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Farmers begin to settle on the Indus floodplain and to construct dams and canals for irrigation
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Copper is in use in the Indus region
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The potter's wheel is introduced to the Indus region
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In India's Indus Valley cities like Harappa attract a population of up to 40,000 people living in houses with bathrooms and toilets connected to a common drainage system
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The Indus civilization is at its height and continues to flourish for the next 400 years
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First evidence of bronze in the Indus region
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Aryans arrive in northwestern India, bringing with them chariots, cattle, and the Sanskrit language
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For reasons that remain unexplained the Indus Valley cities are abandoned by their inhabitants
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Evidence of ironworking appears in the valley of the Ganges
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The Brahmanic caste system becomes well established in India
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Birth of Siddhartha Gautama in India
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Siddhartha has the vision on which the Buddhist religion will be founded
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With the death of the Buddha or Enlightened One, the First Great Council of his followers is held to agree on the main tenets of his teaching
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From a power base in northwestern India, Chandragupta Maurya seizes control of the kingdom of Magadha and founds the Mauryan Empire
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Chandragupta Maurya extends his kingdom as for as the Indus Valley, where he encounters resistance for the successors of Alexander the Great.
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Chandragupta signs a peace treaty with Seleucus of the Seleucid Empire; by its terms the Mauryans receive much of today's Afghanistan and Pakistan in return for their alliance and a corps of 500 war elephants
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The Mauryan Empire reaches its height with the ascension of Ashoka: In his 37-year reign he will extend his power over all but the far south of the Indian subcontinent
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Indian Emperor Ashoka becomes an adherent to Buddhism. His emissaries carry the creed not only across India but beyond, to Sri Lanka and into Southeast Asia
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Ashoka's death marks the start of the Mauryan Empire's decline
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Buddhism in India suffers a major setback when Pushyamitra seizes power from Ashoka's Mauryan successors: Under the new Shunga Dynasty the Brahmin elite of Hinduism returns to power
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Chandragupta I, the founder of the Gupta Empire, begins to expand his kingdom from a small heartland on the southern banks of the Ganges River
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The Gupta Empire reaches its peak under Chandragupta II, almost rivaling the Mauryan Empire in size
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Aryabhata, a Hindu astronomer and mathematician correctly states that the Earth rotates on its axis
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The game of chess originates in the Indus Valley
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The Huns invade Gupta lands in India, bringing the empire to an end
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Indian mathematicians have developed a decimal system and the concept of zero by this date
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Birth of Sankaracharya, the great Hindu philosopher and guru; he will reinterpret the Vedas and found four monastic centers of learning in India that survive today
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Dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, the magnificent Kandarya Mahadeva Temple is completed in north-central India. More than 900 carvings of gods, dancing girls, and demons decorate its exterior
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Hindu Temple building is at its height in India; the Jagannath Temple at Puri in Orissa is begun about this time
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Sultan Muhammad Ghuri completes the Buddhist subjugation of northern India
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Akbar becomes emperor and establishes the true greatness of the Mughal Empire. He extends Mughal rule across the whole of northern India. Akbar gives the Mughal Empire stability and a strong system of government by pursuing tolerant policies toward his Hindu subjects
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Following the death of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan orders the construction of her tomb, the Taj Mahal at Agra, which will take 22 years to complete
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Aurangzeb deposes and imprisons his father, Emperor Shah Jahan, becoming the last of the great Mughal emperors. He will seek to enforce strict Suni orthodoxy, repressing Sikhism and Hinduism along with minority Islamic groups