Ancient India Word Search, Indus Valley to Gupta Empire

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Name Date

Ancient India Word Search

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0 of 16 words found

ELCAEFMXMTCDSIF

OTNSWEOGNIRVANA

ZAFESDNACEGANAY

HINDUISMIAANSNZ

NAIOBCOIRSNGKKA

OINHCTOICHGURAJ

OJDCODNINOEPIRI

BSUANEVNMKSTTME

EQSSTTHIMALAYAS

ZUNTIDOHRNIEORD

AFSENDFBRAHMINA

AROWEFXJYRGPIHE

XFSONEBUDDHISMO

OYDLTDSRPNNRWSW

YAKOYEOLRSZEROC

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

IndusINDUS
GangesGANGES
HimalayasHIMALAYAS
MonsoonMONSOON
SubcontinentSUBCONTINENT
SanskritSANSKRIT
HinduismHINDUISM
BuddhismBUDDHISM
NirvanaNIRVANA
KarmaKARMA
BrahminBRAHMIN
CasteCASTE
AshokaASHOKA
EdictEDICT
Gupta EmpireGUPTA EMPIRE
ZeroZERO

16 of 24 words from the Ancient India Favorites list.

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Word list

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Answer key: Ancient India Word Search

ELCAEFMXMTCDSIF

OTNSWEOGNIRVANA

ZAFESDNACEGANAY

HINDUISMIAANSNZ

NAIOBCOIRSNGKKA

OINHCTOICHGURAJ

OJDCODNINOEPIRI

BSUANEVNMKSTTME

EQSSTTHIMALAYAS

ZUNTIDOHRNIEORD

AFSENDFBRAHMINA

AROWEFXJYRGPIHE

XFSONEBUDDHISMO

OYDLTDSRPNNRWSW

YAKOYEOLRSZEROC

INDUS, GANGES, HIMALAYAS, MONSOON, SUBCONTINENT, SANSKRIT, HINDUISM, BUDDHISM, NIRVANA, KARMA, BRAHMIN, CASTE, ASHOKA, EDICT, GUPTA EMPIRE, ZERO

Next step Run a spelling test on Kshatriya, Upanishads and the rest Build a puzzle from your own chapter's word list

All 132 words

Land and Rivers of India 16

Arabian Sea Body of water on the west side of India; the Indus empties into it near Karachi.
Bay of Bengal Body of water on the east side of India; the Ganges ends its 2,525 km course here.
Brahmaputra River of about 3,000 km that starts in Tibet as the Yarlung Tsangpo and merges with the Ganges in its delta.
Deccan Plateau of southern India between the Eastern and Western Ghats, averaging about 600 m above sea level.
Ganges River of about 2,525 km from the western Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal; Vedic culture spread across its plain after about 1200 BCE.
Ghats Name shared by the Western and Eastern ranges that edge the Deccan Plateau; the Western one runs 1,600 km along the coast.
Himalayas Mountain range that separates the plains of the subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau; Mount Everest is one of its peaks.
Hindu Kush Mountain range about 800 km long, west of the Himalayas; its highest point is Tirich Mir at 7,708 m.
Indus River of about 3,180 km that rises in Tibet and reaches the Arabian Sea near Karachi; the first cities of South Asia grew on its plain.

Show all 132 words (123 more)

Land and Rivers of India, continued

Khyber Pass Mountain route that links the Valley of Peshawar with Afghanistan; it was part of the ancient Silk Road.
Monsoon Seasonal wind pattern that brings rain to the subcontinent every year from June through September.
Punjab Region of five rivers in the northwest, now shared by Pakistan and India; early Vedic society was centered here.
Ravi One of the rivers of the Punjab; Harappa was built beside its former course, and it now runs about 8 km to the north.
Subcontinent Name for the landmass south of the Himalayas, between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
Thar Desert Arid region of the northwest, also called the Great Indian; about two thirds of it lies in India and the rest in Pakistan.
Yamuna Longest tributary of the Ganges in India, 1,376 km; it rises in the Lower Himalaya and joins the Ganges at Prayagraj.

Indus Valley Cities 31

Barley Cereal grain domesticated at Mehrgarh, the main crop there long before the Indus cities rose.
Bead Small pierced ornament for stringing; Lothal traded them, and many were made of carnelian.
Brick Block of baked clay; Indus houses, wells and drains were built of it.
Carnelian Brownish-red semiprecious stone that Indus craftworkers etched and made into beads.
Citadel Raised, walled part of an Indus city; archaeologists still debate what it was for.
Cotton Fiber crop domesticated by early Indus Valley villagers, along with sesame, dates and peas.
Dancing Girl Bronze statuette 10.5 cm high, found at Mohenjo-daro in 1926 and kept in the National Museum, New Delhi.
Dholavira Indus city in Kutch, Gujarat, known for its stone reservoirs; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.
Dice Cubical game pieces whose faces carry one to six holes, found at Mohenjo-daro.
Dockyard Basin where boats load and unload; the one at Lothal may be among the earliest known anywhere.
Drain Covered channel along the major streets of Mohenjo-daro that carried waste water away.
Ganeriwala One of the five major Indus urban sites; it lies in the Cholistan Desert of Pakistan.
Granary Storehouse for grain; Mortimer Wheeler gave this name to a big Mohenjo-daro building in 1950, though no grain was found in it.
Great Bath Brick pool at Mohenjo-daro, 12 m long, 7 m wide and 2.4 m deep, made watertight with bitumen.
Harappa City in Punjab, Pakistan, with up to about 23,500 residents; the first Indus site dug, so the whole civilization is also named for it.
Kalibangan Indus town in Rajasthan known for its fire altars and the world's earliest attested ploughed field.
Lothal Indus town in Gujarat, begun about 2300 BCE, that may hold one of the world's earliest known docks; it traded in beads.
Mehrgarh Farming village in Balochistan, thousands of years older than the Indus cities, where barley and zebu cattle were domesticated.
Meluhha Land named in Sumerian texts as a trading partner; it may have been the Indus region.
Mohenjo-daro City in Sindh built about 2500 BCE with a street grid, covered drains and more than 700 wells; the name means Mound of the Dead Men.
Priest-King Steatite statue 17.5 cm high from Mohenjo-daro; the name is a guess, since nobody knows whom it shows.
Rakhigarhi One of the five major Indus urban sites; it lies in Haryana, about 150 km northwest of Delhi.
Reservoir Large tank for storing water; Dholavira had massive ones built completely of stone.
Script A system of writing; the Indus one has more than 400 signs and no one has deciphered it.
Seal Small carved square of steatite, 2 to 4 cm across, with an animal and a few signs of writing; some were stamped into clay on trade goods.
Sesame Oil seed crop domesticated by early Indus Valley villagers, along with cotton, dates and peas.
Steatite Soft stone, also called soapstone, that Indus carvers used for seals and for the Priest-King statue.
Terracotta Baked clay; Indus figurines of cows, bears, monkeys and dogs were made of it, probably as toys.
Weights Indus traders used a standardized set of these to measure goods, a sign that some authority set the rules.
Well Shaft dug down to reach water; Mohenjo-daro had more than 700.
Zebu Humped cattle of South Asia; an animal like it appears on Indus seals.

Beliefs and Writing 44

Ahimsa Nonviolence toward all living beings, a key virtue in Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism.
Bhagavad Gita Hindu scripture that forms part of the Mahabharata, likely composed in the second or first century BCE.
Bodh Gaya Site in Bihar where Siddhartha Gautama is said to have reached enlightenment under a sacred fig.
Brahmin The varna of priests and teachers.
Buddha Title meaning the awakened one, given to Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE.
Buddhism Religion founded by Siddhartha Gautama; it teaches the Four Noble Truths and a path of eight practices.
Caste The usual English translation of the word jati.
Dharma Moral duty in Hinduism; in Buddhism, the founder's teachings.
Eightfold Path Buddhist guide of eight practices that leads to awakening.
Epic Long story poem; the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the two great ones in Sanskrit.
Guru Sanskrit word for a mentor, guide or teacher.
Hinduism Religion whose major scriptures are the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Hymn Song of praise; the Rigveda holds 1,028 of them.
Jainism Religion of nonviolence that honors 24 teachers called tirthankaras; Mahavira was the 24th.
Jati Group a person is born into, often linked to one occupation; there are many more of them than varnas.
Karma Action and its consequences: the idea that what a person does shapes what happens to that person later.
Kshatriya The varna of rulers and warriors.
Lumbini Pilgrimage site in Nepal where, by tradition, Siddhartha Gautama was born; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.
Mahabharata Epic traditionally attributed to Vyasa about the Kurukshetra War between the Kauravas and the Pandavas.
Mahavira The 24th tirthankara of Jainism, who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE.
Meditation Quiet practice of training the mind, discussed in the Upanishads and central to Buddhism.
Middle Way The course Siddhartha Gautama taught, between harsh self-denial and a life of luxury.
Moksha Liberation from samsara, the cycle of rebirth.
Nirvana Goal of Buddhist practice; the word means blowing out.
Pali Sacred language of Theravada Buddhism.
Raja Royal Sanskrit title for a ruler, attested as early as the Rigveda.
Ramayana Epic of nearly 24,000 verses, traditionally attributed to Valmiki, about Rama, prince of Ayodhya.
Reincarnation Rebirth: the belief that a living being begins a new life in a different body after death.
Rigveda Oldest of the four Vedas: 1,028 hymns arranged in 10 books, composed most likely between 1500 and 1000 BCE.
Samsara The cycle of death and rebirth; moksha is release from it.
Sanchi Hilltop site of the Great Stupa, commissioned by Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE; one of the oldest stone structures in India.
Sangha The community of Buddhist monks and nuns.
Sanskrit Indo-Aryan language of the Vedas and of the poet Kalidasa; the sacred language of Hinduism.
Sarnath Deer park northeast of Varanasi, the site of the first Buddhist sermon; Ashoka's four-lion pillar top stood here.
Shudra The varna of laborers.
Siddhartha Personal name of the teacher who founded Buddhism; legend places his birth at Lumbini.
Stupa Domed structure that holds relics; visitors walk around it clockwise.
Upanishads Late Vedic texts on meditation and philosophy; 108 are known.
Vaishya The varna of farmers, traders and merchants.
Valmiki Poet to whom the Ramayana is traditionally attributed.
Varna Fourfold ordering of society in Vedic texts: priests, warriors, farmers and traders, and laborers.
Vedas Four collections whose name means knowledge; the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, first passed on by word of mouth.
Vyasa Sage to whom the Mahabharata is traditionally attributed.
Yoga Group of physical, mental and spiritual practices that began in ancient India; the word means yoke or union.

Maurya Empire 22

Arthashastra Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, traditionally credited to Kautilya and now thought to have several authors.
Ashoka Third Maurya emperor, from c. 268 BCE, who was drawn to Buddhism after the Kalinga War and had edicts carved across his lands.
Bindusara Second Maurya emperor, c. 297 to c. 273 BCE; father of Ashoka.
Brahmi Script of Ashoka's edicts, deciphered by James Prinsep in the 1830s; later scripts of South and Southeast Asia descend from it.
Chakra Wheel; the one named for Ashoka is at the center of India's national flag.
Chanakya Legendary adviser of the first Maurya emperor, conventionally identified with Kautilya.
Chandragupta Name of the founder of the Maurya Empire, who reigned c. 320 to c. 298 BCE, and later of two Gupta emperors.
Dhamma Righteous conduct, the main theme of the messages Ashoka had carved in stone; the Pali form of dharma.
Edict Official order; more than thirty of Ashoka's survive on pillars, boulders and cave walls, the earliest datable texts from India.
Elephant War animal; Seleucus received 500 under his treaty with the first Maurya emperor.
Kalinga Kingdom in present-day Odisha that Ashoka conquered about 260 BCE in a brutal war.
Lion Capital Sandstone carving 2.1 m tall of four big cats back to back, from Sarnath, c. 250 BCE; now the State Emblem of India.
Magadha Kingdom of the eastern Ganges plain that was the power base of the Maurya Empire.
Mahinda Ashoka's son, who in Sri Lankan tradition led a Buddhist mission to that island.
Maurya Empire founded about 320 BCE with its capital at Pataliputra; it ended in the 180s BCE.
Megasthenes Greek diplomat whose lost book Indica was the first Western written description of India.
Nanda Dynasty of Magadha that the first Maurya emperor defeated.
Pataliputra Capital of the Maurya Empire, on the site of today's Patna.
Pillar Tall stone column; twenty of those Ashoka set up survive.
Porus Regional king of the Punjab whom Alexander the Great fought at the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BCE.
Seleucus Successor of Alexander the Great who made a treaty with the first Maurya emperor and received 500 war elephants.
Taxila City in Punjab, Pakistan, now a World Heritage Site; Buddhist texts say Ashoka served as governor here.

Gupta Empire 19

Ajanta Thirty rock-cut Buddhist caves in Maharashtra with wall paintings, made between the 2nd century BCE and about 480 CE.
Aryabhata Mathematician and astronomer, born 476 CE, who used a place value system and worked out pi to four decimal places.
Astronomy Study of the stars and planets; Aryabhata wrote about it in the Aryabhatiya.
Chaturanga Board game first known from India around the seventh century CE; the common ancestor of chess.
Decimal Base 10; the Indian way of writing numbers is positional and of this kind.
Faxian Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled on foot to India; the journey and return took from 399 to 412 CE.
Gupta Empire State of the mid 3rd to mid 6th century CE in the northern subcontinent; some historians call its time a golden age, and some do not.
Huna People whose invasions helped bring the Gupta Empire down.
Iron Pillar Rust-resistant column in Delhi, 7.21 m high and more than six tonnes, from the reign of Chandragupta II.
Kalidasa Sanskrit poet and playwright of the 4th to 5th century CE.
Kumaragupta Gupta emperor who established Nalanda around 427 CE.
Nalanda Buddhist center of learning in Bihar, founded around 427 CE and often called the world's first residential university.
Navaratnas The nine gems: nine scholars said to have been hosted at the court of Chandragupta II.
Numerals Written number symbols; the ten used worldwide today descend from Brahmi ones.
Place Value System in which a digit's position sets how much it is worth; Aryabhata used it.
Samudragupta Second Gupta emperor, a poet and veena player, whose conquests are recorded in the Allahabad Pillar inscription.
Veena Stringed instrument that the emperor Samudragupta is said to have played.
Vikramaditya Title of Chandragupta II, Gupta emperor from c. 375 to c. 415.
Zero The digit 0; its modern use in place-value notation comes from Indian mathematics.

How this list was compiled: 132 ancient India words in 5 themed lists, from the Indus Valley cities to the Gupta Empire, chosen and defined for this site. Facts in the clues were checked on 2026-09-19 against English Wikipedia articles, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilisation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurya_Empire and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gupta_Empire. Licence: own work

How it works

This ancient India word search opens on 16 of 24 favorites, from Indus to Zero. Five unit lists stand behind it, Indus Valley Cities and Maurya Empire among them, and every puzzle comes with its answer key.

Read the full guide

Match the list to the chapter

Under Start from a list, Land and Rivers of India holds 16 places, Indus Valley Cities 31 words from Harappa to Zebu, Beliefs and Writing 44, Maurya Empire 22 and Gupta Empire 19. Pick one list a week: week one stays with Mohenjo-daro, week four with Aryabhata.

Turn it into a review sheet

Tick Show clues, not words, in More options. Pupils read "Brick pool at Mohenjo-daro, 12 m long, 7 m wide and 2.4 m deep, made watertight with bitumen", work out Great Bath, then hunt for it. Clues take room, so take words off the list until 8 or 12 are left.

GUPTA reads inside SAMUDRAGUPTA, so the grid hides GUPTAEMPIRE. For the same reason Brahmi and Brahmin never share a list.
Mohenjo-daro, Bodh Gaya and Eightfold Path are hidden without the hyphen or space. Say so before pupils start.
Easy Ancient India holds 29 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Zebu, Raja and Stupa.

Questions and answers

Which civilizations and empires does the puzzle cover?

Three: the Indus Valley cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, the Maurya Empire of Chandragupta and Ashoka, and the Gupta Empire of Samudragupta and Aryabhata. Beliefs and Writing adds Sanskrit, the Vedas, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

How are the Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism words handled?

As vocabulary with a plain meaning, such as Karma: action and its consequences. There is no devotional text and no quotation. Where historians hedge, the clue does too: the epics are traditionally attributed, and the Indus script is still undeciphered.

Why are the Mughals and the Taj Mahal missing?

The list ends with the Gupta Empire, in the mid 6th century CE. The Mughal Empire was founded in 1526 and the Taj Mahal commissioned in 1631, about a thousand years later. The Taj Mahal is in the modern India word search.

How do I make the puzzle hard enough for grade 7?

Click Hard Ancient India, the 58 words of 8 letters or more, such as Pataliputra, Arthashastra and Chandragupta. Then press Hard so words run in all 8 directions. Sixteen of them fit the opening 15 by 15 grid.

All 132 words

Land and Rivers of India 16

Land and Rivers of India, continued

Indus Valley Cities 31

Beliefs and Writing 44

Maurya Empire 22

Gupta Empire 19

How it works

Match the list to the chapter

Turn it into a review sheet

Questions and answers

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