2: Ancient India
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- 2.2: What is India? The Geography of South Asia
- India’s dynamic history, then, alternated between periods when the subcontinent was partially unified by empires and periods when it was composed of a shifting mosaic of regional states. This history was also impacted by influxes of migrants and invaders. In thinking about the reasons for these patterns, historians highlight the size of India and its diverse geography and peoples.
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- 2.3: India's First Major Civilization - The Indus Valley Civilization ( 2600-1700 BCE)
- A century of archaeological work in India that began in 1920 not only revealed a lost civilization but also a massive one, surpassing in size other major early riverine civilizations of Afro-Eurasia, such as ancient Egypt and the Mesopotamian states. In an area spanning roughly a half million square miles, archaeologists have excavated thousands of settlements. These can be envisioned in a hierarchy based on size and sophistication.
Thumbnail: The Rajarani Temple is an 11th-century Hindu temple located in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, India. (CC BY-SA 3.0; Lnm8910 via Wikipedia).