Pre-Historic India

Pre-History is the study of all the events occurring before writing was known to the humans and proto-history is the period when writing was not known but the period is mentioned in the contemporary civilization or any later literate culture. Generally, this period was started form the evolution of Human beings and lasted till 1000 BC, but it may vary from culture to culture. So, this article is about the Pre-historic period at Indian subcontinent like when, where and how it flourished.
Let's start;

Introduction -

As we know what does the word pre-history means; it is referred to the domain of study of all the events occurring before the invention of writing to the humans or basically the period in which the humans just started to socialise. So, by this definition all the cultures before Harappan Civilization are considered to be the part of the pre-historic period and the harappan civilization itself is the part of proto-history as the writing of the Harappan period have been found on various seals, inscriptions, etc. which is not deciphered yet but found its existence in the contemporary Mesopotamian  civilizations' written records. Basically, the study of Pre-historic period includes the study of the tools and the dead remains of the people found at various places. The first such tool to be discovered in India was the Pallavaram handaxe of Palaeolithic period. The contribution of Robert Bruce Foote and Sir Mortimer Wheeler remains very unique and significant as both of them put many efforts to the study of the pre-historic culture in India and helped in providing proper knowledge of that period. The pre-historic period is also known as stone age as mainly the stones were used as tools for all the purpose from hunting to lightening up the fire. Thus, the period is divided on the basis of stone tools used by the people and is divided in three phases:

 1. Palaeolithic Age (Old Stone Age)  -  500000-10000 BC.

 2. Mesolithic Age (Late Stone Age)  -   10000-6000 BC.

 3. Neolithic Age (New Stone Age)    -   6000-1000 BC.

Human Development in Pre-Historic Era -

The development of Human Brain's creativity was started from this period only as all the major inventions and innovations took place in the pre-historic period like the invention of wheel and the discovery of fire. And after the discovery of fire, the innovation of cooking food took place, just like this the human brain kept on progressing in this period and led to the foundation of the earlier civilizations. It was this period of stones in which farming was first practiced by humans which led to the permanent settlement of humans at a particular place as the dependency on hunting for food declined gradually. Also, the humans started using the stones as different tools for various uses in this period only. Thus, we can say that this pre-historic period led to the foundations of the civilizations as all the major reforms which were necessary for the civilization to flourish took place in this period only. If all these discoveries and inventions did not occur at that time, it would not be possible for any civilization to happen.

Also read a article on Palaeolithic age at /palaeolithic-age-in-india.

Origin of Man in India - 

The first homo sapiens in the Indian Subcontinent were discovered at Fa Hien in Sri Lanka which is considered to be 34000 years old. The modern human arrived in the Indian Subcontinent from Africa by crossing the entire Indian Ocean which was frozen during the ice age. Thus, the humans arrived in India from south, not from north as it is thought generally. Also, the oldest skull fossile found was Ramapithecus and was found in the Shivaliks. The major evolution took place at Africa only but in the later phase of evolution both Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus became extinct and thus how homo erectus later became homo sapiens in India. And later the Palaeolithic age was started by those homo sapiens.

Different Ages -

The pre-historic period is divided in three important time period or ages and those ages are Palaeolithic age; Mesolithic age; and Neolithic age. Here, the three words are derived from greek words which are 'palaeo'  means old, 'meso' means middle, 'neo' means new, and 'lith' means stone. Thus, it is clear now that why these ages were named so, as Palaeolithic age means the old stone age, Mesolithic age means the middle stone age and the Neolithic age means the newest stone age. The Old Stone Age began in 500000 BC and ended up roughly around 10000 BC. The Mesolithic and Neolithic ages started in 10000 BC and 6000 BC respectively and ended up around 6000 BC and 1000 BC. This is how the whole Pre-historic India is divided in the time period and the development of the people. The Chalcolithic age is also considered to be in the Pre-historic period as the writing was not invented at that time, however, people started using metals for making tools instead of the stones.

These are just the brief details of the Pre-Historic India and there is lot more about all the ages in many other articles which are specifically wrote on those ages and have detailed description of all the ages in it. Check out all those articles also.

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.