The delicate seals of the Indus civilization are in a script as yet undeciphered

Yarns of spun cotton survive at Mohenjo-daro, one of the two great cities of the Indus civilization

Harappa becomes one of the main cities of the Indus civilization

The water buffalo, domesticated somewhere in southeast Asia, features on the seals of the Indus civilization

The elephant is tamed in the Indus civilization

Indo-European tribes, known collectively as Aryans, enter India from the northwest

The Aryans bring into India the roots of Hinduism, with the Brahmans as a priestly caste

Sacrificial hymns of the Aryans, gathered in the Rigveda, become the earliest Sanskrit literature

Hindu hermits live in groups described as ashramas

The Sinhalese, after moving south through India, cross into Sri Lanka

The Indian physician Susruta pioneers plastic surgery of the nose

Indian medical theory maintains that the body consists of three humours - spirit, phlegm and bile

The Upanishads, written over a long period from oral tradition, are the mystical texts of early Hinduism

Vardhamana, an Indian prince, leaves home to live as a beggar - at the start of the Jain religion

Siddartha Gautama, a prince in Nepal, leaves home to become a wandering ascetic

Gautama Buddha preaches his first sermon, at Sarnath, setting out the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path

Gautama, after a night of meditation under a pipal tree at Buddh Gaya, is 'enlightened' and becomes the Buddha

Buddha introduces a vigorous tradition of monasticism, in the order of Buddhist monks known as Sangha

The kingdom of Magadha, with its capital at Rajgir (near modern Patna), emerges as the dominant power in north India

The Mahabharata, India's great national epic, begins to take shape

Alexander takes a major new step, leaving Persian territory and moving through the mountain passes into India

Chandragupta Maurya seizes the throne of Magadha, in India, and establishes the Mauryan dynasty

Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma emerge as India's trio of main gods, with the Vedic religion of the Aryans evolving into Hinduism

The Indian epic of romance and adventure, the Ramayana, is probably the work of a single author at about this time

Asoka, a devotee of Buddhism, wins the Mauryan throne and establishes India's first empire