OBJECTIVE ONE:          To stress for students that the beginning of civilization in South Asia
                                           goes back to time immemorial

OBJECTIVE TWO:          To make students aware of the approximate beginnings of organized urban 
                                            life in South Asia--the civilization known as the Indus Valley or Harappa 
                                            Civilization (the former name deriving from the principal river in the region, 
                                            the latter name deriving from the name of the principal city in the early urban 
                                            context)

OBJECTIVE THREE:     Although this survey of India's cultures and civilizations is being presented in 
                                           chronological order, it should be made clear to students that such a  
                                           periodization is only a modern convenience--in fact, the discovery of the various 
                                           periods in India's history actually occurred in reverse order, that is, scholars first 
                                           uncovered the earlier Islamic period, then the classical or Indic period, then the 
                                           earlier Shramanical and Brahmanical and only quite recently have been making 
                                           important progress in understanding the earliest "Indus Valley" period.