ABSTRACT
The Grand Trunk Road (GTR) is one of the most signifi cant transportation corridors in the history of the world, having remained a vital line of trade, communication, pilgrimage, pleasure and conquest for over 35 centuries. The route runs over 1,550 miles from its western terminus in Kabul, Afghanistan, through the Khyber Pass, across the Indus valley and the Great Gangetic Plains, and on to its eastern terminus in Sonargaon, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. It links South Asia to Central Asia and beyond via connections to the Silk Road. It connects four modern nations – Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh – and a host of major cities including Kabul, Peshawar, Lahore, Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta) and Dhaka. In modern India, the road connects fi ve states and the national capital territory of Delhi; it is designated as National Highways 1 (north of Delhi) and 2 (south of Delhi) and is colloquially known throughout as the ‘GT Road’ or ‘GT’. The Grand Trunk Road broadly follows its ancient course and, to varying degrees, even today retains the character that Rudyard Kipling described a century ago – ‘such a river of life as exists nowhere else in the world’ (Kipling 1922, 91).
