XIV

In the: early medieval era, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism put down roots on India's southern and "western coasts." Muslim armies from Central Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains, eventually establishing the——Delhi Sultanate, and drawing northern India into the cosmopolitan networks of medieval Islam.

During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic cultures——to the Iron Age ones. The Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed during this period. And historians have analysed these——to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.