The name India is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, from Sanskrit सिन्धु Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River.[15] The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ινδοί), the people of the Indus.[16] The Constitution of India and usage in many Indian languages also recognises Bharat (pronounced [ˈbʱaːrət̪] (
listen)) as an official name of equal status.[17] The name Bharat is derived from the name of the legendary king Bharata in Hindu scriptures. Hindustan ([ɦɪnd̪ʊˈst̪aːn] ( listen)), originally a Persian word for “Land of the Hindus” referring to northern India and Pakistan before 1947, is also occasionally used as a synonym for all of India.[18]
The earliest anatomically modern human remains found in South Asia are from approximately 30 thousand years ago.[19] Mesolithic rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh.[20] The first known neolithic settlements on the subcontinent appeared 9,000 years ago in Mehrgarh and other sites in western Pakistan.[21] These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,[22] the first urban culture in South Asia,[23] which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in Pakistan and western India.[24] Centred around its cities, such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Lothal, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.[23]
During the period 2000 BCE–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent evolved from copper age to iron age cultures.[25] The Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism,[26] were composed during this period, and historians have used these texts to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Ganges Plain.[25] Most historians consider this period to encompass several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west.[26] The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors and free peasants, but excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period.[27] In the Deccan, archaeological evidence from this period suggests a chiefdom stage of political organization.[25] In South India, the large number of megalithic monuments found from this period,[28] and nearby evidence of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions suggest progression to sedentary life.[28]
By the fifth century BCE, the small chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-west regions had consolidated into sixteen major oligarchies or monarchies called Mahajanapadas.[29] The emerging urbanisation as well as the orthodoxies of the late Vedic age now created the religious reform movements of Buddhism and Jainism.[30] Buddhism, based on the teachings of India's first historical figure, Gautam Buddha, attracted followers from among the richest, the poorest, and the modest households.[31] By the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire.[32] The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent excepting the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas.[33] The Mauryas are known as much for their empire building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka the Great's renunciation of militarism and his far flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.[34]
The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that during the period 200 BCE–200 CE, the southern peninsula was being ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas, dynasties that would trade extensively with the Roman Empire, and with west and south-east Asia.[35] In north India, during the same time, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family, leading to the increased subordination of women.[36] By the fourth and fifth centuries CE, the Gupta Empire had created a complex administrative and taxation system in the greater Ganges Plain that would become a model for later Indian kingdoms.[37] Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on bhakti, or devotion, rather than the management of ritual asserted itself,[38] and was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite.[39] Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances.[39]
During the same time, and for several centuries afterwards, South India under the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas, experienced its own golden age. During this period, aspects of Indian civilization, administration, culture, and the religions Hinduism and Buddhism spread to much of south-east Asia.
Muslim rule in the subcontinent began in 712 CE when the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab in modern day Pakistan, setting the stage for several successive invasions from Central Asia between the 10th and 15th centuries CE, leading to the formation of Muslim empires in the Indian subcontinent such as the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire.
