Before Mauryans , there were 16 Kingdom known as Mahajanpadas . After Mauryans , came the Golden age under Guptas . So Anyone of those can be the possible answer .
The seed of Bharat may be sown by Mahajanpadas which became a seedling under Mauryans and Finally evolved into full grown tree by the Coming of Guptas .
But that is just a guess . The further we go in the past , the lesser the content .
Mahajanapada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quoting from Markandey Purana
Kraustuki asked Markandeya- 'O lord! Please describe about Bharatavarsha.' Markandeya replied- 'Bharatavarsha is surrounded by oceans on all its three sides. People living towards the east of Bharatavarsha are known as Kirat while people living towards the west are called Yavan. The central part of Bharatavarsha is inhabited by all the four castes- Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. The seven mountains are situated in the central part of Bharatavarsha. They are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahaya, Shaktiman, Riksh, Vindhya and Pariyatra. There are thousands of hills situated in the vicinity of these seven mountains. The central part of Bharatavarsha is sub-divided into Janpadas. The residents of these Janpadas are known as Mlechha and Arya. All the major rivers of Bharatavarsha like Ganga, Saraswati, Sindhu, Chandrabhaga, Yamuna, Shatadru, Vitasta, Irawati, Gomti, Vipasha and Gandki etc. originate from the mountains situated in the central parts. The names of the prominent Janpadas situated in the central part of Bharatavarsha are Matsya, Ashwakoot, Kulya, Kuntal, Kashi, Koshal, Arbuda, Kalinga, Malak, Vrik etc. River Godavari flows towards the north of Sahya Mountain.
A city named Govardhan is situated near this mountain. Some other prominent places situated in the vicinity of this mountain are Bahalik, Vataghan, Amir and Kaltoyak. Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudras live in the following states- Shudra, Pahalav, Charmakhandika, Gandhar, Yavan, Sindhu, Sauveer, Bhadrak, Shatadruj, Parad and Kekaya. The following states are situated in the north of Bharatavarsha- Tamas, Hansmarg, Kashmir, Shulik, Kuhak, Urna, Darva etc. States like Abhrarak, Mudgarak, Antagiri, Plawang, Mal, Damal, Vartik, Uttarbrahma, Pragjyotish, Madra, Videha, Tamraliptak, Malla and Magadh are situated in the east of Bharatavarsha. States situated in the south of Bharatavarsha are Pandya, Kerala, Chola, Maharashtra, Mahishik, Kalinga and Amir. These are the Janpadas where Shabar live.'
'Janpadas situated in the west of Bharatavarsha are Suryarak, Kalibala, Durg, Kaha, Pulind, Toshal and Koshal etc.
It has been discussed at length in other threads. Excavations revealed, that people of Indus valley didn't worship the gods of modern Hinduism, Shiva or Krishna. They ate beaf, wrote from right to left and their culture declined before Rigvedic village culture of Punjab. Arguments of continuity of culture are rather weak. Anyway, both Rigvedic & Indus Valley are parts of ancient history of Pakistan which spread in South and parts of Central Asia. The impact of our culture was so strong in South Asia that they started identifying themselves after our land that is Sindh, Hindh, Hindustan or India. Another example of such profound impact was of Islam and Arab culture on North Africa who now all speak Arabic and are part of Arab League.
Aziz, I would be interested in knowing more about your findings in relate to writing from right to left and other findings in regard to IVC, because its sounds more like giving a green color to facts.
IVC script is more of pictorial representation or so called logo-syllabic which make up sentences and it can be at times read or written bidirectionally and at times boustrophedon. Also IVC is far from any form of Abramic base as per findings.
Leaving aside the english history that we read, most of the civilizations will have there own traditional history writeups, be it chinese, turkish or be it egyptians which will go 100s to 1000s of year before BC. Whats interesting to note is there are many times common connections and sometimes overlaping connections in these stories. Getting a written history notes from BC era is very difficult so connecting civilizations based on written evidences that came in later part will be hard, but more convincing way to connect is to relate the day to day practices and objects in use with later part of history.