Though India had a very long history even before the Mauryans took over the Magadh Empire in around 326 BCE, India was never one unified political entity (as far as reliable historic sources are concerned). It was only under the Mauryans when almost the whole of geographical India was under one single rule. This makes it easier to set a common point of reference in time for the whole region.
The historicity of Pre-Mauryan eras
As for the Harappan period, all we know about it is in the form of archeological findings with an undeciphered script. So it's really difficult to ascertain what might have happened or how life might have been in that period. The Vedic period is also a very crucial part of the story of India. But it deals primarily with religion, literature and philosophy and less with the history. We shall be covering the Vedic literature in those respective categories.
What and how do we know about pre-Mauryan India?
Before Mauryans, the North part of the Indian Subcontinent was fragmented into 16 major states called the Mahajanapadas. They rose to be so in about 6th-5th century BCE. The major source of the information about them is Puranas, assisted by Jain & Buddhist legends. We can also find archeological evidence such as coinage in the respective regions, but they are relatively scarce. As for South India, the authentic archeological evidence appear only in the later period. Sangam literature provides us a view of the life and situation in the south, just like the Puranas do for Mahajanapadas. But again, all this information is not historically reliable.
Thus, The information we have about pre-Mauryan India is fragmented into their respective regions of sources and is majorly in the form of semi-historic legends.
The sources of Information about the Mauryan Period. Contrary to the pre-Mauryan period, Mauryans (and the later Nandas that they defeated) and the people under their rule find mentions in historic documents by Greeks and Romans. Amongst them, Megasthenes is the chief source of such information, as he was himself the Greek ambassador in Chandragupta Maurya's court. Luckily, he chose to document his experiences and the things he heard about India in his book named 'Indica'. Though the book is not available to us today, many quotations by other later historians are. Kautilya's Arthashastra - the political treatise by the Guru of dynasty's first ruler, Chandragupta Maurya, also provides us a detailed first-hand account of the situation at the time. We also have edicts by third Mauryan Emperor Ashok - his own words inscribed in stone, that again tells us very crucial first-hand accounts of the events and situations of the period. Ashoka is also a pivotal figure in Buddhist history hence a lot is written about him in Buddhist texts. All in all, in contrast to any period before Mauryans, we have a lot more information available to us today about the Mauryans and contemporary India than any other period before that. Plus, under the Mauryans, India was for the first time a politically unified entity. Hence the foundation of the Mauryan dynasty is often considered the first pivotal moment, that marks the Beginning of Indian History.
Cover image - A hoard of mostly Mauryan Coins; courtesy: By Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54079620
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