Indian History and story of rise

sword like curve across the southern border of Tibet. Shaped like an irregular quadrilateral, this large expanse of territory we call India, deserves the name of a subcontinent. Ancient Geographers referred to India as being "constituted with a four-fold conformation" (chatuh samasthana samsthitam), "on its South and West and East is the Great Ocean, the Himavat range stretches along its north like the string of a bow". 

The name Himavat in the above passage refers not only to the snow-capped ranges of the Himalayas but also to their less elevated offshoots - the Patkai, Lushai and Chittagong Hills in the east, and the Sulaiman and Kirthar ranges in the west. These go down to the Sea and separate India from the wooded valley of Irrawady, on the one hand, and the hilly tableland of Iran, on the other. The Himalayas standing tall in breathtaking splendour are radiant in myth and mystery. These, the youngest and tallest mountain ranges, feed the Ganga with never-ending streams of snow. The Himalayas are home to the people of Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. 

Indians love these peaks because they are a part of every Indian's life. Indians revere the mountains, as they would, the father. Even today, when urban India is racing against time, in the caves of the snow-clad peaks, live hermits - seeking the divine. Not a surprise when you consider that even this century has seen some great philosophers like Ramana Maharishi, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhansa and J. Krishnamurti

As the juggernaut of world history rolled on, many civilisations rose and fell and passed into oblivion but the spirit of India remains eternal and invincible, unscathed by the onslaught of Time. Indian history follows a continuous process of reinvention that can eventually prove elusive for those seeking to grasp its essential character. The history of this astonishing sub continent dates back to five thousand years ago, when the inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilisation had developed an urban culture based on commerce and sustained by agricultural trade. Amongst the world's oldest, richest and most diverse cultures, India's unique ethos is rooted in its ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. 

The political map of ancient and medieval India was made up of countless kingdoms with fluctuating boundaries that rendered the country vulnerable to foreign invasions. The Aryans were the first to invade the country. They came out of the North in about 1500 BC and brought with them strong cultural traditions. Persians, Greeks, Chinese nomads, Arabs, Portuguese, British and many others - the list of invaders who ruled India is long. Yet, none could crush the indomitable soul of Bharatvarsha! 

Here is brief account of the History of India, which seeks to articulate the undying magic of the amazing nation that - in the words of American author Mark Twain - 'all men long to see, and having seen it once, would not give up that glimpse for all the wonders of the world'.

India's first major civilisation flourished around 2500 BC in the Indus river valley. This civilisation, which lasted for 1000 years, and is known as the Harappan culture, appears to have been the culmination of thousands of years of settlement.

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1500 BC

From around 1500 BC onwards, Aryan tribes from Afghanistan and Central Asia began to filter into northwest India. Eventually these tribes were able to control the whole of Northern India, and many of the original inhabitants, the Dravidians, were pushed into south India.

7^th century BC

As the Aryan tribes spread out across the Ganges plain, in the seventh century BC, many of them were grouped together into 16 major kingdoms.

5^th century BC

Gradually these amalgamated into four large states, with Kosala and Magadha emerging to be the most powerful during the fifth century BC.

2500 BC

North India, however, came to be dominated by the Nanda dynasty in about 364 BC.