Editing History of India (section)

==== Janapadas ====
{{Main|Janapada}}
{{See also|Battle of the Ten Kings|List of ancient Indo-Aryan peoples and tribes}}
[[File:Late Vedic Culture (1100-500 BCE).png|thumb|right|Late Vedic era map showing the boundaries of [[Āryāvarta]] with Janapadas in northern India, beginning of Iron Age kingdoms in India – [[Kuru (kingdom)|Kuru]], [[Panchala]], [[Kosala]], [[Videha]] ]]

The [[Iron Age India|Iron Age]] in the Indian subcontinent from about 1200&nbsp;BCE to the 6th century BCE is defined by the rise of Janapadas, which are [[realms]], [[republics]] and [[monarchy|kingdoms]]—notably the Iron Age Kingdoms of [[Kuru (kingdom)|Kuru]], [[Panchala]], [[Kosala]] and [[Videha]].<ref>{{cite book|title=A Sanskrit reader: with vocabulary and notes|last=Lanman|first=Charles Rockwell|author-link=Charles Rockwell Lanman|year=1912|orig-year=First published 1884|publisher=[[Ginn & Co.]]|location=Boston|url=https://archive.org/stream/sanskritreaderwi00lanmiala#page/158/mode/1up|oclc=633836|quote="''... jána, m. creature; man; person; in plural, and collectively in singular, folks; a people or race or tribe ... cf. γένος, Lat. genus, Eng. kin, 'race' ...''"}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Pedigree: The Origins of Words from Nature|last1=Potter|first1=Stephen|author-link1=Stephen Potter|last2=Sargent|first2=Laurens Christopher|year=1974|publisher=Taplinger Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-8008-6248-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8SNDAAAAIAAJ|quote=''... *gen-, found in Skt. jana, 'a man', and Gk. genos and L. genus, 'a race' ...''}}</ref>

The [[Kuru Kingdom]] ({{circa}} 1200–450 BCE) was the first state-level society of the Vedic period, corresponding to the beginning of the Iron Age in north-western India, around 1200–800&nbsp;BCE,<ref>{{cite book|title=Marvels and Mysteries of the Mahabharata|last=Basu|first=Abhijit|publisher=Leadstart publishing|year=2013|page=153|isbn=978-93-84027-47-6}}</ref> as well as with the composition of the [[Atharvaveda]].<ref name="Witzel 1995">{{cite journal|last=Witzel|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Witzel|year=1995|title=Early Sanskritization. Origins and Development of the Kuru State|url=https://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/ejvs/article/view/823/913|journal=Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies|volume=1|issue=4|pages=1–26|doi=10.11588/ejvs.1995.4.823|access-date=20 November 2018|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407172825/https://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/ejvs/article/view/823/913|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Kuru state organised the Vedic hymns into collections and developed the [[srauta]] ritual to uphold the social order.<ref name="Witzel 1995" /> Two key figures of the Kuru state were king [[Parikshit]] and his successor [[Janamejaya II|Janamejaya]], who transformed this realm into the dominant political, social, and cultural power of northern India.<ref name="Witzel 1995" /> When the Kuru kingdom declined, the centre of Vedic culture shifted to their eastern neighbours, the Panchala kingdom.<ref name="Witzel 1995" /> The archaeological [[Painted Grey Ware culture|PGW]] (Painted Grey Ware) culture, which flourished in north-eastern India's [[Haryana]] and western [[Uttar Pradesh]] regions from about 1100 to 600&nbsp;BCE,{{sfn|Reddy|2003|p=A11}} is believed to correspond to the [[Kuru Kingdom|Kuru]] and [[Pañcāla|Panchala]] kingdoms.<ref name="Witzel 1995" />{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=48}}

During the Late Vedic Period, the kingdom of [[Videha]] emerged as a new centre of Vedic culture, situated even farther to the East (in what is today Nepal and [[Bihar]] state);<ref name="Witzel1989" /> reaching its prominence under the king [[Janaka]], whose court provided patronage for [[Brahmin]] sages and [[Indian philosophy|philosophers]] such as [[Yajnavalkya]], [[Aruni]], and [[Gārgī Vāchaknavī]].<ref>H.C. Raychaudhuri (1950), ''Political History of Ancient India and Nepal'', Calcutta: University of Calcutta, p. 58</ref> The later part of this period corresponds with a consolidation of increasingly large states and kingdoms, called ''[[Mahajanapadas]]'', across Northern India.