Captivating History - History of Ancient India: A Captivating Guide to Ancient Indian History and the Maurya Empire

Ancient India was home to one of the oldest civilizations in the world: the Indus Valley civilization. But how did the Indian culture come to be?

Dive into the world of one of the first civilizations, and follow the rise of ancient India from Harappa and the first wave of urbanization to the first monarchial dynasty of Kuru. Discover how Buddha went from being a wealthy prince to one of the greatest and most appreciated religious figures in the history of spiritualism. Find out why Alexander the Great fell in love with India and how he was prevented from becoming the king of the world. You will learn why Ashoka the Great was the greatest king in the history of India and how his grandfather Chandragupta formed the biggest empire in the world.

And amidst the battles for dominion over the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Indus River, you will read about how the common people of ancient India lived. What did a day in the life of an average Mauryan look like? What did people of ancient India eat, how did they dress, and what did they believe?

Find all these answers and more in Ancient India : A Captivating Guide to Ancient Indian History, Starting from the Beginning of the Indus Valley Civilization Through the Invasion of Alexander the Great to the Mauryan Empire !

A powerful and advanced civilization rose from the banks of the Indus River, by which India was named. The Indus Valley civilization emerged alongside some of the greatest ancient civilizations, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Before excavations commenced, archaeologists believed that the Indus Valley civilization bloomed in the valley of the river Ganges and that it began with Aryan immigrants who came from central Asia and Persia around 1250 BCE. After finding new evidence with more excavations, historians and scholars could move the timeline to between 1800 and 1500 BCE, providing new context for the Indus Valley and the significance of the Indus River for the general development and evolution of the civilization that would become known as Harappan.

In the 19 th century, India and the surrounding countries in the Indus Valley were all colonized by the British Empire. In 1856, British officials oversaw the construction of a railway, which was supposed to connect Karachi and Lahore, two cities located within the borders of modern-day Pakistan. As the construction went on, laborers kept finding old bricks that were baked in fires many years ago. The bricks were lodged as if someone had purposefully placed them there, and while the laborers used some of these bricks in the construction of the railway, it was soon evident that they were using priceless pieces of ancient history.

At first, archaeologists thought that the bricks belonged to the Maurya civilization. The Maurya Empire dominated the Indus Valley from around 322 BCE to 185 BCE. However, these fire-baked bricks were discovered to be much older. They had discovered the ancient city of Harappa.

One year after Harappa was discovered in Punjab, Mohenjo-daro was discovered in the northern province of Sindh in modern-day Pakistan. Translated, Mohenjo-daro means the mound of the dead, although this meaning is often reputed. Some scholars believe that by the time Mohenjo-daro had become one of the two biggest centers of power, which was between 2500 and 1700 BCE, Harappa had already met its decline. Some even think that Harappa just succeeded Mohenjo-daro, hinting that the two main centers werent contemporary. However, much of the evidence shows that they coexisted.

Further research and excavations led scholars to discover the ancient site of Mehrgarh. Mehrgarh is located in modern-day Pakistan in the Kacchi Plain in Balochistan, and it was first discovered by archaeologists in 1974. These excavations were completed by French archaeologists Jean-Franois Jarrige and Catherine Jarrige. This husband-and-wife duo provided scholars with evidence of a civilized ancient world that dates back to 7000 BCE. This revelation changed the way the Indus Valley civilization was perceived in terms of its development and significance in the ancient world.

And so, the very beginning of the Indus Valley civilization was discovered, and scholars were now able to start piecing together the picture of this ancient civilization.