Amidst the India-China standoff elsewhere, art unites the two countries on the Silk Road. Nanditha Krishna looks at the Grottoes of a Thousand Buddhas to realise how civilisation is a unifying force even in the time of adversity

Mewar Ramayana, the finest surviving illustrated manuscript

David Ebershoff is the editor of two Pulitzer Prize-winning books this year. He speaks of his obsession with the manuscripts he works on