I had no idea that India was unified at one point that early on, only to break up again.
I'm reading Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Ancient World right now...I'm looking forward to brushing up on early Asian history. Also, this is mesmerizing.
Ashoka united India and made it the largest entity at the time. He also then proceeded to put up a bunch of monuments explaining how horrible a person he was for killing so many people; he was a Buddhist. Weirdest conqueror ever.