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1500 BC – 500 BC
Vedic Period
• The Vedic period is characterized by Indo-Aryan
culture associated with the texts of Vedas,
sacred to Hindus, which were orally composed
in Vedic Sanskrit.
• The Vedas are some of the oldest extant texts,
next to those of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
• The Vedic period lasted from about 1500 BCE to
500 BCE, laid the foundations of Hinduism and
other cultural aspects of early Indian society.
• The Aryas established Vedic civilization all over
North India, and increasingly so in the Gangetic
Plain.
Vedic Period
• This period was a result of immigrations of Indo-
Aryan speaking tribes who called themselves
Arya (ārya, Aryans). They overlaid the existing
civilizations of local people whom they called
Dasyus.
• Early Vedic society consisted of largely pastoral
groups, with late Harappan urbanization having
been abandoned.
• After the Rigveda, Aryan society became
increasingly agricultural, and was socially
organized around the four Varnas.
Vedic Period
• In addition to the principal texts of
Hinduism the Vedas, the core themes of
the Sanskrit epics Ramayana and
Mahabharata are said to have their
ultimate origins during this period.
Mahajanapadas Period
Mahajanapadas Period
• Refers to the sixteen monarchies and
'republics' known as the Mahajanapadas
— Kasi, Kosala, Anga, Magadha, Vajji (or
Vriji), Malla, Chedi, Vatsa (or Vamsa),
Kuru, Panchala, Machcha (or Matsya),
Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara,
Kamboja — stretched across the Indo-
Gangetic plains from modern-day
Afghanistan to Bengal and Maharastra.
Mahajanapadas Period
• This period was that of the second major
urbanisation in India after the Indus Valley
Civilization.
• Many smaller clans mentioned within early
literature seem to have been present
across the rest of the subcontinent.
• Some of these kings were hereditary;
other states elected their rulers.
Mahajapanadas Period
• The educated speech at that time was Sanskrit,
while the dialects of the general population of
northern India are referred to as Prakrits
• Many of the sixteen kingdoms had coalesced to
four major ones by 500/400 BCE, by the time of
Siddhartha Gautama. These four were Vatsa,
Avanti, Kosala and Magadha.
• Hindu rituals at that time were complicated and
conducted by the priestly class.
Mahajapanadas Period
• It is thought that the Upanishads, late Vedic
texts dealing mainly with incipient philosophy,
were composed in the later Vedic Age and early
in this period of the Mahajanapadas (from about
600 - 400 BCE).
• Upanishads had a substantial effect on Indian
philosophy, and were contemporary to the
development of Buddhism and Jainism,
indicating a golden age of thought in this period.
Mahajanapadas Period
• It is believed that in 537 BCE, that
Siddhartha Gautama attained the state of
"enlightenment", and became known as
the 'Buddha' - the awakened one.
• Around the same time, Mahavira (the 24th
Jain Tirthankara according to Jains)
propagated a similar theology, that was to
later become Jainism.
Persian and Greek Invasions
Persian and Greek Invasions
• Much of the northwestern Indian
Subcontinent (present day Eastern
Afghanistan and Pakistan) came under the
rule of the Persian Achaemenid Empire in
c. 520 BCE during the reign of Darius the
Great, and remained so for two centuries
thereafter.
Persian and Greek Invasions
• In 326 BCE, Alexander the Great
conquered Asia Minor and the
Achaemenid Empire, reaching the north-
west frontiers of the Indian subcontinent.
• He defeated King Puru in the Battle of the
Hydaspes (near modern-day Jhelum,
Pakistan) and conquered much of the
Punjab.
Alexander's march East put him in confrontation
with the Nanda Empire of Magadha and
Gangaridai Empire of Bengal. His army,
exhausted and frightened by the prospect of
facing larger Indian armies at the Ganges River,
mutinied at the Hyphasis (modern Beas) and
refused to march further East. Alexander, after
the meeting with his officer, Coenus, was
convinced that it was better to return
The Persian and Greek invasions had
important repercussions on Indian
civilization. The political systems of the
Persians was to influence future forms of
governance on the subcontinent, including
the administration of the Mauryan dynasty.
In addition, the region of Gandhara, or
present-day eastern Afghanistan and
north-west Pakistan, became a melting pot
of Indian, Persian, Central Asian and
Greek cultures and gave rise to a hybrid
culture, Greco-Buddhism, which lasted
until the 5th century CE and influenced the
artistic development of Mahayana
Buddhism.
Maurya Period
322 BC – 185 BC
Maurya Period
• The Maurya Empire (322–185 B.C), ruled by the
Mauryan dynasty, was geographically extensive,
powerful, and a political military empire in
ancient India.
• The great Maurya empire was established by
Chandragupta Maurya and this empire was
flourished by Ashoka the Great.
• At its greatest extent, the Empire stretched to
the north along the natural boundaries of the
Himalayas, and to the east stretching into what
is now Assam.
Maurya Period
• To the west, it reached beyond modern
Pakistan, annexing Balochistan and much of
what is now Afghanistan, including the modern
Herat and Kandahar provinces.
• The Empire was expanded into India's central
and southern regions by the emperors
Chandragupta and Bindusara, but it excluded a
big portion of unexplored tribal and forested
regions near Kalinga which was won by Ashoka
the Great.
Early Middle Kingdoms