Placed in the center of Asia, India is a subcontinent with a 5000-year old history. Its history and culture is dynamic. It begins with the birth of the Indus Valley Civilization in places such as Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Kalibangan and Lothal, followed by the invasion of the Aryans. Indian civilization united by its diversity, experience the richness of culture, the glory of the past, the turbulences and triumphs. History in India is a crossroads of cultures from China to Europe. The first group to invade India were the Aryans, who came out of the north in about 1500 BC. The Aryans brought with them strong cultural traditions that, miraculously, still remain in force today. Indian history wittnessed various eras, regimes and ages where the landmarks of each era, the achievements of each age, the legacy of the regime are worthy to remember.

India, a meeting ground between the East and the west, was an invader`s paradise. At the same time its natural isolation and appealing religious doctrines allowed it to adapt to and absorb many of the peoples who penetrated its mountain passes. No matter how many Greeks, Persians, ,Chinese nomads, Arabs, Portuguese, British and other invaders had their way with the land, local Hindu kingdoms invariably survived their ravage, living out their own sagas of conquest and collapse. All the while, these local kingdoms built upon the roots of a culture well established since time immemorial. India has always been simply too big, too complicated, and too culturally subtle to let any one empire dominate it for long.

Archaeological excavations in the North eastern part of India have brought to light the remains of a highly developed urban civilization in ancient India. This civilization is known by the name of the two of its great cities - Harappa and Mohenjodaro. The cities of this Civilization were well-organised and solidly built out of burnt brick and stone. Their drainage systems, wells and water storage systems were the most impressive achievements in the ancient world, thus sets them apart from all other ancient civilisations.

During the second century B.C., The Aryan people migrated from the northwest into the Indian subcontinent They settled in the saptasindhu region and adapted to the existing cultures. This period, known as Vedic period .The people of Vedic Civilization, called Aryans, lived in tribes and the language they spoke was Sanskrit, which was a part of Indo-European group of languages. Aryans started to intermingle with the locals. This period saw the rise of major kingdoms known as the Mahajanapadas. There are sixteen Mahajanapadas spread across different parts of the continent. The births of Mahavira and Gautama Buddha in the 6th century BC heralded a new religious movement in India. Mahavira propagated jainism whose message was asceticism, austerity and non-violence. Gautama Buddha, preached that `Nirvana` was to be attained through the conquest of self. Buddha`s teachings in time spread to China and some other countries of South-East Asia.

In the third century B.C, large parts of India were united under the Maurya rule. Chandragupta, Bindusar and Ashoka were the famous kings of this dynasty. It was Ashok who converted into Buddhism, and it is in his reign that Buddhism spread to other parts of Asia. During the Mauryas, Hinduism took the shape that fundamentally informs the religion down to the present day.

The political map of ancient India was made up of myriad kingdoms with fluctuating boundaries. In the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., northern India was unified under the Gupta Dynasty. The Gupta period, known as Golden Age in Indian History saw overall development of Hindu culture and political administration.

After the downfall of the Gupta Empire in the middle of the sixth century C.E., North India reverted back to small republics and small monarchial states. Harsha vardhan, son of Prabhakar Vardhan the ruler of Thaneswar united the small republics from Punjab to Central India, and crowned himself as the king in April 606 AD when he was merely 16 years old. After Harsha, India again divided into several smaller kingdoms. The mutual bickerings and distrust among the kings and Nobels resulted into anarchy and chaos. And India again passed into the hands of Foreign Invaders.