South Asia

===Ancient era===
[[File:Indus Valley Civilization, Mature Phase (2600-1900 BCE).png|thumb|left|[[Indus Valley civilisation]] during 2600–1900 BCE, the mature phase]]

The [[Indus Valley civilization]], which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of South Asia from {{Circa|3300}} to 1300 BCE in present-day [[Pakistan]], [[Northern India]] and [[Afghanistan]], was the first major civilization in South Asia.{{sfn|Thapar|1966|p=23}} A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture developed in the [[Mature Harappan]] period, from 2600 to 1900 BCE.{{sfn|Thapar|1966|p=24}} According to anthropologist [[Gregory Possehl|Possehl]], the Indus Valley civilization provides a logical, if somewhat arbitrary, starting point for South Asian religions, but these links from the Indus religion to later-day South Asian traditions are subject to scholarly dispute.{{sfn|Possehl|2002|p=141–156}}
[[File:Mauryan_Empire_ca._265_BCE.png|thumb|right|Maurya Empire in 250 BCE]]
[[File:Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma Adoring Kali LACMA M.80.101 (2 of 7).jpg|thumb|left|The [[Trimurti]] is the [[Triple deity|trinity]] of [[Para Brahman|supreme divinity]] in [[Hinduism]], typically [[Brahma]] the creator, [[Vishnu]] the preserver, and [[Shiva]] the destroyer]]

The Vedic period, named after the Vedic religion of the [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryans]],{{refn|group=note|Michaels: "They called themselves ''arya'' ("Aryans," literally "the hospitable," from the Vedic ''arya'', "homey, the hospitable") but even in the Rgveda, ''arya'' denotes a cultural and linguistic boundary and not only a racial one."{{sfn|Michaels|2004|p=33}}}} lasted from {{Circa|1900}} to 500 BCE.{{sfn|Michaels|2004|p=32}}{{sfn|Witzel|1995|p=3-4}} The Indo-Aryans were [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]]-speaking pastoralists{{sfn|Witzel|1995}} who migrated into north-western India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization.{{sfn|Michaels|2004|p=33}}{{sfn|Flood|1996|p=30-35}} Linguistic and archaeological data show a cultural change after 1500 BCE,{{sfn|Michaels|2004|p=33}} with the linguistic and religious data clearly showing links with Indo-European languages and religion.{{sfn|Flood|1996|p=33}} By about 1200 BCE, the Vedic culture and agrarian lifestyle were established in the northwest and northern Gangetic plain of South Asia.{{sfn|Witzel|1995}}{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=41-48}}{{sfn|Stein|2010|p=48-49}} Rudimentary state-forms appeared, of which the [[Kuru Kingdom|Kuru]]-Pañcāla union was the most influential.{{sfn|Witzel|1995|p=6}}{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=51-53}} The first recorded [[State (polity)|state-level society]] in South Asia existed around 1000 BCE.{{sfn|Witzel|1995}} In this period, states Samuel, emerged the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of Vedic texts, which merged into the earliest Upanishads.{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=25}} These texts began to ask the meaning of a ritual, adding increasing levels of philosophical and metaphysical speculation,{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=25}} or [[Hinduism#Roots of Hinduism|"Hindu synthesis"]].{{sfn|Hiltebeitel|2007|p=12}}

Increasing urbanisation of South Asia between 800 and 400 BCE, and possibly the spread of urban diseases, contributed to the rise of ascetic movements and of new ideas which challenged the orthodox [[Brahmanism]].{{Sfn|Flood|1996|pp=81–82}}{{Failed verification|date=June 2020}} These ideas led to [[Sramana]] movements, of which Mahavira ({{Circa|549}}–477 BCE), proponent of [[Jainism]], and [[Buddha]] ({{Circa|563|483}}), founder of [[Buddhism]], was the most prominent icons.<ref name="World Religions">{{cite book |first=Jacob |last=Neusner |year=2009 |title=World Religions in America: An Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=34vGv_HDGG8C&pg=PA183 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |isbn=978-0-664-23320-4 |access-date=26 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418085646/https://books.google.com/books?id=34vGv_HDGG8C&pg=PA183 |archive-date=18 April 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Greek army led by [[Alexander the Great]] stayed in the [[Hindu Kush]] region of South Asia for several years and then later moved into the Indus valley region. Later, the [[Maurya Empire]] extended over much of South Asia in the 3rd century BCE. Buddhism spread beyond south Asia, through northwest into Central Asia. The [[Bamiyan Buddhas]] of Afghanistan and the [[Edicts of Ashoka|edicts of Aśoka]] suggest that the Buddhist monks spread Buddhism (Dharma) in eastern provinces of the [[Seleucid Empire]], and possibly even farther into West Asia.{{Sfn| Gombrich|2006|p=135}}{{Sfn|Trainor|2004|pp=103, 119}}{{sfn|Neelis|2011|pp=102–106}} The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BCE, to Sri Lanka, later to Southeast Asia.{{sfn|Guy|2014|pp=9–11, 14–15, 19–20}} Buddhism, by the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE, was prominent in the Himalayan region, Gandhara, Hindu Kush region and Bactria.{{sfn|Neelis|2011|pp=114–115, 144, 160–163, 170–176, 249–250}}<ref name=deborahkh>{{cite book |last=Klimburg-Salter |first=Deborah |title=The Kingdom of Bamiyan: Buddhist art and culture of the Hindu Kush |year=1989 |publisher=Istituto Universitario Orientale & Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente |isbn=978-0-87773-765-0 |oclc=25902336}} (Reprinted by Shambala)</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Barbara|last=Crossette|title=So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4iCQAAAAMAAJ |year=1996|publisher=Vintage|isbn=978-0-679-74363-7|pages=84–85}}</ref>

From about 500 BCE through about 300 CE, the Vedic-Brahmanic synthesis or "Hindu synthesis" continued.{{sfn|Hiltebeitel|2007|p=12}} Classical Hindu and Sramanic (particularly Buddhist) ideas spread within South Asia, as well as outside South Asia.<ref>{{cite book |first1=HJ |last1=Klimkeit |first2=R |last2=Meserve |first3=EE |last3=Karimov |first4=C |last4=Shackle |chapter=Religions and religious movements |date=2000 |editor-first1=CE |editor-last1=Boxworth |editor-first2=MS |editor-last2=Asimov |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9yTFnuWQKvkC |publisher=UNESCO |pages=79–80 |isbn=978-92-3-103654-5}}</ref>{{sfn|Samuel|2010|pp=193–228, 339–353, specifically pp.&nbsp;76–79 and 194–199}}{{sfn|Guy|2014|pp=10–11}} The [[Gupta Empire]] ruled over a large part of the region between the 4th and 7th centuries, a period that saw the construction of major temples, monasteries and universities such as the [[Nalanda]].{{sfn|Michell|1977|p=18, 40}}<ref name=scharfe2002p144>{{cite book|first=Hartmut|last=Scharfe|title=Handbook of Oriental Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7s19sZFRxCUC|year=2002|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-12556-8|pages=144–153|access-date=26 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126123255/https://books.google.com/books?id=7s19sZFRxCUC|archive-date=26 November 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Craig|last=Lockard|title=Societies, Networks, and Transitions: Volume I: A Global History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yJPlCpzOY_QC|year=2007|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|isbn=978-0-618-38612-3|page=188|access-date=26 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126122832/https://books.google.com/books?id=yJPlCpzOY_QC|archive-date=26 November 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> During this era, and through the 10th century, numerous cave monasteries and temples such as the [[Ajanta Caves]], [[Badami cave temples]] and [[Ellora Caves]] were built in South Asia.<ref>{{cite book|first=Walter M.|last=Spink|title=Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 5: Cave by Cave|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UPqUHXlwXdcC|year=2005|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-15644-9|pages=1–9, 15–16|access-date=26 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629134751/https://books.google.com/books?id=UPqUHXlwXdcC|archive-date=29 June 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/243 |title=Ellora Caves – UNESCO World Heritage Centre |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=26 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161209142802/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/243 |archive-date=9 December 2016 |url-status=live }}, Quote:"Ellora, with its uninterrupted sequence of monuments dating from A.D. 600 to 1000, brings the civilization of ancient India to life. Not only is the Ellora complex a unique artistic creation and a technological exploit but, with its sanctuaries devoted to Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, it illustrates the spirit of tolerance that was characteristic of ancient India."</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Lisa|last=Owen|title=Carving Devotion in the Jain Caves at Ellora|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHK2WE8xAzYC|year=2012|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-20629-8|pages=1–10|access-date=26 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205083836/https://books.google.com/books?id=vHK2WE8xAzYC|archive-date=5 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>