Source: The Hindustan Times 29- 11-2000
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh’s idea of retracing the path that India’s ancient cultural links with South East Asia had carved was given an aesthetic shape by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and the dancer Madhvi Mudgal. The one-hour presentation “Ganga to Mekong Swarnabhumi,” [the Ganga River to the Mekong River’s “Land of Gold,” as the region was known in ancient India] was first performed by Madhvi and her troupe of twelve young dancers at Laos last month. Not too many civilizations can match an impact comparable to India’s with Sanskrit being the official language of the region by the 4th century CE and great memorials coming up such as the Buddhist stupa of Borobudar in Java or the Saivite temples of Angkor in Cambodia. “Ganga to Mekong”did well to throw a torch backwards into the long tunnel of history.