The home to 1.3 billion people, India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world with a kaleidoscopic variety and rich cultural heritage as 22 different languages have been recognized by the Constitution of India, of which Hindi is the Official Language of the country. Varied religions like Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, and others are practiced in India. The diversified custom, creed, culture, demography, festivals, flora, and fauna, are what make India surreal.

Geography of India

The Indian subcontinent is an old piece of land, with distinct geography. A lot has happened here in the past 5,000 years, since the Indus valley civilization but before getting to know the history of any country it’s important to understand its geography.

“History tells you what really happened here, but geography tells you why it happened there.”

India is a great peninsula, with 3.3 Million sq. km in area, lying entirely in the northern hemisphere. It is surrounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Bay of Bengal on the east, and the Arabian Sea on the west; bounded by the mighty Himalayas in the north with tropic of cancer slicing right through the middle.

It has all kinds of climates, there is the scorching heat of the Thar desert and nerve-chilling cold of the Himalayas, extreme rainfall of Cherapunji, and humidity of south India. Basically, it has everything from desert to ice-covered mountains, from beaches to lush green forests, and from rugged terrain in Ladakh to beautiful valleys in Kashmir. India possesses varied terrain, culture, food, and customs, which keep on changing as you travel through the country roads.

The mainland comprises four regions: the great northern mountain zone (Himalaya), the northern plains (irrigated by the Ganga and Indus), the Deccan plateau in central India, and the Eastern & Western Ghats in the south. The Himalayas has acted as a wall to the country preventing it from cold and dry winds from Tibet. It is also the source of rivers, which add fertility to the Indian soil.

The Northern plains facilitated the establishment of vast kingdoms in the past owing to fertile land and the availability of water. Northern plains have experienced all the great historic moments like Buddhism and Jainism flourishing, the birth of the Indus valley civilization, Vedas being compiled, and the establishment of great educational institutes like Taxila, Nalanda, and Sarnath. As Delhi stands at the mouth of the Gangetic plain, most of the invaders were required to cross Delhi for entering India. That’s the reason why the two battles of terrain, three battles of Panipat, and the battle of karnal took place in Delhi’s neighborhood.

The Deccan Plateau makes up most of central and southern India. The Vindhya and Satpura mountain range separates northern India from the Deccan plateau. This area remained secured through most of the time in history as an invader could only reach the south after conquering the kings in the North. That’s why when the Aryans came, they occupied the northern part of the country but the southern part continued to be occupied by the Dravidians.

The Deccan plateau is bordered by the Western Ghats on its west and the Eastern Ghats on its east. While the Western Ghats are continuous mountain ranges called Sahyadri in Maharashtra, Nilgiri hills in Karnataka, and Anaimalai hills in Kerala. The Eastern Ghats on the other hand are discontinuous mountain ranges, rivers like Krishna, Kaveri, Mahanadi, and the Godavari erode the Eastern Ghats.

Impact of Geography on the history of India

As the northern eastern ranges of the Himalayas are snow-covered, it was difficult for the enemies to enter India in the past. But as the north-western range of Himalaya -Suleiman and Hindukush are not very high, it enabled many invaders like Iranian, Greeks, Scythians, Parthians, Sakas, and Kushans, Huns, Turks, Arabs, Persian Afghans, Mongols, Tatars, Mughals to enter India.

Also, the vast size of the country, divided into many regions by its rivers, mountains, desert, and forests made it difficult to achieve political unity in India. Before the coming of the British, the task was accomplished temporarily by Asoka and Akbar, but it was only during the British era the whole of the country came under one rule.

Due to the vastness of the country, most of the time of the ruling kings were spent conquering the various part of India itself and they were so engrossed in fighting internal battles they completely ignored what was happening in the outside world. As a consequence, India paid a heavy price both in terms of loss of her wealth, development, and independence.

The fertile plain of India made it one of the richest agricultural countries in the world. Huge metal deposits, navigable rivers, extensive coastline, gold, and precious stones were found in abundance in India. But all these factors tempted invaders from beyond the mountains to enter India.

Thus it can be said that the geographical features of the country have affected the history of India in many ways and its civilization bear the imprint of its geography.

Indian History in Making

As so much has happened here, and so much has been written about, it is difficult to collate the data, as some of it has been destroyed, some lost with time, and some preserved here and there. The dates of events can mismatch but when so much is already written about something, you can get a gist of what would have happened here in the distant past. The great monuments of the country tell you a bit, the skeletons and fossils excavated tell you more, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, the old manuscripts, everything talks about this vast country.

Let’s start from the start and find out what these old structures standing for ages are trying to reveal. But before going there, first, let’s look into the source of all this information:

The Sources:

It is also essential to understand, from where the data has been gathered, what’s the authenticity of it. Where it’s written that the Aryans came from central Asia, how do we know that Harappa people existed and what they were like?

It all began when the British came to India, before that, Indians were not much interested in drafting the historical events and curiosity to know more about the country was minimal. But the British were very interested in knowing about the laws and history of the people of this unexplored country, which they were going to rule.

In India, writing was never taken too seriously and all the information preserved was in the form of either tales or songs, in their most muddled form. Even the Vedas, the most important text of Hinduism were not recorded properly as the emphasis was given to memorizing them. Even the first printed edition of four Vedas were brought out for the first time by Max Muller and other European authors.

It is through the study of ancient Indian literature, foreign accounts, and archeological remains like inscriptions and coins, the history of India was recorded and collated in one place by the Britishers.

Indian Literature:

These sources include religious & secular literature of India. The religious literature throws light on the social, economic as well as cultural conditions of ancient India. The major sources of information are Vedas. There are four Vedas namely Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda, among them, Rigveda is the oldest one and provides the maximum information. Other sources of literature are Brahmans, Smritis, Arankyas, Upanishads, dharmasastra, sutras, and Puranas.

Although most of the literature work is a kind of sacred text and lacks historical sense, it could give an idea about the social and political condition of that era, but as the data is in form of tales, the same should not be taken into literal sense.

Next to the Vedas, the two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the most famous literature in the Sanskrit language. The stories told in the epic may be magnified versions of some historical event but the epics surely give an insight into the lifestyle of the people in their times.

Puranas are a more reliable source when it comes to historical data about various kings. They are 18 in number but we refer to Vishnu Purana, Vayu Purana, and Matsya Purana for historical purposes. Purana describes the rule of various kings like of Mauryan dynasty, Nanda dynasty, the Gupta dynasty, and the Sisusnga dynasty. This proves the existence of these kings and their kingdom and it also gives correct details about the distance between the two cities, which again proves the reliability of the information in it.

Apart from the above, we have Buddhist and Jain literature in Prakrit and Pali Language which gives an insight into the history of India and its people. Arthshastra of Chanakya contains a lot of information regarding the system of administration and the social &religious life of people. The dramas of Kalidas like Shakuntala also give useful information about the social life of people.

Foreign Literature

Indigenous literature can be supplemented by foreign accounts. Apart from Indian literature, we have found records of foreign literature, with elaborate descriptions of India and its people. The foreign records are always of great interest to the historians of the country as it gives an idea about the impression it made upon the foreign traveler’s mind and to understand the larger picture of the country and the part it played in the general history of the world.

To India came the Greek, Chinese and Roman visitors, either as travelers or religious converts, and left behind a rich account of our historical past. Some of the notables among them were:

• Greek Ambassador Megasthenes wrote “Indica” and provided valuable information about the Mauryan society and administration.
• “The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea” and “Ptolemy’s Geography” both written in Greek give valuable information about the Indian ports and commodities of trade between India and the Roman Empire.
• Fa-Hein, a Buddhist traveler, left a vivid account of the age of the Guptas.
• Hsuan-Tsang, a Buddhist pilgrim, visited India and gave details of India during the reign of King Harsha.

Archaeology

Archaeology is the science that deals with the digging of the old mounds systematically, in successive layers, and enables archeologists to form an idea about the material life of the people of that time. It serves as the most important source of historical data. Fossils discovered, help in estimating the age through the carbon dating method. Stones tools, pottery, and ornaments excavated from various sites gave an insight into the pre-historic people of India.

The excavated sites belonging to the Harappa period led to the discovery of the Indus valley civilization. They enabled us to know about the life of the people who lived in that era. Earlier we had so many inscriptions, which couldn’t be deciphered on account of ignorance about the Brahmi script but later the script was deciphered and the task of studying inscriptions became easy. The inscriptions were of great value because they were engraved on stones and metal, hence the information on them cannot tamper with without detection, which made them the most reliable source of information. Writings engraved on hard surfaces such as stone and metals, usually record achievements, ideas, royal orders, and decisions of the ruler of that period and help in understanding different religions and administrative policies of that era. For example, inscriptions detailing state policy issued by Asoka and inscriptions recording the land grants by Satavahanas were found and they gave a lot of information about the administrative practices of that era.

Archaeological excavation. The archaeologist in a digger process, researching the tomb, human bones, part of skeleton and skull in the ground.

Coins

Another great source of information was the coins, discovered. The study of coins is called Numismatics. A large no. of old Indian coins were collected from all over the country. Coins helped historians and archaeologists in fixing up the chronology as it mentions the year in which they were issued. The earliest coins found in India contained only a few symbols, but later coins mentioned the names of the kings, gods, dates, etc.

The areas from where they were found indicate the region of their circulation. This enabled the reconstruction of the history of several ruling dynasties. Coins throw light on the economic history of different dynasties and also provide input on different parameters involved such as the script, art, and religion of that time. It also helps in understanding the progress made in terms of metallurgy, science, and technology.

Collection of old Indian Coins

Through these literary and Non-literary sources, the history of India was written and the same keeps on updating with ongoing studies and excavation all over the country.

Now that you know the source of the information, let’s get into the actual history of India:

Indian history is generally divided into three periods:

• Ancient India: From the coming of Aryans in 1500 BC to around 1000 AD
• Medieval India: From 1000 AD to the coming of the British  in 1800 AD
• Modern India: From 1800 AD to date.

But we are going to divide it differently, that is in chronological order of the events that happened, that way one can absorb better, and can remember it for the longest time without having to refer to those thick history books

The division is based on mega-events that have happened in the past and it could be broken into ten different eras as below:

1. The pre Historic period
2. Indus Valley civilization
3. Advent of Aryans
4. The era of Buddhism and Jainism
5. Magadha empire and other great kingdoms of Ancient India
6. The Delhi Sultanate
7. The Mughals
8. British India
9. India’s  struggle for freedom
10. Independent India

The first chapter of the history of every country begins with its pre-historic people, nomads to be precise, who created history using stone tools. Hence the second blog in the series would be “The pre-historic period of India”.

Stay tuned! Happy Reading.