Sanskrit is an Indo-Aryan language of the ancient Indian subcontinent with a 3,500-year history. It is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism and the predominant language of most works of Hindu philosophy as well as some of the principal texts of Buddhism and Jainism. Sanskrit, in its variants and numerous dialects, was the lingua franca of ancient and medieval India. In the early 1st millennium AD, along with Buddhism and Hinduism, Sanskrit migrated to Southeast Asia, parts of East Asia and Central Asia, emerging as a language of high culture and of local ruling elites in these regions.
Kannada is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by people of Karnataka in Southwestern India and by linguistic minorities in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala and Goa and also by Carnatican expats abroad. The language has roughly 44 million native speakers, who are called Kannadigas. Kannada is also spoken as a second and third language by over 12.9 million non-Kannada speakers in Karnataka, which adds up to 56.9 million speakers. It is one of the scheduled languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka. Kannada was the court language of some of the most powerful empires of South and Central India, such as the Chalukya dynasty, the Rashtrakuta dynasty, the Vijayanagara Empire and the Hoysala Empire.
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire existing from the mid-to-late 3rd century CE to 543 CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Golden Age of India by some historians. The ruling dynasty of the empire was founded by the king Sri Gupta; the most notable rulers of the dynasty were Chandragupta I, Samudragupta, and Chandragupta II alias Vikramaditya. The 5th-century CE Sanskrit poet Kalidasa credits the Guptas with having conquered about twenty-one kingdoms, both in and outside India, including the kingdoms of Parasikas, the Hunas, the Kambojas, tribes located in the west and east Oxus valleys, the Kinnaras, Kiratas, and others.
Sanchi Stupa is a Buddhist complex, famous for its Great Stupa, on a hilltop at Sanchi Town in Raisen District of the State of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is located in 46 kilometres (29 mi) north-east of Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh.
Brahmi is the modern name for a writing system of ancient India. The Brahmi writing system, or script, appeared as a fully developed universal one in South Asia in the third century BCE, and is a forerunner of all writing systems that have found use in South Asia with the exception of the Indus script of the third millennium BCE, the Kharosthi script, which originated in what today is northwestern Pakistan in the fourth or possibly fifth century BCE, the Perso-Arabic Scripts of the medieval period, and the Latin scripts of the modern period. Its descendants, the Brahmic scripts, continue to be in use today not only in South Asia, but also Southeast Asia. Brahmi is an abugida which uses a system of diacritical marks to associate vowels with consonant symbols.
The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of Afghanistan, and then the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath near Varanasi (Benares), where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan Emperor Kanishka the Great. Emperor Kanishka was a great patron of Buddhism. He played an important role in the establishment of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent and its spread to Central Asia and China.
The word Yona in Pali and the Prakrits, and the analogue "Yavana" in Sanskrit, are words used in Ancient India to designate Greek speakers. "Yona" and "Yavana" are transliterations of the Greek word for "Ionians", who were probably the first Greeks to be known in the East.
The Indo-Greek Kingdom or Graeco-Indian Kingdom, and historically known as Yavanarajya, was a Hellenistic kingdom spanning modern-day Afghanistan, into the classical circumscriptions of the Punjab of the Indian subcontinent, during the last two centuries BC and was ruled by more than thirty kings, often conflicting with one another.
The Shunga Empire was an ancient Indian dynasty from Magadha that controlled areas of the central and eastern Indian subcontinent from around 187 to 78 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra Shunga, after the fall of the Maurya Empire. Its capital was Pataliputra, but later emperors such as Bhagabhadra also held court at Besnagar in eastern Malwa.
The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the pillars, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the expression Dhaṃma Lipi to describe his own Edicts. These inscriptions were dispersed throughout the areas of modern-day Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and provide the first tangible evidence of Buddhism. The edicts describe in detail Ashoka's view about dhamma, an earnest attempt to solve some of the problems that a complex society faced. According to the edicts, the extent of Buddhist proselytism during this period reached as far as the Mediterranean, and many Buddhist monuments were created.
The pillars of Ashoka are a series of columns dispersed throughout the Indian subcontinent, erected or at least inscribed with edicts by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka during his reign from c. 268 to 232 BC. Ashoka used the expression Dhaṃma thaṃbhā, i.e. "pillars of the Dharma" to describe his own pillars. These pillars constitute important monuments of the architecture of India, most of them exhibiting the characteristic Mauryan polish. Of the pillars erected by Ashoka, twenty still survive including those with inscriptions of his edicts. Only a few with animal capitals survive of which seven complete specimens are known. Two pillars were relocated by Firuz Shah Tughlaq to Delhi. Several pillars were relocated later by Mughal Empire rulers, the animal capitals being removed. Averaging between 12 and 15 m in height, and weighing up to 50 tons each, the pillars were dragged, sometimes hundreds of miles, to where they were erected.
Indraprastha is mentioned in ancient Indian literature as a city of the Kuru Kingdom. It was the capital of the kingdom led by the Pandavas in the Mahabharata epic. Under the Pali form of its name, Indapatta, it is also mentioned in Buddhist texts as the capital of the Kuru mahajanapada. It is often thought to have been located in the region of present-day New Delhi, particularly the Old Fort, although this has not been conclusively confirmed. The city is sometimes also known as Khandavaprastha or Khandava Forest, the name of a forest region on the banks of Yamuna river which had been cleared by Krishna and Arjun to build the city.
Assaka (Pali) or Asmaka, was a Mahajanapada according to Buddhist texts or Janapada according to Puranas of ancient India which existed between 700 BC and 425 or 345 BC.
Dakshina Kosala is a historical region of central India. It was located in what is now Chhattisgarh and western part of Odisha. At its greatest extent, it may have also included a part of the Vidarbha region in present-day Maharashtra.
The Kamboja-Pala dynasty ruled parts of Bengal in the 10th to 11th centuries CE, after invading during the reign of Gopala II, the Palas. The last Kamboja ruler of the Kamboja-Pala Dynasty Dharmapala was defeated by the south Indian Emperor Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty in the 11th century.
The Alupa also known as Alva was an ancient ruling dynasty of India. The kingdom they ruled was known as Alvakheda Arusasira and its territory spanned the coastal districts of the modern Indian state known as Karnataka. The cultural region of Tulu Nadu was the core of their territory. The Alupas were initially independent but with the dominance of Kadambas from Banavasi, they became feudatory to them. Later they became the vassals of the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas with the change in political scenario of Southern India. Their influence over coastal Karnataka lasted for about 1200 years. There is evidence that the Alupas followed the law of matrilineal inheritance (Aliyasantana) since the Alupa king Soyideva was succeeded by his nephew Kulasekhara Bankideva. The legendary king who is credited with introducing matrilineality in Tulu Nadu is named Bhuta Alupa Pandya The name Alva survives as a surname even today among Bunt landlords who are Matrilineal The last Alupa king to have ruled is Kulasekharadeva Alupendradeva whose inscription dated 1444 CE have been found in Mudabidri Jain Basadi.
Tamil-Brahmi is a variant of the Brahmi script used to write inscriptions in the early form of the Old Tamil language. The Tamil-Brahmi script has been paleographically and stratigraphically dated between 3rd century BCE and 1st century CE, and it constitutes the earliest known writing system evidenced in many parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Sri Lanka. Tamil Brahmi inscriptions have been found on cave entrances, stone beds, potsherds, jar burials, coins, seals, and rings.
Mahishmati was an ancient city in present-day central India. It was located in present-day Madhya Pradesh, on the banks of Narmada River, although its exact location is uncertain.
Pragjyotishpura, now deemed to be a region within modern Guwahati, was an ancient city and capital of the medieval Kamarupa Kingdom under Varman dynasty. The earliest mention from local sources come from the 7th century.
Ayodhya is a legendary city mentioned in the ancient Sanskrit-language texts, including the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These texts describe it as the capital of the Ikshvaku kings, including Rama.
