From Ancient Times to the Year 1000
This chapter addresses the period from the end of the Mauryan Empire to c.1000 CE. There is very little evidence for the period. Nevertheless, people probably continued to migrate into river valleys and exploit new land. As a result, populations in different parts of the subcontinent increased—albeit usually very slowly and irregularly. In the north, Indo-Aryan influences continued to grow. Further south, kingdoms like those of the Pallavas and Cholas were crucial to the process of ‘Indianization’ which, from about the second century CE, affected areas of south-east Asia. It seems unlikely that India’s people were badly affected by the so-called ‘Plague of Justinian’ which affected parts of the Middle East and southern Europe during the sixth century. The chapter considers evidence collected around 640 CE by the Chinese visitor Hsuan Tsang and suggests that it is consistent with a total population of anywhere between 30 and 85 million.