Indian cultural history spans

 Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years.[366] During the Vedic period (c. 1700 BCE – c. 500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, 

mythology, theology, and literature were laid, and many beliefs and practices that exist to this day, such as dharma, karma, yoga, and mokṣa. , were established.[73] India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation's major religions.[367] The predominant religion, Hinduism, has been shaped by various historical schools of thought, including the Upanishads,[368] the Yoga Sutras, the bhakti movement,[367] and Buddhist philosophy.[369]

Visual arts

Main article: Indian art

India has a very old artistic tradition that exchanged many influences with the rest of Eurasia, especially in the first millennium, when Buddhist art spread with Indian religions to Central, East and Southeast Asia, the latter also greatly influenced by Hinduism. art.[370] Thousands of seals have been found from the Indus Valley Civilization of the third millennium BC, usually carved with animals, but a few with human figures. The most famous is the "Pashupati" seal, excavated in Mohenjodar, Pakistan in 1928–29.[371][372] This is followed by a long period when virtually nothing survives.[372][373] Almost all surviving ancient Indian art thereafter is in various forms of religious sculpture of durable materials or coins. The wood that is being lost probably contained much more originally. In northern India, Mauryan art is the first imperial movement.[374][375][376] In the first millennium AD, Buddhist art spread along with Indian religions to Central, East, and Southeast Asia, the latter also heavily influenced by Hindu art.[377] Over the following centuries, a distinctly Indian style of sculpture of the human figure developed, less concerned with articulating precise anatomy than ancient Greek sculpture, but showing smoothly flowing forms expressive of prana ("breath" or life force).[378][379] This is often complicated by the need to give the figures multiple arms or heads, or to represent different genders to the left and right of the figures, as in the Ardhanarishvara forms of Shiva and Parvati.[380][381]

Most of the earliest large sculptures are Buddhist, either excavated from Buddhist stupas such as Sanchi, Sarnath and Amaravati,[382] or are rock-cut reliefs at sites such as Ajanta, Karla and Ellora. Hindu and Jain sites appear rather later.[383][384] Despite this complex mix of religious traditions, in general, the predominant artistic style at any given time and place was shared by large religious groups, and sculptors probably usually served all communities.[385] Gupta art, at its peak c. 300 CE – ca. 500 CE, is often considered the Classical period, whose influence persisted for many centuries; saw a new dominance of Hindu sculpture, as in the Elephanta Caves.[386][387] In the north, after approx. 800 CE, although rich in finely carved detail around the statues.[388] But in the south, under the Pallava and Chola dynasties, sculpture in both stone and bronze had a sustained period of great success; large bronzes of Shiva as Nataraja have become an iconic symbol of India.[389][390]

Ancient painting survives in only a few places, by far the most important of which are the crowded scenes of court life in the Ajanta caves, but it was evidently highly developed and is mentioned as a court achievement in Gupta times.[391] [392] Painted manuscripts of religious texts survive from eastern India from about the 10th century, most of which were early Buddhist and later Jain. Their style was no doubt used in larger paintings.[393] Persian-derived Deccan painting, beginning just before Mughal miniature, provides the first major body of secular painting among them, with an emphasis on portraiture and the record of princely revels and wars.[394][395] The style spread to Hindu courts, particularly among the Rajputs, and developed a variety of styles, with smaller courts often being the most innovative, with figures such as Nihâl Chand and Nainsukh.[396][397] As the market developed among European residents, Company painting was supplied by Indian artists with considerable Western influence.[398][399] In the 19th century, cheap Kalighat paintings of gods and everyday life on paper were the first movement of urban folk art from Calcutta, where the Bengal School of Art, mirroring the art colleges established by the British, later emerged

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