India is a country in South Asia, which has always been known for its high culture and untold riches, since many trade routes passed through it. The history of India is interesting and fascinating, because it is a very ancient state, the traditions of which have remained practically unchanged for many centuries.

Antiquity

Bronze Age

Around the 3rd millennium BC, the first Indian civilization appeared, which was called the Indian (or Harappan) civilization.

Initially, metallurgy, construction, and small sculpture were developed among the crafts. But monumental sculpture, in contrast to Mesopotamia or Egypt, did not develop. Foreign trade was actively conducted, for example, with Mesopotamia, Sumer or Arabia.

Buddhist period

From about the middle of the 1st millennium BC, disagreements began between representatives of the Vedic religion, which at that time was already significantly outdated, and between the Kshatriyas - the estates of rulers and warriors. As a result, many new movements appeared, the most popular of which was Buddhism. The history of India says that its founder was Buddha Shakyamuni.

During this period, the religious, economic and communal-caste systems were finally formed. This era is characterized by numerous invasions from the northwestern states and tribes, for example, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, nomads.

The history of ancient India ends with the Gupta dynasty, during the reign of which the "golden age" of Indian civilization began. But this period did not last long. In the fourth century, the Iranian-speaking nomads of the Hephthalites created their own state, which included India.

History of India in the Middle Ages

From the tenth to the twelfth century, there was an Islamic invasion from Central Asia, as a result of which the Delhi Sultanate gained control of northern India. After some time, most of the country became part of the Empire.However, in the south of the peninsula there were several native kingdoms that were out of the reach of the invaders.

European colonies in India

Since the sixteenth century, the history of India tells about the struggle of influential European countries, including the Netherlands, Portugal, Great Britain and France, for the formation of colonies on the territory of the state, since they were all interested in trade with India. Most of the country came under the control of England, or rather, the East India Company. Ultimately, this company was liquidated, and India came under the control of the British Crown as a colony.

National liberation war

In 1857, an uprising against the East India Company began, which was called the First War of Liberation. However, it was suppressed, and established direct administrative control over practically the entire territory of the colony.

In the first half of the twentieth century, a national liberation movement began in India, headed by Mahatma Gandhi. From this moment, the history of India as an independent state begins. However, she was still part of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Modern history

In 1950, India became a republic.

In 1974 she tested nuclear weapons.

In 1988, five new explosions were carried out.

In 3 thousand BC in the Indus Valley, the so-called Harappan civilization was formed - so named after the modern name of the settlement on the left bank of the river. Rvi in ​​the Punjab, where one of the largest cities of this civilization was once located.

The second famous large city of this civilization - Mahenjo-Daro - is located on the right bank of the Indus, about 400 km. from its mouth. In Kalibangan, near the border of India with Pakistan, at the mouth of the ancient Saraswati (now almost dried up), another city related to this civilization was found. A large number of smaller towns and settlements are also known. In general, the Harappan civilization occupied a huge territory even by modern standards - about 1500 km from north to south.

Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa supposedly originated in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. and existed at least in the 2nd millennium BC. It is obvious that even then these cities maintained contact with the civilizations of Mesopotamia. The Harappan civilization was most likely theocratic, that is, it was ruled by priests.
Both cities were built according to a similar plan - a citadel with battlements and public buildings inside, around which was a city that occupied an area of ​​more than a square kilometer. Perfectly straight streets divided the city into quarters. Building material for buildings, usually fired bricks of extremely high quality were used.
Houses with a height of 2 floors were also built according to the same plan - around a rectangular courtyard of a suite of rooms. The entrance to the house was usually not from the street, but from a side street; all windows faced the courtyard.
The houses had rooms for ablutions - a kind of "bath" with a system of drainpipes that go into the city sewer. The city sewerage pipes ran under the streets and were covered with special brick slabs.
One of the oldest swimming pools in the world, measuring about 11 X 7 m, was opened in Mohenjo-Daro.
In Harappa, north of the citadel, a large granary with a size of 45 X 60 m was discovered. As studies show, the main grain crops of the Harappan civilization were wheat and barley. Buffaloes, goats, sheep, pigs, donkeys, and various domestic animals have already been tamed.

To the surprise of archaeologists, none of the structures at Mahenjo-Daro and Harappi have been identified as.
There was already a written language, most likely of a pictographic nature, numbering about 270 characters. Many of these signs are displayed on seals found during excavations. Unfortunately, despite all attempts, the writing of the Harap civilization has not yet been deciphered.
Around 1500 BC, a powerful earthquake occurred, which destroyed many cities of the Harappan civilization, and all the same, invaders from the west invaded the Indus Valley, who finally destroyed this culture. Until now, there is no established opinion, whether they were already Aryan, or earlier conquerors.

ARIA

There are numerous theories of the origin of the Aryans. Trying to summarize the most reasonable of them, we can say that around 2000 BC, somewhere on the territory of modern Ukraine lived barbarian tribes: rather tall, fair-skinned people. They were almost the first in the world to tame horses and harness them to light high-speed carriages with spokes. These tribes were mainly engaged in cattle breeding and a little agriculture.
At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, due to some reason (overpopulation??), These tribes start moving and subsequently populate vast territories from Ireland in the west to India in the east. They conquered local peoples and mingled with them, forming the ruling elite.
The penetration of the Aryans was not a one-time action, but a process stretching over hundreds of years. This period in the history of India is called Aryan or Vedic. It was in this era that the greatest monuments of Indian and world culture were created - the poetic epics "" and "Ramayana". (However, there are opinions that these ancient epics were created much earlier - about 6000 thousand years BC, that is, when the Aryans still lived in their ancestral home).
The Aryans did not create an urban civilization, the economic basis of their existence was shepherding and agriculture, a very important place in the economy was occupied by cattle. also had in the life of the Aryans exclusively great importance, but was used mainly for military purposes.
It was in the Vedic era that the main estates were formed (). , which was the basic unit of Aryan society - strictly patriarchal - monogamous and indissoluble. Numerous finds during the excavation of dice testified to the passion of the Aryans for gambling. They also loved intoxicating drinks (soma and surah).
The material culture of the Aryans reached a high level of development. They mastered the art of processing bronze, made weapons and tools from it (it should be noted that ancient copper mines were found in the supposed ancestral home of the Aryans).

LATE VEDIAN PERIOD

About 5 centuries passed between the invasion of the Aryans into the Indus Valley and the Age of Buddha. During this time, the Aryans moved further east down the Ganges, their culture adapted and changed to local conditions. It was in the east that new kingdoms emerged, which later played a significant role in Indian history. Many researchers believe that the "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana" reflect the events that took place during this period. However, there are still too many mysteries here - and it is still impossible to conclusively confirm or date anything.

THE AGE OF BUDDHA. MAGADHO-MAURI STATE.

In the era that later became known as the era of Buddha, the center of Indian civilization is moving eastward. Here, four kingdoms arise and reach their heyday: Koshala, Magadha, Vatsa and Avanti, which eclipsed the ancient country of Kuru in Punjab both economically and politically. In the middle of the 1st millennium BC, one of them - Magadha - manages to create, in fact, the first Indian empire, whose possessions included the entire basin and almost all of Northern India, with the exception of Rajasthan, Sindh and Punjab.
Around 326, Alexander the Great, after the conquest of the Achaemenid Persian empire and a campaign in Bactria, overcomes the Hindu Kush and invades India. Alexander's troops cross the Indus and enter the Punjab. Alexander defeats the troops of the Punjabi king Pora and begins an offensive inland, but under the threat of a mutiny in his troops, he is forced to turn back.
After the death of Alexander, one of Alexander's commanders, Seleucus, Nicator invaded India in 305 BC, however, apparently, was defeated by the Emperor of the Magadho-Maurysuk state of Chandraguta.

Around 269 BC. Ashoka became the emperor - later, one of the greatest rulers of India. According to Buddhist sources, Ashoka illegally seized the throne, killed all possible rivals and began to rule as a tyrant, but eight years after accession to the throne, the king became a completely different person morally and spiritually and began to pursue a new policy. He abandoned the usual territorial expansion, and the internal one was significantly softened. He banned the sacrifice of animals, even replaced the traditional pastimes of Indian kings - hunting - with pilgrimages to Buddhist shrines.
According to thanks to the son (brother?) Of Ashoka - Mahendra (Mahinda), Sri Lanka's conversion took place.
Emperor Ashoka died around 232 BC, apparently having already lost power by this time. Ashoka's heirs ruled India for about 50 years.

THE AGE OF INVASION

In 183 BC. power as a result palace coup captured Pushyamitra Shunga, one of the commanders of the last Maurian king Brihadrahti. The new king goes back to the old Hindu. There is a gradual "erosion" of the Maurian kingdom - many principalities depart from it and become independent.
At this time, on the northwestern borders of India, as a result of the collapse of the Seleucid empire, the independent Hellenistic states of Bactria and Parthia were formed. The Bactrian Greeks begin their expansion into the server-western India. They capture most of the Indus Valley and Punjab and raid far into the Ganges Valley. Subsequently, this Greek state in the northwest of India disintegrates into tiny Greco-Bactrian kingdoms.
In the 2nd century. BC hordes of nomads from Central Asia (known from Chinese sources under the name of Yuezhi) moved westward, pushing the Scythians. The Scythians, under pressure from the north, attacked Bactria and captured it, and subsequently, pressed by the same nomads, defeated Parthia and the Greek kingdoms of northwestern India. The power of the Scythians (Sakas, Shaks) extended to Mathura itself. The earliest known Scythian king who ruled in India was Maues (80 BC?).

In the 1st century. AD Kunjuly Kajiva from the Yuezhi Kushan tribe concentrated power over Bactria in his hands, and then he managed to capture northwestern India. One of his followers, Kanishka, manages to concentrate power over a significant part of Central Asia and northwestern India (up to) in his hands. Under Kanishka, Buddhism began to penetrate into Central Asia and the Far East.
Kanishka's successors ruled northwestern India until the middle of the 3rd century, when King Vasudeva was defeated by Shapur I, a representative of the new Iranian Sassanid dynasty. North falls under Iranian influence.
In the 1st century. BC - 4 c. AD on the Deccan Peninsula, several new kingdoms arise (the kingdom of the Satavahans) that existed for several hundred years.
In the south of India in Tamil Nadu during this period, there are several Tamil states. Good sailors, Tamils ​​invade the island. Lanka and for some time capture its northern part. Tamils ​​had close trade relations with Egypt and the Roman Empire.

THE AGE OF THE GUPTS

In 320 A.D. In the history of India, Chandra Gupta appears, whose descendants largely restored the power of the Maurian Empire.
Under his successor Samudragupta (circa 335-376), a great empire was again created in India, stretching from Assam to the borders of the Punjab. The Shaks (descendants of the Scythians), who ruled northwestern India, manage to shake the Gupsky empire, but in 338, Chandra Gupta II finally defeated the Shaks.
At the end of the reign of Kumaragupta I (415-454), northwestern India was again invaded by northern nomads, known from Byzantine sources as the Huns.
His son Scanlagupta (circa 455-467) succeeded in rebuilding the empire.
At the end of the 5th century. the Huns again moved to India and, starting in 500, Western India was in the hands of the Hunnic kings. In 530 Narasinhgupta drive out the Huns, but by 550 AD the Gupta empire ceases to exist.
As a result of Harsha (606-647) from a side branch of the Gupta dynasty, he regains control over a large part of the empire from Gujarat to Bengal.
After the death of Harsha, a great turmoil begins. - the incessant alternation of strife between local dynasties. In 812, the Arabs captured Sindh.
In 986, the emir from the city of Hansa in Afghanistan, Sabuktigin, undertook the first raid on northwestern India. From 997, his son Mahmud began to make systematic campaigns against the rich Indian kingdoms.
The alliance of Indian kings, organized to repel Mahmud, was defeated in 1001 near Peshawar. By 1027, Mahmud annexed to his state all the northwestern regions and the Punjab, together with the Arab state of Sindh.

THE AGE OF THE GREAT MOHOLS

The Mahmud dynasty in Afghanistan was driven out by a new dynasty, one of its representatives, known as Muhammad Guri, continued the conquest of the Hindu states. Its commander Qutb ud-din Aybak occupied Delhi, another commander Muhammad ibn-Bakhtiyar moved down the Ganges and devastated, then, almost without encountering resistance, occupied Bengal. Since the beginning of the 13th century. and up to the 18th century. Muslim conquerors dominated northern India. In 1206, Muhammad ibn-Bakhtiar was killed and his commander Qutb-ud-Din, a freedman slave, became the first sultan of Delhi. It was Qutb-un-Din who laid the foundation for the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526). During the existence of the Delhi Sultanate, several dynasties were replaced: Gulams (1206-1290), Khilji, (1290-1320), Tughlaka (1320-1413), Sayyids (1414-1451), Lodi (1451-1526). During the reign of Muhammad Tughlak, they managed to conquer practically all of India, with the exception of the South and Kashmir.
In 1398, the Delhi Sultanate was invaded by Timur, the ruler of Samarkand. The sultanate began to disintegrate into separate parts, towards the end of the 16th century. it included only Delhi and its immediate environs.
In the 15-16 centuries. the Hindu Vijayanagar empire and the Muslim Bahmanid empire existed in South India.
In 1498, the Portuguese first appeared off the coast of India and began to gain a foothold on its western coast.
At the beginning of the 16th century. on the ruins of the Delhi Sultanate, a new powerful empire begins to form, the founder of which was a native of Central Asia Babur. In 1526 he invaded India. In the battle of Panipat, he defeated the troops of Ibrahim Lodi and took the Delhi throne. This is how the state of the Great Mughals was founded.
Initially, the empire of the Great Mughals was limited to the interfluve of the Ganges and Jamna, but already during the reign of Babur's grandson Akbar (1556-1505), the entire North and Afghanistan were conquered.
During the reign of Akbar's son Jahangir (1605-1627), the first British ambassador arrived in India.
Akbar's grandson Shahjahan (ruled 1628-1658) moved the capital from Delhi to Agra.
The last of the great Mughals, the son of Shahjahan Aurangzeb (1658-1707) ascended the throne, imprisoning his father in the Red Fort. After the death of Aurangzeb, the Mughal empire collapsed.

ARRIVAL OF EUROPEANS

Vasco da Gama, the first European to make his way to India, landed in the area of ​​the modern city in 1498.
In 1600 the British East India Company was founded. Her first ship arrived in India in 1608.
In 1613 the company, by decree of Emperor Jahangir, received the right to trade.
In 1640, the Company founded the Fort of Saint Geogrius on the East coast of India in the area of ​​the modern city of Madras.
In 1668, on the West Coast of India, for 10 pounds, the Company acquires an island and revised its policy towards India. In 1858, the East India Company was liquidated, and India became the possession (colony) of the British Empire.
Colonial domination of Britain continued until 1947. Resistance to British domination has always existed, and since the 1920s it has been gaining momentum. In 1947, Britain was forced to make a decision to grant independence to India. According to this law, on the site of British India, two dominions are created - India and Pakistan. Pakistan includes the predominantly Muslim western and eastern regions of India. Later (in 1971) the eastern regions separated from Pakistan and a state was proclaimed here.

INDEPENDENT INDIA