How did India become the country that produced one of the earliest advanced civilisations with the Indus civilisation, experienced a magnificent epoch under the Mughal Empire, was exploited under British colonial rule and today helps shape world politics as a voice of the developing countries? This audiobook shows why India is one of the most fascinating countries of the present day.
Bert Alexander Petzold takes listeners on a journey through the history of India. Anyone wishing to understand this country's political, religious, cultural and economic development will find here access to a world of diversity and historical depth.
As early as around 2500 BC, the Indus civilisation emerged as one of humanity's earliest advanced civilisations. Carefully planned cities, trade, craftsmanship and urban order testify to an astonishing power of development. When Indo-Aryan tribes migrated from Central Asia around 1500 BC, the Vedic Age began, giving rise to religious traditions, social structures and the caste system.
In the sixth century BC, Buddhism and Jainism emerged as significant reform movements whose influence extended far beyond India. Under Emperor Ashoka, the Maurya Empire united large parts of the subcontinent. Later, under the Gupta dynasty, India experienced a golden age in which art, science, mathematics and trade reached a remarkable height.
From the twelfth century onwards, Islam spread across the subcontinent, and with the Delhi Sultanate a new phase of state formation began. In the sixteenth century, the powerful Mughal Empire arose, reaching a cultural high point of world-historical significance under rulers such as Akbar and Shah Jahan. Buildings such as the "Taj Mahal" became symbols of an era in which power, art and architecture merged.
