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India History

History of India actually starts with history of ancient India from about 40,000 B.C when

Africans came here and cultivated themselves across the Indus valley. By then they were

hunters and collectors

It is difficult to date exactly, yet it is clear from the evidences of Harrappa that the people

of India have had a continuous civilization since 4,000 B.C. when the residents of the Indus

River valley began farming and urbanized town culture, based on commerce and

persistent by agricultural trade. They developed modern cities of that time and used

contemporary methods of irrigation to water their fields. There were two main cities of

Harrappa and Mohenjo-Daro covering an area of about 250 miles in total. The people of

these two cities lived in stone houses two to three storeys high and had sewage systems

throughout their cities. The Harrapans used bronze to make crockery and other safety

tools. The Harrapans had also an early form of writing based on hieroglyphs, like the

Egyptians. As there isnt left much of it, we are unable to read and understand thislanguage. This civilization turned down around 1500 B.C. possibly due to environmental

changes.

Around 1500 BC, India was conquered by the Indo-European people. These people

actually invaded from the area between the Black and Caspian Sea. Many Indo-Europeans

migrated throughout Asia. Some went to Europe and became the Greeks and the Romans,

some established themselves in Turkey while others migrated to the south-east instead.

Some of them stayed in Iran, while others are still in the south-east of Pakistan and India.

Slow migration has not arrived in northern India around 1500 BC. In India, these Indo-

European invaders generally referred to as Aryans.

The mixed culture brought various languages in front; Sanskrit. The Aryans brought

their gods with them to India. Aryans were civilized and domestically educated. They first

settled on the banks of the Indus, in the same place where the Harrappa people had lived.

They settled and mingled with the local Indian people. They lived there from about 1500

BC to 800 BC. It seems, at this time that the caste system in India was started. They

learned here to use iron for weapons and tools. Perhaps they learned to use iron for their

new weapons to conquer more of India, and moved to the south and east in the valley of

the river Ganges. They settled there soon after 800 BC.

After they moved into the valley of the Ganges around 800 BC, they were further awayfrom West Asia and had left with fewer contacts to the West Asian nations. They began to

mix more with the Indian people and Indian gods mingled with the Aryan gods.

Mahabharata, the first to say in present explains the Aryan conquest of the Ganges. The

local Kings did not have weapons and war techniques as Aryans had. The stories of

fighting between the Aryans and Southerners are told in the Ramayana. Like 500 BC, some

part of the north-western India (now Pakistan) was conquered by the Persians. The

Persians were also Indo-Europeans, but they left their homeland and settled later in

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modern Iran. Meanwhile, the Aryans continued to run the North-East India. In 400 BC, this

was where Siddhartha Gautama Buddha lived and started Buddhism faith.

About 324 BC, an Indian man named Chandragupta succeeded in overthrowing the old

Aryan kingdom of Nanda and formed great new empire over the whole of northern India

and Afghanistan. Chandragupta conquered the Indus valley back from the Greeks. He wassucceeded by his son Bindusara. Bindusaras son Ashoka made Mauryan Empire even

stronger.

After Ashoka died in 231 BC, however, his sons and grandsons were not as strong

rulers, as he was, and the Mauryan Empire collapsed. About 100 BC, the Mauryan Empire

collapsed, and 319 AD when Gupta Empire was founded. India was divided into many

small kingdoms. These small kingdoms were weak and therefore they were often invaded

by stronger neighbors. The Greeks came in 150 BC and won in the Indus Valley again, but

not for long. Chinese under the strong Han Dynasty, invaded frequently. And the Parthian

and the Sassanid sometimes attacked as well. Buddhism was very strong in India at then.

The Guptan Empire collapsed about 500 AD and India was divided into numerous smaller

kingdoms and states. There were a lot of wars among these small kingdoms, but there was

also a lot of great architecture and art during this time.

Around 800 AD, some small kingdoms in northern India began a gradual gain in power.

The kings of these kingdoms came from a group of people called the Rajputs; historians

call them the kingdom of the Rajputs kingdom. They spent a lot of time fighting off the

Abbasid army, who were trying to invade North India. Around 1100 BC, however, the

Abbasid invaders managed to capture in northern India.

Around 1100 AD, the Mamelukes, who had already won Persia (new Iran), came toconquer India. In 1192 AD, the Mamelukes were able to defeat the Indians and take the

north of India (modern Pakistan). In 1192 AD, the Muslim general Muhammad Ghuari

captured Delhi and began a dynasty of rulers, who, together with the later dynasties,

called the Delhi Sultanate. The first dynasty was called the Slave dynasty, because the first

leaders were slave soldiers or Mamluks Gradually, many Hindus and Buddhists in northern

India have decided to accept Islam, the religion of the conquerors. Around 1100 BC,

however, the Abbasid invaders managed to capture in northern India. Islam at that time

wildly spread amongst the people who were badly impressed with caste system in

Hinduism. Muslims ruled over India for more than 500 years. In the early 16th century, the

descendants of Genghis Khan swept across the Khyber Pass and established the Mughal

(Mogul) Dynasty, which lasted for 200 years. From 11 to 15 centuries, southern India

dominated by Hindu Chola and Vijayanagar Dynasties. During this time, two systems - the

prevailing Hindu and Muslim - mingled, leaving lasting cultural influences on each other.

The first British outpost in South Asia was established in 1619 in Surat on the

northwestern coast. Toward the end of the century, the East India Company opened

permanent trading stations at Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, each under the protection of

local rulers.