Indus Valley Civilization

3300 to 1700 BC

The Indus Valley, between the modern India-Pakistan border, is the cradle of civilization on the Indian subcontinent.

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Vedic period

1500 - 500 BC

There is debate as to whether there was an Aryan invasion. The Hindu scared scriptures, the Vedas were written in this period.

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Mahajanapadas

~600 BC

 the Ayran tribes were absorbed into 16 major kingdoms, which in turn became 4 large states .the Nada dynasty, which rose to power in 364 BC came to rule over large areas of North India.

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 Books on Indian history

India: A History

by John Keay

Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India

India After Gandhi

The Indus Valley

Jane Shuter

 The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty

Persians,  Alexander and the Seleucid Empires

The Persian king Darius I (521-486BC)

annexed Punjab and Sindh

Maurya Empire

321 - 84 BC

Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of the first great Indian empire .It reached its peak under Ashoka and fell apart after his death....more

Gupta Empire

280 - 550 AD

 The Gupta empire grew rapidly under Chandragupta II (375-413 AD)Towards the end of the period, Hinduism became the dominant religion.In 510 the Gupta army was defeated by a Hun army and North India fragmented again...more

 The Hindu South

While the Guptas held sway over North India, powerful kingdoms emerged in South India.

The Pallava kingdom ruled much of south central India from the 4th to the 9th cent and famous for its classical Dravidian architecture.In 850 the Cholas rose to power, and extended to Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Sumatra .

Islamic Sultanates

 In North India during this period Muslim armies advanced, starting with Mahmud of Ghazni in the early 11th cent .In 1191, Mohammed of Ghur invaded India and captured Delhi and most of North India came under Muslim control. Qutb-ud-din became the first sultan of Delhi.Later sultans had to fend off Mongol invasions...more

Mughal Empire

1526 - 1857

The days of the ghur empire were numbered when Tamerlane raided India in 1398 and sacked Delhi .  Two kingdoms emerged, the Muslim Bahmani sultanate and the Hindu Vijayangar empire arose in the 14th cent, fighting each other in terrible wars .Babur, the founder of the Moghal empire and a descendant of Genghis Khan, marched into Punjab in 1525. The Mughal empire was to cover most of India and was a golden age of arts ...more

British India

1858 - 1947

In 1498, Vasco de Gama arrived ushering in a century long monopoly on Indian trade .In 1613 the British East India Company est its first post and for over 250 the company ruled much of India...more

Modern India

1947 - now

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