Early Historic Period

The period between 600 BCE and 300 BCE. In the Indian subcontinent, it was marked by changes in political structure, from the emergence of the Magadha Empire to the arrival of Alexander in the northwestern part of the subcontinent. It also saw the emergence of coinage, the evolution of urban centres and socio-economic classes, and the rise of Buddhism and Jainism as significant religious movements. Textual sources for this period include several Buddhist and Jaina works, as well as the corpus later termed Sangam literature.