The Vedas are the oldest teachings of India, though the transmission of these teachings was mainly oral until around the 5th century. There are four Vedas, and the first one is the Rigveda. As per Rigveda the whole regions in which the Aryans were first settled in India was called as the Land of 7 Rivers or SaptaSindhawa .The other three are Samveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda. The Vedas have verses in praise of gods and others. They also have other information. At that time, the society was pastoral.
After the Rigveda, society became more agricultural. People became divided into four classes depending on the type of the work. Brahmins were priests and teachers. Kshatriyas were the warriors. Vaishyas did agriculture, trading and commerce. The shudras were the general working class. A common misconception is that the Vaishyas and Shudras were generally looked down upon, and treated badly by Brahmins and Kshatriyas, which was true for the later part of the Vedic age. But was untrue for the earlier part. This type of social division is called the Varna system in Hinduism.
During the period of the Vedic civilization, there were many Aryan clans and tribes. Some of them combined and became bigger like the kingdom of the Kurus.
Around the 5th century BC, north-western parts of India faced invasion by the Achaemenid Empire and by the Greeks of Alexander the Great. A Persian way of thinking, administration and lifestyle came to India. This influence became bigger during the Mauryan dynasty.
From around 520 BC, the Achaemenid Empire’s Darius I ruled large part of northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent.
Alexander later conquered these areas. Achaemenid rule lasted about 186 years. In modern times, there are still traces of this Greek heritage to be found in parts of northwestern India.
Greco-Buddhism (also spelled as Græco-Buddhism) is a combination of the cultures of Greece and Buddhism. This mixture of cultures continued to develop for 800 years, from the 4th century BC until the 5th century AD. The area where it happened is modern day’s Afghanistan and Pakistan. This mixture of cultures influenced Mahayana Buddhism and spread of Buddhism to China, Korea, Japan and Tibet.
The Magadha formed one of the sixteen kingdoms in ancient India. The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganges. Its first capital was Rajagriha (modern Rajgir) then Pataliputra (modern Patna).
Magadha expanded to include most of Bihar and Bengal, followed by much of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Odhishaa. The ancient kingdom of Magadha is mentioned in Jain and Buddhist texts. It was also mentioned in the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, . The state of Magadha, possibly a tribal kingdom, is recorded in Vedic texts much earlier than 600 BC.
Magadha played an important role in the development of Jainism and Buddhism, and two of India's greatest empires, the Maurya Empire and Gupta Empire, originated from Magadha. These empires saw advances in ancient India's science, mathematics, astronomy, religion, and philosophy. This was the Indian "Golden Age".
The Satavahanas came to power from around 230 BC. They are also called Andhras. For about 450 years, many Satavahanas kings ruled most parts of the southern and central India.
For about 350 years, from the years 35-405, Saka kings ruled India. They ruled the western and central parts of India. These areas are in today's states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. There were 27 independent rulers, collectively known as the Kshatrapas.
Saka kings ruled India along aside the Kushan kings and the Satvahana kings. Kushan kings ruled the northern parts of India. Satvahana kings ruled the central and some of the southern parts of India.
Indo-Scythians came to India from Siberia passing through several places like Bactria, Sogdiana, Kashmir and Arachosia. Their coming to India continued from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century BC. They defeated the Indo-Greek rulers of India, and ruled India from Gandhara to Mathura.
The Gupta dynasty reigned from around 320 to 550 AD. The Gupta Empire covered most of North-central India, and what is now western India and Bangladesh. Gupta society was ordered in accordance with Hindu beliefs. The time of the Gupta Empire is seen as the Golden Age of India. Historians place the Gupta dynasty alongside the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Roman Empire as a model of a classical civilization.
By the first half of the fifth century, a group of people known as Huns had settled in Afghanistan. They became powerful. They made Bamiyan as their capital city. They started attacking northwestern parts of India. Skandagupta, an emperor of the Gupta dynasty fought back and kept them away for some years. At last the Huns won and could enter most parts of northern India. With this the Gupta dynasty came to an end. Most of north India became badly affected by this invasion. However, Huns could not go up to the Deccan Plateau and the southern parts of India. These parts remained peaceful. No one knows definitely about the fate of Huns after the end of the sixth century. Some historians believe that they mixed up fully with the Indian people of that time.
In the history of India, Middle kingdoms of India covers a period beginning from around the 6th-7th century. In South India, Chola kings ruled Tamil Nadu, and Chera kings ruled Kerala. They also had trading relationships with the Roman Empire to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. In north India, Rajputs ruled in many kingdoms. Some of those kingdoms continued for hundreds of years.
After the collapse of the Gupta Empire, it was Harsha of Kanauj (a place now in Uttar Pradesh state of India) who united the northern parts of India in one kingdom. After his death several dynasties tried to control north India and ruled from time to time from 7th century till the 9th century as described in some of the sections below. Some of these dynasties were the Pratiharas of Malwa and later Kannauj; the Palas of Bengal, and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan.
The Pratihara kings ruled kingdoms in Rajasthan and some other parts of northern India from the 6th century to the 11th century. The Palas ruled the eastern part of India. They ruled over areas which are now parts of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and the west Bengal, and of Bangladesh. The Palas ruled from 8th century to the 12th century. In the southern parts of India, Rashtrakutas of Malakheda (Karnataka) ruled the Deccan during the 8th-10th centuries after the end of Chalukya rule. All these three dynasties always tried to control the entire north India. During all this time lasting for three to four hundred years, the Chola kings were growing in power and influence.
In the 6th century several Rajput kingdoms came into being in Rajasthan. Many other Rajput kings ruled in different parts of north India. Some of these kingdoms continue to survive for hundreds of years during different periods of the history of India.
In 1336, two brothers named Harihara and Bukka founded the Vijayanagara Empire in an area which is now in Karnataka state of India. The most famous king of this empire was Krishnadevaraya. In 1565, rulers of this empire were defeated in a battle. But, the empire continued for about next one hundred years.
A number of kingdoms of south India had trading relations with the Arabs in the west, and with Indonesia and other countries of the east.