e a narrative which
follows the fortunes of the best known Hindu kingdoms and also does
justice to the influence of southern India and Islam. It may be useful
to tabulate the principal periods, but the table is not continuous and
even when there is no gap in chronology, it often happens that only one
political area is illuminated amid the general darkness and that this
area is not the same for many centuries.

1. From about 500 to 200 B.C. Magadha (the modern Bihar) was the
principal state and the dominions of its great king Asoka were almost
the same as British India to-day.

2. In the immediately succeeding period many invaders entered from the
north-west. Some were Greeks and some Iranians but the most important
were the Kushans who ruled over an Empire embracing both north-western
India and regions beyond it in Afghanistan and Central Asia. This Empire
came to an end in the third century A.D. but the causes of its collapse
are obscure.

3. The native Hindu dynasty of the Guptas began to rule in 320 A.D. Its
dominions included nearly all northern India but it was destroyed by the
invasions of the Huns in the fifth and sixth centuries.

4. The Hindu Emperor Harsha (606-647 A.D.) practically reconstituted the
Gupta Empire but his dominions split up after his death. At the same
time another Empire which extended from Gujarat to Madras was founded by
Pulakesin, a prince from the south, a region which though by no means
uncivilized had hitherto played a small part in the general history of
India.

5. From 650 to 1000 A.D. India was divided among numerous independent
kingdoms. There was no central power but Bengal and the Deccan were more
prominent than previously.

6. After 1000 A.D. the conquests of Mohammedan invaders became important
and the Hindu states of northern and central India collapsed or grew
weak. But the Hindus held out in Rajputana, Orissa, and above all in
Vijayanagar.

7. In 1526 came the invasion of the Mughals, who founded an Empire which
at its zenith (1556-1707) included all India except the extreme south.
In its decadence the Marathas and Sikhs became powerful and Europeans
began to intervene.

It is generally agreed that at a period which, though not fixed, was
anterior to 1000 B.C.[109] a body of invaders known as Aryans and nearly
akin to the ancient Iranians entered India through the north-western
mountains. They found there other tribes not deficient in civilization
but unable to offe