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The theme of the episode is the power of ideas in Indian history, and among the people Michael Wood meets is HH the Dalai Lama, who explains why Buddhism is still relevant today. The journey takes him by railway to the famous sites of the Ganges plain: Benares, Sarnath and Bodhgaya; by helicopter and army convoy through northern Iraq to the site of the greatest battle in the ancient world; by truck up the Khyber Pass; then by river to the first great Indian capital, Patna.
Using archaeology, living traditions, legends, and India??s Rosetta stone, Michael Wood tells the story of the first great Indian state, the forerunner of today??s India??. We hear the dramatic story of the first great emperor who renounced his kingship and starved himself to death. Finally we meet his grandson, who after a cruel and violent opening to his reign, renounced warfare and introduced the dangerous idea of non-violence, which runs down through Indian history all the way to Mahatma Gandhi and the Freedom Movement.
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