The history of India

The history of India goes back 4,000 years.

The diversity of Indian culture with its unique variety of social and economic configurations comes from this long and complex historical journey. Regional expansion and population density can also be understood only after a thorough and deep study of the history of India. India history, when viewed from the present times with contradictions like poverty and material growth, illiteracy and high intellectual human resources, rich culture and low standard of living reveals a magnificent society in flux. The process started in the 3rd Millennium B.C. with the inception of the Indus valley civilization. The Harappan civilization was established in the northwest. It was primarily an agricultural economy, which extended into an urban mode of society. Long distance trade started at this time. In India, history opened its second chapter in the first millennium B.C. At this juncture, extensive agricultural development around the Yamuna, Ganga and several other southern rivers boosted population, trade and urbanization. It is easy to understand India and its culture when seen from the perspective of the Vedas, which served as the prime treatise in the country. The Vedantic code is still ingrained in the Indian psyche. The seventh century A.D. ushered a new era in India due to cross cultural trade associations with other parts of Asia and the Middle East. This culminated in the infiltration of Portuguese explorers, missionaries and other traders in 1498. The history of Buddhism in India was a special chapter, which has given the world a new religion. Buddhism was founded by Sidharth Gautama (563-483B.C.). Gautama was a prince who abandoned his kingdom in search of the meaning of life. Gautama Buddha or Sidharth diluted the culture of brahaminic priesthood and caste hierarchy in the 5th century B.C. Gautam and Mahavir (the founder of Jainism) gave the world a practical means of seeking the truth.