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Outline Of Ancient India
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ancient India: Ancient India is the Indian subcontinent from prehistoric times to the start of Medieval India, which is typically dated (when the term is still used) to the end of the Gupta Empire around 500 CE. Depending on context, the term Ancient India might cover the modern-day countries of Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, though these territories had large cultural differences. General history of Ancient India An elaborate periodisation may be as follows: Pre-history (Neolithic Age) (c. 8000–3500 BCE) * Indian Pre-history Age (c. 10,000–3300 BCE) * Bhirrana culture (7570–6200 BCE) * Mehrgarh culture (c. 7000 –2500 BCE) Bronze Age India (c. 3500–1750 BCE) * Indus Valley Civilisation (c. 3300–1300 BCE) * Ahar–Banas culture (c. 3000–1500 BCE) * Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (c. 2600–1200 BCE) * Cemetery H culture (c. 1900–1300 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ochre Coloured Pottery Culture
The Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (OCP) is a Bronze Age culture of the Indo-Gangetic Plain "generally dated 2000–1500 BCE," extending from eastern Punjab to northeastern Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh. Artefacts of this culture show similarities with both the Late Harappan culture and the Vedic culture. Archaeologist Akinori Uesugi considers it as an archaeological continuity of the previous Harappan Bara style, while according to Parpola, the find of carts in this culture may reflect an Indo-Iranian migration into the India subcontinent, in contact with Late Harappans. The OCP marked the last stage of the North Indian Bronze Age and was succeeded by the Iron Age black and red ware culture and the Painted Grey Ware culture. Geography and dating The 'Ochre Coloured Pottery culture is "generally dated 2000-1500 BCE," Early specimens of the characteristic ceramics found near Jodhpura, Rajasthan, date from the 3rd millennium (this Jodhpura is located in the district ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iron Age In India
In the prehistory of the Indian subcontinent, the Iron Age succeeded Bronze Age India and partly corresponds with the megalithic cultures of India. Other Iron Age archaeological cultures of India were the Painted Grey Ware culture (1300–300 BCE) and the Northern Black Polished Ware (700–200 BCE). This corresponds to the transition of the Janapadas or principalities of the Vedic period to the sixteen Mahajanapadas or region-states of the early historic period, culminating in the emergence of the Maurya Empire towards the end of the period. The earliest evidence of iron smelting predates the emergence of the Iron Age proper by several centuries. North India R. Tewari (2003) radiocarbon dated iron artefacts in Uttar Pradesh, including furnaces, tuyeres, and slag between c. 1800 and 1000 BCE. The use of iron and iron working was prevalent in the Central Ganga Plain and the Eastern Vindhyas from the early second millennium BCE. The beginning of the use of iron has been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Pandyan Kingdom
The Early Pandyas of the Sangam period were one of the three main kingdoms of the ancient Tamil country, the other two being the Cholas, and Cheras Dynasty. As with many other kingdoms around this period (earlier than 200 BCE), most of the information about the Early Pandyas come to modern historians mainly through literary sources and some epigraphic, archaeological and numismatic evidence. The capital of the Early Pandyan kingdom was initially Korkai, Thoothukudi and was later moved to Koodal (now Madurai) during the reign of Nedunjeliyan I. The kingdom lay to the south of the Maurya Empire of India. The kings of the Pandyan Dynasty are frequently mentioned in Sangam literature of the third century BCE and onwards, in literary works such as the '' Mathuraikkanci'' and other early Tamil literary works such as ''Cilapatikaram'', which have been used by historians to identify their names and, to some extent, their genealogy. Nedunjeliyan II is referred to as the most p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahajanapadas
The Mahājanapadas ( sa, great realm, from ''maha'', "great", and '' janapada'' "foothold of a people") were sixteen kingdoms or oligarchic republics that existed in ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE during the second urbanisation period. The 6th–5th centuries BCE is often regarded as a major turning point in early Indian history; during this period India's first large cities arose after the demise of the Indus Valley civilization. It was also the time of the rise of sramana movements (including Buddhism and Jainism), which challenged the religious orthodoxy of the Vedic period. Two of the Mahājanapadas were most probably s (oligarchic republics) and others had forms of monarchy. Ancient Buddhist texts like the '' Anguttara Nikaya'' make frequent reference to sixteen great kingdoms and republics which had developed and flourished in a belt stretching from Gandhara in the northwest to Anga in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. They include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuru Kingdom
Kuru (Sanskrit: ) was a Vedic Indo-Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age India, encompassing parts of the modern-day states of Haryana, Delhi, and some parts of western Uttar Pradesh, which appeared in the Middle Vedic period (c. 1200 – c. 900 BCE). The Kuru Kingdom was the first recorded state-level society in the Indian subcontinent. The Kuru kingdom decisively changed the religious heritage of the early Vedic period, arranging their ritual hymns into collections called the Vedas, and developing new rituals which gained their position over Indian civilization as the Srauta rituals, which contributed to the so-called "classical synthesis" or "Hindu synthesis". It became the dominant political and cultural center of the middle Vedic Period during the reigns of Parikshit and Janamejaya, but declined in importance during the late Vedic period (c. 900 – c. 500 BCE) and had become "something of a backwater" by the Mahajanapada period in the 5th century BCE. However, tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gandhāra (kingdom)
Gandhāra (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan kingdom of western South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The inhabitants of Gandhāra were called the Gāndhārīs. Location The Gandhāra kingdom of the late Vedic period was located on both sides of the Indus river, and it corresponded to the modern Rawalpindi District of modern-day Pakistani Punjab and Peshawar District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. By the 6th century BCE, Gandhāra had expanded to include the valley of Kaśmīra. The capital of Gandhāra was Takṣaśila ( Pāli: ; Ancient Greek: ), and its other major town was Puṣkalāvatī ( Prākrit: ; grc, Πευκελαωτις ) or Puṣkarāvatī ( Pāli: ). History Kingdom The first mention of the Gandhārīs is attested once in the as a tribe that has sheep with good wool. In the , the Gandhārīs are mentioned alongside the Mūjavants, the Āṅgeyas. and the Māgadhīs in a hymn asking fever to leave the body of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brihadratha
Brihadratha ( sa, बृहद्रथ; IAST: Bṛhadratha), also known as ''Maharatha'', was the initiator of his dynasty and also because of his greatness, his dynasty came to be known as '' Brihadratha dynasty'', the earliest ruling dynasty of Magadha. He established Magadha on the banks of River Ganges and transferred the power from Chedi (its Neighboring kingdom) to the newly settled Magadha. In his rule and also in the rule of his famous son Jarasandha, Magadha became the Central Power of India. Magadha was the most powerful Mahajanapada of India. He had a daughter named Shashirekha who was the second wife of Dhrishtadhyumna. Brihadratha was the eldest of the five sons of Vasu, (also known as Uparichara Vasu ) the Kuru king of ChediMisra, V.S. (2007). ''Ancient Indian Dynasties'', Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, , pp.129–36 and his queen Girika. His father was the ruler of Chedi and Brihadratha established Magadha at the border of Chedi Kingdom. He is Mentioned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Painted Grey Ware Culture
The Painted Grey Ware culture (PGW) is an Iron Age Indian culture of the western Gangetic plain and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley in the Indian subcontinent, conventionally dated 1200 to 600–500 BCE, or from 1300 to 500–300 BCE It is a successor of the Cemetery H culture and Black and red ware culture (BRW) within this region, and contemporary with the continuation of the BRW culture in the eastern Gangetic plain and Central India. Characterized by a style of fine, grey pottery painted with geometric patterns in black, the PGW culture is associated with village and town settlements, domesticated horses, ivory-working, and the advent of iron metallurgy. , 1,576 PGW sites have been discovered. Although most PGW sites were small farming villages, "several dozen" PGW sites emerged as relatively large settlements that can be characterized as towns; the largest of these were fortified by ditches or moats and embankments made of piled earth with wooden palisades, albeit smaller and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Black Polished Ware
The Northern Black Polished Ware culture (abbreviated NBPW or NBP) is an urban Iron Age Indian culture of the Indian Subcontinent, lasting c. 700–200 BCE (proto NBPW between 1200 and 700 BCE), succeeding the Painted Grey Ware culture and Black and red ware culture. It developed beginning around 700 BCE, in the late Vedic period, and peaked from c. 500–300 BCE, coinciding with the emergence of 16 great states or mahajanapadas in Northern India, and the subsequent rise of the Mauryan Empire. Recent archaeological evidences have pushed back NBPW date to 1200 BCE at Nalanda district, in Bihar, where its earliest occurrences have been recorded and carbon dated from the site of Juafardih. Similarly sites at Akra and Ter Kala Dheri from Bannu have provided carbon dating of 900-790 BCE and 1000-400 BCE, and at Ayodhya around 13th century BC or 1000 BCE. Overview The diagnostic artifact and namesake of this culture is the Northern Black Polished Ware, a luxury style of burni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ganges Plain
The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain encompassing northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, including most of northern and eastern India, around half of Pakistan, virtually all of Bangladesh and southern plains of Nepal. The region is named after the Indus and the Ganges rivers and encompasses a number of large urban areas. The plain is bound on the north by the Himalayas, which feed its numerous rivers and are the source of the fertile alluvium deposited across the region by the two river systems. The southern edge of the plain is marked by the Deccan Plateau. On the west rises the Iranian Plateau. Many developed cities like Delhi, Dhaka, Kolkata, Lahore and Karachi are located in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. History The region is known for the Indus Valley civilization, which was responsible for the birth of ancient culture of the Indian subcontinent. The flat and fertile terrain has facilitated the repeated rise and exp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black And Red Ware Culture
Black and red ware (BRW) is a South Asian earthenware, associated with the neolithic phase, Harappa, Bronze Age India, Iron Age India, the megalithic and the early historical period. Although it is sometimes called an archaeological culture, the spread in space and time and the differences in style and make are such that the ware must have been made by several cultures. In the Western Ganges plain (western Uttar Pradesh) it is dated to c. 1450–1200 BCE, and is succeeded by the Painted Grey Ware culture; whereas in the Central and Eastern Ganges plain (eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Bengal) and Central India (Madhya Pradesh) the BRW appears during the same period but continues for longer, until c. 700–500 BCE, when it is succeeded by the Northern Black Polished Ware culture. In the Western Ganges plain, the BRW was preceded by the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture. The BRW sites were characterized by subsistence agriculture (cultivation of rice, barley, and legumes), and y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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