In the subcontinent of India, the idea of the Deva-raja (god-king) arose more than two thousand years ago and subsequently became the central narrative of Indian kingship. In time, kingship became the focus of empires central to Indian epics: The Mahabharata and The Ramayana. Eventually the empires inspired by these epics migrated eastward across what Ptolemy called “India beyond the Ganges,” with imperial narratives of power developing from Thailand to Indonesia. Empires centered on divine kingship in Europe waned with the decline of early cultures, but Indian versions have persisted through centuries of literature, dance, and drama until modern times.

Toward the end of the second millennium BCE, migrants from the Indus River Valley began settling in small communities across northern India in what is now the state of Uttar Pradesh, today the most populous state in India. They brought with them Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, and the Vedas, some portions of which were already centuries old. Later writings, notably the Upanishads, built on these, thus beginning the extensive library of spiritual works that make up Hinduism.

Northern India was fertile, a congenial area for agricultural development among the numerous tributaries of the Ganges River. With the development of substantial villages, Aryan governance was organized by mahakulas (governing families) whose influence spread across regions known as janapadas (great tribal footholds). As village populations increased kings came to dominate governance by 600 BCE. Three centuries later a powerful dynasty had emerged known as the Mauryans centered at Pataliputra on the Ganges River in northeast India. Surviving inscriptions and archaeological excavation of this Mauryan capital have revealed a large fortified city of 150,000 to 400,000 people who dominated a huge territorial region for a brief time (322–185 BCE) that included all of subcontinental India except the southern tip and stretched from Iran in the west to Bangladesh in the east. The most prominent Mauryan king was Asoka, who ruled from 273 to 232 BCE.During this time, India's most expansive epic, the Mahabharata, appeared, which then evolved over the next 400 years. This work, the longest ever composed, is easily read as a spectacular collection of tales and adventures, but it is better understood for its invention of an immense prehistory and backdrop for the Mauryans, whose dynasty and empire were enhanced by the epic.