India — Speck in Time Archive

1,858 CE – 1,947 CE

Direct Crown rule after the 1857 rebellion, ending in independence and partition.

1,526 CE – 1,857 CE

Persianate rulers govern most of the subcontinent, building the Taj Mahal and a vast administrative state.

1,206 CE – 1,526 CE

Turkic and Afghan dynasties rule northern India for three centuries.

320 CE – 550 CE

Called a golden age — decimal notation, the concept of zero, and the Kama Sutra all belong to it.

268 BCE – 232 BCE

After a war so bloody it revolted him, Ashoka converts to Buddhism and carves edicts about mercy into rock across his empire.

563 BCE – 483 BCE

A prince renounces his position and teaches a way out of suffering. Buddhism spreads across Asia.

1,500 BCE – 500 BCE

The Vedas are composed and transmitted orally with astonishing precision for centuries before being written.

1,800 BCE – 1,200 BCE

Speakers of an Indo-European language move into northern India, bringing the language ancestral to Sanskrit.

2,600 BCE

Grid-planned cities housing tens of thousands, with public baths and covered sewers.

3,100 BCE

Symbols appear on seals and pottery. Nobody has read them, and there may not be enough text to ever try.

3,300 BCE – 1,300 BCE

Vast planned cities with drainage and standardised bricks, and almost no sign of kings or armies.