Caste system in ancient india: Did you mean...?

This is a political map of India showing the important kingdoms that existed around 590 CE after the disintegration of the Gupta Empire (3rd century CE to 6th century CE). The main players appear to be the Chalukyas in the south and the...

Letters and their delivery via a state communication system was a feature of many ancient cultures. The writing medium may have differed but the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Incas all had the means to send messengers and...

The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is an eyewitness account of ancient travel to Africa and India via the Red Sea written by an unknown Greek-speaking Egyptian author in the 1st century CE. In this detailed account, the conditions of the...

The Vedic Age (c. 1500-500 BCE) marks a formative period in the history of the northern Indian subcontinent, bridging the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 1300 BCE) and the emergence of early states in the Gangetic plain. During...

Ancient Persian culture contributed many of the aspects of the modern world which people take for granted as having always existed. The designation “Persia” comes from the Greeks – primarily from the historian Herodotus – but the people of...

The Shishunaga Dynasty (also Sishunaga/Shaishunaga Dynasty) ruled the Magadha Kingdom in ancient India from c. 413 BCE to c. 345 BCE (in some sources from 421 BCE). It is said to be the third imperial dynasty of Magadha after the Brihadratha...

A c. 1540 illustration of Portuguese nobles in India. The Portuguese had many coastal colonies in India, part of the Estado da India. From the Códice Casanatense (Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome)

Since antiquity, pepper has always been the most important spice in the world. It played a central role in the medicines of ancient India and China, became a critical component of Roman food, and remained central in the cuisine of medieval...

In this interview, James Blake Wiener, Co-Founder and Communications Director at Ancient History Encyclopedia (AHE), speaks to Emeritus Professor James H. Grayson, Professor of Korean Studies at the University of Sheffield, about the historical...

An early 17th-century illustration of Kollam (Quilon) in southern India which became a colony of the Portuguese empire in 1505. Part of the Portuguese Estado da India, a fort was built at Kollam in 1515.