Pre-Historic India

A period with no written records — knowledge comes from archaeology alone.
It is by far the longest period of human past.

Christian Thomsen (Danish antiquarian).
Sequence: Stone → Bronze → Iron.
Periods are identified by tool type + technology, not by dynasties.

Palaeolithic + Mesolithic — no written records at all; knowledge from archaeology only.

A transitional phase between prehistory and history — writing exists but is undeciphered, or the society is known through later texts.
Includes: Neolithic, Chalcolithic, IVC (undeciphered script), the Iron Age PGW phase (1000–600 BC) and South Indian Megaliths.

About 600 BC in north India.
Marked by the emergence of cities, states and writing.
Corresponds to the Iron Age NBPW phase (600–300 BC) — Mahajanapadas and the Mauryas.

• Lower Palaeolithic: ~2 MYA – 100,000 BC
• Middle Palaeolithic: 100,000 – 40,000 BC
• Upper Palaeolithic: 40,000 – 10,000 BC

• Mesolithic: 10,000 – 4000 BC (begins post–Ice Age)
• Neolithic: 4000 – 2000 BC (from ~7000 BC at Mehrgarh)
• Chalcolithic: 2000 – 700 BC (from ~3000 BC)
• Iron Age: 700 – 300 BC (iron from ~1000 BC)

Acheulian industry.
Tools: handaxes, cleavers, choppers.
Material: quartzite.
Economy: hunting-gathering.

The Ganga plains have deep alluvial soil and lack quartzite outcrops, so tools are rare there — sites spread mainly across peninsular India.
Exception: Kalpi (UP).

Madhya Pradesh; rock shelters with a continuous sequence from prehistory to the historical period; a UNESCO site.
Discovered by V. S. Wakankar in 1957.

• Attirampakkam (TN) — richest Acheulian site
• Hunsgi-Baichbal (Karnataka) — granite shelters; evidence of ~40 edible plants (diet reconstruction)
• Paisra (Munger, Bihar) — 8 post-holes = earliest evidence of shelter construction

Smaller flake tools; the dominant tool is the scraper.
Associated with the Nevasan industry, named after Nevasa (Maharashtra).

A prepared-core technique: a tortoise-shaped core is shaped so that a single predetermined flake can be struck off.
⚠️ It is a stone-tool technique — it has nothing to do with Harappan pottery.

• Didwana (Rajasthan)
• Sanghao cave (Pakistan)
• Chirki (near Nevasa, Maharashtra)

Tools: blades and burins — the trend is toward smaller, more refined tools.
Ornaments: ostrich eggshell beads.

Earliest paintings: Sohagighat.
Bhimbetka has the largest collection.
Features: chital (spotted deer) most commonly depicted; x-ray style (internal organs shown); no snakes depicted.
Themes: hunting, dancing, food gathering.

• Kurnool caves (AP) — 90% bone tools; the only bone-tool site in India
• Patne (Maharashtra) — ostrich eggshell beads, ~25,000 BC
• Baghor I (Son valley, MP) — earliest shrine; possible goddess icon (stone platform with a triangular stone)

It bridges hunter-gathering (Palaeolithic) and farming (Neolithic).
People were mainly hunter-gatherers but had begun domesticating animals.

Tiny stone tools, 1–5 cm, giving sharper edges when hafted.
Shapes: lunates, triangles, trapezes.
Material: crypto-crystalline silica (chert, chalcedony, agate).

The end of the Ice Age → temperature rises, forests expand.
This shifted the animal and plant resource base and pushed people toward smaller game and, eventually, domestication.

Dog, sheep, goat (and cattle at some sites) — animal domestication began in this period.
Pottery is rare in the Mesolithic.

Burials are shallow pits, W–E aligned, with grave goods placed alongside the body.
These are the earliest formal burials in India; unequal grave goods suggest the beginnings of social ranking.

• Bagor (Rajasthan) — best-documented Mesolithic site; earliest domestication + use of fire (UPSC 2018)
• Adamgarh (MP) — domesticated cattle, sheep, goat, dog, pig; rich microliths (UPSC 2008)

Sarai Nahar Rai (UP) — a skeleton with an arrowhead embedded in the ribs.
Related site: Mahadaha (UP).

• Damdama (UP) — 41 burials, including a triple burial; an ivory pendant
• Lekhahia (UP) — the maximum number of skeletons (17)

Langhnaj (Gujarat) and Chopani Mando (UP) — exceptions to the rule that Mesolithic pottery is rare.

It is the turning point — food production replaces food gathering, producing settled villages for the first time.
Also brings cereal cultivation, pottery and domestication.

Polished stone tools (ground rather than merely chipped) — the diagnostic Neolithic tool type, suited to forest clearance and cultivation.

Mounds formed of burnt cattle dung, found in the South Indian Neolithic.
They indicate an economy based on cattle rearing. Associated with Bos indicus (zebu) and millet cultivation.

Bolan valley, Baluchistan; earliest farming in South Asia (~7000 BC).
• Barley = the first cereal cultivated
• Earliest cotton
• Turquoise and lapis lazuli beads
• Shows continuity from the Stone Age to the Harappan civilisation

Kashmir.
• Pit dwellings (against harsh winters) — ⚠️ not rock-cut shrines (UPSC 2021)
• Dogs buried with their masters (UPSC 2008)
• Trepanning — boring holes in the skull (surgical practice)
Related Kashmir site: Gufkral.

• Koldihwa (UP) — earliest rice evidence
• Lahuradeva (UP) — domesticated rice

• Chirand (Bihar) — bone and antler tools
• Mahagara (UP) — a cattle pen identified from hoof marks

Utnur, Kupgal, Kodekal, Pallavoy, Sanganakallu, Budihal — the ash-mound / cattle-rearing zone.

Rectangular mud-brick houses in the plains (with wheat + barley farming), and pit houses in cold regions such as Kashmir.

First use of metal (copper) alongside stone tools — hence 'copper–stone' age (~3000–700 BC).
It was village farming, not urban like the IVC — these were rural farming communities running parallel to the IVC.

Ahar-Banas, Kayatha, Ganeshwar-Jodhpura, Malwa, Jorwe.

Burials under house floors, with N–S orientation (in Maharashtra sites the dead were buried beneath the floor of the dwelling).

• Ahar (Udaipur) — copper smelting; BRW with white designs
• Balathal (Udaipur) — fortified settlement; etched carnelian beads showing a Harappan link

North-East Rajasthan; a copper-working centre near the Khetri mines.
Famous for double spiral-headed pins; likely supplied copper to the Harappans.

MP, on the Narmada — the largest Chalcolithic settlement, belonging to the Malwa culture.

• Inamgaon (Pune) — a five-room house; terracotta mother goddess
• Daimabad (Ahmednagar) — famous hoard of 4 copper/bronze figures: rhino, elephant, buffalo and chariot

Atranjikhera (UP).
Iron Age broadly 1000–300 BC; iron was harder and more durable than copper/bronze.

Krishna Ayas / Shyama Ayas = iron ('black metal')
Lohit Ayas = copper ('red metal')

• PGW — Later Vedic, 1000–600 BC
• NBPW — Mahajanapada/Maurya, 600–300 BC
• Megalithic — South India, 1000 BC – 100 CE

Large stone burial monuments.
Fractional burial (secondary burial of selected bones) is most common.
BRW pottery occurs at every megalithic site.

Menhir, Dolmen, Hood Stone, Umbrella Stone, Cairn Circle, Rock-cut Cave.

Adichanallur (TN), on the Tamraparni river — famous for urn burials.
Megaliths were first excavated at Shorapur doab, Karnataka.

Ochre Coloured Pottery, 2000–1200 BC.
Associated with the Copper Hoard Culture; named after finds at Hastinapur.
Largest hoard: Gungeria (MP) — 424 pieces.

Black and Red Ware, 1200–1000 BC.
Inner surface black, outer surface red (produced by inverted firing).
Also found at Megalithic sites; type site Ahichhatra.

Painted Grey Ware, 1000–600 BC.
Marks the Later Vedic / Mahabharata period.
Key sites: Hastinapura, Bhagwanpura.

Northern Black Polished Ware, 600–300 BC — the luxury ware of the Mahajanapada + Mauryan era.
Key sites: Atranjikhera, Rajghat.

OCP → BRW → PGW → NBPW
(2000–1200 BC → 1200–1000 BC → 1000–600 BC → 600–300 BC)

In the Harappan culture — ⚠️ not in the Chalcolithic cultures.