Chapter 1.

Ancient India and its neighbors

At first glance, it may seem that the history of India has been irretrievably lost: something deliberately destroyed by previous rulers' generations, something rewritten by col- onisers, and almost nothing has survived in its original form. However, history can be reconstructed, if not in its details, then in its core. India has always been surround- ed by a whole world that could not help but interact with such a rich and developed region. In addition, the fact that India was very rich and developed is told to us by literally everything, and first of all by the richest architecture and archaeological research..............