Evidence of anatomically modern humans in the Indian subcontinent is recorded as long as 75,000 years ago, or

with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago.[7] Considered a cradle of civilisation,
[8]
the Indus Valley Civilisation, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent
from 3300 to 1300 BCE, was the first major civilisation in South Asia.[9] A sophisticated and technologically
advanced urban culture developed in the Mature Harappan period, from 2600 to 1900 BCE.[10] This civilisation
collapsed at the start of the second millennium BCE and was later followed by the Iron Age Vedic Civilisation,
which extended over much of the Indo-Gangetic plain and which witnessed the rise of major polities known as
the Mahajanapadas. In one of these kingdoms, Magadha, Gautama Buddha and Mahavira propagated
their Shramanic philosophies during the fifth and sixth century BCE