This course offers a broad historical, political, ethnographical and and cultural survey of the civilizations of the Indian subcontinent from the earliest period known to archaeology to the advent of Islam as a major cultural and political force around the 13th century CE. Lectures, readings, and class discussions will center on seminal texts that have influenced South Asian civilizations from the earliest antiquity to the late medieval period. This course is open to all interested students and is required for those majoring or minoring in South Asian Studies.