The Golden Road: Read an exclusive excerpt from William Dalrymple’s new book

Why are parts of the country still dotted with Roman coin hordes? See how ancient trade led to India being called the ‘sink of the world’s precious metals’.

A single papyrus, now in Vienna and believed by some scholars to have originated in the rubbish dumps at Oxyrhynchus, turned out to be a fragmentary loan contract and customs assessment that followed the standard template used by Alexandrian importers for such orders. It was taken out by an Alexandria-based Egypto-Roman entrepreneur for the purchase of goods from an Indian merchant in faraway Muziris on the coast of Kerala. It gave precise details of one cargo that had been sent