Indo-Aryan migrations
gigatos | June 1, 2022
Summary
The history of India begins, with the archaeological record, with the presence of Homo sapiens some 34,000 years ago. A Bronze Age civilization emerged at a time roughly contemporaneous with the civilizations of the Middle East. As a rule, Indian history covers the entire Indian subcontinent, corresponding to today”s Republic of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Seri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.
The Indus Valley civilization arose in the 22nd century B.C. and reached maturity from the 25th century B.C. It was followed by the Vedic civilization. The origin of the Indo-Aryans is a point of relative controversy. Most scholars believe in some sort of Indo-Aryan migration hypothesis, according to which the Aryans, a semi-nomadic people possibly from Central Asia or northern Iran, would have migrated to the northwestern subcontinent between 2,000 and 1,500 BCE. The nature of such a migration, the place of origin, and even the very existence of the Aryans as a distinct people are strongly debated. Until a few decades ago, there was near unanimity on the occurrence of an Aryan invasion that would have taken place around 1 500 BCE and destroyed the Indus Valley civilization, but recent archaeological and geological finds have led to question this theory.
Authors who accept the Aryan invasion or migration hypothesis consider that the fusion of the Vedic culture with the Dravidic cultures that preceded it (presumably the descendants of the Indus Valley civilization) apparently resulted in classical Indian culture, although the specific details of the process are controversial. Some understand, on the other hand, that the Indus Valley civilization was essentially Vedic and would have spread to parts of Europe between the sixth and second millennium BCE.
The incursions by Arab and Central Asian armies in the 8th and 13th centuries were followed by traders from Europe, beginning in the late 15th century. The British East India Company was founded in 1600 and began colonizing parts of India as early as 1757. By 1858, after defeating a Sikh confederacy in the Panjab in 1849, the British crown had assumed political control of virtually the entire subcontinent. Indian troops in the British army played a vital role in both world wars. Non-violent resistance to British colonialism, headed by Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, led to independence from Britain in 1947. The subcontinent was shared between the secular and democratic Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. As a result of a war between those two countries in 1971, East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh. In the 21st century, India has made significant gains in economic investment and production, constituting the largest democracy in the world, with a population of over 1000 million people, and the fourth largest economy on the planet (PPP criteria).
Outside South Asia, India”s history, culture, and politics often overlap with neighboring countries. Indian culture, economy, and politics have exerted influence over millennia on the history and culture of countries in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Central Asia, such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, China, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Laos, Tajikistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan. After Arab incursions into India at the beginning of the second millennium, similar missions in search of legendary Indian wealth strongly influenced the history of medieval Europe, starting with the arrival of Vasco da Gama. Christopher Columbus discovered America while searching for a new route to India, and the British Empire obtained much of its resources after the incorporation of India (the “Crown Jewel”) from the late 18th century until 1947.
For the history of India after independence in 1947, see History of the Republic of India.
Stone Age culture in the Indian subcontinent coincided with the beginning of human settlement and progressed to agriculture and the development of tools derived from natural objects or created from raw materials. The Mergar community constitutes the preliminary stage of agriculture in the subcontinent and led to the emergence of the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization.
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Paleolithic
The expansion of hominids from Africa is estimated to have reached the Indian subcontinent approximately two million years ago, and possibly as early as 2.2 million years before the present. This dating is based on the known presence of Homo erectus in Indonesia by 1.8 million years before present, and in East Asia by 1.36 million years before present, as well as the discovery of stone tools made by proto-humans in the Soan River valley, at Riwat, and in the Pabbi hills, all in present-day Pakistan. Although some older discoveries have been claimed, the suggested dates, based on the dating of river sediments, have not been independently verified.
The oldest hominin fossils found in the Indian subcontinent, are those of Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis, from the Narmada Valley in central India, and are dated to approximately half a million years ago. Older fossil discoveries have been claimed, but are considered unreliable. Reviews of archaeological evidence have suggested that occupation of the Indian subcontinent by hominins was sporadic until approximately 700,000 years ago, and was geographically widespread for approximately 250,000 years before the present, from which archaeological evidence of proto-human presence is widely pointed.
Archaeological evidence has been interpreted to suggest the presence of anatomically modern humans on the Indian subcontinent 78,000-74,000 years ago, although this interpretation is disputed.
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Neolithic
The most extensive settlement of the Indian subcontinent occurred in the Neolithic period, after the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 12,000 years ago. The first confirmed semi-permanent settlements appeared 9,000 years ago in the rock shelters of Bhimbetka in modern Madia Pradexe, India. The Edakkal Caves has pictorial writings of Neolithic man believed to date back to at least 6,000 BC, indicating the presence of a prehistoric civilization or settlement in Kerala.
Neolithic agricultural cultures emerged in the Indus Valley region around 5000 BCE, in the lower Gangetic valley around 3000 BCE, represented by the Bhirrana discoveries (7570-6200 BCE) in Haryana, India, Lahuradewa discoveries (7000 BCE) in Utar Pradexe, India and the Mehrgarh discoveries (and later in southern India, spreading south and also north to Malwa around 1800 BCE. The first urban civilization in the region began with the Indus Valley Civilization.
The Bronze Age civilizations in the Indian sub-continent laid the foundation for modern Indian culture, including the emergence of urban settlements and the development of the Vedic beliefs that form the core of Hinduism.
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Indus Valley Civilization
The irrigation of the Indus Valley, which provided enough resources to sustain large urban centers like Harapa and Moenjodaro in about 2500 BCE, marked the beginning of the Harapa civilization. That period witnessed the birth of the first urban society in India, known as the Indus Valley civilization (or Harapa civilization), which flourished between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE, and which was concentrated around the Indus River and its tributaries, extending to the Ganges River-Jamuna River doab, Gujarat, and northern present-day Afghanistan.
This civilization was characterized by its brick-built cities, rainwater systems, and multi-story houses. When compared to contemporary civilizations such as Egypt and Sumeria, the Indus culture had unique urban planning techniques, covered a larger geographical area, and may have formed a unified state, as suggested by the extraordinary uniformity of its measurement systems. Perhaps the earliest historical references to India are to “Meluhha” in Sumerian records, which could be the Indus Valley civilization.
The ruins of Moenjodaro were the center of that ancient society. The settlements of the Indus civilization spread as far as modern Bombay to the south, Delhi to the east, and the Iranian border to the west, bordering the Himalayas to the north. The main urban centers were Harapa and Moenjodaro, as well as Dolavira, Ganweriwala, Lotal, Kalibanga and Rakhigarhi. At its zenith, as some archaeologists believe, the Indus civilization perhaps contained a population of more than five million. To date, more than 2500 ancient cities and settlements have been identified, generally in the region east of the Indus River in present-day Pakistan. Some believe that geological disturbances and climatic changes, responsible for gradual deforestation, would have contributed to the fall of that civilization. In the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C., the Indus river basin region, which includes about two-thirds of the sites now known, dried up, leading the population to abandon the settlements.
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Vedic Civilization
The Vedic civilization is the Indo-Aryan culture associated with the people who composed the Vedas in the Indian subcontinent. It included the present-day Panjab in India and Pakistan, and most of northern India. The exact relationship between the genesis of this civilization and the Indus Valley culture on the one hand, and possible Indo-Aryan immigration on the other, is a matter of controversy.
Most scholars understand that this civilization flourished between the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE. The use of Vedic Sanskrit continued until the 6th century BCE, when the culture began to transform into the classical forms of Hinduism. This phase of Indian history is known as the Vedic period or Vedic age. Its early phase witnessed the formation of several kingdoms of ancient India; in its late phase (from about 700 BCE), the Mahajanapadas, sixteen major kingdoms in northern and northwestern India, emerged. This was followed by the golden age of Hinduism and classical Sanskrit literature, the Mauryan Empire (from about 320 BCE) and the middle kingdoms of India (from the 2nd century BCE).
In addition to the main texts of Hinduism (the Vedas), the great Indian epics (Ramadan and Maabárata), including the famous stories of Rama and Críxena, would have their origin in this period, from an oral tradition. The Bhagavad Gita, another well-known primary text of Hinduism, is contained in the Maabharata.
During the Iron Age, which began in India around 1 000 B.C., several small kingdoms and city-states covered the subcontinent, many mentioned in Vedic literature from 1 000 B.C. Around 500 B.C., sixteen monarchies and “republics,” known as Mahajanapadas, stretched across the Indo-Gangetic plains from what is now Afghanistan to Bangladesh: Kasi, Koshala, Anga, Magada, Vajji (or Vriji), Malla, Chedi, Vatsa (or Vamsa), Kuru, Panchala, Machcha (or Matsya), Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandara, and Kamboja. The largest among those countries were Mágada, Cossala, Kuru, and Gandara. The educated language of that period was Sanskrit, while the dialects of the general population of northern India were known as Prakrit.
Hindu rituals of the time were complicated and conducted by the priestly class. The Upanixads, late Vedic texts dealing mainly with philosophy, would have been composed in the early part of that period and would therefore be contemporary with the development of Buddhism and Jainism, indicating a philosophical golden age at that time, similar to what occurred in ancient Greece. In 537 BC, Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment and founded Buddhism, initially seen as a complement to the Vedic dharma. In the same period, in the middle of the 6th century BCE, Mahavira founded Jainism. Both religions had a simple doctrine and were preached in pracrit, which helped to spread them among the masses. Although the geographical impact of Jainism was limited, Buddhist nuns and monks took the Buddha”s teachings to Central and East Asia, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.
The Mahajanapadas were roughly the equivalent of the Greek city-states of the same period in the Mediterranean, and produced a philosophy that would come to form the basis of much of the beliefs of the Eastern world, just as ancient Greece would produce a philosophy that would form the basis of much of the beliefs of the Western world. The period ended with the Persian and Greek invasions and the subsequent rise of a single Indian empire from the Kingdom of Magada.
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Empire of Mage
Originally, Magada was one of the sixteen Indo-Aryan Mahajanapadas of ancient India. The kingdom emerged as a great power after subduing two neighboring states, and owned an army unrivaled in the region.
The ancient kingdom of Magada is mentioned in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, the Puranas, and much mentioned in Buddhist and Jain texts. The first reference to the Maggada occurs in the Atharva-Veda where they are found alongside the Angas, Gandharis, and the Mujavats as a despised people. Two of India”s major religions originated with Maggada; Gautama Buddha in the 6th or 5th century BCE was the founder of Buddhism, which later spread to East Asia and Southeast Asia, while Mahavira founded Jainism. Two of India”s greatest empires, Máuria Empire and the Gupta Empire, among others, originated in Mágada. The Mágada kingdom included republican communities such as Rajakumara. The villagers had their own assemblies run by their local chiefs, called Gramakas. Their administration was divided into executive, judicial and military functions.
In 326 B.C., Alexander the Great”s army approached the borders of the Empire of Magada. The troops, exhausted and afraid of facing yet another gigantic Indian army on the Ganges River, mutinied at the Hifasis River and refused to proceed eastward. Under those conditions, Alexander decided to advance southward, following the Indus to the Ocean.
Among the sixteen Mahajanapadas, the kingdom of Mágada gained prominence under the reign of several dynasties, whose peak of power was during the reign of Asoka Máuria, one of India”s most legendary and famous emperors. The Mágada kingdom emerged as a great power following the subjugation of its neighbors, and possessed unparalleled military power.
According to the Puranas, the Magad Empire was established by the Briadrata dynasty, which was sixth in line to Emperor Kuru of the Bharata dynasty through his eldest son Sudhanush. The first prominent emperor of the Magada branch of the Bharathas was Emperor Briadrata. His son Jarasanda figures in popular legends and was reportedly killed by Bhima according to the Mahabharatha.The Vayu Purana mentions that the Briadratas ruled for a thousand years.
The Briadratas were succeeded by the Pradiotas who according to the Vayu Purana ruled for 138 years. One of the traditions of the Pradiota was that the son should kill his father to become his successor. During this time, it is reported that great crimes occurred in Mágada.
According to tradition, the Xixunaga dynasty ruled the Mágada Empire from 684 B.C. Its capital was Rajagria, later moved to Pataliputra, near present-day Patna. This dynasty lasted until 424 BC, when it was defeated by the Nanda Empire.
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Persian and Greek Invasions
By the 5th century BC, the northern part of the Indian subcontinent was invaded by the Achaemenid Empire and, in the late 4th century BC, by the Greeks of Alexander the Great”s army. Both events resonated strongly with Indian civilization, as the political systems of the Persians would come to influence Indian political philosophy, including the administration of the Mausa Empire, and a melting pot of Indian, Persian, Central Asian, and Greek cultures formed in what is now Afghanistan to produce a unique hybrid culture.
Much of the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent (now eastern Afghanistan and almost all of Pakistan) was ruled by the Achaemenid Empire from about 520 B.C. (during the reign of Darius the Great) until its conquest by Alexander the Great. The Achaemenids, whose control over the region lasted 186 years, used Aramaic script for the Persian language. With the end of the dynasty, Greek writing became more common.
The interaction between Hellenistic Greece and Buddhism began with Alexander the Great”s conquest of Asia Minor and the Achaemenid Empire. In his advance, the Macedonian monarch reached the northwestern borders of the Indian subcontinent in 328 B.C. There, he defeated King Poro at the Battle of Hidaspes (near present-day Jhelum, Pakistan) and seized most of present-day Panjab. However, Alexander”s troops refused to proceed beyond the Hifasis (Beas River) near present-day Jalandhar, India. The monarch then crossed the water and had altars erected to mark the eastern end of his empire.
The Nanda Empire was a short-lived but powerful and extensive ancient Indian state, ruled by the dynasty of the same name, with origins in Mágada, which existed between 345 BC and 321 BC. At its greatest extent its territories extended from the Panjab region in the west to Bengal in the east, occupying the entire Indo-Gangetic plain. In the central part of the Indian subcontinent, it extended as far as the Vindia range.
The Nanda dynasty was founded by Maapadema Nanda, an illegitimate son of King Maanandim, the last of the Shixunaga dynasty of Mágada. Some authors accept that Maapadema would have been the son of a Sudra mother, and some even believe that even his father would not have belonged to the royalty, while others say that these allegations are nothing more than the slander of the later Shia. In any case it is certain that this dynasty was the first of non-Shia origin in northern India.
Modern historians generally identify the ruler of the Gangaridai and the Prasii mentioned in ancient Greco-Roman accounts as a Nanda king. The chroniclers of Alexander the Great, who invaded northwestern India during the period 327-325 BCE, characterize this king as a militarily powerful and prosperous ruler. The prospect of a war against this king led to a mutiny among Alexander”s soldiers, who had to withdraw from India without waging war against him.
The Nandas built on the successes of their Xixunaga predecessors and instituted a more centralized administration. Ancient sources credit them with the accumulation of great wealth, which was probably a result of the introduction of new currency and taxation system. Ancient texts also suggest that the Nandas were unpopular among their subjects because of their low birth status, their excessive taxation, and their general misconduct. The last Nanda king, Dana Nanda, mentioned in the Greek sources by the name of Agrames or Xandrames, was overthrown by Chandragupta Máuria, the founder of the Máuria Empire. Plutarch tells us that this king was extremely cruel and wicked to his people, which would have been the factor that enabled his defeat by the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta.
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Maruria Empire
The Máuria Empire (322-185 BCE) unified most of the Indian subcontinent into a single state and was the largest existing empire on the Indian subcontinent. At its greatest extent, the Máuria Empire extended northward to the natural boundaries of the Himalayas and eastward to what is now Assam. To the west, it reached beyond modern-day Pakistan to the Indocuche Mountains in what is now Afghanistan. The empire was established by Chandragupta Máuria, when he overthrew the Nanda dynasty.
Chandragupta rapidly expanded his power westward across central and western India, and by 317 BC, the empire had fully occupied northwestern India. The Maruria Empire defeated Seleucus I Nicetor, the founder of the Seleucid Empire, during the Seleucid-Marauria war, gaining additional territory west of the Indus River. Chandragupta”s son, Bindusara, succeeded to the throne around 297 BC. By the time he died in c. 272 BC, a large part of the Indian subcontinent was under the suzerainty of the Máuria. However, the region of Kalinga (around modern day Odisha) remained outside of Máuria control, perhaps interfering with their trade with the south.
Under Chandragupta and his successors, economic activities such as foreign and domestic trade and agriculture prospered and expanded throughout India thanks to the creation of a single, efficient system of finance, administration, and security. After the Calinga War, the empire experienced nearly half a century of peace and security under Asoca. Maruria India also enjoyed an era of social harmony, religious transformation, and expansion of sciences and knowledge. Chandragupta Máuria”s adherence to Jainism increased social and religious reform and renewal throughout his society, while Asoca”s adherence to Buddhism has been regarded as the foundation of the reign of political and social peace and non-violence throughout India. Asoca sponsored the spread of Buddhist ideals in Seri Lanka, Southeast and Southwest Asia, and Southern Europe.
The Arthashastra and the Azoca edicts are the main written records of the Máurian times. The Máurian Empire was based on a modern and efficient economy and society. However, the sale of goods was strictly regulated by the government. Although there were no banks in the Máurian society, usury was customary. A significant amount of written records on slavery is found, suggesting a prevalence of it. During this period, a high quality steel called Wootz steel was developed in southern India and later exported to China and Arabia.
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Empire Sunga
The Sunga Empire was an ancient Indian Mágada dynasty that controlled areas of the central and eastern Indian subcontinent from approximately 187 to 78 BC. The dynasty was established by Pusiamitra Sunga after the fall of the Máuria Empire. Its capital was Pataliputra, but later emperors like Bhagabhadra also held court at Besnagar (modern Vidisha) in eastern Malwa.
Pusiamitra Sunga ruled for 36 years and was succeeded by his son Agnimitra. There were ten Sunga rulers. However, after the death of Agnimitra, the second king of the dynasty, the empire quickly disintegrated: [inscriptions and coins indicate that much of northern and central India consisted of small kingdoms and city-states independent of any Sunga hegemony. The dynasty is known for its numerous wars with foreign and Indian powers. They fought against the Kalinga, the Satavana dynasty, the Indo-Greek Kingdom, and possibly the Panchalas and Mitras of Mathura.
Art, education, philosophy, and other forms of learning flourished during this period, including small terracotta images, larger stone sculptures, and architectural monuments, such as the stupa at Bharhut and the renowned Great Stupa at Sanchi. The Sunga rulers helped establish the tradition of royal patronage of learning and art. The writing used by the empire was a variant of the Brahmi script and was used to write Sanskrit.
The Sunga Empire played an imperative role in patronizing culture at a time when some of the most important developments in Hindu thought were occurring. Patanjali”s Mahābhāṣya was composed during this period. Art also progressed with the rise of the Mathura art style.
The last of the Sunga emperors was Devabhuti (83-73 BCE). He was assassinated by his minister (Vasudeva Kanva) and is said to have been overcome with the company of women. The Sunga dynasty was then replaced by subsequent Kanvas. The Kanva dynasty succeeded the Sunga around 73 BCE.
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Kanva Empire
The Kanva or Kanvayana dynasty was a dynasty of Brahmins who replaced the Sunga dynasty in Magadha and ruled in the eastern part of ancient India from 75 BC and until 30 BC.
The last ruler of the Sunga dynasty, Devabhuti, was dethroned by Vasudeva of the Kanva dynasty in 75 BCE. The new Kanva ruler allowed the Sunga kings to continue reigning in the darkness of a corner of their former domains, while Magadha was ruled by four Kanva dynasty rulers. His dynasty was ousted from power by the Satavana dynasty.
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Cuchana Empire
The Cushan Empire, was a political state that had its heyday from 105 AD to the 250s, located between the present-day territories of Tajikistan, the Caspian Sea, Afghanistan and the Ganges River valley.
The empire was created by the tribe of the Cushans (also referred to as Kushans, which in turn belonged to the Yuechi ethnic group that now lives in Xinjiang, China and is possibly related to the Tocharians.
The empire had important diplomatic relations with the Roman Empire, the Sassanid Empire, and China, largely because of its geographical position, at a crossroads between the West and the East.
It was during the rule of the Cuchanas over regions of northern India that the first human representations of the figure of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, began to be produced (until then, it was considered disrespectful to represent him in this way: he was represented in symbolic forms, such as a tree, a wheel, or a stupa). Following the example of the Buddhists, the Hindu gods also began to be represented in the form of anthropomorphic statues. The Cushans moved the capital of their empire to Puruxapura (present-day Pexauar, Pakistan), shifting the empire”s center of gravity toward India.
The Cuchan Empire fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms in the 3rd century, which fell under the rule of the Sassanids, who invaded from the west. In the 4th century the Guptas, an Indian dynasty, also pressed in from the east. The last Cushan kingdoms were finally dominated by invaders from the north, known as Heptalites.
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Satavana Empire
The Satavanas were based out of Amaravati in Andra Pradexe, as well as Junar (Pune) and Prathisthan (Paithan) in Maarastra. The territory of the empire covered large parts of India from the 1st century BCE onward. The Satavanas began as vassals of the Máuria dynasty, but declared independence with its decline. They were contemporaries of the late Maruria Empire and later the Sunga and Kanva Empires.
The Satavanas are known for their patronage of Hinduism and Buddhism, which resulted in Buddhist monuments from Ellora (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) to Amaravati. They were one of the first Indian states to issue coins with their rulers embossed on them. They formed a cultural bridge and played a vital role in trade as well as in the transfer of ideas and culture to and from the Indo-Gangetic plain to the far south of India.
They had to compete with the Sunga Empire and then the Kanva dynasty of Magadha to establish their dominance. Later, they played a crucial role in protecting much of India against foreign invaders like the Sacas, Yavanas, and Palavas. In particular, their struggles with the Western Kshatrapas lasted a long time. The notable rulers of the Satavana dynasty, Gautamiputra Satakarni and Sri Yajna Sātakarni were able to defeat the foreign invaders like the Western Kshatrapas and prevent their expansion. In the 3rd century the empire was divided into smaller states.
The Guptas were a native Indian dynasty that opposed invaders from the northwest. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta dynasty unified northern India. In that period, known as the Indian Golden Age, Hindu culture, politics, and administration reached unprecedented heights. With the collapse of the empire in the 6th century, India was again ruled by several regional kingdoms.
Its origins are largely unknown. The Chinese traveler I-tsing provides the earliest evidence for the existence of a Gupta kingdom in Mágada. The Vedic puranas are believed to have been written at that time; the Gupta Empire is also credited with inventing the concepts of zero and infinity and the symbols for what would come to be known as the Arabic numerals (1-9). The empire came to an end with the attack of the White Huns from Central Asia. A minor lineage of the Gupta clan, which continued to reign in Magada after the disintegration of the empire, was finally dethroned by the Harshavardhana, who reunified the northern subcontinent in the first half of the seventh century.
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Invasion of the White Huns
The White Huns were apparently part of the Hephthalite group that settled in the territory corresponding to Afghanistan in the first half of the 5th century, with a capital in Bamiham. They were responsible for the fall of the Gupta Empire, ending what historians consider a Golden Age of northern India. Meanwhile, much of Deccan and southern India remained untouched by the upheavals that occurred in the north.
The Gupta emperor Skandagupta repulsed a Huna invasion in 455, but the White Huns continued to press the northwest frontier (present-day Pakistan) and eventually penetrated northern India by the end of the 5th century, accelerating the disintegration of the Gupta Empire. After the 6th century, there are few records in India about the Huns. Their fate is uncertain: some scholars think that the invaders were assimilated by the local population; others have suggested that the Huns were the ancestors of the Rajaputrians.
This historical phase can be defined as the period between the fall of the Gupta Empire and the Harshavardhana conquests, on the one hand, and the emergence of the first Islamic sultanates in India with the correlated decline of the southern Vijaynagar Empire in the 13th century, on the other. In that phase the Chola Kingdom, in the territory corresponding to northern Tamil Nadu, and the Chera Kingdom, in what is now Kerala, stood out. The southern Indian ports were then dedicated to the Indian Ocean trade, especially of spices, with the Roman Empire (later the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Caliphates) to the west and the Southeast Asian states, such as the Serivija Empire, to the east. In the north, the first of the Rajaputros was established, a series of kingdoms that would survive to some extent for nearly a millennium until Indian independence from the British. The period saw an artistic production considered the epitome of classical development; the main local spiritual and philosophical systems remained Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
In the north, the empire formed by Harsavardana was succeeded by the Pratiara dynasties, from Malwa (in present-day Rajasthan), Pala, from Bengal, and Rastracuta, from Decam, between the 7th and 9th centuries. In the south and center emerged the Chaluchi Empire at Badami (in present-day Karnataka), and Palavi at Canchipuram (in present-day Tamil Nadu), between the 6th and 8th centuries.
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Chola Empire
The Cholas emerged as the most powerful empire on the subcontinent in the 9th century and maintained their rule until the 12th century. As a dynasty of Tamil origin, their center of power was located in the southern Indian peninsula. Their zenith was during the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, when they ruled over a territory that included the south of the subcontinent, the Maldives and part of Ceylon, reaching at one point as far north as the Ganges and the Malay Archipelago, plus some points along the Gulf of Bengal.
While the Cholas dominated the south, in the north three kingdoms vied for supremacy: the Pratiaras in present-day Rajasthan, the Pala Empire in present-day Biar and Bengal, and the Rastracutas in Decon.
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Rajaputros
History records the first Rajaputra kingdoms in Rajasthan from the 7th century, but it was in the 9th to 11th centuries that they began to actively participate in events on the subcontinent. The various Rajaput dynasties subsequently ruled much of northern India. As a general rule, the Rajaputras, due to their location in the northern Indian subcontinent, were the ones who faced the most Islamic invasions and the subsequent expansion of the Muslim sultanates. In later historical period, they cooperated with the Mughal Empire.
The invasion of the Indian subcontinent by foreign tribes and empires was frequent throughout history, and usually ended with the invader being absorbed into the Indian socio-cultural melting pot. The difference in this historical phase is that the invading Muslim states – generally Turkmen in origin – maintained their Islamic character once settled in the subcontinent, with repercussions to the present day.
The first major Muslim (Umayyad Arab) incursion occurred in the 8th century against Baluchistan, Sindu and the Panjab, resulting in Islamic states over which the control of the Caliphate was very tenuous. In the early 11th century, the Gasnévida dynasty (from Gásni, a city in present-day Afghanistan), of Turkmen origin, advanced into western and northern India, conquering the Panjab; Kashmir, Rajasthan, and Gujarat remained under the control of the Rajaputras. In the 12th century, the Gordids, also a Turkmen dynasty originally from Afghanistan, overcame the Gashniid Empire and some rajahs in northern India and conquered Delhi, founding (already in the 13th century) the Sultanate of Delhi.
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Sultanate of Delhi
The Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) expanded rapidly to include most of northern India from the Khyber Pass to Bengal. It subsequently conquered Guzerate and Malwa and turned southward, reaching as far as present-day Tamil Nadu. The southward expansion continued at the hands of the Sultanate of Bamani, which had separated from Delhi, and the five independent sultanates of the Deccan, Bamani”s successors after 1518. The Bishnaga Kingdom of the Hindus united southern India and blocked the Muslim advance until it fell to the Deccan sultanates in 1565.
During the period of the Delhi Sultanate, there was a synthesis of Indian civilization with Islamic civilization, and the further integration of the Indian subcontinent with a growing world system of wider international networks, encompassing large parts of Afro-Eurasia, which had a significant impact on Indian culture and society, as well as the world at large. The time of his rule included the first forms of Indo-Islamic architecture, increased use of mechanical technology, increased growth rates of India”s population and economy, left lasting syncretic monuments in music, literature, religion and dress, as well as led to the emergence of the Hindustani language. This language is supposed to have been born during the period of the Delhi Sultanate as a result of the mixing of the local Sanskrit pracrit speakers with the Persian, Turkish and Arabic speaking immigrants under the Muslim rulers. The Delhi Sultanate is the only Indo-Islamic empire to enthroned one of the few female rulers in India, Razia Sultana (1236-1240). The Sultanate, however, was also responsible for large-scale destruction and desecration of temples in the Indian subcontinent, although this was not uncommon in medieval Indian warfare, where Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms also desecrated temples of enemy kingdoms.
Perhaps the Sultanate”s most important contribution was its temporary success in insulating the subcontinent from the potential devastation wrought by the Mongol invasion of Central Asia in the 13th century. The Delhi Sultanate was conquered and succeeded by the Mughal Empire.
In 1526, a descendant of Tamerlane named Babur, of Turkish-Perso-Mongol origin, crossed the Khyber Pass, invaded the subcontinent, and established what was to become the Mughal Empire, which would last for over two centuries and cover an even larger territory than the Mughal Empire. By 1600, the Mughal dynasty controlled most of the subcontinent; it went into decline after 1707 and was finally defenestrated by the British in 1857 after the Sipal revolt. This period was marked by great social changes, which took place in a Hindu-majority society ruled by Muslim Grand Moghuls (emperors), some of whom adopted a stance of religious tolerance, others who destroyed Hindu temples and levied taxes on non-Muslims.
In the same way in which the Mughal conquerors of China and Persia had adopted the local culture, the Mughals professed a policy of integration with Indian culture that helps explain their success in comparison to the Delhi Sultanate. The Grand Moghuls intermarried with local royalty, allied themselves with maharajas, and sought to merge their Turco-Persian culture with Indian traditions.
The Mughal Empire ruled most of India in the early 18th century. The “classical period” ended with the death and defeat of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707 by the growing Hindu Maratha Empire, although the dynasty continued for another 150 years.
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Marata Empire
The Maratha Empire (later known as the Maratha Confederacy) was a Hindu state that existed between 1674 and 1818 and was frequently at war with the Muslim Mughal Empire, contributing to the latter”s decline. The Maratha Empire was located in southwestern present-day India and expanded enormously under the rule of the Peshwas, the early ministers of the Maratha Empire. It was the predominant force in the subcontinent for most of the 18th century and was able to hold off the advance of the British colonizers. A large part of the Maratha Empire was coastal, which had been secured by the powerful Maratha Navy under commanders such as Kanhoji Angre. He was very successful in keeping foreign warships away from the Indian coastline, particularly those of the Portuguese and British. Securing coastal areas and building land fortifications were crucial aspects of Maratha defensive strategy and regional military history. In 1761, the Maratha army lost the Third Battle of Panipat, which halted imperial expansion and the empire was then divided into a confederation of states. Internal disputes and three Anglo-Maratha wars (late 18th and early 19th centuries) ended the confederation, whose territory was largely annexed to the British Empire, although some regions remained nominally independent as princely states attached to British India.
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Panjabe
Between 1716 and 1799, the Panjab was governed by a collection of medium-sized Sikh states known as the Sikh Confederation. Although in political terms the confederation was decentralized, the member states were united around a common culture and religion, represented by the Sikh religion. The two Anglo-Sikh wars (1845 to 1849) resulted in the absorption of the Panjab by British India.
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Economy
The political instability resulting from the fall of the Mogol Empire and later the Marata Empire created armed conflicts that severely affected economic life in various parts of the country, although this was offset in part by localized prosperity in the new provincial kingdoms.
Vasco da Gama”s discovery of the sea route to India in 1498 signaled the beginning of the establishment of territories controlled by European powers on the subcontinent. The Portuguese established bases in Goa, Daman, Diu and Bombay, among others. The French and Dutch followed in the 17th century.
State of Portuguese India
The State of India (in Hindi: भारत राज्य), or Portuguese India, was primarily a collection of port cities and forts settled on the coast of Africa and Asia, from the Cape of Good Hope in the west to the Moluccas, Macau and Nagasaki in the east. The individual possessions were conquered or acquired through the establishment of a contract with the respective ruler. It has existed from 1505 to 1961, and has varied geographically in the course of its more than four centuries of existence.
The State of India was founded in 1505, six years after the discovery of the route between Portugal and the Indian subcontinent, in order to serve as an administrative reference for a chain of fortifications, fiefdoms and overseas colonies. The first viceroy was Dom Francisco de Almeida, who established his government in Cochin. Subsequent governors did not receive the title of viceroy. In 1510, the capital of the State of India was transferred to Goa. In the course of the 16th century expansion and stabilization took place in the struggle against various Asian state structures, commanded by Muslims of Arab origin and Ottoman Turks. However, the Portuguese never managed to fully exert power in the Malacca straits or dominate the Red Sea, even after the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope (1498), but they did exercise monopoly for a long time over the only sea route for oriental products to European markets. Before the 18th century, the Portuguese governor there exercised his authority over all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean, from the Cape of Good Hope in the west, to the Moluccas, Macau and Nagasaki islands in the east.
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British India
On December 31, 1600, Queen Elizabeth I of England granted a royal charter to the British East India Company to trade with the East. The company”s first ships arrived in India in 1608, landing in Surate, in what is now Gujarat.
Four years later, English traders defeated the Portuguese in a naval battle and thereby won the sympathy of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. In 1615, King James I sent an ambassador to the Mughal court, and a trade treaty was negotiated whereby the company could erect trading posts in India in exchange for European goods. The company traded items such as cotton, silk, saltpeter, indigo, and tea.
By the mid-17th century, the company had established trading posts in major Indian cities such as Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, as well as the first trading post in Surat, erected in 1612. In 1670, King Charles II granted the company the right to acquire territory, form an army, mint currency, and exercise jurisdiction in areas under its control.
By the end of the 17th century, it had become a “country” in the Indian subcontinent, with considerable military power, and administered three “presidencies” (regional colonial administrations).
The British first established a territorial base in the subcontinent when company-funded troops defeated the Bengalese Nababo Siraj Ud Daulah at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Bengalese wealth was expropriated, local trade was monopolized by the company, and Bengal became a protectorate under direct British control. The famine from 1769 to 1773, caused by the requirement that Bengali farmers and artisans work for derisory pay, killed ten million people. Similar catastrophe occurred almost a century later, after Britain extended its control over the subcontinent, when 40 million Indians starved to death amid the collapse of local industry, and 7 million Bengalis during World War II alone, more than the Jewish holocaust of the same era.
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British territorial expansion
In 1773, the British parliament established the post of governor-general of India.
At the turn of the 19th century, Governor-General Lord Wellesley began to expand the company”s domains on a grand scale by defeating Tipu Sahib, annexing Mysore in southern India, and removing French influence from the subcontinent. In the middle of that century, Governor Dalhousie launched the company”s most ambitious expansion, by defeating the Sikhs in the Anglo-Sikh Wars (which allowed him to annex the Panjab) and subjugating Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. Dalhousie also took small princely states such as Satara, Sambalpur, Jhansi, and Nagpur on the basis of the so-called “doctrine of preemption,” under which the company could annex any principality whose ruler died without male heirs. The annexation of Oudh in 1856 was the company”s last territorial acquisition, as the following year saw the outbreak of the Sipayan revolt.
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Sipaios Revolt
The Sipaios Revolt was a prolonged period of armed uprisings and rebellions in northern and central India against the British occupation of that portion of the subcontinent in 1857 to 1858. Minor incidents of discontent in January, involving arson in cantonments, were the precursors to the rebellion. Subsequently, a full-scale revolt broke out in May and became open warfare in the affected regions.
The rebellion began to spread beyond the armed forces, although it was not as popular as its leaders had hoped. Indians were not fully united. While Badur Shah II, the last emperor of the Mughal dynasty, was restored to his imperial throne with real and effective power, there were factions that wanted the throne to be occupied by Nana Sahib of the Hindu Marata dynasty (fearing a resurrection of the Mughal Empire), and meanwhile the awadhis (the present Utar Pradexe state) wanted to retain the power their Nababo had before the British occupation.
On the other hand, the Sikhs of the Panjab did not desire the restoration of the Mughal Empire, just as the Shiites were not interested in the rebirth of a Sunni state. South India remained outside the conflict.
Two months later, British troops defeated the main Sipai army in the vicinity of Delhi and, with the aid of Sikh, Pashto, and Gurkha forces, besieged the city. Delhi was taken by the British after weeks of street fighting, Badur Shah II was arrested and his sons executed.
The conflict caused the end of British East India Company rule and the beginning of direct administration of much of Indian territory by the British crown (British Raj) for the next ninety years, although some states (collectively called “princely states”) maintained nominal independence and continued to be ruled by their respective maharajahs, rajahs, and nababs.
Some modern Indians consider the sipal revolt to be their country”s first independence movement.
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British Raj
From a formal point of view, the term “British India” applied only to those portions of the subcontinent directly governed by the British administration in Delhi and, earlier, Calcutta. Most of the subcontinent under British influence at that time was not directly ruled by the British: the so-called “princely states” were nominally independent, ruled by their maharajas, rajahs, thakurs and nababs, who recognized the British monarch as their feudal suzerain through treaties. The resulting political union was also known as the Indian Empire (after 1876 passports were issued under this name).
Aden became part of British India from 1839, Burma from 1886. Both became separate colonies of the British Empire in 1937. Although Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) can be considered part of the Indian subcontinent, it was not part of British India, as it was governed as a colony directly from London and not by the Viceroy of India.
The Portuguese State of India and French India were made up of small coastal enclaves ruled by Portugal and France, respectively. They were integrated into India after Indian independence.
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Economy
The British East India Company”s rule over the Indian subcontinent brought about major changes in tax and agrarian policies, which tended to promote agricultural trade, causing a decline in food crops, impoverishment of the masses, loss of land by farmers, and food shortages. The British economic policy in India caused a severe decline in handicrafts and textiles due to reduced demand and increased unemployment. After the removal of international restrictions by the Act of 1813, Indian trade expanded substantially. The result was a significant transfer of capital from India to England, which, due to the colonial policy of the British, led to a massive flight of revenue rather than any systematic effort to modernize the national economy.
The colonization of India by the British created an institutional environment that, on paper, guaranteed property rights among the colonists, encouraged free trade and the development of a single currency with fixed exchange rates, standardized weights and measures, and a capital market. It also established a well-developed system of railroads and telegraphs, a civil service that aimed to be free of any political interference, and a legal system based on the Common Law. This coincided with major changes in the world economy – industrialization and the significant growth of production and trade. However, at the end of colonial rule, India inherited an economy that was one of the poorest among developing countries, with stalled industrial growth, agriculture unable to feed a rapidly growing population, a large-scale illiterate and unskilled labor force, and grossly inadequate infrastructure.
After the First World War, where a few thousand Indians served, a new period began. It was marked by British reforms, but also by more repressive legislation; by the increasingly strident demands of the Indian population for independence and the beginning of a non-violent non-cooperation movement, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and symbol of resistance. During the 1930s, a slow legislative reform was enacted by the British and the Indian National Congress was victorious in the following elections.
Social organizations founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to defend Indian interests to the British Indian government transformed into mass movements against the British presence in the subcontinent, acting through parliamentary actions and nonviolent resistance. After the partition of India, i.e., the separation of the former British Raj between the Republic of India and Pakistan in August 1947, the world witnessed the largest mass migration in history, when a total of 12 million Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims crossed the border of India into West Pakistan and the border of India into East Pakistan.
The history of the Republic of India begins on January 26, 1950. The country became an independent nation within the British Commonwealth on August 15, 1947.
Indian National Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru became India”s first prime minister, but the leader most associated with the independence struggle, Mahatma Gandhi, did not accept any office. The new constitution of 1950 made India a democratic country.
The nation has faced religious violence, casteism, Naxalism, terrorism, and regional separatist insurgencies, especially in Jammu, Kashmir, and states in the northeast of the country. India has unresolved territorial disputes with China, which in 1962 became the Sino-Indian War, and with Pakistan, which resulted in wars in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. India was neutral in the Cold War, but bought its military weapons from the Soviet Union, while its arch-enemy Pakistan was closely tied to the United States and the People”s Republic of China.
India is a nuclear-armed state, having conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, followed by five more tests in 1998. From the 1950s to the 1980s, India followed socialist-inspired policies. The economy was influenced by extensive regulation, protectionism, and public ownership, leading to widespread corruption and slow economic growth. Since 1991, neoliberal economic reforms have transformed India into the third largest and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, although corruption remains a widespread problem. Today, India is a major world power with a prominent voice in global affairs and is seeking a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Many economists, military analysts and experts believe that India will become a superpower in the near future.
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