Treasures Of The Indus is 3 x 60’ episodes made by Tern TV, which tell the story of the Indian Sub-Continent through the treasures that have shaped the modern Indian world. From the plains of Pakistan to the foothills of the Himalayas, from Northern India and Rajasthan to the deep South and Tamil Nadu, Dr Sona Datta explores this vast melting pot of diverse civilisations, religions, cultures and glorious landscapes that has given us some of the greatest artistic golden ages on earth.
The series will chart the history of the Indus Valley, telling the relatively unknown story that stretches back 4,500 years to the Ancient Indus civilisation who gave us, amongst other things, the decimal system. Sona explores the art of the Mughals, who created the most famous and dazzling empire that India has ever seen, from the Taj Mahal to fabulously intricate miniatures of court life. She questions whether the Mughals were trying to impose their own religion of Islam or indeed whether they were open to the religion and art of the country they were trying to conquer; and she discovers some of the 33,000 sacred temples hewn from rock, sandstone and marble in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.