The term
South AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
refers to the contemporary political entities of the
Indian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
and associated island. These are the states of
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
,
BangladeshBangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
,
NepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
,
BhutanBhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
and the island nations of
Sri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and the
MaldivesThe Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
.
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The term
South AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
refers to the contemporary political entities of the
Indian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
and associated island. These are the states of
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
,
BangladeshBangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
,
NepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
,
BhutanBhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
and the island nations of
Sri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and the
MaldivesThe Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
.
The following is a list of articles on the history of the various regions of South Asia. See
History of IndiaThe history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...
for a general history of the entire subcontinent.
- Prehistory of South Asia
- History of India
The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...
(See History of the Republic of IndiaThe history of the Republic of India began on 26 January 1950. The country became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth 15 August 1947. George VI was King until the Republic was proclaimed in 1950. Concurrently the Muslim-majority northwest and east of British India was separated...
for post-1947 history)
- History of Assam
The history of Assam is the history of a confluence of people from the east, west and the north; the confluence of the Indo-Aryan, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman cultures...
- History of Bengal
The history of Bengal includes modern day Bangladesh and West Bengal, dates back four millennia. To some extent, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers separated it from the mainland of India, though at times, Bengal has played an important role in the history of India.- Etymology :The exact origin...
- History of Bihar
The history of Bihar is one of the most varied in India. Ancient Bihar, known as Magadha, was the center of power, learning, and culture in India for 1000 years. India's first empire, the Maurya empire as well as one of the world's greatest pacifist religion, Buddhism arose from the region that now...
- History of Uttar Pradesh
The history of Uttar Pradesh, an Indian State, can be divided into five periods:# The prehistoric & Early Vedic Period ,# The Buddhist-Hindu period ,# The Muslim period ,...
- History of Delhi
The Indian capital city of Delhi has a long history, including a history as the capital of several empires. The earliest architectural relics date back to the Maurya Period ; since then, the site has seen continuous settlement. In 1966, an inscription of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka was discovered...
- History of Goa
Goa is a small state on the western coast of India. Though the smallest Indian state, Goa has played an influential role in Indian history. Goa was one of the major trade centers in India, thus it had always been attracting the influential dynasties, seafarers, merchants, traders, monks and...
- History of Gujarat
The history of Gujarat, began with settlements of the Indus Valley Civilisation that have been found in the region. Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch, served as ports and trading centers in the Nanda, Maurya, Satavahana and Gupta empires as well as Western Kshatrapas period...
- History of Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh was established in 1948 as a Chief Commissioner's Province within the Union of India.The province comprised the hill districts around Shimla and southern hill areas of the former Punjab region. Himachal became a part C state on 26 January 1950 with the implementation of the...
- History of Maharashtra
The antiquity of this region can be traced to approximately the 3rd century BC. Marathi, which evolved from Maharastri-Prakrit, has been the lingua franca of the people of this area from the 10th century onwards. The oldest stone inscriptions in Marathi language can be seen at Sravanbelagola in...
- History of Orissa
The history of Orissa spans over 3,500 years and it is atypical from the history of the northern plains in many ways. Many of the common generalizations that are made about Indian history doesn't apply to the Oriya region...
- History of the Punjab
The first known use of the word Punjab is in the book Tarikh-e-Sher Shah Suri , which mentions the construction of a fort by "Sher Khan of Punjab". The first mentioning of the Sanskrit equivalent of 'Punjab', however, occurs in the great epic, the Mahabharata...
- History of Sikkim
The history of Sikkim begins with ancient Hindu and Tibetan contacts, followed by the establishment of a Tibetan kingdom in the 17th century. Sikkim emerged as a polity in its own right against a backdrop of incursions from Tibet and Bhutan, during which the kingdom enjoyed varying degrees of...
- History of South India
The history of South India covers a span of over four thousand years during which the region saw the rise and fall of a number of dynasties and empires. The period of known history of the region begins with the Iron age period during which Chera, Chola, Pandya ruled the South Indian country until...
- History of Karnataka
The recorded history of Karnataka goes back more than two millennia. Several great empires and dynasties have ruled over Karnataka and have contributed greatly to the history, culture and development of Karnataka....
- History of Andhra Pradesh
The recorded history of Andhra Pradesh can be traced to the Andhra Kingdom of the Iron Age Maha-Janapada period, succeeded by the Satavahana Empire. Most of these accounts of Andhra people seem to be linked the arrival of a sage called Vishwamitra to the banks of Krishna-Godavari...
- History of Puducherry
The History of Pondicherry can be traced back to 1st century.-Early period:The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, of the 1st century, mentions a marketplace named Poduke or Poduca that G.W.B. Huntingford identified as possibly being Arikamedu , about from the modern Pondicherry...
- History of Tamil Nadu
The region of Tamil Nadu in modern India has been under continuous human habitation since prehistoric times, and the history of Tamil Nadu and the civilization of the Tamil people are among the oldest in the world. Throughout its history, spanning the early Paleolithic age to modern times, this...
- History of Kerala
The history of Kerala goes back more than several millennia. Stone age carving in Edakkal Caves had pictorial writings believed to be dating to at least 5000 BC, from the Neolithic man, indicating the presence of a prehistoric civilization or settlement in this region. From as early as 3000 BC,...
- History of Tripura
The State of Tripura has a long history. The Kingdom of Tripura in its peak included the whole eastern region of Bengal from the Brahmaputra river in the north and west, the Bay of Bengal in the south and Burma to the east during the 14th and 15th centuries AD....
- History of Jammu and Kashmir
This article covers the history of Kashmir from earliest recorded times to the present day.-Etymology:According to folk etymology, the name "Kashmir" means "desiccated land"...
- History of Ladakh
Information about Ladakh before the birth of the kingdom during the 10th century is scarce. Ladakh can hardly be considered a separate political entity before the establishment of the kingdom about 950 CE, after the collapse of the early Tibetan Empire and the border regions became independent...
- History of Pakistan
The 1st known inhabitants of the modern-day Pakistan region are believed to have been the Soanian , who settled in the Soan Valley and Riwat almost 2 million years ago. Over the next several thousand years, the region would develop into various civilizations like Mehrgarh and the Indus Valley...
- History of Pakistani Punjab
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
- History of Lahore
The recorded history of Lahore , a city-district of modern-day Pakistan, covers thousands of years. Originally the capital and largest city of the Punjab region, it has since its creation changed hands from Hindu, Greek, Afghan, Muslim, Sikh and British rule to becoming the cultural capital and the...
- History of Sindh
Sindh is one of the provinces of Pakistan. Sindh was home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization.-Paleolithic and Mesolithic era:...
- History of Karachi
The area of Karachi , in Sindh, Pakistan was known to the ancient Greeks by many names: Krokola, where Alexander the Great camped in Sindh to prepare a fleet for Babylonia after his campaign in the Indus valley; 'Morontobara' port , from where Alexander's admiral Nearchus sailed for back home; and...
- History of Balochistan
Balochistan is known to be the largest province and one of the four provinces of today's Pakistan. The British Empire on October 1, as paramount power in the region reached a security agreement with the princely state of Kalat which was ruled by the Khan of Kalat 1887 but the kingdom retained its...
- History of North-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a province of Pakistan. It lies in a region where the Indian Subcontinent meets the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan.The province was named North-West Frontier Province during the colonial period when it formed the North-West frontier of British India; recently the government of...
- History of AJK
Azad Jammu and Kashmir or Azad Kashmir for short, is the southernmost political entity within the Pakistani-administered part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir...
- History of FANA
- History of FATA
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...
- History of Bangladesh
The history of Bangladesh as a nation state began in 1971, when it seceded from Pakistan. Prior to the creation of Pakistan in 1947, modern-day Bangladesh was part of ancient, classical, medieval and colonial India....
- History of Dhaka
The history of Dhaka begins with the existence of urbanised settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dating from the 7th century CE. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa before passing to the control of the Sena dynasty in the 9th century CE.The name "Dhaka" derived from a...
- History of Chittagong
- History of Bhutan
Bhutan's early history is steeped in mythology and remains obscure. It may have been inhabited as early as 2000 BC, but not much was known until the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism in the 9th century, when turmoil in Tibet forced many monks to flee to Bhutan. In the 12th century, the Drukpa...
- History of the Maldives
The Maldives is a nation consisting of 26 natural atolls, comprising 1192 islands-Historical setting:Since very ancient times, the Maldives were ruled by kings and occasionally queens ....
- History of Nepal
The history of Nepal is characterized by its isolated position in the Himalayas and its two neighbors, India and China.Due to the arrival of disparate settler groups from outside through the ages, it is now a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multilingual country...
- History of Sri Lanka
The History of Sri Lanka begins around 30,000 years ago when the island was first inhabited. Chronicles, including the Mahawansa, the Dipavamsa, the Culavamsa and the Rajaveliya, record events from the beginnings of the Sinhalese monarchy in the 6th century BC; through the arrival of European...
- History of British Indian Ocean Territory
- Former Provinces
- History of East Bengal
East Bengal was the name used during two periods in the 20th century for a territory that roughly corresponded to the modern state of Bangladesh. Both instances involved a violent partition of Bengal....
(Pakistani province during 1947-1955; geographically same as present day Bangladesh)
- History of East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
(Pakistani province during 1955-1971; geographically same as present day Bangladesh)
- History of West Pakistan
West Pakistan , common name West-Pakistan , in the period between its establishment on 22 November 1955 to disintegration on December 16, 1971. This period, during which, Pakistan was divided, ended when East-Pakistan was disintegrated and succeeded to become which is now what is known as Bangladesh...
(Pakistani province during 1955-1971; geographically same as present day Pakistan)
See also
- Greater India
Greater India is a term that refers to the historical spread of the culture of India beyond the Indian subcontinent...
- History of Asia
The history of Asia can be seen as the collective history of several distinct peripheral coastal regions such as, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East linked by the interior mass of the Eurasian steppe....
- History of Central Asia
The history of Central Asia has been determined primarily by the area's climate and geography. The aridity of the region makes agriculture difficult, and its distance from the sea cut it off from much trade. Thus, few major cities developed in the region...
- History of East Asia
-Prehistory:In East Asia, the Neolithic period may have begun as early as 7500 BC. The earliest evidence suggests the existence of the Pengtoushan culture in northern Hunan province from about 7500 BC to 6100 BC and of the Peiligang culture in Henan province around from about 7000 BC to 5000...
- History of Southeast Asia
The history of Southeast Asia has been characterized as interaction between regional players and foreign powers. Each country is intertwined with all the others. For instance, the Malay empires of Srivijaya and Malacca covered modern day Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore while the Burmese, Thai,...
- History of the Middle East
This article is a general overview of the history of the Middle East. For more detailed information, see articles on the histories of individual countries and regions...
- Former subdivisions of Pakistan
- Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...