Let me take you to a little thematic tour on the ancient India. Hope, you will learn about the ancient India whose legacy still influence not just India but the entire world.

Civilization & Culture
The earliest records of habitation in India are over 30,000 year old. These records have been found through cave paintings. Around 3000 – 1500 BC, several cities Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan like have flourished in the northern part of India (some parts are now in Pakistan). Evidence of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions suggest progression to sedentary life. The society was based on hierarchic structure of priests, warriors, and free peasants. In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family leading to increased subordination of women. The notorious caste systems also originated at that time and still linger Indian society.

Many empires were ruling India. One was Emperor Asoka, the Great (ca. 304–232 BC) from Mauryan dynasty. Under his empire, India for the first time was united and was under one rule. Other one who also influenced rest of Asia was Chola Empire from South India. Under his rule, Indian traditions and languages reached to the entire South East Asia.

Religion
India is home to some of the oldest religion of the world. You may already aware of Hinduism. It is the biggest religion in India with over 80 % population of Indian adhering to Hinduism. Not just India, there are large population of Hindus in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Guyana, Fiji, Bhutan etc. Buddhism also originated from India and now it’s the biggest religion in entire South East and Eastern Asia with over 80 % followers in China, Japan, Mongolia etc. Sikhism and Jainism have their origins in India too and a have sizable population in India. Some of the worlds oldest religious text like, Vedas belong to India.

Language
Vedic Sanskrit was the oldest language that find the records if we peek into Indian history. Classical Sanskrit came after Vedic Sanskrit were no longer used as vernacular. Some of the oldest epics in Hinduism like the Ramayana and Mahabharata were written in Classical Sanskrit.
Panini was an ancient Indian Sanskrit grammarian who gave the world’s first grammatical rules defining correct syntax and semantics for a language (Sanskrit) having an astounding 3959 rules! He had done work in the fields of phonetics, phonology and morphology.

Science & Technology
There is known evidence of knowledge of irrigation in the Indus Valley Civilization by around 4500 BC. Indus Valley Civilization is also known for its sophisticated drainage, sewerage, irrigation and water storage systems. They developed artificial reservoirs (at Girnar dated 3000 BC) as well as an early canal irrigation system (ca. 2600 BC) shows the knowledge and sophistication of people in ancient India.

The remains of early furnace has been found in Balakot (c. 2500-1900 BC) now in Pakistan. The world’s first dock (2400 BC) was excavated in Lothal in western Indian state of Gujrat which shows that civilization knew the importance of sea routes and was active in sea trade.

The ancient text Vedānga Jyotiṣa, which is an Indian Astrology text which tell us about the astronomical calculations, calendrical studies, establishes rules for empirical observation and aspects of the time and seasons, including lunar months, solar months, and their adjustment by a lunar leap month  in ancient times. Medical  treatise Sushruta Samhita (6th century BC) mention leprosy. At the same time,  knowledge of cataract surgery was known to the physician Sushruta (6th century BC). Traditional cataract surgery was performed with a special tool called the Jabamukhi Salaka, a curved needle used to loosen the lens and push the cataract out of the field of vision.

Minting and using metal currency in India before 5th century BC was also known. Coinage were made of silver and copper with animal and plant symbols on them.

It is also found that during the 1st millennium BC, the Vaisheshika School of Atomism was founded. It was known to ancient Indian that atoms can neither be created nor be destroyed.  The prominent name in this field was Kanada, an Indian philosopher who lived around 200 BC.