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Ancient India
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The final important ruler of Ancient Indian history was Harsha Vardhana (606-646AD), who ruled not from Magadha but Thanesar (in modern Haryana area) of the Vardhana dynasty. He was a Buddhist and convened many Buddhist assemblies. The second Chinese traveller to come to India, Huien Tsang, arrived during his reign.
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Ancient India had considerable trade links with the Middle East, Europe (Greece and Rome) as well as China. This trade was carried out over land partly along what came to be alluded to as the silk route and partly through maritime trade. By the time of Pliny, the Roman historian, Roman trade with India was thriving, and indeed creating a balance of payments problem for the Roman Empire. In South India, which had a thriving maritime trade, Roman coins even circulated in their original form, albeit slashed at times as a gesture disclaiming intrusions of foreign sovereignty.
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This article tries to compile and classify all the Kingdoms of Ancient India mentioned in the Sanskrit/Vedic literature. This literature includes the two Indian epics viz. the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the Puranas and the Vedas with their supplement texts. The exact dates on which these kingdoms existed, is controversial. The focus of this article is not on the dating of these kingdoms, but on the classification of these kingdoms based on their geographical location in the Indian subcontinent, as well as based on the ancient Indian tribes that ruled these kingdoms.
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Ancient Indian garments generally used no stitching, even though Indians did have needles and knew about sewing. Most clothes were ready for wear as soon as they left the loom. The Dhoti, the Scarf or Uttariya, and the Turban, have never really disappeared from any part of India. Likewise, for women, the Dhoti or the Sari as the lower garments, combined with a Stanapatta or breast-band for covering the breasts, forms a basic ensemble, and once again consists of garments that do not have to be stitched, the breast-garment being simply fastened in a knot at the back. And the Dhoti or the Sari worn covering both legs at the same time or, in the alternative, with one end of it passed between the legs and tucked at the back in the fashion that is still prevalent in large area of India. Indian men and women for these garments in the usually hot Indian climate.
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In ancient India the textile industry was ... well established right from the cleaning of cotton, spinning of yarn, weaving of cloth to the dyeing of cloth. Cotton yarn was referred to as Sutram or Tantuhu, spinning of yarn was termed Taantavaa and Tantakaran, spindles used in doing this were called Tarkuti or Tarkutam. The loom was called Tantra-Vdpaha.
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One of the most ancient of India's rationalist traditions is the "Lokayata". Maligned and discredited by the evangelicals of mystical Buddhism and Vedantic Hinduism, their world view was sharply atheistic and scientific for their time. Unlike those who believed in reincarnation or an after-life, and in the indestructibility of the human soul -- they refused to make artificial distinctions between body and mind. They saw the human mind as part and parcel of the human body -- not as some separate entity that could have an independant existence from the human body. They acknowledged nothing but the material human body and the material universe around it. They rejected sacrificial gifts and offerings for the after-life as was common amongst followers of Brahmanical Hinduism during the time of Medhatithi in A..D 900 (a commentator on the writings of Manu who acknowledges that the Lokayatas were atheists or non-believers.)
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Ancient India