Ancient civilizations which formed along the Sarasvati River, in the Indus Valley, the Dravidians, and the controversial Aryan Invasion.
The Deccan plateau is an area of southern India.
Sirpur is an archaeological site in Chhattisgarh, India.
The Sindhu or Indus River is the eponymous river between India and Pakistan.
The Saraswati was an important river in ancient India running from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea.
Geography of the ancient Indus Valley, its mountain ranges, rivers, and the major areas of civilization.
The Punjab is a geographic area of India and Pakistan.
Ancient India, along with Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica, was one of the few places in the world to develop writing, including great literature, along with other major advances in civilization. The Indian subcontinent is a diverse and fertile region with monsoons, droughts, plains, mountains, deserts, and especially rivers, along with cities developed.
The early populations along the banks of the Sarasvati River included the Dravidians and the Aryans, but whether the Dravidians were indigenous and whether the Aryans overcame them is debated. Also resources on the differences between the Indus and Aryan-Vedic cultures.
Ashoka (Asoka), a Hindu convert to Buddhism, was the third king of the Mauryan Dynasty in India. He expanded the empire to Pakistan, Nepal, and Afghanistan.
Balochistan (Baluchistan) is the largest of four provinces in Pakistan and has been excavated recently revealing settlement in the third millennium B.C.
Ctesius was a Greek physician and historian who wrote 23 books on the history of Babylonia, Assyria, and the Persian Empire to 398 B.C. His sources were Persian archives. Based on what he heard at the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes II Mnemon from 404 to 398/7, Ctesius wrote a history of India.
Harappan Culture refers to a period in the history of the Indian subcontinent when Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were major cities.
Susan Wise Bauer tells ancient (political) history as an entertainingly detailed story. Her approach to the civilizations of the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China is unusual, because instead of covering one civilization through time, she shows what each was doing during a given period. It is a great read for people who want an overview of the entire "Old World".
The Classical Age in India refers to the period when most of North India was reunited under the Gupta Empire (ca. A.D. 320-550).
Kingdoms and Empires of India. Library of Congress study of the early kingdoms and empires of India.
Ancient civilizations formed along the Sarasvati River in the Indus Valley before the controversial Aryan Invasion.
A look at the assumptions made about the history of the ancient Indus Valley civilization that are based on the Aryan Invasion theory.
These are the languages the ancient people of India and Pakistan are thought to have spoken.
The names of the Mahajanapadas in the ancient Indian subcontinent.
List of the kings of the Mauryan dynasty in India.
Ashoka, third of the Mauryan Dynasty kings expanded the empire to its greatest extent.
Resources on the ancient doctors who perfected the technique of replacing noses with other facial tissue.
Porus, king of the area between the Hydaspes and the Acesines rivers, in India, met Alexander the Great at the Battle of the Hydaspes River in June 326 B.C.
The origins of the caste system is a social stratification system in the Indian subcontinent.
Ancient languages of the Sarasvati River area.
Early civilizations in Pakistan. Library of Congress article on the early civilizations in the region of Pakistan.
Historical Setting of India. Library of Congress article on early India and its place in history.
Harappan Culture article from Library of Congress Country Studies on India.
The Deccan and the South. During the Kushana Dynasty, an indigenous power, the Satavahana Kingdom (first century B.C.-third century A.D.), rose in the Deccan in southern India.
Geography of Pakistan from the Library of Congress.
Ancient Nepal, ca. 500 B.C. - A.D. 700
Library of Congress entry on the historical setting of Nepal.
