# Bharat Ek Khoj

Bharat Ek Khoj (lit. 'India: An Exploration') is a 53-episode Indian historical drama based on the book The Discovery of India (1946) by Jawaharlal Nehru that covers a 5,000-year history of the Indian subcontinent from its beginnings to independence from the British in 1947. The drama was directed, written and produced by Shyam Benegal with cinematographer V. K. Murthy in 1988 for state-owned Doordarshan. Shama Zaidi co-wrote the script. Its cast included Om Puri, Roshan Seth, Tom Alter and Sadashiv Amrapurkar. Jawaharlal Nehru was portrayed by Roshan Seth, the same role he portrayed in the film Gandhi.
Production designer Nitish Roy with assistants Samir Chanda and Nitin Desai built 144 sets.

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Cast | Role | Original release date |
| 1 | "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" | Roshan Seth | Jawaharlal Nehru | TBA |
| 2 | "The Beginnings" | Harish Patel, Lalit Mohan Tiwari, Pallavi Joshi | Draha, Shulgi, Atri | TBA |
| A street play based on the Epic of Gilgamesh is also depicted in the episode. |||||
| 3 | "The Arrival of the Vedic People" | Anang Desai, K K Raina, Ravi Jhankal | Sardar, Suteja, Bajbandha | TBA |
| 4 | "Caste Formation" | Anang Desai, Salim Ghouse, K K Raina, Lalit Mohan Tiwari, Inayatullah Kantroo, Anuradha Tarafdar, Ila Arun | Chandraprabha, Rama, Narada, Arjuna, Dhanpal, Dhanvati, Sheelvati | TBA |
| Story of Shambuka from Ramayana and Ekalavya from Mahabharata were also part of this episode. |||||
| 5–6 | "Mahabharata" | Teejan Bai, Salim Ghouse, Om Puri, Sujata Mehta, Pankaj Berry, Ila Arun, Salim Ghouse, Sulakshana Khatri | TBA | TBA |
| 7–8 | "Ramayana" | Om Puri, Pallavi Joshi, Salim Ghouse , Pankaj Berry, Ravi Jhankal | Sita, Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana | TBA |
| 9 | "Republics and Kingdoms" | Virendra Saxena, K K Raina | Mahaanaman, Virudhaka | TBA |
| 10 | "Negation and Acceptance of Life" | Dhruv Ghanekar, Aanjjan Srivastav, Om Puri, Ashutosh Gowariker | Nachiketa, Yamaraja, Angulimaal, Gautam Buddha | TBA |
| 11–12 | "Chanakya and Chandragupta" | Satyadev Dubey, Ravi Jhankal, Mita Vashisht, Aanjjan Srivastav | Rowspan="2" | TBA |
| 13–14 | "Ashoka" | Om Puri, K.K.Raina, Ila Arun, Lucky Ali (credited as Maqsoom Ali) | Ashoka, Radhagupta, Asandhimitra, Prince Tissa | TBA |
| 15–16 | "The Sangam Period: Silapaddikaram" | Pallavi Joshi, Sulabha Deshpande, Virendra Saxena Rakesh Dhar | Kannaki, Kovalan, Kavundi, Pandit | TBA |
| 17 | "The Classical Age" | Anjan Srivastav, Harish Patel, Aparjita Krishna | Sansthanaka, Nai, Vasantsena | TBA |
| 18–19 | "Kalidas and Shakuntala" | Ravi Jhankal, Pallavi Joshi, Virendra Saxena | Kalidas, Mallika, Matul | TBA |
| 20 | "Harshavardhana" | Pankaj Berry, K Makhija, Aparajita | Harshavardhana, Prabhakar Vardhana, Queen | TBA |
| 21 | "Bhakti" | Vijay Kashyap, Rajesh Vivek, Mita Vashisht, Harish Patel | Mahendravarman I, Kapalin, Devasoma, Buddhist Monk | TBA |
| 22 | "The Chola Empire" | Om Puri, Devendre Malhotra, Sunila Pradhan, Shantanu Chaparia | Raja Raja Chola, Ishanashiva, Mahadevi, Tirumala | TBA |
| 23 | "The Chola Empire" | Om Puri, Devendre Malhotra, Sunila Pradhan, Shantanu Chaparia | Raja Raja Chola, Ishanashiva, Mahadevi, Tirumala | TBA |
| 24 | "The Delhi Sultanate. Part 1: The Arrival of Turk-Afghans and Prithviraj Rasoe" | K.K. Raina, Vijay Kashyap, Ravi Jhankal, Ahmed Khan, Irrfan Khan, Achyut Potdar, Vijay Kashyap | Muhammad Ghori, Chand Bardai, Prithviraj Chauhan, Mahmud Ghazni, Ferdowsi, Al-Biruni | TBA |
| 25 | "The Delhi Sultanate. Part 2: Prithviraj Raso and Alauddin Khilji" | K.K. Raina, Vijay Kashyap, Ravi Jhankal, Achyut Potdar, Om Puri, Rajendra Gupta, Seema Kelkar | Muhammad Ghori, Chand Bardai, Makwana, Alauddin Khilji, Ratan Singh, Padmavati | TBA |
| 26 | "The Delhi Sultanate. Part 3: Padmavat and Tughlaq dynasty" | Om Puri, Rajendra Gupta, Seema Kelkar, | Alauddin Khalji, Ratan Singh, Padmavati | TBA |
| 27 | "Synthesis" | Pankaj Berry | Lorik, [Lubna salim] chanda, [Maina], Aparajita | TBA |
| 28 | "The Vijayanagar Empire" | Om Puri, Salim Ghouse, Aanjjan Srivastav, Fr. Tasso | Krishna Deva Raya, Aliya Rama Raya, Appaji, Domingo Paes | TBA |
| 29 | "Feudalism" | Salim Ghouse, Ila Arun, Pallavi Joshi, Siraj Khan, Ajay Kumar | Aliya Rama Raya, Heggaditi, Mallige, Saguna, Achyuta Deva Raya | TBA |
| 30 | "The Fall of the Vijayanagar Empire" | Salim Ghouse, Anang Desai, Pankaj Berry, Ahmed Khan, Arjun Raina | Aliya Rama Raya, Effendi Aslam Bain, Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah Wali, Hussain Nizam Shah I, Ali Adil Shah I | TBA |
| 31 | "Rana Sanga, Ibrahim Lodi and Babur" | Ravi Jhankal, Anang Desai, Lalit Mohan Tiwari, Mushtaq Khan, Vishal Singh | Rana Sanga, Ibrahim Lodi, Babur | TBA |
| 32–33 | "Akbar" | Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Ila Arun, Aparajita Bhushan, Puneet Issar, Surendra Pal, Harish Patel, Irrfan Khan, Rajesh Vivek, Pankaj Berry, Vijay Arora, Virendra Saxena, Arun Bakshi, Deepraj Rana | Akbar, Jahangir, Jodhabai, Maharana Pratap, Man Singh I | TBA |
| 34 | "Golden Hind" | Sudhir Kulkarni, Vijay Arora, Ajit Vachhani, Mushtaq Khan | Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Thomas Roe | TBA |
| 35–36 | "Aurangzeb" | Om Puri, Sudhir Dalvi, Surendra Pal, Surekha Sikri, Navtej Hundal, Dharmesh Tiwari | Aurangzeb, Dara Shikoh, Murad Bakhsh, Shah Shuja, Jahanara Begum, Shah Jahan | TBA |
| 37–38 | "Shivaji" | Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Anang Desai, Achyut Potdar, Vishwajeet Pradhan Ahmed Khan | Shivaji, Jijabai, Dadoji Kondadev, Chandrarao More, Afzal Khan, Aurangzeb, | TBA |
| 39 | "Company Bahadur (East India Company)" | Amrish Puri, Rajendra, Jalal Agha, Tom Alter, Vishal Singh, John Holyer | Robert Clive, Najimuddin Ali Khan, Shuja-ud-Daula, Maharaja Nandakumar, Shah Alam II, Diwani Rights | TBA |
| 40 | "Tipu Sultan" | Salim Ghouse, Vijay Kashyap, Ravi Jhankal, Shreechand Makhija, Tom Alter, John Holyer | Tipu Sultan, Purnaiah, Mir Sadiq, Mahadji Scindia, Nana Phadnavis | TBA |
| 41 | "The Bengal Renaissance and Raja Ram Mohan Roy" | Anang Desai, Urmila Bhatt, Ravi Jhankal, Tom Alter, John Holyer | Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Lord William Bentinck, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, Bann on Sati (practice) | TBA |
| 42–43 | "1857" | Om Puri, Ravi Jhankal, Piyush Mishra, Mohan Gokhale, Anang Desai, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aanjjan Srivastav, Pankaj Berry, Virendra Razdan, Tom Alter, John Holyer, Bob Christo | Bahadur Shah Zafar, Nanasaheb Peshwa, Wajid Ali Shah, Begum Hazrat Mahal, Tantia Tope, Rani Lakshmibai, Azimullah Khan, Bakht Khan, Mangal Pandey, Lord Dalhousie | TBA |
| 44 | "Indigo Revolt" | Virendra Saxena, Tom Alter, Vijay Kashyap | Madhav | TBA |
| 45 | "Mahatma Phule" | Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Mohan Gokhale, Shubhangi Gokhale, Achyut Potdar, Ashok Banthia | Mahatma Phule, Savitribai Phule, Satyashodak Samaj | TBA |
| 46 | "Sir Syed Ahmed Khan" | Mohan Maharishi, Irrfan Khan | TBA | TBA |
| 47 | "Vivekananda" | Alok Nath | Swami Vivekananda | TBA |
| 48 | "Extremists and Moderates" | Sudhir Kulkarni, Mohan Gokhale, Tom Alter, Achyut Potdar, Kishor Kadam | Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Chapekar brothers, Murder of Walter Charles Rand | TBA |
| 49–50 | "And Gandhi Came" | Om Puri, Ila Arun, Piyush Mishra, Shabana Azmi, Pallavi Joshi, Akhilendra Mishra | TBA | TBA |
| 51 | "Separatism" | S M Zaheer, K K Raina, Harish Patel, Irrfan Khan | TBA | TBA |
| 52 | "Do or Die" | Pankaj Berry, Om Puri, Lucky Ali | Quit India Movement | TBA |
| 53 | "Epilogue" | TBA | TBA | TBA |

## Broadcast

The 53 episodes series was launched in November 1988 which coincided with the birth centenary of Nehru. The series was re-telecasted on DD Bharati from 27 May 2013 on the occasion of 49th death anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru.