During the time between 800 and 200 BCE the Śramaṇa movement formed, from which
originated Jainism and Buddhism. In the same period, the first Upanishads were
written. After 500 BCE, the so-called "second urbanisation" started, with new
urban settlements arising at the Ganges plain, especially the Central Ganges
plain.[74] The foundations for the "second urbanisation" were laid prior to 600
BCE, in the Painted Grey Ware culture of the Ghaggar-Hakra and Upper Ganges
Plain; although most PGW sites were small farming villages, "several dozen" PGW
sites eventually emerged as relatively large settlements that can be
characterized as towns, the largest of which were fortified by ditches or moats
and embankments made of piled earth with wooden palisades, albeit smaller and
simpler than the elaborately fortified large cities which grew after 600 BCE in
the Northern Black Polished Ware culture.[75]
The Central Ganges Plain, where Magadha gained prominence, forming the base of
the Mauryan Empire, was a distinct cultural area,[76] with new states arising
after 500 BCE[web 1] during the so-called "second urbanisation".[77][note 1] It
was influenced by the Vedic culture,[78] but differed markedly from the
Kuru-Panchala region.[76] It "was the area of the earliest known cultivation of
rice in South Asia and by 1800 BCE was the location of an advanced Neolithic
population associated with the sites of Chirand and Chechar".[79] In this
region, the Śramaṇic movements flourished, and Jainism and Buddhism
originated.[74]
