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

Hindu hermits live in groups described as ashramas

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

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

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

Voluptas quo cum mol

Buddhist, Hindu and Jain shrines are carved from the rock in the cave temples of Ellora, in India

Mahmud of Ghazni marches an army across an Indian desert to destroy a great temple at Somnath, killing - it is said - some 50,000 Hindus

After centuries of raiding the northern part of Sri Lanka, the Tamils establish a settled Hindu presence in the island

Shah Jahan orders that all recently built Hindu temples shall be destroyed, ending the Mughal tradition of religious tolerance

Hindu princes and brahmin priests withdraw from Java to Bali, turning the island into the last outpost of Hinduism in southeast Asia

The RSS party, from which the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) derives, is established in India by Keshava Baliram Hedgewar

Sectarian hostilities increase in Kashmir, with the Muslim majority resenting the favours shown by the British to the Sikh and Hindu elite

In granting independence to India, Britain partitions the subcontinent along sectarian lines into Pakistan and the republic of India