Asia around 7,000 BCE; during this period, domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that

of goats, sheep, and cattle occurred.[2] By 4,500 BCE, settled In the beginning of the second millennium
BCE climate change, with persistent drought, led to the abandonment of the urban centers of the Indus
Valley Civilisation. Its population resettled in smaller villages, and, in the north-west, mixed with Indo-
Aryan tribes, who moved into the area in several waves of Aryan migration, also driven by the effects of
this The postulated religious culture, through synthesis with the preexisting religious cultures of the
subcontinent, gave rise to Hinduism. The era saw the eventual emergence of Janapadas (monarchical,
state-level polities), and social stratification based on caste, which created a hierarchy of priests
(Brahmins), warriors (Kshatriyas), merchants (Vaishyas) and laborers (Shudras). The Later Vedic
Civilisation extended over the Indo-Gangetic plain and much of the Indian subcontinent, as well as
witnessed the rise of major polities known as the Mahajanapadas (large, urbanised states). In one of
these kingdoms, Magadha, Gautama Buddha and Mahavira humans are thought to have arrived on the
Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago.[1] Settled life, which foraging to farming and
pastoralism, began in South Vedic period was marked by the composition of the Vedas, large collections
of hymns of some of the Aryan tribes, whose involves the transition from climate change. propagated
their Śramaṇic philosophies during the fifth and sixth centuries BCE. Anatomically modern humans are
thought to have arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago.[1] Settled
life, which involves the transition from foraging to farming and pastoralism, began in South Asia around
7,000 BCE; during this period, domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that of goats,
sheep, and cattle occurred.[2] By 4,500 BCE, settled life had become more widely prevalent,[2] and
eventually evolved into the Indus Valley Civilization. Considered a cradle of civilisation,[3] the Indus
Valley civilisation, which spread and flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent
from 3300 to 1300 BCE, was the first major civilisation in South Asia.[4] A sophisticated and
technologically advanced urban culture developed in the Mature Harappan period, from 2600 to 1900
BCE.[5] Indus Valley Civilisation was noted for developing new techniques in handicraft, carnelian
products, seal carving, metallurgy, urban planning, baked brick houses, efficient drainage systems, water
supply systems and clusters of large non-residential buildings.[6] This civilisation collapsed at the start of
the second millennium BCE and was later followed by the Iron Age Vedic Civilisation.