UPSC Notes for Ancient History of India | UPSC Exams

Ancient History of India: Archaeological, Numismatic, Epigraphic, Literary, and Foreign Accounts

Ancient History of India: 200,000 BC – 1500 BC, from Stone to Iron Age

India’s Stone Age: Paleolithic to Chalcolithic Eras (2M BC – 1500 BC)

1(a): LOWER PALAEOLITHIC AGE [700,000 BC – 100,000 BC] (Homoeractus)

• Learned to control fire for roasting meat and warding off animals. Hunting and food gathering. Lived on trees and in caves.

• Simply chopper–chopping i.e., crude and rough tools prepared out of pebbles.

• Hand Axes and Cleavers

• Bori, Didwana, Bhimbetka, Attirampakkam, Nagarjunkonda, etc.

1(b): MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC AGE [100,000 BC – 40,000 BC] (Neanderthal)

• Language was invented in this period + Remained hunters and food gatherers.

• Refined and lighter tools made of harder stone material like flint.

• Diversified tools based on flakes: blades, pointers, scrapers and borers.

• Nevasa, Bhimbetka, Didwana, Belan Valley in UP etc.

1(c): UPPER PALAEOLITHIC AGE [40,000 BC – 10,000 BC] (Homo sapiens)

• Other hominin species were eliminated by this time.

• Even more refined and light tools. These were backed blades with two cutting edges.

• Blades, scrapers, and burns could be fitted in handles; Bone tools like needles, harpoons etc.

• Renigunta, Bardia, Belan Valley in UP, Patna etc.

2. MESOLITHIC AGE [10,000 BC – 8000 BC]

• First people used bow and arrow; big animals were hunted down easily.
• First burials are reported and use of stone-ornaments also appears.
• Domestication of animals: sheep and goats

• Microlith tools i.e., tools made of micro-sized stones and were very refined.
• [Transitional Period between Palaeolithic and Neolithic Age]

• Bow and arrow and other microliths in various shapes like moon, triangular, square, rectangle, crescents and arrow-head.

• Bhimbetka, Mahadaha, Sarai Nahar Rai, Adamgarh etc.
• Earliest cave paintings at Bhimbetka (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

3. NEOLITHIC AGE [8000 BC – 4000 BC]

• Lived in huts, reared cattle, developed agriculture (wheat, barley, cotton, rice etc.), used earthenware (both handmade and wheel-made).

• Sharper, symmetrical and polished stone tools for not only hunting but agriculture also.

• Daggers, digging sticks, celts, grinding stones, sickle, saw, sling-stones etc. (continuous rubbing to smoothen)

• Mehrgarh (Pakistan), Burzahom, Chirand, Brahmagiri, Daojali Hading, Koldihwa and Maski etc.

CHALCOLITHIC AGE [4000 BC – 1500 BC]

• Settled community life.
• Crops cultivated were: barley, wheat, lentil, bajra, jowar, ragi millets, green pea, green and black gram and cotton.
• Rice and Fish was used as food.
• Technically separate but Harappan civilization evolved out of the Chalcolithic Culture.

• Copper and stone tools were used simultaneously.
• Craft too started to develop coppersmiths, and weavers were present.
• Used Black and Red Ware. Painted pottery, in black pigment; decorated with different shapes.

• Knives, axes, fishing hooks, chisels, pins, and rods were made of copper and its alloys.
• Beads of semi-precious stones and the Terracotta image of Mother Goddess are reported.
• Deaths were buried in urns; at times with tools and objects.

• Spread all over the Indian Subcontinent.
• IMP SITES: Navdatoli, Jorwe, Daimabad, Ahar Banas, Malwa, Inamgaon, Mehgam, Kausambi, Alamgirpur, Ropar etc.

• Could not fully utilize the-domesticated animals.
• Unaware of -Iron, horse and script.
• Marks the beginning of use metal in place of stone yet burnt brick was generally absent.
• High Child Mortality is indicated by a large number of child burials.

Conclusion

Aryans and Iron: India’s Rigvedic Era Begins