Blog 5: The World’s First Soft-Power Superpower
Updated: Jul 28
JOURNEY 4 - SERIES 2 - BLOG 5 - A PART OF 10 BLOGS IN SERIES 2 - Reading time: 8 Mins
“Some empires are remembered for the territories they conquered. Others are remembered for the ideas they gave the world.”
For more than 1,500 years, India exercised an influence across Asia unmatched by almost any other ancient civilization. Yet it achieved this without building a vast overseas empire. As I researched this remarkable period, I kept returning to the same question: how did merchants, monks, scholars and mathematicians accomplish what armies could not?
India profoundly influenced a vast region stretching from Afghanistan to Japan and from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. Yet unlike the Roman Empire, the Mongol Empire or the later European colonial powers, India established remarkably few overseas colonies and maintained almost no permanent military presence beyond the Indian subcontinent. Its influence spread in a fundamentally different way.
Over more than fifteen centuries, India exported religion, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, literature, architecture, political theory, systems of government and education across Asia. These ideas travelled with merchants following the predictable rhythm of the monsoon winds, with monks seeking new communities, with scholars searching for knowledge and with craftsmen sharing their skills.
Unlike an invading army, these travellers carried something that other societies actively wanted: knowledge.
This is what I believe to be India’s greatest historical achievement. It became the world’s first great soft-power superpower.
Indian civilization did not export a single religion or isolated collection of ideas. It exported an entire framework for organising and understanding society. This included religion and philosophy, Sanskrit language and literature, mathematics and the decimal number system, astronomy and calendar science, medicine and surgery, political theory and kingship, law and legal traditions, architecture and engineering, sculpture and visual arts, music and dance, education and universities, commercial organisation, systems of weights and measures, and ethical ideas about government and society.
By the fifth century AD, the merchant routes of the Indian Ocean had become far more than commercial highways. They had evolved into intellectual highways. Merchant ships still carried pepper, cotton textiles, ivory and precious stones, but their most valuable cargo increasingly consisted of books, manuscripts, scholars, monks and ideas. Every voyage strengthened a network of learning that stretched from Afghanistan to Japan.
As I travelled through India, I gradually realised that one of its greatest achievements was not simply producing knowledge. It was sharing it.
Nalanda — The World’s Greatest University
No place better illustrates this remarkable achievement than Nalanda Mahavihara. This great centre of learning in northeastern India was a Buddhist monastery and educational institution that operated for almost 800 years. It was the first residential university in the world and, at its peak, accommodated approximately 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. Scholars travelled there from every corner of Asia.
Nalanda was the leader among a wider network of universities and was regarded as the most profound centre of scholarship in Asia during this period. Its libraries were nine stories high and were described as the greatest repository of knowledge in the world. Students studied philosophy, grammar, Sanskrit, logic, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, linguistics, literature, ethics, politics and metaphysics.
What strikes me most about Nalanda is not simply its size, but its international character. At a time when travel was difficult, dangerous and slow, scholars were prepared to cross deserts, mountains and political frontiers for the opportunity to study in India. Nalanda represented something extraordinary: the idea that knowledge should attract people across borders.
Among Nalanda’s most famous students was the Chinese monk Xuanzang. Around AD 629, Xuanzang secretly left China despite an imperial travel ban. He travelled for sixteen years and covered thousands of kilometres across deserts, mountains and hostile territories to study in India.
After several years of study, Xuanzang eventually returned to China carrying more than six hundred Buddhist manuscripts. He also took home knowledge of Indian philosophy, geography, politics, education and culture. His detailed writings remain among the most valuable historical sources describing India during the seventh century.
His return to China with hundreds of manuscripts transformed Chinese Buddhist scholarship and strengthened intellectual ties between the two civilizations. As I considered his extraordinary journey, one fact stood out to me: one individual helped reshape Chinese civilization simply because India welcomed foreign students.
As Buddhism took root in China, however, it did not remain unchanged. It evolved and was reshaped by Chinese traditions and beliefs. The decline of Confucianism created space for new ideas, and Buddhism gained followers by offering the prospect of rebirth after death.
Xuanzang became a close adviser to the Chinese Emperor. After the Emperor’s passing, his son Gaozong took the throne. Among Gaozong’s concubines was Wu Zetian, who came from a Buddhist family. As Gaozong’s health deteriorated, Wu Zetian positioned herself to take power. After his death, she became China’s first and only female Empress.
Wu Zetian overcame opposition to establish Buddhism as the state religion of China, with Indian monks playing a key role in its spread. Today, China has the largest Buddhist population in the world and remains a global centre of Buddhism. However, India’s direct influence on Chinese Buddhism declined following the death of Wu Zetian.
This extraordinary chain of events demonstrates how ideas travel. A Chinese monk journeyed to India. India’s universities gave him access to manuscripts and scholarship. He returned to China carrying knowledge. Buddhism evolved within Chinese civilization. Political patronage then strengthened its influence across one of the world’s greatest empires.
No army could have achieved this in the same way.
Mathematics Changes the World
Perhaps India’s greatest intellectual contribution was mathematics. Modern civilization depends upon a remarkably simple sequence of numbers:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The decimal place-value system originated in India. Indian mathematicians transformed calculation by combining nine numerals with the revolutionary concept of zero as both a number and a placeholder.
Among the greatest figures in this intellectual tradition was Aryabhata, the ancient Indian mathematician and astronomer. He is celebrated for remarkable contributions to mathematics and is associated with the development of place-value notation and the mathematical traditions that laid foundations for the numerical system we use today. The recognition and use of zero as a numerical placeholder became a pivotal development in the history of mathematics, enabling increasingly complex calculations and contributing to the later development of algebra.
Aryabhata also made significant advances in trigonometry. He provided accurate approximations for trigonometric functions, including sine and cosine, and calculated the value of π, or pi, to an astonishingly precise value of 3.1416. His estimate approached modern calculations, while his trigonometric methods later influenced both Islamic and European mathematics.
Among those who recognised the importance of Indian mathematics was the Persian scholar Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, whose writings introduced Indian numerals to a much wider audience. Centuries later, European scholars encountered these same mathematical ideas through Arabic translations.
The numbers we now call Arabic numerals are, in reality, Indian in origin. Today, they underpin virtually every calculation performed on Earth.
The influence of Indian mathematics continued through later scholars. Bhaskaracharya made substantial advances in algebra. In his work Lilavati, he solved various algebraic equations and explored arithmetic topics including methods for finding square and cube roots, divisibility rules and techniques for solving problems involving interest rates and mixtures.
As I researched these achievements, I found it difficult to overstate their importance. Modern banking, engineering, computing, physics, accounting, navigation and digital technology all depend upon mathematical systems whose foundations were profoundly shaped by Indian thought.
Astronomy and the Universe
Indian scholars also made remarkable advances in astronomy. Long before the invention of telescopes, astronomers carefully observed planetary movements, eclipses and the changing seasons.
Once again, Aryabhata stands among the greatest figures. Living during the fifth century AD, he proposed that the Earth rotates on its axis—a remarkable insight for its time. He also calculated the length of the solar year with impressive accuracy.
Aryabhata’s achievements demonstrate how closely mathematics and astronomy were connected. His use of place-value notation, his work within the mathematical tradition that developed the concept of zero, his advances in trigonometry and his calculation of π to approximately 3.1416 all supported a more sophisticated understanding of astronomical problems.
His estimates for pi approached modern calculations, while the trigonometric methods associated with his work later influenced both Islamic and European mathematics. The same intellectual tradition that transformed numerical calculation also helped humanity understand the movement of the heavens.
This is another recurring pattern in India’s intellectual history. Knowledge did not remain confined within one discipline. Mathematics supported astronomy. Astronomy improved calendars. Calendars shaped agriculture, religious observance and government. Intellectual advances spread outward into society.
Medicine for Humanity
India’s medical traditions proved equally influential. The ancient system known as Ayurveda combined careful observation with centuries of accumulated practical experience. Medical texts described anatomy, diagnosis, surgery, herbal medicines and public health.
One of the greatest physicians was Sushruta, often regarded as the father of surgery. His writings describe hundreds of surgical procedures and numerous medical instruments. They discuss cataract operations, reconstructive surgery, fracture treatment and wound management.
What I find particularly significant is the breadth of this medical tradition. Indian medicine was not concerned only with treating illness after it appeared. It developed broader approaches to health, observation, prevention and the relationship between the human body and its environment.
Once again, India created knowledge that could travel.
Why This Matters
History often celebrates those who conquered the most territory. We remember emperors, generals, battles and expanding frontiers because military power leaves dramatic evidence behind it. Armies build forts. Empires draw borders. Victories are carved into monuments.
Yet India’s experience demonstrates that the most enduring influence may come not from military victories but from intellectual generosity.
For more than fifteen centuries, India shared its knowledge with neighbouring civilizations. It did not simply accumulate learning within its own borders; it encouraged ideas to travel. Universities welcomed foreign students. Merchants carried books alongside cargo. Monks translated manuscripts into new languages. Scientists exchanged discoveries across cultures.
This willingness to share knowledge transformed much of Asia.
As I travelled through India and researched the wider reach of its civilization, I increasingly came to believe that this is the central reason India’s influence endured. Political empires eventually weaken. Armies retreat. Dynasties collapse. Borders change.
Knowledge behaves differently.
Once a mathematical idea is understood, it can be used anywhere. Once a religious philosophy is translated, it can become part of another culture. Once medical knowledge is shared, it can improve lives far from the place where it originated. Once students return home, they carry ideas with them.
The lesson remains deeply relevant today.
The greatest civilizations are not necessarily those that conquer the most territory. They are those that leave humanity wiser than they found it.
Key Takeaways
India’s greatest empire was intellectual rather than political. Its influence spread through merchants, monks, scholars and teachers who carried knowledge across Asia without military conquest.
Ideas outlast armies. Mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy, literature and education proved far more enduring exports than political power.
Soft power is not a modern invention. More than two thousand years ago, India demonstrated that education, science, culture and commerce could transform civilizations more effectively than force.
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