare legislation, the teachings on religious toleration, 704 00:54:41,357 --> 00:54:42,995 even the ecological measures 705 00:54:43,077 --> 00:54:45,910 on the conservation of species and plants, 706 00:54:45,997 --> 00:54:48,750 from the rhino to the Ganges porpoise, 707 00:54:48,837 --> 00:54:53,274 the conservation of forests, preservation from needless destruction, 708 00:54:53,357 --> 00:54:55,587 it's moving the sphere of politics 709 00:54:55,677 --> 00:54:59,033 away from the sanctions of religion and magic 710 00:54:59,117 --> 00:55:01,756 to the rule of reason and morality. 711 00:55:01,837 --> 00:55:04,590 What's on that pillar is an extraordinary product 712 00:55:04,677 --> 00:55:07,555 of an extraordinary time, the Axis Age. 713 00:55:14,317 --> 00:55:18,105 And when the time came to free India from British rule, 714 00:55:18,197 --> 00:55:22,793 what better symbol for the national flag than Ashoka's wheel of law. 715 00:55:32,797 --> 00:55:36,426 As for the man himself, his last days are a mystery. 716 00:55:36,517 --> 00:55:40,226 But the legends tell of an old man stripped of everything. 717 00:55:42,597 --> 00:55:45,907 In the end, all the great king Ashoka had left 718 00:55:45,997 --> 00:55:48,750 was one half of an amalaka fruit. 719 00:55:49,637 --> 00:55:52,788 Broken-hearted, he summoned his ministers. 720 00:55:54,397 --> 00:55:56,592 Who now is Lord of the Earth? 721 00:55:57,077 --> 00:56:01,036 Oh, Majesty. Without question, of course it is you. 722 00:56:01,117 --> 00:56:04,666 -The great Emperor Ashoka himself. -Liar. 723 00:56:05,757 --> 00:56:07,793 I have lost all my power. 724 00:56:09,077 --> 00:56:13,548 This piece of amalaka fruit in my hand is all that I can call my own. 725 00:56:15,797 --> 00:56:18,391 Now I understand when the Buddha says, 726 00:56:19,117 --> 00:56:22,951 ''All fortune is the cause of misfortune.'' 727 00:56:36,637 --> 00:56:40,312 All things must pass, even Buddhism itself. 728 00:56:40,877 --> 00:56:43,710 It became the greatest religion of the ancient world. 729 00:56:43,797 --> 00:56:45,867 It's still a power in Asia. 730 00:56:45,957 --> 00:56:49,552 But in the middle ages it died in the heartland of India. 731 00:56:56,197 --> 00:56:57,755 In the 1 8th century, 732 00:56:57,837 --> 00:57:01,193 when British explorers came seeking its lost history, 733 00:57:01,637 --> 00:57:05,550 they dug in the jungle here at Kushinagar where he died. 734 00:57:06,637 --> 00:57:10,391 And under the forest, they found an astonishing image of the Buddha 735 00:57:10,477 --> 00:57:13,992 in the moment of death, the moment of nirvana. 736 00:57:19,477 --> 00:57:22,594 And that would begin the next cycle of the story, 737 00:57:23,117 --> 00:57:26,507 spreading the Buddha's message to new lands of the West 738 00:57:26,597 --> 00:57:29,873 and to continents that Buddha had never dreamed of. 739 00:57:42,477 --> 00:57:47,505 WOOD: All across the world now, there is a big interest in the Buddha. 740 00:57:48,157 --> 00:57:51,945 In Western people also. Why do you think this is? 741 00:57:52,517 --> 00:57:54,747 Buddha message true, 742 00:57:55,837 --> 00:57:57,873 so all people accept. 743 00:57:59,077 --> 00:58:01,910 -The Buddha's message is true. -True, yeah. 744 00:58:08,517 --> 00:58:10,553 Next in the Story of India. 745 00:58:10,637 --> 00:58:14,152 Silk roads, spice routes and China ships. 746 00:58:15,437 --> 00:58:19,191 Epics of the south and lost empires of the north. 747 00:58:20,117 --> 00:58:22,267 Ancient India goes global 748 00:58:22,357 --> 00:58:25,508 in the happiest time in the history of the world.