The earliest periods of Indian history are known only through
reconstructions from archaeological evidence. In the late twentieth
century, much new data emerged, allowing a far fuller reconstruction
than was formerly possible. Traditional and textual sources,
transmitted orally for many centuries, are available from the
closing centuries of second millennium BC, but their use depends
largely upon the extent to which any passage can be dated or
associated with archaeological evidence.
For the rise of civilization in the Indus Valley and for
contemporary events in other parts of the subcontinent, the
archaeological evidence is still the principal source of
information. Even when it becomes possible to read the short
inscriptions of the Harappan seals, it is unlikely that they will
provide much information to supplement other sources.
The Indian Paleolithic Age
The oldest artifacts yet found on the subcontinent, marking what may be called the beginning of the Indian Lower Paleolithic age, come from the western end of the Shiwalik Hills, near Rawalpindi in northern Pakistan. These quartzite pebble tools and flakes date to about two million years ago, according to paleomagnetic analysis. They represent a pre-hand-axe industry of a type that appears to have persisted for a very long period thereafter. The artifacts are associated with extremely rich sedimentary evidence and fossil fauna, but so far no correlative hominid remains have been found. In the same region, the earliest hand axes (of the type commonly called Acheulian, after an early find in France) have been dated paleomagnetically to about 500,000 years ago.
The Great Indian (Thar) Desert, straddling what is now the southern half of the India-Pakistan border, supplied significant archaeological materials in the late twentieth century. Hand axes found at Didwana, Rajasthan, similar to those from the Shiwalik Hills, yield slightly younger dates of about 400,000 years ago. Examination of the desert soil strata and other evidence has revealed a correlation between prevailing climates and the successive levels of technology that constitute the Paleolithic age. A prolonged humid phase, for example, as attested by reddish-brown soil with a deep profile, appears to have commenced some 140,000 years ago and lasted until about 25,000 years ago, roughly the extent of the Middle Paleolithic Period. During this time the area of the present desert provided a rich environment for hunting. The earliest rock paintings yet discovered in the region date to the Upper Paleolithic age.
Other important Paleolithic sites under excavation in the 1990s included ones at Hunsgi in Karnataka State and in the Vindhya Range separating the Ganga basin from the Deccan Plateau.
Mesolithic Hunters
The progressive diminution in the size of stone artifacts that began in the Middle Paleolithic period reached its climax in the small parallel-sided blades and microliths of what has been called the Indian Mesolithic. A great proliferation of Mesolithic cultures is evident throughout India, although they are known almost exclusively from surface collections of tools. Cultures of this period exhibited a wide variety of subsistence patterns, including hunting and gathering, fishing, and, at least for part of the period, some herding and small-scale agriculture.
Thus, chronologically, the Mesolithic cultures cover an enormous span. In caves of the Hindu Kush in northern Afghanistan, evidence of occupation dating to between 15,000 and 10,000 BC represents the so-called Epipaleolithic stage, which may be considered to fall within the Mesolithic age. The domestication of sheep and goats is thought to have begun in this region and period.
Many of the caves and rock shelters of central India contain rock paintings depicting a variety of subjects, including game animals and such human activities as hunting, honey collecting, and dancing. This art appears to have developed from Upper Paleolithic precursors and reveals much about life in the period. Along with the art have come increasingly clear indications that some of the caves were sites of religious activity.
Neolithic Agriculture in the Indus Valley
The group of sites at Mehrgarh (now in Pakistan) provides evidence of some five or six thousand years of occupation comprising two major periods, the first from the eighth through the sixth millennium BC and the second from the fifth through the fourth (and possibly the third) millennium.
Phase 1A, dating to the eighth-seventh millennium BC, was an aceramic (lacking pottery) Neolithic occupation. The main tools were stone blades. A relatively small number of ground stone axes have been found. Domestication of wheat and barley apparently reached the area some time during this phase, as did that of sheep and goats, although the preponderance of gazelle bones among the animal remains suggests continued dependence on hunting. Houses of mud brick date from the beginning of this phase and continued throughout the occupation. Accompaniments to the simple burial of human remains included shell or stone-bead necklaces, baskets, and occasionally young caprids (both sheep and goats) slaughtered for the purpose.
Phase 1B, dating to the seventh-sixth millennium, is characterized by the emergence of pottery and improvements in agriculture. By the beginning of Phase 1B, cattle (apparently Bos indicus, the Indian humped variety) had come to predominate over game animals, as well as over sheep and goats. A new type of building, the small regular compartments of which identify it almost certainly as a granary, first appeared during this phase and became prevalent in Period II, indicating the frequent occurrence of crop surpluses. Burial took a more elaborate form -- a funerary chamber was dug at one end of a pit, and, after inhumation, the chamber was sealed by a mud brick wall. From the latter phase of Period I also come the first small, hand-modelled female figurines of unburned clay.
The Period I evidence at Mehrgarh provides a clear picture of an early agricultural settlement exhibiting domestic architecture and a variety of well-established crafts. Striking changes characterize Period II. It appears that some major tectonic event took place at the beginning of the period (c. 5500 BC), causing the deposition of great quantities of silt on the plain, almost completely burying the original mound at Mehrgarh.
The Rise of Urbanism in the Indus Valley
From about 5000 BC, increasing numbers of settlements began to appear throughout the Indo-Iranian borderlands. These, as far as can be judged, were village communities of settled agriculturalists, employing common means of subsistence in the cultivation of wheat, barley, and other crops and in the keeping of cattle, sheep, and goats; there was a broadly common level of technology based on the use of stone for some artifacts and copper and bronze for others. Comparison and contrast of the high-quality painted pottery of the period suggest distinct groupings among the communities.
At a somewhat later date, probably towards the middle of the fourth millennium BC, agricultural settlements began to spread more widely in the Indus Valley itself. The earliest of these provide clear links with the cultures along or beyond the western margins of the Indus Valley. In the course of time, a remarkable change took place in the form of the Indus settlements, suggesting that some kind of closer interaction was developing, often over considerable distances, and that a process of convergence was under way. This continued for approximately 500 years and can now be identified as marking a transition towards the full urban society that emerged at Harappa and similar sites around 2600 BC. For this reason, this stage has been named the Early Harappan or Early Indus culture.
Principal sites of the Early Harappan settlements
One of the most significant features of the Early Harappan settlements is the evidence of a hierarchy among the sites, culminating in a number of substantial walled towns. The first site to be recognized as belonging to the Early Harappan period was Amri in 1929. In 1948 Sir Mortimer Wheeler discovered a small deposit of pottery stratified below the remains of the mature Indus city at Harappa. The next site to be excavated with a view to uncovering the Early Harappan period was Kot Diji in Sind. A stone rubble wall surrounded this settlement, which appears to date to about 3000 BC. An even earlier example is Rehman Dheri, near Dera Ismail Khan (now in Pakistan), which appears to have achieved its walled status during the last centuries of the fourth millennium. Here the roughly rectangular, grid-patterned settlement was surrounded by a massive wall of mud brick. Early Harappan Kalibangan (Kali Banga) in Rajasthan resembled Rehman Dheri in form. It later served as the basis for an expanded settlement of the mature Indus civilization. Still farther east in Haryana and the eastern Punjab are many other Early Harappan sites. Among them several have been excavated, notably Banawali and Mitathal. Another example of a walled settlement of the period is Tharro in southern Sind. This was probably originally a coastal site, although it is now many miles from the sea. Here the surrounding wall and the extant traces of houses are of local stone.