Pre-history The history of core South Asia begins with evidence of human activity of
Homo sapiens, as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including
Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The earliest prehistoric culture have roots in the
Mesolithic sites as evidenced by the rock paintings of
Bhimbetka rock shelters dating to a period of 30,000 BCE or older, as well as Neolithic times.
Ancient era during 2600–1900 BCE, the mature phase The
Indus Valley Civilisation, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of South Asia from to 1300 BCE in present-day
Pakistan,
North India, and
Afghanistan, was the first major civilisation in South Asia. A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture developed in the
Mature Harappan period, from 2600 to 1900 BCE. According to anthropologist
Possehl, the Indus Valley civilisation provides a logical, if somewhat arbitrary, starting point for South Asian religions, but these links from the Indus religion to later-day South Asian traditions are subject to scholarly dispute. The Vedic period, named after the Vedic religion of the
Indo-Aryans, lasted from to 500 BCE. The Indo-Aryans were
Indo-European-speaking pastoralists who migrated into north-western India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization. Linguistic and archaeological data show a cultural change after 1500 BCE, with the linguistic and religious data showing links with Indo-European languages and religion. By about 1200 BCE, the Vedic culture and agrarian lifestyle were established in the northwest and northern Gangetic plain of South Asia. Rudimentary state-forms appeared, of which the
Kuru-Pañcāla union was the most influential. The first recorded
state-level society in South Asia existed around 1000 BCE. The Brahmanas and Aranyakas, and the Upanishads into which they merged, began to ask the meaning of a ritual, adding increasing levels of philosophical and metaphysical speculation, or "
Hindu synthesis". Increasing urbanisation of South Asia between 800 and 400 BCE, and possibly the spread of urban diseases, contributed to the rise of ascetic movements and of new ideas which challenged the orthodox
Brahmanism. These ideas led to
Sramana movements, of which Mahavira (–477 BCE), proponent of
Jainism, and
Buddha (), founder of
Buddhism, was the most prominent icons. The Greek army led by
Alexander the Great stayed in the
Hindu Kush region of South Asia for several years and then later moved into the Indus valley region. Later, the
Maurya Empire extended over much of South Asia in the 3rd century BCE. Buddhism spread beyond south Asia, through northwest into Central Asia. The
Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan and the
edicts of Aśoka suggest that the Buddhist monks spread Buddhism (Dharma) in eastern provinces of the
Seleucid Empire, and possibly even farther into West Asia. The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BCE, to Sri Lanka, later to Southeast Asia. Buddhism, by the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE, was prominent in the Himalayan region, Gandhara, Hindu Kush region, and Bactria. From about 500 BCE through about 300 CE, the Vedic-Brahmanic synthesis or "Hindu synthesis" continued. Classical Hindu and Sramanic (particularly Buddhist) ideas spread within South Asia, as well as outside South Asia. The
Gupta Empire ruled over a large part of the region between the 4th and 7th centuries, a period that saw the construction of major temples, monasteries and universities such as the
Nalanda. During this era, and through the 10th century, numerous cave monasteries and temples such as the
Ajanta Caves,
Badami cave temples, and
Ellora Caves were built in South Asia.
Medieval era Islam came as a political power in the fringe of South Asia in 8th century CE when the Arab general
Muhammad bin Qasim conquered
Sindh, and
Multan in southern Punjab, in modern-day Pakistan. By 962 CE, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia were under a wave of raids from Muslim armies from Central Asia. Among them was
Mahmud of Ghazni, who raided and plundered kingdoms in north India from east of the Indus river to west of Yamuna river seventeen times between 997 and 1030. defeats the
Sultan of Delhi, Nasir-u Din Mehmud, in the winter of 1397–1398 The wave of raids on north Indian and western Indian kingdoms by Muslim warlords continued after Mahmud of Ghazni, plundering and looting these kingdoms. The raids did not establish or extend permanent boundaries of their Islamic kingdoms. The Ghurid Sultan
Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad began a systematic war of expansion into North India in 1173. He sought to carve out a principality for himself by expanding the Islamic world, and thus laid the foundation for the Muslim kingdom that became the
Delhi Sultanate. Some historians chronicle the Delhi Sultanate from 1192 due to the presence and geographical claims of Mu'izz al-Din in South Asia by that time. The Delhi Sultanate covered varying parts of South Asia and was ruled by a series of dynasties: Mamluk, Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, and Lodi dynasties.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq came to power in 1325, launched a war of expansion and the Delhi Sultanate reached it largest geographical reach over the South Asian region during his 26-year rule. A Sunni Sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq persecuted non-Muslims such as Hindus, as well as non-Sunni Muslims such as Shia and Mahdi sects. Revolts against the Delhi Sultanate sprang up in many parts of South Asia during the 14th century. In the northeast, the
Bengal Sultanate became independent in 1346 CE. It remained in power through the early 16th century. The state religion of the sultanate was Islam. In
South India, the Hindu
Vijayanagara Empire came to power in 1336 and persisted until the middle of the 16th century. It was ultimately defeated and destroyed by an alliance of the Muslim
Deccan sultanates at the
Battle of Talikota. About 1526, the Punjab governor Dawlat Khan Lodī reached out to the Mughal
Babur and invited him to attack the Delhi Sultanate.
Babur defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi in the
Battle of Panipat in 1526. The death of Ibrahim Lodi ended the Delhi Sultanate, and the
Mughal Empire replaced it.
Modern era and his son Prince
Aurangzeb in Mughal court, 1650 The
modern history period of South Asia, that is the 16th century onwards, witnessed the establishment of the Mughal Empire, with Sunni Islam theology. The first ruler was Babur had
Turco-Mongol roots and his realm included the northwestern and
Indo-Gangetic Plain regions of South Asia. Several regions of South Asia were largely under
Hindu kings such as those of the Vijayanagara Empire and the
Kingdom of Mewar. Parts of modern
Telangana and
Andhra Pradesh were under local Muslim rulers, the Deccan Sutanates. The Mughal Empire continued its wars of expansion after Babur's death. With the fall of the Rajput kingdoms and Vijayanagara, its boundaries encompassed almost the entirety of the Indian subcontinent. The Mughal Empire was marked by a period of artistic exchanges and a Central Asian and South Asian architecture synthesis, with remarkable buildings such as the
Taj Mahal. However, this time also marked an extended period of
religious persecution. Two of the religious leaders of
Sikhism,
Guru Arjan, and
Guru Tegh Bahadur were arrested under orders of the Mughal emperors after their revolts and were executed when they refused to convert to Islam. Religious taxes on non-Muslims called
jizya were imposed. Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh temples were desecrated. However, not all Muslim rulers persecuted non-Muslims.
Akbar, a Mughal ruler for example, sought religious tolerance and abolished jizya. The death of Aurangzeb and the collapse of the Mughal Empire, which marks the beginning of modern India, in the early 18th century, provided opportunities for the
Marathas,
Sikhs,
Mysoreans, and
Nawabs of Bengal to exercise control over large regions of the Indian subcontinent. By the mid-18th century, India was a major
proto-industrializing region. is shaded pink, the
princely states are shaded yellow. Maritime trading between South Asia and European merchants began at the turn of the 16th century after the
Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India. British, French, and Portuguese colonial interests struck treaties with these rulers and established their trading ports. In northwestern South Asia, a large region was consolidated into the Sikh Empire by
Ranjit Singh. After the defeat of the
Nawab of Bengal and
Tipu Sultan and his
French allies,
British traders went on to dominate much of South Asia through
divide-and-rule tactics by the early 19th century. The region experienced significant
de-industrialisation in its first few decades of British rule. Control over the subcontinent was then
transferred to the British government after the
Indian Rebellion of 1857, with the British cracking down to some extent afterwards. An increase of famines and extreme poverty characterised the colonial period, though railways built with British technology eventually provided crucial famine relief by increasing food distribution throughout India. The introduction of
Western political thought inspired a growing Indian intellectual movement, and so by the 20th century, British rule began to be challenged by the
Indian National Congress, which sought full independence under the leadership of
Mahatma Gandhi. Britain, under pressure from Indian freedom fighters, increasingly gave self-rule to British India. By the 1940s, two rival camps had emerged among independence activists: those who
favored a separate nation for Indian Muslims, and those who
wanted a united India. As
World War II raged, over 2 million Indians fought for Britain; by the end of the war, Britain was greatly weakened, and thus decided to grant independence to the vast majority of South Asians in 1947, though this coincided with the
Partition of India into a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan, which resulted in significant displacement and violence and harder religious divides in the region.
Contemporary era In 1947, the newly independent India and Pakistan had to decide how to deal with the hundreds of
princely states that controlled much of the subcontinent, as well as what to do with the remaining European (non-British) colonies. A combination of referendums, military action, and negotiated accessions took place in rapid succession, leading to the political integration of the
vast majority of India and
Pakistan within a few years., which concluded with
East Pakistan becoming the independent nation of
Bangladesh. India and Pakistan
clashed several times in the decades after Independence, with
disputes over Kashmir playing a significant role. In 1971, the eastern half of Pakistan seceded with help from India and became the People's Republic of Bangladesh after the traumatic
Bangladesh Liberation War. This, along with India and Pakistan gaining nuclear weapons soon afterwards, increased tensions between the two countries. The
Cold War decades also
contributed to the divide, as Pakistan aligned with the West and India with the
Soviet Union; other factors include the time period after the 1962
Sino-Indian War, which saw India and China move apart while Pakistan and China built closer relations. Pakistan has been beset with
terrorism,
economic issues, and
military dominance of its government since Independence, with none of its Prime Ministers having completed a full 5-year term in office. India has grown significantly, having slashed its rate of extreme poverty to below 20% is now one of the fastest-growing countries in the region, beating India in terms of
GDP per capita. Afghanistan has gone through
several invasions and Islamist regimes, with many of its refugees having gone to Pakistan and other parts of South Asia and bringing back cultural influences such as
cricket.
Religious nationalism has grown across the region, with persecution causing millions of Hindus and Christians to flee Pakistan and Bangladesh, and
Hindu nationalism having grown in India with the election of the
Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014. (See also:
2025 India–Pakistan standoff) ==Geography==