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The First War of Independence A century of accumulated grievances erupted in the Indian mutiny of sepoys in the British army, in 1857. This was the signal for a spontaneous conflagration, in which the princely rulers, landed aristocracy and peasantry rallied against the British around the person of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah. The uprising, however, was eventually brutally suppressed. By the end of 1859, the "emperor" had been deported to Burma where he died a lonely death, bringing to a formal end the era of Mughal rule in India. The Mutiny, even in its failure, produced many heroes and heroines of epic character. Above all, it produced a sense of unity between the Hindus and the Muslims of India that was to be witnessed in later years. The rebellion also saw the end of the East India Company's rule in India. Power was transferred to the British Crown in 1858 by an Act of British Parliament. The Crown's viceroy in India was to be the chief executive. The Freedom …

The next arrival of overwhelming political importance was that of the Europeans. The great seafarers of north-west Europe, the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese, arrived early in the seventeenth century and established trading outposts along the coasts. The spices of Malabar (in Kerala) had attracted the Portuguese as early as the end of the 15th century when, in 1498, Vasco da Gama had landed at Calicut, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope. Early in the 16th Century, the Portuguese had already established their colony in Goa; but their territorial and commercial hold in India remained rather limited. During the late 16th and 17th century they remained unrivaled as pirates on the high seas; but inland the other European companies were making their presence felt, though entirely in commercial terms. The Years of 'The Raj' The newcomers soon developed rivalries among themselves and allied with local rulers to consolidate their positions against each other militarily. In time …

The Delhi Sultanate An event of immense and lasting impact in Indian history was the advent of the Muslims in the north-west. Lured by tales of the fertile plains of the Punjab and the fabulous wealth of Hindu temples, Mahmud of Ghazni first attacked India in 1000 AD. Other raiders from Central Asia followed him, but these invasions were no more than banditry. It was only in 1192 that Muslim power arrived in India on a permanent basis. In that year, Mohammed of Ghori, who had been expanding his power all across the Punjab broke into India and took Ajmer. The following year his general Qutb-ud-din Aibak took Varanasi and Delhi and after Mohammed Ghori's death in 1206, he became the first of the Sultans of Delhi. Qutb-ud-din Aibak founded the so called Slave Dynasty in India at Delhi, setting up the nucleus of the Delhi Sultanate, or the rule of Turkish and Afghan sultans, the Khiljis, the Tughlaqs and the Lodis. Impact of Islam The impact of Islam on Indian culture has been i…

The greatest empire in the fourth century AD was the Gupta Empire, which ushered in the golden age of Indian history. This empire lasted for more than two centuries. It covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, but its administration was more decentralized than that of the Mauryas. Alternately waging war and entering into matrimonial alliances with the smaller kingdoms in its neighbourhood, the empire's boundaries kept fluctuating with each ruler. The Gupta rulers patronized the Hindu religious tradition and orthodox Hinduism reasserted itself in this era. However, this period also saw the peaceful coexistence of Brahmins and Buddhists and visits by Chinese travellers like Fa Hien. The exquisite Ajanta and Ellora caves were created in this period. This era saw the emergence of the classical art forms and development of various aspects of Indian culture and civilization. Erudite treatises were written on a multiplicity of subjects ranging from grammar, mathematics, as…

By the end of the third century BC, most of North India was knit together in the first great Indian empire by Chandragupta Maurya. His son Bindusara extended the Mauryan Empire over virtually the entire subcontinent, giving rise to an imperial vision that was to dominate successive centuries of political aspirations. The greatest Mauryan emperor was Ashoka the Great (286-231 BC) whose successful campaigns culminated in the annexation of Kalinga (modern Orissa). Overcome by the horrors of war, he was probably the first victorious ruler to renounce war on the battlefield. Ashoka converted to Buddhism, but did not impose his faith on his subjects. Instead, he tried to convert them through edicts inscribed on rock in the local dialects, using the earliest known post-Harappan script known as Brahmi. The Mauryan economy was essentially agrarian. The State owned huge farms and these were cultivated by slaves and farm laborers. Taxes collected on land, trade and manufacture of handicra…

Buddhism and Jainism The sixth century BC was a time of social and intellectual ferment in India. It was then that Mahavira founded the Jain religion, and Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment. The two great religions, Jainism and Buddhism, preached non-violence to all living creatures, tolerance and self-discipline, values that have become the cornerstones of the Indian ethos. The teachings of these faiths won immediate popular acceptance owing to their simplicity and practicality; the sermons of both were preached in commonly spoken languages. Later, Buddhist monks were to spread their religion south to Sri Lanka and north-east to China, Japan, Korea and the whole of South-east Asia, where it is practiced till today. Rise of the State With land becoming property and the society being divided on the basis of occupations and castes, conflicts and disorders were bound to arise. Organized power to resolve these issues therefore emerged, gradually leading to formation of full-fl…

Mahājanapada (Sanskrit: महाजनपद, Mahājanapada, literally "great realm" from maha, "great", and janapada "foothold of a tribe", "country") refers to one of the sixteen kingdoms and oligarchic republics that existed in ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. Ancient Buddhist texts like Anguttara Nikaya make frequent reference to sixteen great kingdoms and republics which had evolved and flourished in a belt stretching from Gandhara in the northwest to Anga in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent and included parts of the trans-Vindhyan region, prior to the rise of Buddhism in India. The sixth century BC is often regarded as a major turning point in early Indian history. Archaeologically, this period corresponds in part to the Northern Black Polished Ware culture. Overview The political structure of the ancient Indians appears to have started with semi-nomadic tribal units called Jana (meaning "people" or by extension "ethnic group" or "tribe"). Early Vedic t…

The Aryans are said to have entered India through the fabled Khyber pass, around 1500 BC. They intermingled with the local populace, and assimilated themselves into the social framework. They adopted the settled agricultural lifestyle of their predecessors, and established small agrarian communities across the state of Punjab. The Aryans are believed to have brought with them the horse, developed the Sanskrit language and made significant inroads in to the religion of the times. All three factors were to play a fundamental role in the shaping of Indian culture. Cavalry warfare facilitated the rapid spread of Aryan culture across North India, and allowed the emergence of large empires. Sanskrit is the basis and the unifying factor of the vast majority of Indian languages. The religion, that took root during the Vedic era, with its rich pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, and its storehouse of myths and legends, became the foundation of the Hindu religion, arguably the single most …

Settlements From the beginning of the 4th millennium BC, the individuality of the early village cultures began to be replaced by a more homogeneous style of existence. By the middle of the 3rd millennium, a uniform culture had developed at settlements spread across nearly 500,000 square miles, including parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Baluchistan, Sind and the Makran coast. This earliest known civilization in India, the starting point in its history, dates back to about 3000 BC. Discovered in the 1920s, it was thought to have been confined to the valley of the river Indus, hence the name given to it was Indus Valley civilisation. This civilization was a highly developed urban one and two of its towns, Mohenjodaro and Harappa, represent the high watermark of the settlements. Subsequent archaeological excavations established that the contours of this civilization were not restricted to the Indus valley but spread to a wide area in northwestern and western India. Thus t…

Ancient India was divided into 16 large kingdoms. Each of such kingdom was known as Mahajanpad. Ang was one of them. Aangi, which is now known as Angika, was the language of Ang. The existence of Ang is found since Vedic period or before.Since 500B.C.-400B.C. People from Ang used to visit South East Asian countries like Combodia, Vietnam, Malayasia, Pahoang, Kantoli etc in connection with trades.During this course of visits they had established there colonial kingdoms and ruled over these Kingdoms for nearly 1000 years. People from Ang had constructed magnificent temples like Angkor wat , which is still considered as one of the wonders made by Human beings .They also had written numbers of books and Shilalekhs in Sanskrit and Angika Language.