20 interesting facts about Ancient India

Even in ancient times, a mighty culture arose in Ancient India. The scattered states that existed here then prospered, sometimes cooperated, sometimes competed and fought… However, after their unification into a single country, this culture has been preserved and has come down to our days. And now the history of Ancient India is being studied by numerous scientists, and even today they regularly learn new and new facts covered by the darkness of centuries.

Facts about Ancient India

1. People here have learned to receive and process bronze about 5000 years ago.
2. The concept of private property appeared in ancient India thousands of years ago, in the 2nd-3rd millennium BC.
3. The ancient Indian civilization did not leave behind any monumental monuments. Everything that has survived – sculptures, images – is small in size.
4. Apparently, for the first time people began to purposefully grow rice in Ancient India, and this happened about 9000 years ago (interesting facts about rice).
5. The oldest of the Indian cities is Varanasi, located in the Ganges Delta, the largest delta in the world. It is not known for certain when it was founded, but a number of evidence indicates that Varanasi is already about 5000 years old. This makes it one of the most ancient cities not only in India, but throughout the world. However, other sources claim that the age of this city is somewhat more modest – about 3000 years.
6. The ancestors of modern people lived on the lands of Ancient India about 2.6 million years ago. This is evidenced by stone axes that are exactly that many years old, and several animal bones with marks from these same axes.
7. For several centuries, Persian kings raided the territories of the kingdoms of ancient India, plundering them and imposing tribute.
8. Such a popular game as chess, or rather, its prototype, appeared precisely in ancient Indian culture.
9. The doctrine of Ayurveda appeared in Ancient India about 2500 years ago. It is also quite popular these days.
10. Ancient Indian scholars developed astronomy, geometry and algebra. They also knew the meaning of «pi».
11. Already in those distant times, local residents learned how to get sugar from cane. In modern India, by the way, sugarcane is still harvested by hand (interesting facts about India).
12. Archaeological finds indicate that people in ancient India knew how to make glass.
13. In ancient Indian cities there were sewers for a centralized drain of sewage.
14. Almost all the sculptures that have survived from that time to the present day are of a religious nature.
15. Hookahs were invented in ancient India.
16. The most diverse religion in the world was born in ancient Indian culture. There are as many deities as in Hinduism, there is no other nation in the pantheon.
17. The age of the oldest literary works of the times of Ancient India is almost 4000 years old.
18. Even then, the Hindus knew how to grow cotton and make yarn from it (interesting facts about cotton).
19. Elephants were first tamed in ancient India.
20. The ancient Indian language Sanskrit laid the foundation for many other world languages.