During the time between 800 and 200 BCE the Shramana-movement formed, from which originated Jainism and Buddhism. In the same period the first Upanishads were written. After 500 BCE, the so-called "Second urbanization" started, with new urban settlements arising at the Ganges plain, especially the Central Ganges plain.[67] The Central Ganges Plain, where Magadha gained prominence, forming the base of the Mauryan Empire, was a distinct cultural area,[68] with new states arising after 500 BC[web 1] during the so-called "Second urbanization".[69][note 3] It was influenced by the Vedic culture,[70] but differed markedly from the Kuru-Panchala region.[68] It "was the area of the earliest known cultivation of rice in South Asia and by 1800 BC was the location of an advanced neolithic population associated with the sites of Chirand and Chechar".[71] In this region the Shramanic movements flourished, and Jainism and Buddhism originated
