History of India

Year Dynasty, Languages Spoken and Notes

1500BC - 600BC Janapada Dynasty
It was the Vedic period that followed the flood.
Sanskrit was the main language, the Indo-"Aryan" speech of the nobles of India, related to the language of "Iran".
No written records exist until the Ashoka edicts in 256BC.
Due to their perishable nature, also an insistence on pronouncing (and explaining) the words correctly, it is unclear as to when the Vedas were first written down. The oldest surviving manuscripts in Nepal date to c. 1040.
A copy in the British Library click here dates to 1495 - 1735.

600BC - 400BC Mahajanapadas 16 traditional Tribes.
Gautama Buddha was said to have been born at this time in Nepal, traditionally speaking "noble" Sanskrit. Buddha was said to have been opposed to its use in his preaching, however, preferring the Prakrit ("common speech") of Magadha, a language also known as Pali. Magadha was an important region in north-east India (modern day Bihar state).
Pataliputra, modern day Patna, is a city thought to have been built towards the end of Buddha's life. It became the capital city for many of India's succeeding dynasties up until the time of the Delhi Sultanate in 1200. It is situated 1,000 kilometres to the east of Delhi.

About 380BC the Persian empire reigned throughout India at the time of Queen Esther (Esther 1:1).
Also at this time the "Bhagavad‑Gita" ("God's Song") is thought to have been composed in Sanskrit as a section inside the "Maha‑bharata" ("Great Story").
"Bog" became the name for "God" amongst the northern Scythian tribes (modern day Russia) while "Bharat" or "Bharata" became the common name for "India".
350BC Nanda Empire
A short-lived empire in the Magadha region. It was followed by Alexander the Great's invasion. His empire was subsequently ruled by one of his generals, Seleucus in Syria, with Greek and Aramaic becoming common languages throughout his empire.

322BC - 180BC Maurya Empire
Starting about 256BC, Buddhist King Ashoka issued over 30 copies of Prakrit ("common speech") edicts on pillars and cave walls in the Brahmi script, except in north-west India where Kharosthi, Aramaic and Greek alphabets were used.
These are the earliest writings in India in existence. The Brahmi script is thought to be a derivative of Aramaic (Syriac), the same family as Arabic and Hebrew, though in most cases Brahmi (and its derivatives) are written from left to right. Later it evolved into today's Deva‑nagari script ("Divine writing") used to write modern day Hindi.

In north-west India (modern day Pakistan) the ancient kingdom of Gandhara used the Kharosthi script, another Aramaic-derived alphabet, and written from right to left. The Gandharan Buddhist texts are the oldest Indian manuscripts yet discovered, as well as the oldest Buddhist manuscripts, dating from the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD.

150BC - 400 Indo-Scythians
Eurasian Nomads from the north. Scythian, Greek, and Pali are the common languages.

30 - 375 Kushan Empire
traditionally said to be from Western China.
c.30AD Kujula Kadphises united the Yuezhi confederation known as the Kushanas during the 1st century, and became the first Kushan emperor.
His capital city was Purushapura, Peshawar (today part of Pakistan, just inside its border with Afghanistan). The Greek language was commonly used at first, but after 127AD the Bactrian language of Eastern Persia took over, using a Greek script. Diplomatic relations formed with China's Han dynasty, also with Persia, Rome, and the Aksum dynasty in Northern Ethiopia.
The year 148 saw the first documented translation of Buddhist scriptures from various Indian languages into Chinese, with Kushan monks travelling along the Silk Road.

240 - 590 Gupta Empire
traditionally said to be from the east (i.e. modern day Bangla Desh). Prakrit and Sanskrit are the common languages.

606 - 647 Harsha Vardhana Dynasty
683 Arab armies brought Islam to Afghanistan.
730 - 1036 Gurjara Pratihara Dynasty
traditionally said to be from Madhya Pradesh in Central India

831 - 1311 Chandela Dynasty
977 - 1186 Ghaznavid Dynasty
Turkic peoples from Ghazni in Afghanistan (about 400 kilometres west of Peshawar) speaking Persian (their lingua franca), and Turkic (the language of their military).
From 977 till 1163 Ghazni, which had been conquered and rebuilt, was said to be the "dazzling capital" of the Ghaznavid Empire. In 1021 Shah Mahmud annexed Lahore about 500 kilometres south-east of Peshawar, making it his second capital. Today Lahore, like Peshawar, is also in Pakistan, just inside the border from India.

1206 - 1526 Delhi Sultanate
Muslim Turkic peoples, initially from Ghor in Afghanistan, speaking Persian.
In 1210 when General Qutb al-Din Aibak died unexpectedly in Lahore during a sport game the local nobles appointed Aram Shah to be his successor. Other nobles, in opposition, proposed Iltutmish as firstly, Aibak had called him a son and secondly, he had a distinguished record of service. Iltutmish now marched to Delhi, about 400 kilometres south-east of Lahore, where he seized power and later defeated Aram Shah's forces. He became the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi.

1526 - 1857 Mughal Empire
Initially a Mongolian Turkic dynasty founded by Babur 1483-1530, a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother and Timur (Tamburlaine the Great) through his father. With marriage alliances the culture became Indo-Persian. The Golden Temple was built in 1589 in Amritsar, about 450 kilometres north-west of Delhi and about 50 kilometres east of Lahore, just inside the Indian border. It became the pre-eminent site of Sikhism.

It was followed by the Taj Mahal, built in 1643 in Agra, about 200 kilometres south of Delhi as a tomb for the shah's wife, and then the shah himself.
In 1626 the Red Fort at Delhi, a newly built residence for the Mughal Emperor, made the first documented reference to "Urdu" Bazar, the marketplace language of the "Horde" (the "Camp").
Today the language is called Hindustani, or Hindi-Urdu, the Hindi language combined with Persian Arabic and Chagatai (Mongolian) Turkic as spoken in Western Delhi.

1674 - 1818 Maratha Empire ruled through Central India speaking the Marathi language.
In 1719, Marathas marched to Delhi after defeating Sayyid Hussain Ali, the Mughal governor of the Deccan Plateau, and subsequently deposed the Mughal emperor. The power of the Mughal Emperors from this time was greatly diminished. In 1739 Delhi was sacked and looted by Nader Shah from Persia with 20,000-30,000 massacred.
Subsequently the Maratha empire invaded Bengal six times from 1741-1748. In a peace agreement from 1751-1758, the Nawab of Bengal became a tributary to the Marathas, then came under the British East India company.

1644 - 1947 British Empire
Stalin is said to have observed that it was ridiculous . . . that a few hundred Englishmen should dominate India. Actually, the “few hundred” numbered just over a thousand, of whom one-fifth were at any time either sick or on leave. This, over a population of about 300 million in what is now India, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. Although certainly not as cruel as the Belgians in the Congo, the servants of the Raj and their compatriots (families, businessmen, missionaries, etc.)— about 100,000 in 1900 —were viewed as “lofty and contemptuous.” And they had their moments of cruelty as well.

1612 Surat in western state of Gujarat saw a brief English naval victory by Thomas Best over Portugal in November 1612. The East India Company establish a trading factory there in 1615, having imperial patronage via letters issued in 1617 between Indian Mughal Jahangir and King James.
1644 Fort St George built at Madras (Chennai) in south.
1665 Humphrey Cooke becomes first British Governor of Bombay (Mumbai) in the west after Portuguese King grants the port to King Charles II as part of wedding dowry of daughter, Catherine of Braganza.
1690 Calcutta in the east in Bengal founded from three small villages, with Fort William built in 1712.
1757 Robert Clive (1725-1774) also known as Clive of India, was a British officer and privateer who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal. In 1757, the Nawab of Bengal and a French contingent were defeated by him in battle after East India company officials killed in "Black Hole of Calcutta".
1803 Delhi and the Deccan Plateau were ceded to the British after the Peshwa (Prime Minister) of the Maratha Empire Baji Rao II fled to them for protection in 1803, following the defeat of his forces by rival chiefs. In 1818 Maharashtra, capital of the Marathi Empire, surrendered to the British after Baji Rao formed a coalition with the nobles to attack the British in November 1817, following a revenue-sharing and territory dispute. Baji Rao was captured (and subsequently pensioned).
1832 Kachari Kingdom annexed (part of Assam state in north-east India) and then Assam state in 1838.
1839 Karachi (today part of Pakistan), at the time a small fishing village, taken by the British, becoming capital of the state of Sindh when it surrendered to Charles Napier in 1843 after Muslim insurrections.
1849 Sikh Empire in Punjab region defeated after two wars 1845-46 and 1848-49. The Sikh army surrender at Rawalpindi, with Afghan allies chased out of India.
1858 Mughal Shah rebellion of 1857 was followed by British Raj (Rule) over all India. Railways built, also Telegraph, Roads, Irrigation.
1905 Border built around west Bengal, protecting defacto capital Calcutta (mostly Hindu) from Muslim uprisings in the far east while its infrastructure moved to actual capital in New Delhi. Provided "some peace", with eastern province based in Dacca (Dakha) for six years. However, with major complaints from Bengalis "cut off" from their families, and with New Delhi made the official capital, East and West Bengal reunited in 1911.
1933 Pakstan developed as a Muslim League independence concept in far northwest (P-unjab, A-fghan, K-ashmir, S-indh, Balochis-tan), opposed by both the British (after what had happened in Bengal) and the independence movement in India. In 1947, with zero agreement between the Indian Congress and the Muslim League outside of war, British reluctantly enable the Partition calling it Pakistan and East Bengal (East Pakistan in 1955, Bangladesh in 1971).

1947 - Today Republic of India becomes an independent nation within the British Commonwealth of Nations

Its Seven main Prime Ministers have been:

Jawaharlal Nehru 1947-1964
Indira Gandhi (his daughter) 1966-1977 and 1980-1984
Rajiv Gandhi (her son) 1984-1989
PV Narasimha Rao 1991-1996
Atal Bihari Vajpayee 1998-2004
Manmohan Singh 2004-2014
Narendra Modi since 2014

Sanskrit

Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 1:40 PM
Subject: English in India and Sanskrit :-)

Hi all

https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/List of countries by English-speaking population

Now, going through that link above, checking into English, yes, it's spoken by, perhaps, up to 10% of the people in India, mainly in the media and in the government, well they were ruled by England for a few hundred years, makes sense

But the other 90% of India have many languages and scripts, makes it tricky, Hindi, the "official" language is of course the most popular at around 40%, with all the other 1600 languages or so generally based, yes, mainly around the Sanskrit language. As a spoken language, "Vedic (chanted) Sanskrit" apparently lasted until about 400 BC, when it morphed into a written form "Classical Sanskrit".

If Josephus's comments are correct, probably are, that means Sanskrit was spoken by Joktan and his big family listed after the flood in Genesis 10, because they were the ones who moved into Ophir, by the Ganges, around 2000 BC, and also into the other parts of northern India, Havilah (where there was gold — and the gold was good — meaning, of course, you could build things with it).

Then around 400BC, it was Esther's husband Ahasuerus, King of the Medes (Aryans) and Persians (Elamites), who ruled over India. Esther 1:1. And so classical Sanskrit, in its written form, would have emerged from the script used by the conquering Medes (Aryans) — the "holy" people from the north, as they are now called.

Now going back to Joktan, see Genesis 10:25-30, he was the son of Eber (the Hebrew), along with his brother Peleg whose descendant was Abraham.
Thus, yes, after the tower of Babel, before which it says that all the people were together and they all spoke one language, this breakup by Josephus ties

1. the Sanskrit languages spoken by the people in India more closely with
2. the people of Israel (i.e. Jews speaking Hebrew),
3. Ishmael (i.e. Arabs speaking Arabic),
4. Aram (Syrians speaking Aramaic),
5. Assyrian (Iraqis speaking Assyrian), and
6. Elamites (Iranians speaking Persian)

as we go back to the languages spoken, and the script used by their fathers. There have been a lot of changes, of course, but unlike we Westerners, these families do, most of the time, prefer to stay in the one area.

So, going back through the dad, these are said to be the descendants of Shem.
And yes, staying put, he's generally seen as the more "spiritual" one, see Genesis 9:26-27.

So it's a bit tricky too, when people in those countries become anti-Semites, it means, not only spiritually, but even naturally, that they are at war with themselves. Ahh the Lord knows.
Blessings all Steve
Go Top

Year	Dynasty, Languages Spoken and Notes
1500BC - 600BC	Janapada Dynasty It was the Vedic period that followed the flood. Sanskrit was the main language, the Indo-"Aryan" speech of the nobles of India, related to the language of "Iran". No written records exist until the Ashoka edicts in 256BC. Due to their perishable nature, also an insistence on pronouncing (and explaining) the words correctly, it is unclear as to when the Vedas were first written down. The oldest surviving manuscripts in Nepal date to c. 1040. A copy in the British Library click here dates to 1495 - 1735.
600BC - 400BC	Mahajanapadas 16 traditional Tribes. Gautama Buddha was said to have been born at this time in Nepal, traditionally speaking "noble" Sanskrit. Buddha was said to have been opposed to its use in his preaching, however, preferring the Prakrit ("common speech") of Magadha, a language also known as Pali. Magadha was an important region in north-east India (modern day Bihar state). Pataliputra, modern day Patna, is a city thought to have been built towards the end of Buddha's life. It became the capital city for many of India's succeeding dynasties up until the time of the Delhi Sultanate in 1200. It is situated 1,000 kilometres to the east of Delhi.
About 380BC the Persian empire reigned throughout India at the time of Queen Esther (Esther 1:1). Also at this time the "Bhagavad‑Gita" ("God's Song") is thought to have been composed in Sanskrit as a section inside the "Maha‑bharata" ("Great Story"). "Bog" became the name for "God" amongst the northern Scythian tribes (modern day Russia) while "Bharat" or "Bharata" became the common name for "India".
350BC	Nanda Empire A short-lived empire in the Magadha region. It was followed by Alexander the Great's invasion. His empire was subsequently ruled by one of his generals, Seleucus in Syria, with Greek and Aramaic becoming common languages throughout his empire.
322BC - 180BC	Maurya Empire Starting about 256BC, Buddhist King Ashoka issued over 30 copies of Prakrit ("common speech") edicts on pillars and cave walls in the Brahmi script, except in north-west India where Kharosthi, Aramaic and Greek alphabets were used. These are the earliest writings in India in existence. The Brahmi script is thought to be a derivative of Aramaic (Syriac), the same family as Arabic and Hebrew, though in most cases Brahmi (and its derivatives) are written from left to right. Later it evolved into today's Deva‑nagari script ("Divine writing") used to write modern day Hindi. In north-west India (modern day Pakistan) the ancient kingdom of Gandhara used the Kharosthi script, another Aramaic-derived alphabet, and written from right to left. The Gandharan Buddhist texts are the oldest Indian manuscripts yet discovered, as well as the oldest Buddhist manuscripts, dating from the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD.
150BC - 400	Indo-Scythians Eurasian Nomads from the north. Scythian, Greek, and Pali are the common languages.
30 - 375	Kushan Empire traditionally said to be from Western China. c.30AD Kujula Kadphises united the Yuezhi confederation known as the Kushanas during the 1st century, and became the first Kushan emperor. His capital city was Purushapura, Peshawar (today part of Pakistan, just inside its border with Afghanistan). The Greek language was commonly used at first, but after 127AD the Bactrian language of Eastern Persia took over, using a Greek script. Diplomatic relations formed with China's Han dynasty, also with Persia, Rome, and the Aksum dynasty in Northern Ethiopia. The year 148 saw the first documented translation of Buddhist scriptures from various Indian languages into Chinese, with Kushan monks travelling along the Silk Road.
240 - 590	Gupta Empire traditionally said to be from the east (i.e. modern day Bangla Desh). Prakrit and Sanskrit are the common languages.
606 - 647	Harsha Vardhana Dynasty
683	Arab armies brought Islam to Afghanistan.
730 - 1036	Gurjara Pratihara Dynasty traditionally said to be from Madhya Pradesh in Central India
831 - 1311	Chandela Dynasty
977 - 1186	Ghaznavid Dynasty Turkic peoples from Ghazni in Afghanistan (about 400 kilometres west of Peshawar) speaking Persian (their lingua franca), and Turkic (the language of their military). From 977 till 1163 Ghazni, which had been conquered and rebuilt, was said to be the "dazzling capital" of the Ghaznavid Empire. In 1021 Shah Mahmud annexed Lahore about 500 kilometres south-east of Peshawar, making it his second capital. Today Lahore, like Peshawar, is also in Pakistan, just inside the border from India.
1206 - 1526	Delhi Sultanate Muslim Turkic peoples, initially from Ghor in Afghanistan, speaking Persian. In 1210 when General Qutb al-Din Aibak died unexpectedly in Lahore during a sport game the local nobles appointed Aram Shah to be his successor. Other nobles, in opposition, proposed Iltutmish as firstly, Aibak had called him a son and secondly, he had a distinguished record of service. Iltutmish now marched to Delhi, about 400 kilometres south-east of Lahore, where he seized power and later defeated Aram Shah's forces. He became the first Muslim sovereign to rule from Delhi.
1526 - 1857	Mughal Empire Initially a Mongolian Turkic dynasty founded by Babur 1483-1530, a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother and Timur (Tamburlaine the Great) through his father. With marriage alliances the culture became Indo-Persian. The Golden Temple was built in 1589 in Amritsar, about 450 kilometres north-west of Delhi and about 50 kilometres east of Lahore, just inside the Indian border. It became the pre-eminent site of Sikhism. It was followed by the Taj Mahal, built in 1643 in Agra, about 200 kilometres south of Delhi as a tomb for the shah's wife, and then the shah himself. In 1626 the Red Fort at Delhi, a newly built residence for the Mughal Emperor, made the first documented reference to "Urdu" Bazar, the marketplace language of the "Horde" (the "Camp"). Today the language is called Hindustani, or Hindi-Urdu, the Hindi language combined with Persian Arabic and Chagatai (Mongolian) Turkic as spoken in Western Delhi.
1674 - 1818	Maratha Empire ruled through Central India speaking the Marathi language. In 1719, Marathas marched to Delhi after defeating Sayyid Hussain Ali, the Mughal governor of the Deccan Plateau, and subsequently deposed the Mughal emperor. The power of the Mughal Emperors from this time was greatly diminished. In 1739 Delhi was sacked and looted by Nader Shah from Persia with 20,000-30,000 massacred. Subsequently the Maratha empire invaded Bengal six times from 1741-1748. In a peace agreement from 1751-1758, the Nawab of Bengal became a tributary to the Marathas, then came under the British East India company.
1644 - 1947	British Empire Stalin is said to have observed that it was ridiculous . . . that a few hundred Englishmen should dominate India. Actually, the “few hundred” numbered just over a thousand, of whom one-fifth were at any time either sick or on leave. This, over a population of about 300 million in what is now India, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. Although certainly not as cruel as the Belgians in the Congo, the servants of the Raj and their compatriots (families, businessmen, missionaries, etc.)— about 100,000 in 1900 —were viewed as “lofty and contemptuous.” And they had their moments of cruelty as well. 1612 Surat in western state of Gujarat saw a brief English naval victory by Thomas Best over Portugal in November 1612. The East India Company establish a trading factory there in 1615, having imperial patronage via letters issued in 1617 between Indian Mughal Jahangir and King James. 1644 Fort St George built at Madras (Chennai) in south. 1665 Humphrey Cooke becomes first British Governor of Bombay (Mumbai) in the west after Portuguese King grants the port to King Charles II as part of wedding dowry of daughter, Catherine of Braganza. 1690 Calcutta in the east in Bengal founded from three small villages, with Fort William built in 1712. 1757 Robert Clive (1725-1774) also known as Clive of India, was a British officer and privateer who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal. In 1757, the Nawab of Bengal and a French contingent were defeated by him in battle after East India company officials killed in "Black Hole of Calcutta". 1803 Delhi and the Deccan Plateau were ceded to the British after the Peshwa (Prime Minister) of the Maratha Empire Baji Rao II fled to them for protection in 1803, following the defeat of his forces by rival chiefs. In 1818 Maharashtra, capital of the Marathi Empire, surrendered to the British after Baji Rao formed a coalition with the nobles to attack the British in November 1817, following a revenue-sharing and territory dispute. Baji Rao was captured (and subsequently pensioned). 1832 Kachari Kingdom annexed (part of Assam state in north-east India) and then Assam state in 1838. 1839 Karachi (today part of Pakistan), at the time a small fishing village, taken by the British, becoming capital of the state of Sindh when it surrendered to Charles Napier in 1843 after Muslim insurrections. 1849 Sikh Empire in Punjab region defeated after two wars 1845-46 and 1848-49. The Sikh army surrender at Rawalpindi, with Afghan allies chased out of India. 1858 Mughal Shah rebellion of 1857 was followed by British Raj (Rule) over all India. Railways built, also Telegraph, Roads, Irrigation. 1905 Border built around west Bengal, protecting defacto capital Calcutta (mostly Hindu) from Muslim uprisings in the far east while its infrastructure moved to actual capital in New Delhi. Provided "some peace", with eastern province based in Dacca (Dakha) for six years. However, with major complaints from Bengalis "cut off" from their families, and with New Delhi made the official capital, East and West Bengal reunited in 1911. 1933 Pakstan developed as a Muslim League independence concept in far northwest (P-unjab, A-fghan, K-ashmir, S-indh, Balochis-tan), opposed by both the British (after what had happened in Bengal) and the independence movement in India. In 1947, with zero agreement between the Indian Congress and the Muslim League outside of war, British reluctantly enable the Partition calling it Pakistan and East Bengal (East Pakistan in 1955, Bangladesh in 1971).
1947 - Today	Republic of India becomes an independent nation within the British Commonwealth of Nations Its Seven main Prime Ministers have been: Jawaharlal Nehru 1947-1964 Indira Gandhi (his daughter) 1966-1977 and 1980-1984 Rajiv Gandhi (her son) 1984-1989 PV Narasimha Rao 1991-1996 Atal Bihari Vajpayee 1998-2004 Manmohan Singh 2004-2014 Narendra Modi since 2014

** End of article