History Of India
An explanation to India’s vivid diversity lies in the pages of history.Its rich fertile plains have been magnet attracting diverse communities and tribes from all parts of the known world from the time immemorial. Sometimes for trade and other times for plunder. India’s earliest recorded civilization dates back to 2200 BD when the first few village communities grew up along the Indus Valley (now the modern day Pakistan) almost 10,000 years ago. Archaeological digs indicate that civilization gradually grew over the successive generations, finally culminating into beautiful ancient cities of Harrapa and Mohenjodaro. These were first excavated in 1920 from Lothal near Ahmedabad and Sind in Pakistan respectively. Excavation of different strata of Neolithic sites shows that the earliest inhabitants were nomadic tribesmen who began to cultivate the land and keep domestic animals.
Most cultural, religious and political developments during that period reflected a local taste and flavor rather than any outside influence. Even though India had extensive trade and commerce contacts with Mesopotamia, they developed a system of weights and measures and a script that very well could be precursor to the modern day Dravidian languages of south and developed art in the form of terracotta and bronze figurines.The population started shifting inwards finally settling between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.This region became the heart of the emerging Aryan culture. From 1500 BC,these people laid the literary and religious foundations of what ultimately became Hinduism.In fact,India is a repository of the world’s greatest religions.Is is the birthplace of Hinduism,Buddhism and Jainism.It is also home to the Zoroastrians faith – the practitioner’s of which are called Parsis.
The decline of the culture at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC was thought by some to have been caused by the flooding of the Indus Valley, another possibility is that climatic changes led to decreased rainfall and the subsequent failure of agriculture.
Vedic Period
The knowledge of the Aryans was collected and collated by the Brahmins into four scared texts. The first of which was RigVeda.In a later Vedic period (from about 1000 BC – 600 BC) SamaVeda, YajurVeda and AtharvaVeda were added to the collection.These along with the Upanishads and Vedangas form a considerable wealth of knowledge in all the practical sciences and the physical world. This period came to be known as the Vedic Period.
Also read - Important Chapters In Indian History
