Ancient India

The subcontinent of Hindustan is cut off from the rest of the world from almost all sides. In the north it is confined to the Pamirs and the Himalayas, to the south by the ocean, to the northeast by impenetrable swamps, tropical forests and uplands.

India in the Middle Ages was mastered by people who came from the northwest, through mountain passes located on the territory of modern Afghanistan. The sub-continent is divided geographically quite clearly on the plateau Dekan (South) and the Indo-Gangetic plain (North).

Ancient India was famous for its developed agriculture. Particularly suitable for this type of activity were the valleys of the Ganges and the Indus. It should be said that the relationship between river basins and the Dean was very difficult. However, the Punjab was a relatively permanent gate, through which foreigners penetrated the valley. The climate of the subcontinent allows you to collect two fairly rich crops for the year. However, on the territory there are frequent hurricanes, floods, droughts. These cataclysms doom the population to starvation.

Ancient India was inhabited by tribes of the Australoid race. These peoples lived earlier in the territory from Indochina to southern Iran. Europeans also lived on the subcontinent. They, mixing with the aborigines, assimilated them in the ethnocultural plan.

Approximately in the 7th-5th century BC. E. Ancient India in the north-west was occupied by tribes of Dravidians. The languages of these nationalities are included in the nostratic macro-family (together with Indo-European and other languages). By the second millennium BC. E. Ancient India is inhabited by Indo-Europeans - Indoarians. These nationalities by the 1st century BC. E. Became the main population of the northern territories. The Dravidian-speaking peoples are shifting to the south under the pressure of the Aryans and as a result of independent resettlement, assimilating most of the aborigines.

From the 7th century BC. E. In the valleys of the rivers Sarasvati and Indus, the development of the producing economy began. By the 3rd century the Dravidians had created the first civilization in these territories. In science, it began to be called Harappsky or Induskaya. Civilization was represented by urban settlements, which were surrounded by walls lined with baked bricks. The largest of them were in Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa (modern names).

All cities, regardless of their size, were characterized by a regular two-part layout: on the artificial elevation stood a citadel, separated from the rest of the settlement by a special battlement wall. Such a plan indicates a sufficiently high level of social development and the transition to an early form of statehood. In the settlements there was a rectangular division into quarters, which were very crowded. For example, in Mohenjo-Daro lived about several tens of thousands of people. Quarters differed (for that time) with a very high level of improvement - the most perfect sewerage and water supply systems.

Dravidians also carried out monumental construction. In particular, they built huge reservoirs, which were intended for ship parking and were equipped with locks.

The population used syllabic writing. Bronze metallurgy was well developed on the territory of ancient India. Archaeologists found a large number of various seals. This indicates the earlier development of private-property relations. Of particular importance in the formation of the Indian civilization was foreign trade, land and sea.

The religion of ancient India, the system of values, the mentality crystallized towards the middle of the 1st century BC. E. Civilization combined corporate-collectivist and individually-hedonistic principles. In other words, the meaning of human existence was represented in his happiness and the independence of the individual, which, in turn, could not be achieved outside society.