Palaeolithic Age in India

The Palaeolithic age also known as the old stone age was started roughly around 500000 BCE and ended in the 10000 BCE. The word 'Palaeo' means old and 'lith' means stone, thus, the word Palaeolithic means old stone age. This was the period in which the humans just started developing as such they are now-a-days, thus, all the basic human development occurred in this phase only. This age is further divided into three periods which are Lower Palaeolithic period, Middle Palaeolithic age, and Upper Palaeolithic age which are also discussed in details later in this article. There is much more to read and less time for reading, so let's start;

Life of the People -

The Negrito race people were the one lived during the Palaeolithic age, they used to live in the caves and the rock shelter. People used to live in the groups of a few and were depended on hunting for food as farming was not introduced till that time. In the later phase, however, the fire was discovered by the people which helped them in living in dark and also cooking the food. They people were almost had no knowledge of not only agriculture but also the things like houses, pottery, or use of any metal were not known by them. The only source of the information of this period is the fossils and the stone tools remains found at various places during excavation. People used a harsh life in the both the lower and middle Palaeolithic age and lived a cosy life inside the caves which were all dark and fed on the animals which they hunted, and generally there is no difference between both the ages but the tools used in both the ages were different and the sites they spread on. The Upper Palaeolithic age was the period when the fire was discovered and thus, much aspects of the life of the people changed dramatically. They started living in night outside there caves by using fire as the source of light and also started cooking food. 

Sites of Palaeolithic Age -

It spread in all parts of India except the plains of Indus and Ganga river which suggests that the plains at that time lacked high density of the animals which were necessary for the survival of the people at that time as they only relied on animals for food and did not spread in that area because the animal density was might not good there. The lower Palaeolithic people spread across the Kashmir,  Rajasthan and also in the Bhimbetka region and Belan Valley near Mirzapur. While the upper Palaeolithic population spread in the cave sites of Kurnool and Muchchatla Chintamani Gavi in Andhra Pradesh and the middle Palaeolithic people spread in the Narmada and Tungabhadra valley and the Potwar plateau. Thus, the point to be note here is that, the humans spread in India from South to North direction and not from North to South.

Discovery of Fire -

The fire was discovered accidentally in this period only. Earlier the man had seen the forest fire but did not know the reason behind it until one day someone accidentally rubbed two stones which produced the spark which lit the fire in the dry leaves and wood around it. And later after practicing it perfectly they started producing fire easily and used it for various purposes which eventually reduced there dependency on sun for light as now they can produce the light from the fire. Thus, in this way the discovery of fire helped the mankind a lot. The fire was not used only as the source of light but was also used for keeping them warm and also frightening the animals during night. Man, gradually, also learnt that the food tasted better when heated on the fire.

Tools Used -

The Palaeolithic people were depended on stone tools only for any purpose as no metal was discovered at that time. The tools were generally made of a hard rock called 'quartzite' and that's why the Palaeolithic people are also called ' Quartzite men ', specially in India. All the three ages of Palaeolithic period witnessed different types of stone tools. The Upper Palaeolithic period people used Parallel sided blades, burins and some bone tools which were used mainly for hunting and chopping of flesh; while flakes' tools, scrapers, borers, and points were used in the Middle  Palaeolithic age; and the lower Palaeolithic age witnessed the use of very basic kind of stone hand axes, choppers and cleavers. The lower Palaeolithic age flourished from 500000 BC to 50000 BC while after that middle Palaeolithic age ended around 40000 BC, after that upper Palaeolithic age occurred till the start of Mesolithic age i.e. 10000 BC.

This is what occurred during the Palaeolithic age and later after the 10000 BCE, the Mesolithic age started which was much same as the Palaeolithic age in terms of living. Palaeolithic age flourished all over the world, however, it is considered that it came late in India from the rest of the world while the real facts are just assumptions on the basis of things discovered during the excavations and there is possibility of skipping of some place where a lot more could be found of the Palaeolithic age.

Also read about Pre-Historic India at Pre-Historic India.

Also check our article on relation of town planning of Harappan Culture with the modern day urbanisation at Modern world and Harappan Culture.

These articles are strictly for the UPSC CSE Mains Exams. Also it is useful for the students who are going to appear for the different state boards.