After their origin in Africa, Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian SUBCONTINENT between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago.[1] Settled life, which involves the transition from foraging to farming and pastoralism, began in South Asia around 7,000 BCE. At the site of Mehrgarh, Balochistan, presence can be documented of the domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that of goats, sheep, and cattle.[2] By 4,500 BCE, settled life had become more widely prevalent,[2] and eventually evolved into the Indus Valley Civilization, an early civilization of the Old world, contemporaneous with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. It flourished between 2,500 BCE and 1900 BCE in what today is Pakistan and north-western India, and was NOTED for its urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage, and water supply.[3]

In the beginning of the second millennium BCE climate change, with persistent drought, lead to the abandonment of the urban centers of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Its population resettled in smaller villages, and, in the north-west, mixed with Indo-Aryan tribes, who moved into the area in several waves of migration, also driven by the effects of this climate change. The Vedic period was marked by the composition of the Vedas, large collections of hymns of some of the Aryan tribes, whose postulated religious culture, through synthesis with the preexisting religious cultures of the subcontinent, gave rise to Hinduism. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose later during this period. Towards the end of the period, around the sixth century BCE, a second urbanisation took place with the consolidation of small kingdoms (janapadas) into larger states called mahajanapadas. This renewed urbanisation led to the rise of new ascetic or Śramaṇa movements, including Jainism and Buddhism, which challenged the orthodoxy of rituals,[4] and gave rise to new religious concepts.[5]

Most of the Indian subcontinent was conquered by the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. From the 3rd century BCE onwards Prakrit and Pali literature in the north and the Tamil Sangam literature in southern India started to flourish.[6][7] Wootz steel ORIGINATED in south India in the 3rd century BCE and was exported to foreign countries.[8][9][10] During the Classical period, various parts of India were ruled by numerous dynasties for the next 1,500 years, among which the Gupta Empire stands out. This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is KNOWN as the classical or "Golden Age of India". During this period, aspects of Indian civilisation, administration, culture, and religion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of Asia, while kingdoms in southern India had maritime business links with the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Indian cultural influence spread over many parts of Southeast Asia, which led to the establishment of Indianised kingdoms in Southeast Asia (Greater India).[11][12]

The most significant event between the 7th and 11th century was the Tripartite struggle centred on Kannauj that lasted for more than two centuries between the Pala Empire, Rashtrakuta Empire, and Gurjara-Pratihara Empire. Southern India SAW the rise of multiple imperial powers from the middle of the fifth century, most notably the Chalukya, Chola, Pallava, Chera, Pandyan, and Western Chalukya Empires. The Chola dynasty conquered southern India and successfully invaded parts of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Bengal[13] in the 11th century.[14][15] In the early medieval period Indian mathematics, including Hindu numerals, influenced the development of mathematics and astronomy in the Arab world.[16]