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Land Of The Seven Rivers: A Brief History Of India's Geography (2012)

by Sanjeev Sanyal(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0670086398 (ISBN13: 9780670086399)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Penguin Global

review 1: This book is the latest in the series of books on Indian History that have literally exploded onto the national scene in the past few years. However, there the similarity ends. While most of the others can be classified as scholarly treatises, or a few can be classified as incomplete and / or biased; this one is neither scholarly nor is it incomplete. It is a fun book, great to read, and stunningly fast in its pace - especially considering its chosen topic. It proceeds almost like a novel, and is delightfully fast. Yet, it does not stray too much from established history and in general gives a superb picture of the chosen topicThe chosen topic is also different, as can be readily seen from its title. Instead of tracing emperors and empires, colonies and wars or indeed eco... morenomics, it traces the geography of the land and how it developed over time to become the Indian nation that exists today. The biggest takeaway is that the book debunks the generally held notion of India being a new Idea, and makes a clear case of India being a pretty ancient idea, only the political recognition and identity is new. The entire book successfully forms a running picture in your mind of the India of those days, as each chapter is brought to vivid life by fascinating details about the geography and the cities of those days. It not just the trade route; descriptions of caravans, of people, of roads, of memoirs of ancient travels that bring the road to life in your mind. The book is a complete history of the formation of India, starting from pre-history and the formation of the Indian Subcontinent. It traces the breakaway from Gondwana - the supercontinent, introduces the theory of plate tectonics, and explains how India collided with Asia. It traces the development of Indian flora and fauna, and then moves onto ask questions such as who were the first humans in India, and who are the Indians?
review 2: A perfect book for a person who doesn't have much liking (and knowledge) of Indian History and Geography. The book spans across much of India's history and geography of many centuries in more or less 300 pages with author choosing to dwell on some time frame with others being just named (can't be expected more in a 300 page book). However, what the book does is provide a very good reference guide and also piques interest of ignorant creature (aka me) on the rich subject India's diverse history and geography.Although the name of book is Land of Seven Rivers, A Brief History of India's Geography, the book covers more of history than geography but I am not complaining. To me it has given a resolve to re-pick up the John Keay's book India - A History (which i left after first few pages) and read it through. For serious students of India's History/ Geography, they may pass on this book. However, this book is strongly recommended to students/ professionals/ residents of Delhi as it mentions many places in and around Delhi of much historical interest which can be visited on weekends and related to through this book. less

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