Shaunit Nishant

Shaunit Nishant

Ancient India

Anatomically modern humans are thought to have arrived in South Asia 73-55,000 years back,^[23] though the earliest authenticated human remains date to only about 30,000 years ago.^[24] Nearly contemporaneous Mesolithic rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh.^[25] Around 7000 BCE, the first known Neolithic settlements appeared on the subcontinent in Mehrgarh and other sites in western Pakistan.^[26] These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,^[27] the first urban culture in South Asia;^[28] it flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in Pakistan and western India.^[29] Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.^[28]
During the period 2000–500 BCE, in terms of culture, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age.^[30] The Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism,^[31] were composed during this period,^[32] and historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.^[30] Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west.^[33][31][34] The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labelling their occupations impure, arose during this period.^[35] On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation.^[30] In southern India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period,^[36] as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.^[36]