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Asoka, the third Mauryan king, was a protector of Buddhism in India; An Asokan inscription advocating non-violence. |
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Indian history stretches back 4,500 years to the Indus Valley civilization centered on the banks of the Indus River in northern India. Hindu culture began around 1500 BC, with the arrival of the Aryans, Central Asian nomads whose pantheon, caste system, and sacred "Vedas" -- oral hymns, worship manuals and philosophies -- are strongly reflected in today's Hindu religion.
By the 6th century BC, the Kingdom of Magadha, strategically situated along Ganges trade routes, had extended into central and eastern India. Within a century, large kingdoms based on Vedic culture had begun to form throughout northern India. In 321 BC, just after Alexander the Great's invasion of India, Magadha was seized by Chandragupta Maurya, who expanded it into what would become the first great Hindu empire, the Mauryan Empire. Under Chandragupta's grandson Asoka, the Mauryan Empire reached its territorial limit, before breaking up into smaller states. More than half a millennium later, another Chandragupta once again succeeded in unifying most of India. Deemed the Hindu Golden Age, the resulting Gupta Empire (AD 320-550) led to a flowering of literature, science and technology. But as with its Mauryan predecessor, the Gupta Empire's fall ushered in an era of warring states.
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