CHAPTER 1: Decoding India’s Historical Roots: Geography, Culture and Chronology
🔸What is History? Understanding Its Real Meaning
🔸The Many Names of India: A Story of Identity Across Time
🔸How India’s Geography Shaped Its History
🔸What is “Culture” in Archaeology?
🔸Understanding Historical Time: BCE, CE, and Timelines
🔸How Historians Divide Human History
🔸How Do We Study the Distant Past?
🔸Scientific Methods to Date the Prehistoric Past
CHAPTER 2: Reconstructing India’s Past: Institutions and Historical Methods
🔸Introduction
🔸Archaeological Sources
🔸Indian Literary Sources
🔸How Is History Constructed?
🔸Archaeological Survey of India (ASI): Guardians of Our Past
CHAPTER 3: Prehistoric Cultures and Early Transition
🔸 From Wildness to Wisdom: The Story of Early Humans
🔸 Origins of Universe, Earth & Human Evolution
🔸 The Stone Age: From Survival to Innovation
🔸 Birth of Expression: Prehistoric Art and Rock Paintings
CHAPTER 4: Chalcolithic Horizon in India
🔸 Introduction
🔸Chalcolithic Culture
CHAPTER 5: Harappan Civilisation
🔸Introduction to Harappan Civilisation
🔸Understanding Civilisation
🔸Indus Valley Civilisation
🔸Salient Features of Harappan Culture
🔸Important Harappan Sites
🔸End of the Harappan Civilisation
🔸Tracing the Harappan Civilisation
CHAPTER 6: Foundation of Vedic Thoughts and Aryan Society
🔸Overview of the Vedic Period
🔸The Vedic Period: A Civilizational Shift After Harappa
🔸Early Vedic Period (Rig Vedic Age): 1500–1000 BCE
🔸Later Vedic Period (1000-600 BCE)
🔸Understanding Vedic Literature
🔸Indian Philosophical Systems (Darshanas)
🔸Painted Grey Ware (PGW) Culture – 1200 to 600 BCE
CHAPTER 7: Age of Transition: From Early Vedic to Early Historic India
🔸 India in the Sixth Century BCE
🔸 Changes in Economic and Political Life
🔸 Changes in Social Life and Religious Ideas
🔸 Persian and Macedonian Invasions
🔸 Mahajanapadas
🔸 The Rise of Magadha – From a Kingdom to an Empire
CHAPTER 8: Jainism and Buddhism
🔸 Introduction: The Quest for Meaning in an Age of Upheaval
🔸 Emergence of New Religious Ideas in 6th Century BCE
🔸 Life of Gautama Buddha: The Enlightened One
🔸 Teachings of Gautama Buddha
🔸 Sangha and Monastic Life in Buddhism
🔸 Buddhist Literature: Tripitaka, Pali Texts, and Chronicles
🔸 Buddhist Councils and the Evolution of Sects
🔸 Spread of Buddhism
🔸 Symbolism, Decline, and Legacy of Buddhist
🔸 Important Buddhist Scholars
🔸 Important Buddhist Architecture
🔸 Jainism: Origin and Founder
🔸 Teachings of Jainism: Core Philosophy and Practice
🔸 Spread of Jainism: A Journey Across the Subcontinent
🔸 Jainism: Sects, Sub-sects, and Sacred Symbols
🔸 Jaina Literature: The Vast Ocean of Wisdom
🔸 Important Jaina Scholars
🔸 The 24 Tirthankaras of Jainism: Names & Symbols
🔸 Jain Art, Architecture, and Heritage: An Overview
🔸 Buddhism and Jainism: A Comparative Overview
🔸 Other Heterodox Ideas
🔸 Classical Indian Languages
CHAPTER 9: Mauryan Period
🔸 Introduction: The Story of the Mauryan Empire
🔸 Sources of Mauryan History
🔸 Chandragupta Maurya (321–297 BCE)
🔸 The Mauryan Administrative Machinery
🔸 Bindusara (297–272 BCE)
🔸 Ashoka (c. 272/268–231 BCE)
🔸 Ashoka’s Dhamma
🔸 Ashokan Inscriptions (Edicts of Ashoka)
🔸 End of the Mauryan Empire
🔸 Mauryan Art and Architecture
CHAPTER 10: Post-Mauryan Age: Regionalism, Invasions and Cultural Cross-roads
🔸The story of Post-Mauryan India
🔸Post-Mauryan India: The Fragmented Rise
🔸Backdrop of Foreign Invasions: The Chain Reaction
🔸➡️Indo-Greeks
🔸➡️The Shakas (Scythians) in India (c. 1st c. BCE – 4th c. CE)
🔸➡️The Kushanas (c. 1st – 3rd Century CE)
🔸Impact of Central Asian Contacts (Post-Maurya Period)
🔸Post-Mauryan Developments
🔸➡️The Satavahanas: Empire Builders of the Deccan
🔸➡️Vakataka, Ikshvaku and Kadambas
🔸➡️ The Rise of Crafts, Trade, and Towns: Post-Maurya Period