|  | Director: Jeremy Jeff
Actor: Michael Wood (Writer & Presenter)
Studio: PBS (DIRECT)
List Price: $34.99
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Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 2100
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 2
Running Time: 360 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.4
MPN: PBSDSIND600D
UPC: 841887010160
EAN: 0841887010160
ASIN: B001MYIPYQ
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: March 10, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 30
 With India there is never only one side of a story April 11, 2009
SKOLVK (TUCSON)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've always been fascinated with India. It's always been a land for fairytale and mystery for me and after watching "The Story of India" my fascination has only grown. "Story of India" is a six hour long documentary hosted by English historian Michael Wood. (being American, I couldn't help but laugh when I heard him pronounce India "In-der-a") It's divided into six, hour long episodes each one covering a unique aspect of the country.
Episode 1: "Beginnings" covers how the first Indians came out of Africa and began their civilization
Episode 2: "The Power of Ideas" lean how India became a center for intellect and religion. The begins of Buddhism and the ideas of India's great leaders are discussed.
Episode 3: "Spice Routes and Silk Roads" see how India became a powerful trade center exporting exotic spices to Rome and China
Episode 4: "Ages of Gold" How the great king "Raja Raja" brought forth the Indian Renaissance and made great strides in humanitarianism.
Episode 5: "The meeting of Two Oceans" A fascinating look at Islam's spread into India and its clash with Hinduism. See how leaders on both sides worked for peace and the relationship of the two beliefs today.
Episode 6 "Freedom" India's struggle against Brittan and how the war was ultimately won, not though bloodshed but with peace.
After watching "Story of India" I'm more in love with India than I've ever been and I'm certain I will visit it someday. A country of stunning beauty where the past coexists with the present, the importance of Indian history is paramount. If you have any interest in India at all then this documentary is an absolute must see.
 India: Exhilarating Blend of Continuity and Change March 30, 2009
Serge J. Van Steenkiste (Atlanta, GA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
To his credit, English historian and broadcaster Michael Wood does a great job of making several aspects of the Indian history accessible to a wide audience. Although Wood mainly focuses on India, he also looks at the contribution of what are today's Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, to name a few countries, to the history of India. Wood gives the 50,000-foot view of for example the Harappan civilization, the Buddha and Buddhism, the Chola Kingdom, the Mughal Empire, the British Raj, and India's struggle for freedom. Wood spends much time on exploring the life of ordinary Indians. What viewers glean from watching this series is that most Indians remain close to their cultural, religious roots while being open to change. However, "The Story of India" DVD box set is ultimately a disappointment. Whoever is looking for an in-depth documentary about the history of India and its interaction with the outside world will be disappointed. Those viewers will gain more by reading "India a History" by John Keay, "After Tamerlane the Global History of Empire Since 1405" by John Darwin, and "A Splendid Exchange How Trade Shaped the World" by William Bernstein.
India in Depth March 26, 2009
JC (Sacramento,California)
This series is outstanding. Beautifully filmed, edited and music scored with 16.9 widescreen and 5.1 sound. So if you like history/travel with michael wood as your tour guide then you will enjoy this 6 episode series on the history and culture of India.
Beautiful, Educational. . . and Honest February 28, 2009
K. Grewal (Ohio, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This series, though far from perfect, is a must see for anyone of Indian descent, or who is interested in insight into a paradoxical but fascinating country. As stated by other reviewers, the series is forced to be superficial on many aspects, but the photography, the passionate narration of Mr. Wood, and the attempts to link India's past to explain the paradoxes of her present make it a must-have.
I felt the viewpoints presented were balanced and insightful. Many topics were by necessity dealt with superficially, but always with respect. After spending 41 of my 43 years in the USA, this series left me with a thirst for more insight and knowledge of India's peoples and past, and hopefully will do the same for my children.
Based on the appearance of the series on standard TV, the upcoming Blu-Ray transfer (April) should be stunning and worth the wait.
Extensive Content but could have been lot better......, falls short of my expectation February 25, 2009
Vijay
20 out of 25 found this review helpful
I appreciate the effort since not many in India would care to take such documentaries. However, I am not fully satisified with this DVD. Lot more useful information could have been shown in this duration of the documentary instead of several of the stuffs that I felt were really un-necessary. For example, the long search for the SOMA drink and attempting to taste it could have been avoided. Instead they could have spent more time on explaining the content of the Vedas. The Vedas have immense amount of philosophical views, scientifc contents, universal thoughts and indirect historical data embedded that could have all been explained instead of dramatizing how vedas would have been written.
In the Indus Valley episode details such as how Indus cities were planned, the excavated seals, bath houses, indus religion could all have been explained. There were some contradiciting information such as describing that Indus people were traders and used ships and boats to trade with Iraq and later in the episode of spice trade the author tells that Indians were not capable of ship building and just sold goods to merchants from Rome and Greeks.
Another contradiction occurs when Woods travels all the way to Turkmenistan to investiage the roots of Aryans. The Turkmenistan archaelogist concludes that the people who lived there migrated west after rivers dried. Soon after this, Woods gives his conclusion that people from this area migrated further south to Indian subcontinent. Wood explains that there is enough evidence in Rig Veda to show that Aryans came from outside of India, but does not really spell out any direct evidence from Rig Veda itself. He gives just examples like Horse sacrifice, Soma worship to proove that Sanskrit came from outside India, which I felt did not proove his point. He tells that Rig Veda talks about a river in Afghanistan as a proof for foreign origin of Aryans but he fails to talk about the very important river that Rig Veda speaks out so many times - River Saraswati. When he shows proof that Indus Valley existed on a dry river bed using satellite image, why should he not explain the possibility that this is the Saraswati river and Indus Valley is nothing but an extension of the Ancient Vedic Socieity.
I have to say that still not many historians want to explore the possibilty that Aryans could have went out of India at one point in history due to the same climatic change that the author explains here. On their way they could have stayed in Central Asia and migrated further to West Asia and further on. How can we explain the Mittani people of West Asia speaking Sanskrit and following precisely the Vedic gods?
RigVeda talks so much about Saraswati river and we can imagine how ancient RigVeda is if Saraswati River dried up long before 1500BC, the theoretical date that most historians place for migration of Aryans into India. All this could easily point out to the fact that Vedic civilization is indigineous to India and so is it's precious language, Sanskrit. Most western historians would say that this point is very Indo-centric view but the question is why not explore the possibilites...?
The DVD sometimes passes from one era to another without showing concrete data. Sadly, one of the main aspect of India, Hinduism, was not dealt in any detail at all. The essence of Hinduism and its philosphy were not dealt at all. Many of the sophisticated Indian arts such as the Indian classical music and dance forms were not described at all except for few minutes of explanation of Bharatanatyam. The Indian classical music and dance are so much sophisticated and deserve lot more attention.
India's contribution in field of mathematics, science, astronomy and yoga could have been explained in lot more details. More time could have been spent describing how ancient temples were built. India's influence on South East Asia could have been described as well, since there was a tremendous influence by Indian culture on countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia.
The extensive Indian literature in the fields of mythology, poetry, drama, science, technology, astronomy, mathematics were not dealt clearly, except for considering the major epics.
The first episode (Indus Valley, Vedic age and beginnings of Hinduism) covers the very important and foundation phase of Indian history and must have been more researched and well presented. I found this episode very superficial and still stuck with old faulty western view of Aryan migration into India!
I have to appreciate one thing definitely. I have seen several other programmes on India and none of them deal with South India. Usually it is just as if south India doesnt exist. This DVD does walk through South India a lot. But again, the author missed to show in detail the majestic south Indian temples and the architecture. The camera did not attempt to give a better glimpse of the beautiful temples. There were no mention of the abundant Tamil literature, the sophisticated Carnatic music and details of Bharthanatyam dance. Details of the major tamil kingdoms (except that Cholas were included) and other south Indian kingdoms such as Vijayanagar empire were not included when so much of the DVD goes in detailing foreign kings.
I might have put in lot of expectations in here, but a 6 hour DVD show could have easily been more informative instead of providing some of the unnecessary information. There were several instances in the documentary which just contained people walking on roads and trains moving, which could have all been replaced with some better informative scenes.
Finally I do appreciate the effort since no one in India makes such documentaries for Indian TV channels, which are filled with only commercial stuffs. But when there is an ability to make such extensive documentary, lot more research could have been done on the contents and could have included much more about India.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 30
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