Anatomically modern humans are estimated to have first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations average to between 73–55 ka." The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; by 4500 BCE, settled life had spread, and gradually evolved into the Indus Valley Civilisation, one of three early cradles of civilisation in the Old World, which flourished between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE in present-day Pakistan and northwestern India. Early in the second millennium BCE, persistent drought caused the population of the Indus Valley to scatter from large urban centres to villages. Around 1800 - 1500 BCE the Indo-Aryan tribes moved into the northwestern region of India, modern day Punjab from Central Asia in several waves of migration. The Vedic period of the Vedic people in northern India (1500–500 BCE) was marked by the composition of their extensive collections of hymns (Vedas). The social structure was loosely stratified via the varna system, incorporated into the highly evolved present-day Jāti system. The pastoral and nomadic Indo-Aryans spread from the Punjab into the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Around 600 BCE a second urbanisation occurred resulting in a new interregional culture; then, smaller janapadas (realms) were consolidated into mahājanapadas (great states). This period saw the rise of new ascetic movements and religious concepts,Flood, Gavin. Olivelle, Patrick. 2003. The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden: Blackwell. pp. 273–274 including the rise of Jainism, led by Pārśvanātha and Mahavira, and Buddhism formed by Buddha. The latter was synthesized with the preexisting religious cultures of South Asia, giving rise to Hinduism.

Chandragupta Maurya overthrew the Nanda Empire and established the first great empire in ancient India, the Maurya Empire. India's Mauryan king Ashoka is widely recognised for the violent Kalinga War and his historical acceptance of Buddhism and his attempts to spread nonviolence and peace across his empire. This period marks the rapid dissemination of Śramaṇic religions.

The Maurya Empire would collapse in 185 BCE, on the assassination of the then-emperor Brihadratha by his general Pushyamitra Shunga. The Shunga Empire in the northeast of the subcontinent would fracture into various smaller polities. Whereas, in the northwest, the Greco-Bactrians would found the Indo-Greek Kingdoms, which were replaced by successive invasions from Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians and Kushan Empires. The Gupta Empire from Greater Magadha, in the 4th to 6th centuries CE, would reunify these regions as mentioned in the Iron pillar of Delhi. This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence is known as the Classical or Golden Age of India. Aspects of Indian civilisation, administration, culture, and religion spread to much of Asia, which led to the establishment of Indianised kingdoms in the region, forming Greater India.The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: From Early Times to c. 1800, Band 1 by Nicholas Tarling, p. 281

The Gupta Empire would gradually wane due to multiple invasions from the Huna people and loss of core territories. Huna invasions would be checked by regional rulers including Yashodharman supported by the Later Guptas, then again by Harsha. The large scale invasion of Huna peoples and their assimilation led to the syncretic Pratihara dynasty. The most significant event between the 7th and 11th centuries was the Tripartite Struggle centred on Kannauj resulting in Pratihara victory.

Southern India saw the rise of multiple imperial powers from the middle of the fifth century. The Chola dynasty conquered southern India in the 11th century. In the early medieval period, Indian mathematics, including Hindu numerals, influenced the development of mathematics and astronomy in the Arab world, including the creation of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.Essays on Ancient India by Raj Kumar p. 199

Islamic conquests made limited inroads into modern Afghanistan and Sindh as early as the 8th century,Al Baldiah wal nahaiyah vol: 7 p. 141 "Conquest of Makran" followed by the invasions of Mahmud Ghazni. The Delhi Sultanate, established in 1206 by Central Asian Turks, ruled much of northern India in the 14th century. It was governed by various Turkic and Afghan dynasties, including the Indo-Turkic Tughlaqs. The empire declined in the late 14th century following the invasions of Timur and saw the advent of the Malwa, Gujarat, and Bahmani sultanates, the last of which split in 1518 into the five Deccan sultanates. The wealthy Bengal Sultanate also emerged as a major power, lasting over three centuries. During this period, multiple strong Hindu kingdoms, notably the Vijayanagara Empire and Rajput states under the Kingdom of Mewar emerged and played significant roles in shaping the cultural and political landscape of India.

The early modern period began in the 16th century, when the Mughal Empire conquered most of the Indian subcontinent, signaling the proto-industrialisation, becoming the biggest global economy and manufacturing power. The Mughals suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century, largely due to the rising power of the Marathas, who took control of extensive regions of the Indian subcontinent, and numerous Afghan invasions. The East India Company, acting as a sovereign force on behalf of the British government, gradually acquired control of huge areas of India between the middle of the 18th and the middle of the 19th centuries. Policies of company rule in India led to the Indian Rebellion of 1857. India was afterwards ruled directly by the British Crown, in the British Raj. After World War I, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi. Later, the All-India Muslim League would advocate for a separate Muslim-majority nation state. The British Indian Empire was partitioned in August 1947 into the Dominion of India and Dominion of Pakistan, each gaining its independence.

Prehistoric era (before c. 3300 BCE)

Paleolithic

Hominin expansion from Africa is estimated to have reached the Indian subcontinent approximately two million years ago, and possibly as early as 2.2 million years ago. This dating is based on the known presence of Homo erectus in Indonesia by 1.8 million years ago and in East Asia by 1.36 million years ago, as well as the discovery of stone tools at Riwat in Pakistan. Although some older discoveries have been claimed, the suggested dates, based on the dating of fluvial sediments, have not been independently verified.

The oldest hominin fossil remains in the Indian subcontinent are those of Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis, from the Narmada Valley in central India, and are dated to approximately half a million years ago. Older fossil finds have been claimed, but are considered unreliable. Reviews of archaeological evidence have suggested that occupation of the Indian subcontinent by hominins was sporadic until approximately 700,000 years ago, and was geographically widespread by approximately 250,000 years ago.

According to a historical demographer of South Asia, Tim Dyson, Homo sapiens entered the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent in small groups between 60,000 and 80,000 years ago, likely through the coast. He called it "virtually certain" that humans were in the subcontinent 55,000 years ago, though he also noted that the earliest found fossils date to only 30,000 years ago.

According to Michael D. Petraglia and Bridget Allchin, "Coalescence dates for most non-European populations average to between 73–55 ka."

Historian of South Asia Michael H. Fisher notes that scholars estimate the first successful expansion of humans across the Arabian Peninsula to have occurred between 80,000 years ago and 40,000 years ago. One channel along which the human population range expanded was along the coast of the Persian Gulf and northern Indian Ocean, with groups of humans entering India between 75,000 years ago and 35,000 years ago.

Archaeological evidence has been interpreted to suggest the presence of anatomically modern humans in the Indian subcontinent 78,000–74,000 years ago, although this interpretation is disputed. According to Dyson, the occupation of South Asia by modern humans, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has turned it into a highly diverse one, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity. Related to this is strong evidence of "founder" events, where a subgroup such as a tribe derives from a tiny number of "original" individuals. The population is also distinct in having practiced higher levels of endogamy than others.

Neolithic

Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus River alluvium approximately 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE. According to Tim Dyson: "By 7,000 years ago agriculture was firmly established in Baluchistan... [and] slowly spread eastwards into the Indus valley." Michael Fisher adds: The earliest discovered instance ... of well-established, settled agricultural society is at Mehrgarh in the hills between the Bolan Pass and the Indus plain (today in Pakistan) (see Map 3.1). From as early as 7000 BCE, communities there started investing increased labor in preparing the land and selecting, planting, tending, and harvesting particular grain-producing plants. They also domesticated animals, including sheep, goats, pigs, and oxen (both humped zebu [Bos indicus] and unhumped [Bos taurus]). Castrating oxen, for instance, turned them from mainly meat sources into domesticated draft-animals as well.

Bronze Age (c. 3300 – 1800 BCE)

Indus Valley Civilisation

The Bronze Age in the Indian subcontinent began around 3300 BCE. The Indus Valley region was one of three early cradles of civilisation in the Old World; the Indus Civilisation was the most expansive, and at its peak, may have had a population as high as five million.

The civilisation was primarily centred in modern-day Pakistan, in the Indus river basin, and secondarily in the Ghaggar-Hakra River basin. The mature Indus Civilisation flourished from about 2600 to 1900 BCE, marking the beginning of urban civilisation on the Indian subcontinent. It included cities such as Harappa, Ganweriwal, and Mohenjo-daro in modern-day Pakistan, and Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, and Lothal in modern-day India.

Inhabitants of the ancient Indus River valley, the Harappans, developed new techniques in metallurgy and handicraft, and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin.Kenoyer, J. M., Miller, H. M.-L. "Metal technologies of the Indus Valley tradition in Pakistan and western India." The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World, MASCA research papers in science and archaeology. 1999, Vol 16, pp 107-151; ref : 7 p. 1/4. ISSN 1048-5325 The civilisation is noted for its cities built of brick, and its roadside drainage systems, and is thought to have had some kind of municipal organisation. The civilisation also developed an Indus script, the earliest of the ancient Indian scripts, which is presently undeciphered.Early India: A Concise History, D.N. Jha, 2004, p. 31 This is the reason why Harappan language is not directly attested, and its affiliation is uncertain.

After the collapse of Indus Valley Civilisation, the inhabitants migrated from the river valleys of Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra, towards the Himalayan foothills of Ganga-Yamuna basin.

Ochre Coloured Pottery culture