Prehistoric: Human habitation of India.
5500 BCE: Cotton cultivation begins in India.
5000 BCE: Evidence of religious practices in the Indus Valley.
5000 BCE - 1500 BCE: The Indus Valley (or Harappan) Civilization.
4000 BCE: Farming settlements are established in the Indus Valley.
4000 BCE: Indian village of Balathal inhabited.
3300 BCE: Early Harappan Civilization of India practices burial of the dead.
3000 BCE: First signs of urbanization in the Indus Valley.
3000 BCE - 2600 BCE: The rise of the great Indian cities of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.
2800 BCE: Later Harappan Civilization turns to cremation over burial.
2600 BCE: Dozens of towns and cities are established in the Indus Valley.
2000 BCE: Pepper is widely used in Indian cooking.
1700 BCE - 1500 BCE: Decline of the Harappan Culture in India.
1500 BCE - 500 BCE: The Vedic Period in India.
1500 BCE - 500 CE: The Gandhara Civilization flourishes in what is today the northern portion of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
1500 BCE: The Aryans - nomadic northerners from central Asia, begin to migrate into the Indus Valley.
1000 BCE: The Aryans expand into the Ganges valley in India.
700 BCE: India is divided into 16 Aryan states or kingdoms.
700 BCE: Development of the Charvaka school of philosophy in India.
700 BCE: Indian scholars codify and reinterpret Aryan beliefs to create the Upanishads texts forming the basis of Hinduism.
600 BCE: Charaka and Sushruta found two schools of Ayurveda.
599 BCE - 527 BCE: Traditional dating of the life of Vardhamana, according to Jain tradition.
544 BCE - 492 BCE: Bimbisara rules the Magadha kingdom in India.
530 BCE: Persia conquers the Indus Valley.
520 BCE - 325 CE: Achaemenid rule in the Gandhara region.
500 BCE: The kingdom of Magadha, ruled by Bimbisara, is the most powerful state in India.
500 BCE: The Indian epic the Ramayana is composed by the sage Valmiki.
492 BCE - 460 BCE: Ajatashatru rules the Magadha Kingdom in India.
490 BCE - 410 BCE: The life of Siddhartha Gautama according to modern scholar consensus.
404 BCE: First Buddhist Council at Rajgir, Bihar, India.
340 BCE - 298 BCE: Life of Indian Emperor Chandragupta, first ruler of the Mauryan Empire.
334 BCE: Second Buddhist Council at Magadha. The first division among Buddhists occurred at this council.
327 BCE - 325 BCE: Alexander's campaign in northern India.
326 BCE: Alexander the Great halts his eastward march and turns back from the banks of the river Beas, Punjab, India.
325 BCE - 320 BCE: Greek rule in Gandhara, ending some time after the death of Alexander the Great.
322 BCE - 298 BCE: Reign of Chandragupta, first ruler of the Mauryan Empire.
321 BCE: Dhana Nanda, king of Magadha, is killed by Chandragupta Maurya.
320 BCE - 180 BCE: Mauryan rule in the Gandhara region, beginning with Chandragupta Maurya.
320 BCE: Chandragupta Maurya seizes the throne of Magadhan and expands the kingdom over northern and central India.
305 BCE: Emperor Changragupta signs a treaty with Seleucos I, establishing borders and giving the Punjab to Chandragupta in return for 500 war elephants.
298 BCE: Chandragupta voluntarily abdicates the throne in favour of his son Bindusara. Jain sources say that Chandragupta turned into an ascetic and follower of Jainism, migrated south and starved himself to death.
298 BCE: Indian ruler Chandragupta Maurya dies.
298 BCE - 272 BCE: Chandragupta's son, Bindusara, rules and expands the Maurya Empire.
273 BCE - 236 BCE: Reign of Ashoka, third ruler of the Mauryan Empire.
268 BCE: Ashoka becomes emperor of the Maurya dynasty in India.
232 BCE: Indian ruler Ashoka dies and the Maurya empire declines.
200 BCE - 600 CE: Construction of the 30 Buddhist cave-shrines at Ajanta, many of which display features of Gupta architecture.
200 BCE: Beginning of the Greco-Bactrian conquests in India.
200 BCE - 185 BCE: Demetrios is general for his father and then becomes king, greatly extending the kingdom in India.
186 BCE: Demetrios wins a decisive battle in Gandhara, beginning the Yona (or Greek era) in India.
180 BCE - 80 BCE: Period of Indo-Greek rule in the Gandhara region.
165 BCE: The Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides invades India.
160 BCE - 135 BCE: Indo-Greek King Menander rules the Punjab.
130 BCE: Eucratids flee from Bactria to India. Rivalry between Eucratids and Euthydemids takes place in the Indo-Greek kingdoms.
80 BCE - 75 CE: The combined Scytho-Parthians rule Gandhara.
30 BCE: Pepper is directly imported by Roman ships from India and its price decreases.
1 CE - 100 CE: The Mahayana movement begins in India with its belief in bodhisattva - saintly souls who helped the living.
1 CE: First non-stop voyages from Egypt to India.
75 CE - 450 CE: Kushan rule in the Gandhara region, arguably the golden era of the Gandhara civilization in which art, architecture and the propagation of the Buddhist religion excelled.
100 CE: The large series of Mahayana Buddhist texts named in Sanskrit Prajnaparamita “Perfection of wisdom” begins to be written in Southern India.
320 CE - 550 CE: Gupta period, considered a golden age of ancient India in art and architecture.
320 CE: Gupta I founds the Gupta dynasty in northern India
380 CE - 415 CE: Reign of Chandra Gupta II in northern India.
450 CE: India is invaded by the White Huns across the Hindu Kush.
455 CE - 484 CE: Reign of the Tegin Tunjina or Khingila of the White Huns in the region known as Gandhara.
470 CE: Beginning of White Hun Raids into India.
484 CE - 515 CE: Reign of the White Hun king Tormana, son of Tunjina.
500 CE - 600 CE: In India the Tantric expands the number of deities to include helpful demons, contactable through ritual.
500 CE: Life of Ajita Kesakambali, prominent member of the Charvaka school.
515 CE - 533 CE: Reign of the king Mihirakula of the White Huns in Gandhara.
535 CE - 566 CE: Reign of Calukya ruler Pulakasin I.
550 CE: The end of the reign of Visnugupta Chandraditya, last of the Gupta rulers in northern India.
610 CE - 642 CE: Reign of Calukya ruler Pulakasin II. .
630 CE - 634 CE: Harsha fights and gets defeated by Pulakesin II.
630 CE: Hiuen Tsang comes to India.
655 CE - 681 CE: Reign of Calukya ruler Vikramaditya I.
712 CE: Muslim general Muhammed bin Quasim conquers northern India.
770 CE: The Kailasa rock-cut temple at Ellora is completed and dedicated to Shiva.
950 CE: The Mukteshvara Temple is built at Bhubaneswar.
985 CE - 1014 CE: Reign of Chola king Rajaraja I in southern and central India, whose capital was at Thanjavur.
1010 CE - 1025 CE: The Brihadishvara Temple is built at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India.
1012 CE - 1044 CE: Reign of Chola king Rajendra I who controlled most of India.
