Pre-Historic and Proto-Historic India

Prehistory in India is conventionally divided into the Stone Age, itself subdivided as follows.

Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age) — c. 500,000 to 10,000 BCE

• Humans were hunter-gatherers using unpolished, rough stone tools of quartzite.
• Robert Bruce Foote discovered the first Paleolithic tool (Pallavaram hand-axe) in India in 1863.
• Key sites: Sohan Valley (Punjab, now in Pakistan), Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh — famous for rock shelters and cave paintings, a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Belan Valley, Didwana (Rajasthan).
• No knowledge of agriculture, pottery, or fixed dwellings.

Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age) — c. 10,000 to 6,000 BCE

• Characterised by microliths (small, finely worked stone tools).
• Transition phase: domestication of animals begins; climate became warmer.
• Key sites: Bagor (Rajasthan), Adamgarh (Madhya Pradesh), Langhnaj (Gujarat), Sarai Nahar Rai (Uttar Pradesh — evidence of burial pits).

Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) — c. 6,000 to 1,000 BCE (varies regionally)

• First evidence of settled agriculture, domestication of plants and animals, polished stone tools, pottery, and permanent housing.
• Wheat and barley cultivated in the northwest; rice cultivation evidence found at Koldihwa (Uttar Pradesh) and Mahagara.
• Key sites: Mehrgarh (Baluchistan, Pakistan — earliest known farming settlement in South Asia, c. 7000 BCE), Burzahom (Kashmir — pit dwellings, domesticated dogs buried with masters), Chirand (Bihar), Piklihal and Brahmagiri (Karnataka).

Chalcolithic Age (Copper-Stone Age) — c. 3000 to 1000 BCE

• First use of metal (copper) alongside stone tools; painted pottery emerges.
• Important cultures: Ahar-Banas culture (Rajasthan), Malwa culture, Jorwe culture (Maharashtra), Kayatha culture.
• Sites: Ahar, Gilund, Navdatoli, Daimabad (largest Jorwe site, known for bronze chariot).

Megalithic culture in South India (Iron Age, c. 1000 BCE onward) is marked by large stone burial monuments and the first widespread use of iron tools in the peninsula.