If it helps the members here, these are the few facts to be taken into consideration:
Inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent always had a market culture. It meant the subcontinent was rife with cities that had same law and order throughout, they were ruled by the market forces, and not by specific rulers. - 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE
The religious scholars began to gain authority, and Hinduism (Sanatan Dharma) became a way of life, religious authorities dictated the law and order and mediated between kingdoms (not that there were any problems of law and order, for no great numbers of weapons have ever been unearthed). - 2500 BCE
Change of course of the Indus river led to the expansion of the cities to the Gangetic plains that were full of resources giving rise to a great population - 2000-2500 BCE
Small kingdoms propped up, but expanded to other parts of the Indian subcontinent, for we see no evidence of any conflicts whatsoever, as the development of the religion was the priority (known as the Vedic Period). - 1000 BCE - 2000 BCE
First empire (by proper definition - stretched from today's Bengal in east to today's NWFP in west) came into existence in Magadh (Today's Bihar/Jharkhand) under the Nanda Dynasty (Started by Mahapadma Nanda - an emperor belonging to the lower caste), and reached the pinnacle under Dhana Nanda (It was his Army of 200,000 infantry, 80,000 cavalry, 8,000 war chariots, and 6,000 war elephants, that the soldiers of Alexander refused to war with, and went back after their fight with Porus). That was when it had begun to gain the name of Bharatvarsha - 700 BCE to 300 BCE.
That was followed by the Mauryan Empire, under the guidance of Chanakya (Chanakya was a Brahmin, and Nanda was a lower caste - if you are interested), that stretched from today's Kerala in south, to today's Assam in east to Kashmir in north and Iran and Turkmenistan in west and northwest respectively. - 300 BCE to 100 BCE.
That was followed be a rebellious Sunga dynasty (Sunga was Brahmin, and Ashok and his progenies, carrying the mixed blood of a lower caste and a higher caste, had promoted Buddhism to no end, so Sunga, as the General, beheaded Ashok's grandson in front of the entire army), that shrunk to half of the previous empire, stretching merely from edge of Burma in the east to the edge of Rajasthan in the west. According to some sources, Pushyamitra Sunga is solely responsible for the demise of Buddhism from India. - 150 BCE to 50 BCE.
Then came Gupta empire that covered today's entire India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal, except for the areas of today's Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. - 300 CE to 600 CE.
Then came the Pala empire that stretched over today's entire India (except Karnataka, Rajasthan), Bangladesh, North of Pakistan, and some parts of Tajikistan. 650 CE to 850 CE.
After the demise of Devpala, Indian subcontinent got divided into many substates, called Mahajanapads, and remained so until the advent of the Delhi Sultenat under Mamluk, Sayyid, Lodhi, and Tughlaq. In 1526, Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur came to India and started the Mughal dynasty.
I suppose you all are well aware of the rest.
So much so for the negation of one of the oldest countries in the world.
, the people of the Indus.
