History

Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life in India. The first known permanent settlements appeared over 9,000 years ago and gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilization , dating back to 3300  BCE in western India. It was followed by the Vedic period , which laid the foundations of Hinduism and other cultural aspects of early Indian society, and ended in the 500s BC. From around 550  BCE , many independent kingdoms and republics known as the Mahajanapadas were established across the country.

The empire built by the Maurya Empire under Emperor Ashoka united most of South Asia in the third century BCE . From 180 BCE, a series of invasions from Central Asia followed, including those led by the Indo-Greeks , Indo-Scythians , Indo-Parthians and Kushans in the north-western Indian subcontinent . From the third century CE, the Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as ancient " India's Golden Age ." Among the notable South Indian empires were the Chalukyas , Rashtrakutas , Hoysalas , Pallavas , Pandyas , and Cholas . Science, engineering , art , literature , astronomy , and philosophy flourished under the patronage of these kings.

Following invasions from Central Asia between the tenth and twelfth centuries, much of north India came under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate , and later the Mughal Empire . Mughal emperors gradually expanded their Kingdoms to cover large parts of the subcontinent. Nevertheless, several indigenous kingdoms, such as the Vijayanagara Empire , flourished, especially in the south. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the Mughal supremacy declined and the Maratha Empire became the dominant power. From the sixteenth century, several European countries, including Portugal , the Netherlands , France , and the United Kingdom , started arriving as traders and later took advantage of the fractious nature of relations between the kingdoms to establish colonies in the country. By 1856, most of India was under the control of the British East India Company . A year later, a nationwide insurrection of rebelling military units and kingdoms, variously referred to as the First War of Indian Independence or Sepoy Mutiny , seriously challenged British rule but eventually failed. As a consequence, India came under the direct control of the British Crown as a colony of the British Empire .