History of India

The main articles are:

• India
• History

Republic of India

2014: Narendra Modi becomes PM

Narendra Modi becomes India's prime minister.

1989

1980

1965: Conflict with Pakistan

1960

1957: Visit of the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPSU N. Khrushchev and Marshal of the USSR G. Zhukov

1952

1948: Killing of Mahatma Gandhi

British colony

1947: Declaration of independence from Britain

1939: Britain declares India a belligerent in World War II

Main article: World War II

On 3 September 1939, India, without the consent of its political parties represented in the Central Legislative Assembly, was declared a belligerent by the British government. Immediately after that, the law "On the Defense of India" was introduced in the country, which provided for the creation of special tribunals for the consideration of cases related to "crimes against the country's defense." The law gave the authorities the right to ban rallies, disband any organizations and arrest people if their activities were recognized as dangerous to the defense of India.

1933

1931

1930

1914

1909

1903

1897

1893: Durand Line - Border between British India and Afghanistan

The Durand Line is an artificially drawn Afghan-Pakistani border along which British India and Afghanistan were divided in 1893. With India gaining independence in 1947, Pakistan inherited the Durand Line. However, the Pashtuns refused to recognize the border drawn by the British.

1890

1888

1876

1871

1857

1855

Circa 1855.]]

1778: Failed attempt by East India Company to secure weaving mill workers

In 1778, the East India Company faced a problem. With her weaving factory in Arcot, in South India, workers fled. The British tried to force them to work hard, as they did in factories in England, but the then Hindus were not ready for such a regime.

Then the company turned to Nawab Arcot with a request to assist them in catching the workers. From the point of view of English law, the request was quite reasonable. Since the time of Elizabeth, English workers could not leave the employer without working for him for at least a year. Moreover, for employment in a new place, a certificate from a past employer was required. In short, English workers were tightly attached to the employer - naturally, the East India Company wanted to implement the same practices in India as well. But the Nawab responded with an outraged refusal - saying the request was against the country's customs and nothing like this had ever been done here.

1765

1610: Vijayanagar Empire in south Hindustan

1555: Humayun, assisted by Iranian forces, regains control of Agra and Delhi

With the help of Iranian troops, Humayun captured Kabul for a short time, in 1555, regained Agra and Delhi. He was buried in the Humayun-ka-makbara mausoleum in Delhi.

1545: Death of Sher Shah. Civil War and the Return of the Mughals

Sher Shah died in May 1545 during the siege of Fort Kalinjar. After his death, the empire plunged into civil war until it was eventually reconquered by the Mughals.

1539: Sher Shah expels Humayun from India and establishes last dynasty of Delhi Sultanate - Surids

In 1538, while Mughal emperor Humayun participated in military campaigns, the ruler of Bihar of Pashtun origin Sher Shah captured the Bengal Sultanate.

Humayun was defeated in 1539 at the Battle of Chausa by Sher Khan, crowned in 1540 as Sher Shah, founding the last dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate - the Surids. Humayun found refuge in Iran.

As ruler of Hindustan, Sher Shah led numerous military campaigns, conquering Punjab, Malwa, Marwar, Mewar and Bundelkhand. A brilliant strategist, Sher Shah was both a gifted administrator and a capable general. His reorganization of the empire and strategic innovations laid the foundations for future Mughal emperors, in particular Akbar.

1530: Death of Babur. Humayun inherits Agra and Delhi

Humayun is the son and successor of Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty. Akbar's father. He participated in the conquest of North India and inherited Agra and Delhi after the death of Babur in 1530.

1502: Incorporating part of the coast into Portuguese India

Delhi Sultanate

Main article: History of Delhi

1335: Delhi Sultanate Controls Maximum Territory

1250

1206: Division of the Gurid state into several parts after the assassination of Muhammad Guri. Qutb al-Din establishes Delhi Sultanate and Mamluk Dynasty

Main article: History of Delhi

In 1206, the ruler of Gur recognized his slave Qutb al-Din Aibak as the Naib Sultanate in India at a solemn reception of darbar in Lahore, to which many aristocrats and dignitaries from all over the empire were invited. It was then that Aybak was given the title Qutb al-Din, meaning "Axis of Faith."

In the same 1206, Muiz al-Din (Muhammad Guri), settled things in India, leaving Qutb al-Din Aibak as his governor and chief commander. On his way back to Ghazni, his caravan stopped at Dhamiyak near Sohawa (near the city of Jhelum in the Punjab province of present-day Pakistan). He was killed on 15 March 1206 during an evening prayer. His killers are not reliably known. These may have been Khokhars or Ismailis, with one source claiming he was killed by Assassins.

After the assassination of Muhammad Guri, his sultanate was divided into many parts, one of which went to Qutb al-Din Aibak. Qutb, after a brief power struggle, declared himself the ruler of Afghanistan and North India (including present-day Pakistan), and the Central Asian Gurid possessions became the prey of Genghis Khan's Mongols.

Qutb became the founder of the Mamluk dynasty (slaves of Turkic origin).

Qutb al-Din ruled initially from Lahore, but then moved the capital to Delhi, so he can be considered the first Turkic Muslim ruler of South Asia.

The Turks also established sultanates in Bengal, Malva (present-day Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan) and the Dean's Tablelands.

1192: Muhammad Guri defeats Prithviraj Chauhan at Battle of Tarain and includes North India in his domain

Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192 was defeated by the troops of Muhammad Guri at the Battle of Tarain (modern Haryana). The winner kills the last Hindu ruler. Delhi

He left his huge army in India in the care of a capable military leader, a former slave and faithful man Qutb - hell - Dean Aibak. He was entrusted with the conquest of the remaining North Indian lands and the delivery of captured treasures to Ghazni.

Qutb - hell - Dean Aybak acted boldly and decisively. The Muslim mounted army did not know defeats in clashes with Indian troops. The lucky commander of Sultan Ghazni in 1194 captured the rich and crowded city of Benares (modern Varanasi in India), successfully fought the Rajputs in Gujarat and took possession of Badaun and Kanauj in 1198-1199.

So Muhammad Guri became the ruler of almost all of North India. And the ruler of the entire power of the Gurid dynasty, which is spread over the territory of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and the North Indian states.

1121: Peak of the Chalukya Dynasty's heyday in the Western Deccan

800: Three-way battle for North India between Gurjara-Pratihar, Pala and Rashtrakuta empires

8th century

Varanasi Revival After Shiva Shankaracharya Cult Strengthened

Around the 8th century CE, Varanasi experienced a period of revival with the emergence of Shankaracharya, a Hindu reformer who established Shiva worship as the main sect in Hindu religion.

Arab merchants begin trade with India via Arabian Sea

Arab traders made contact with India in the 8th century through the Arabian Sea.

7th century: Hindu, Buddhist and Jain caves in Ellora

Ellora caves in the Western Ghats (Maharashtra) since the 7th century AD e., are multi-religious with Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religious centers. The walls of Ellora are decorated with realistic sculptures of deities carved into the rock along with the Kailash temple.

Empire of the Guptas

GUPTAS, the ruling dynasty in North India in the IV-VI centuries.

From the end of the 5th century, the gradual collapse of the Guptas state began, by the middle of the 6th century it ceased to exist.

Epigraphy testifies to the development in the Guptas state of the practice of land awards to temples, monasteries and brahmanas.

The Gupta era is characterized by widespread colonization and expansion of ties with Southeast Asia.

Tradition connects the activities of a number of major writers and scholars of ancient India (poet Kalidasa, lexicographer Amarasinha, mathematician Aryabhata) with the Gupta era. The Gupta style in architecture became a model for the masters of the following centuries.

474

Under the Guptas, both Hinduism in the forms of Vishnuism and Shaivism and Mahayana Buddhism became widespread.

455: Skandagupta

Under Skandagupta (455-467), the Guptas repelled the attacks of the Ephthalites. During the period of the highest power, Gupta dominated throughout North India - from Bengal to Panjab (Punjab) and the Kathiyavar Peninsula. Many areas of power enjoyed autonomy and were ruled by representatives of local dynasties.

430: Around 1,000 Roma leave India and begin settling around the world

Genetic studies have established that gypsies left India in a small, genetically homogeneous group, presumably numbering about 1000 people (Haplogroup H). There is a Persian legend (recorded by Firdowsi) that gypsies came to Iran from India under Bahram Gur (ruled in 420-440), who was conquered by their musical art.

420

399: Chinese Buddhist monk Fa Xian arrives in India

The state of Guptas was visited by the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Fa Xian, who spent his childhood in a Buddhist monastery. After becoming a monk, he encountered ambiguities in the Buddhist canon and decided to travel to India.

In 399, along the Great Silk Road through Khotan, Gandhara (including Taxila) arrived in India, where he studied Indian languages ​ ​ for several years and copied sutras, mainly Vinaya-pitaka texts (a set of monastic rules).

In 414 he returned to his homeland (through Ceylon and Java) and began to translate sutras into Chinese. He left a detailed description of the trip ("Fo go ji" - "Notes on Buddhist countries"), in which he presented valuable information on the history and culture of India.

380: Chandragupta II joins areas of northwest and west India

The heyday of the Guptas power is associated with the name of Chandragupta II, who took the title Vikramaditya. During the years of his reign, regions of northwestern and western India with rich trading cities were conquered. Matrimonial ties with the Vakatak dynasty ensured the influence of the Guptas in the territory of the Western Dean.

Chandranupta II held the territory from Gujarat to Bengal. Ujjain is considered its capital, where prominent poets and musicians, including Kalidasa, lived and worked at this time.

320: Rise of the Guptas centered in Magadha during the reign of Chandragupta I

The core of the Guptas state was Magadha (now the state of Bihar). The rise of the Guptas began during the reign of Chandragupta I. This was facilitated by the alliance of the Guptas with the Lichchkhav tribe, which dominated the left bank of the Ganges.

In the early 3000s, Chandragupta I entered into a dynastic marriage with the daughter of the head of the lichchavas, which led to the strengthening of Magadha. He was crowned as the ruler of a united state in 320 (this year is considered the first year of the Gupta era). He waged wars of conquest, annexed lands south of Magadha.

Under Samudragupta (son of Chandragupta I from the Lichchhava princess), vast territories were annexed to the Guptas state, mainly in the Ganges valley.

100 g: Satavakhanov State

Mauryan Empire

The Mauryan Empire is a vast state in ancient India, the period of the Iron Age (322-187 BC). e.), was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, with its capital in Pataliputra (modern Patna).

2nd century BC: Rock Buddhist monastery in Ajant

Carved into the rocks of the Ajanta cave in the Western Ghats (Maharashtra) since the 2nd century BC. e., intended for Buddhist monks. Ajanta's walls are adorned with a stunning set of drawings depicting scenes from the Buddha's life.

200 g BC.

250 BC: Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, controls the entire subcontinent except the south

During the reign of Chandragupta Maurya's grandson, Ashoka (c. 268-232 BC), the empire briefly controlled the major urban centers and arteries of the subcontinent except for the deep south.

The empire was the largest political entity that existed on the Indian peninsula and covered an area of ​ ​ more than 5 million square kilometers during the period of the highest power under Ashok.

500 BC: The Formation of Buddhism

Main article: Buddhism

Siddhartha Gautama, Prince of Koshala, received his famous epithet "Buddha" (Enlightened) in Bodhgai (Bihar).

The Mahabodhi temple here is said to mark the exact place where the Buddha, after years of wandering and asceticism, sat under a tree and went through eight stages of wisdom (Bodhi) to achieve enlightenment. The Mahabodhi Temple has a fascinating history: it was forgotten for centuries, and then was partially reconstructed in the 19th century.

Bodhgai also has temples and monasteries built by people from, Sri Lanka,,, and South Korea Japan China several other countries with significant Buddhist populations.

600 BC: Mahajanapads

Mahajanapadas (translated from Sanskrit: "great countries") - in Buddhist sources this is the name of the countries in the north, northeast of Hindustan.

The concept of Mahajanapad came from Janapad - the so-called tribal territories from 600 BC. e., which later united in unions.

Buddhist sources identify 16 mahajanapads - countries that existed before the birth of the Buddha. Anguttara-nikaya gives the following list:

• Kashi
• Koshala
• Anga
• Magadha (Patna and Gaia districts of Bihar)
• Wadji (Vriji)
• Mull
• Smoke
• Watsa (Vamsa)
• Chicken
• Panchala
• Machchha (Matsya)
• Shurasena
• Assaka (Ashmaka)
• Avanti
• Gandhara
• Cambodia

Chulla-Nirdesha also adds the state of Kaling.

1000 BC: Indraprastha

Main article: Indraprastha

1200 BC.

Megaliths in South India

Culture of painted grey ceramics in North India. Kingdom of Kuru Panchal

The Painted Grey Ware (PGW) culture, characterized by a style of fine grey ceramics painted in geometric black patterns, is associated with rustic and urban settlements, domesticated horses, ivory processing and the advent of iron metallurgy.

The PGW culture probably corresponds to the Middle and Late Vedic period, i.e. the Kuru-Panchal kingdom, the first major state in the Indian subcontinent after the decline of the Indus Valley civilization.

1400 BC: Indraprastha is the capital of the Pandavas

Indraprastha has been named the capital of the Pandava principality since about 1400 BC . It is believed that this city became the first significant settlement in the area of ​ ​ the modern city of Delhi, where many kingdoms and civilizations have since changed. Read more here.

1500 BC: Migration of Aryan pastoralist tribes to Northwest India

Aryan tribes of nomadic pastoralists appeared in Northwest India in the middle or late 2nd millennium BC. Having occupied the territory of the Five Rivers - modern Punjab (more precisely, East Punjab), they then gradually (spread to the east, pushing back or subjugating the local population to their power, and also partly assimilating with it.

During their migration to India, which lasted several centuries in successive waves, the Aryan tribes were at the stage of decomposition of the clan system; this era was reflected in the Rigveda.

Our information about the historical situation in which the Rigveda was created is very uncertain and incomplete; this monument itself is the main and almost the only source of them. It does not contain such data for which we could date it with confidence. The oldest hymns of the Rigveda are believed to date back to the middle of the second millennium B.C.E. or to an even more distant era. But in its final form, the Rigveda developed as a whole, probably in the X-IX centuries. BC. e.

2000 BC: Ocher Painted Ceramics Culture

The Ocher Painted Pottery Culture is a Bronze Age culture in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, "usually dating from 2000-1500 BC. e., "stretching from eastern Punjab to northeastern Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh.

Artifacts of this culture have similarities with both Late Harappan culture and Vedic culture. Archaeologist Akinori Uesugi believes that this culture is the archaeological successor to the previous Harappan culture of Bara.

According to Parpola, the finds of wagons drawn by oxen in this culture may indicate the migration of Indo-Iranians to the Indian subcontinent and their contact with the late Harappans.

The ocher painted ceramics culture marked the last stage of the North Indian Bronze Age, followed by the painted gray ceramics culture, and then the polished black ceramics culture.

2600-1900 BC: Civilization of the Indus River Valley

Between 2500 and 2000 B.C.E., the inhabitants of Dholavira built a well-planned citadel and a lower city, paying special attention to the drainage system. Huge tanks built to collect rainwater can still be seen.

Ceremonies and trade were held in an open area called the "stadium" today. For the tired travelers in the desert, signs were installed; one of them still stands at the northern entrance to the citadel with 10 symbols of mysterious writing. Being part of the Indus Valley civilization, this city was a contemporary of Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations.

3000 BC: The stone city of Dholavira in Gujarat

Located in the center of the modern Kachch Desert (Kutch), the city of Dholavira was built mainly of stone, and existed from 3000 BC. e., with a fortress that was destroyed by an earthquake in 2600 BC. e.

IV thousand BC: Culture in the valley of the river Ghaggar-Hakra (Saraswati)

Many hymns of all ten "Rigveda" mandalas (with the exception of the 4th) glorify or mention the mighty Saraswati River flowing "from the mountains to the Indian Ocean." Saraswati is mentioned much more often than Indus and plays such an important role in the Rigveda that she is worshipped as one of the three great goddesses.

Most scholars identify the Vedic Saraswati River with the modern seasonal Ghaggar-Hakra River. According to scientists studying the environment in prehistoric times, the Ghaggar-Hakra River dried up after at least two of its tributaries, the Sutlej and Yamuna, changed their course. "The chain of tectonic events took the Sutlej channel west (to Indus) and Yamunu east (to Ganges)... this explains the disappearance of such a mighty river as Saraswati. "

The process was completed around 1750 BC. e., but it began much earlier, possibly with the displacement of layers and a huge flood between 2100 and 1900 BC. e.

P. H. Frankfort, using images obtained from the French satellite SPOT, hypothesized that the huge Ghaggar-Hakra river existed in the pre-Harappan period and began to dry out as early as the middle of the 4th millennium BC. e. During the Harappan period, a complex network of irrigation canals was used only in the southern part of the Indus River valley.

414 archaeological sites were discovered along the Saraswati channel, while only about forty in the Indus River valley. About 80% of the discovered excavations date back to the IV or III millennium BC. e., from which it can be assumed that the culture in the valley of the Ghaggar-Hakra River at that time was in its heyday.

Hindutva ideology proponents who deny Indo-Aryan migrations consider the identification of the Vedic Saraswati with the parched Ghaggar-Hakra River to be an argument for the Indo-Aryan exodus from India, an earlier dating of the Rigveda, and the renaming of the Harappan civilization as the "Indus-Saraswati civilization."

8 thousand BCE: Cave paintings in Bhimbetka

The antiquity of India is perfectly illustrated in the rock shelters of Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh), where red pigment drawings, prints and carvings depict battles, intense hunting and totemic animals. The earliest drawings date to around 8000 BC.

Some rock shelters date back a million years, and caves also carry other markers of habitat, such as ostrich egg shell beads, quartzite coloons, and hand axes. While human settlement in these caves was continuous from the Stone Age to the Mesolithic, rock art appeared periodically even before the Middle Ages, making Bhimbetka a valuable testament to Indian history.

Paleolith

1.5 million hp: Early ashel in the parking lot of Attirampakkam

Attirampakkam site, South India (about 1.5 million hp). Archaeological material of the early Achelles (3528 items), 95% of the inventory are ordinary products of cleavage of nuclei with few chips from the design of bifas.

2 million hp: Soan is one of the earliest ancient Paleolithic cultures in India and Pakistan

Soan is approximately modern with the ancient Paleolithic (Doshell, Shell, Achel) cultures of Europe and Africa. First identified in the valley of the Indus tributary of the Soan River. Soan is characterized by the predominance of coarse cutting tools made from river pebbles with one-sided processing ("choppers") and with two-sided processing ("choppings"), as well as coarse chops. Manual choppers are absent or rare.

Several stages are distinguished in the development of Soan culture:

• dosoan, where only thick, coarse, so-called Cleckton, quartzite chips are represented;
• early Soan, where rough cutting tools and primitive nuclei appear;
• roughly simultaneous with Mousterian culture in Europe and Africa, the late Soan (A and B), where thinner and more regular levallois-type flakes and plates also appear (see Levallois-Perret).

Soan culture is particularly well represented in West Pakistan and Northwest India; its monuments are also available in other areas of India and Pakistan. It coexists with the ancient Paleolithic crop, common in India and Pakistan, but is not sharply separated from it.

50 million hp: The clash between India and Laurasia forms the Himalayas

Main article: The history of the Earth before the appearance of hominids

The movement of the continents breakaway from Gondwana and their collision with parts of Laurasia led to active mountain formation. Africa's pressure on Europe resulted in the Alps, and the clash between Hindustan and Laurasia (50 Ma) created the Himalayas.

70 million hp: An oceanic bottom has formed between Hindustan and Madagascar

90 million hp the separation of Hindustan and Madagascar

90 million years ago there was a separation of Hindustan and Madagascar.

125 million hp: East Gondwana split into Indigaskar and Australo-Antarctica

125 million years ago, East Gondwana split into Indigaskar and Australo-Antarctica, between which the Indian Ocean began to form.

183 million hp: The beginning of the collapse of Gondwana in the southern hemisphere

183 million years ago (Mesozoic) Gondwana began to break up into two parts: western (, Africa Arabia and) South America and eastern (,, and Australia Antarctica Madagascar Hindustan), the border of which became the Mozambique Strait after 25 million years.