The Indian civilization is one of the oldest in the world. Farmers had begun to build villages in the lush and fertile valleys of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra rivers (in present-day Pakistan and India) by about 7000 BCE. These settlements grew larger and eventually became the centre of a great civilization that flourished between 3200 and 1700 BCE. The two greatest cities of that civilization, each once home to up to 60,000 people, have been named Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa by archaeologists. The inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilization did not leave behind great monuments like pyramids or temples, but they did construct many fine buildings and produced beautiful crafts.

The two largest cities of the Indus Valley civilization, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, had streets of brick-built houses laid out on a grid system. Their thick walls kept people cool in the heat of summer, while the windows may have had wooden shutters with grilles (barred openings) to let in light and air.

Both cities had their own water supply—wells in the streets where people could get water—and sewage systems (for the disposal of waste), making them the first known cities in the world to do so. Almost every house had a flush toilet. Dirty water flowed out through pipes into a drain in the street.
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Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro flourished until about 1700 BCE, when people seem to have gradually moved away. This may have been because the rivers on which the cities depended changed course or constantly flooded. But the collapse of trade with Mesopotamia, the cities' main trading partner, may also have caused their decline.

​​​​​​​The cities lay in ruins and were buried beneath soil and vegetation until the 19th century, when archaeologists began to uncover their remains. Among those remains was the famous "Priest-King" statue, which some archaeologists believe represents a priest or other important man.

Writing

One of the first civilizations to have the wheel, the Indus Valley also developed a type of writing using symbols that may have represented words, or parts of words, like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs or early Chinese characters. Between 400 and 600 were used, although they have not yet been deciphered. A clay mould of a stone seal found at Harappa shows a row of symbols called pictographs. Typically, there are five or six on each seal (the longest one has 34 pictographs). 

The Aryans

Some time around 1500 BCE, speakers of an Indo-Aryan language, who were semi-nomadic pastoralists from central Asia, moved into India and occupied the territory of the now fallen Indus Valley civilization of western India. They slowly spread across central and eastern India taking with them the language of Sanskrit and the religion of Hinduism. Their descendants dominated the northern part of India for about 1000 years. What little we know about their movements and wars has been preserved in the mythic Vedas, the holiest books of the Hindu religion. For this reason, this time in India's history is called the Vedic period.

Early kingdoms

In around 1000 BCE, the Aryans began to work in iron and gradually moved east into the Ganges Plain, where they grew rice. They formed small tribal kingdoms known as janapadas. By around 700 BCE these had come together to form 16 large mahajanapadas ("great realms"). Around 500 BCE, the greatest of these was Magadha, ruled by its energetic king, Bimbisara. Its cities were encircled by mud-brick defensive walls.
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Origins of Hinduism

Hinduism has been called “the oldest religion in the world”. It has no single founder and comes from many different Indian cultures and traditions. The word Hindu comes from the Persian word sindhu, or "river", because the earliest Hindus lived in the Indus Valley civilization around the River Indus. As the Indo-Aryan groups who lived in the region moved out across India, they took the Hindu religion with them.

The four Vedas

Hinduism has three main types of scripture, all written down in the Aryan language of Sanskrit. The first are the four Vedas, which were written down between 1200 and 900 BCE. The Hindus believe that these four are divine texts and cannot be changed in any way. The four are: the Rig Veda, which contains religious hymns; the Sama Veda, which consists of chants for Hindus to sing as part of their worship; the Yajur Veda, which contains words to be spoken by Hindu priests; and the Arthara Veda, which is full of magic spells.

Later scriptures

As Hinduism developed during the 8th century BCE, Hindus began to wonder about the meaning of life and other important questions. These questions gave rise to the second group of scriptures. The Upanishads (”sittings near a teacher”) explore the main ideas of Hinduism. The Aranyakas (“wilderness texts") deal with the meaning of rituals. The Puranas (“ancient myths”) contain stories of creation and the lives of the gods. Like the Vedas, the Upanishads are divine and cannot be changed.

Epic poems

The final group of Hindu scriptures are two epic poems. The Mahabharata, which was begun in about 400 BCE, is about 200,000 lines long and is the longest poem ever written. At its core is the Bhagavad Gita (“Song of the Lord”), a conversation between Arjuna, prince of the Aryan kingdom of Kuru, and his guide and charioteer Krishna, one of the avatars (appearances) of the god Vishnu.

The second poem, the Ramayana, was first written down in around 300 BC and tells the story of how Rama, another avatar of Vishnu, rescued his wife Sita, who had been kidnapped by Ramana, the demon king of Lanka.

A formal, literary language, Sanskrit was used for religious purposes, as well as for poetry, drama and scientific and philosophical works. It existed alongside other languages used in everyday conversation. Today Sanskrit is one of the 22 Indian languages recognized by the Indian Constitution and is still spoken across India.

Nanda Empire

In the 4th century BCE, one of the ruling dynasties of Magadha, the Nandas, built the first great empire of northern India. At its furthest extent, the Nanda Empire extended from Odisha in the east to the Punjab in the west, and as far south as the Vindhya Range. Ruling from their capital at Pataliputra (near present-day Patna), the Nanda kings used their huge wealth to build a vast army. When the Greek general Alexander the Great invaded northwest India in 326 BCE, he entered Nanda territory. It might have been the prospect of facing their army that caused his soldiers to mutiny, forcing Alexander to withdraw.

Ashoka the Great

By the time the third Mauryan emperor, Ashoka (reigned 269–232 BCE), came to power, there was only one major state left to conquer: Kalinga on the east coast. Ashoka succeeded in conquering it, but caused so much bloodshed that he was overcome by guilt. He converted to Buddhism and set about governing his empire in a more peaceful manner.

When Ashoka came to the throne, there were several religions in India, including Hinduism, which later became India’s main religion. Buddhism had already been founded by Siddhartha Gautama (c.563–483 BCE), but it only had small groups of followers. It was Ashoka who encouraged the spread of Buddhism. Ashoka set up trading links with neighbouring lands and built a network of roads. His beliefs about how people should behave and the laws he made were engraved on rocks and pillars throughout the empire. They are known today as the Edicts of Ashoka.