Northlines
Dr. Anil Srivastava
When Rabindranath Tagore wrote âKabuliwalaâ, a beautiful story of an Afghan trader and his love for a little girl in Calcutta in whom he saw his own daughter; little did the Nobel Laureate know that the road which connected both ends of the Indian Civilization through millenniums could be blocked by politics.
The Grand Trunk Road was named as such by the British who built a metallic road following the age-old path connecting Teknaf in Bangladesh to Kabul in Afghanistan. The road is almost as old as the Vedic Civilization and has been mentioned in the Vedas and the Bhagwat Gita as âUttarpathâ or the Northern Road. Under Emperor Chandragupta Maurya who ruled 2300 years ago, this dirt trail was built properly connecting both ends of his empire.