c. 2,000,000 – 2600 BCE · Indian History timeline
Prehistoric India
Event by event
In order
c. 1500000 BCE
The Old Stone Age: India's first toolmakers
In the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic), people in India lived by hunting and gathering and made tools of stone. The oldest dated tools, at Attirampakkam, are about 1.5 million years old.
WhoRobert Bruce Foote · Shanti Pappu
ImpactTool-making sites appear across India, from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to Rajasthan and the Narmada valley.
Causes
- Early people lived by hunting animals and gathering plants, moving from place to place.
Consequences
- Tool-making sites appear across India, from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to Rajasthan and the Narmada valley.
- When the climate grew warmer, the Old Stone Age gave way to the Middle Stone Age.
- Food came only from hunting and gathering; there was no farming yet.
- People lived in small groups that moved from place to place.
PeopleRobert Bruce Foote (First found stone tools at Attirampakkam, in 1863); Shanti Pappu (Led the team that dated the Attirampakkam tools)
For the examStone Age sites matched with their state: Attirampakkam, Isampur, Hathnora, Didwana; Order the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic with their typical tools
Prelims pointerLower Palaeolithic tools: big handaxes and cleavers, called the Acheulian tradition.
ConnectedThe Middle Stone Age and its tiny stone tools (effect); Bhimbetka rock shelters and India's early rock art (parallel); Farming begins: the Neolithic at Mehrgarh (effect)
c. 10000 BCE
The Middle Stone Age and its tiny stone tools
The Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic) began when the climate grew warmer, about 10,000 years ago; some books date it to 10,000 BCE. People made tiny stone tools called microliths.
Prelims pointerMicroliths are tiny stone tools, a few centimetres long, fixed on handles or shafts to make arrows and spears.
ConnectedThe Old Stone Age: India's first toolmakers (cause); Bhimbetka rock shelters and India's early rock art (parallel)
c. 8000 BCE
Bhimbetka rock shelters and India's early rock art
Bhimbetka, in the Vindhyan hills of Madhya Pradesh, has hundreds of rock shelters painted with scenes of hunting, dancing and animals. Its oldest paintings are about 10,000 years old, though some scholars date them earlier.
ImpactThe paintings record daily life over a very long time, from the Mesolithic to historic times.
Causes
- Stone Age people used natural rock shelters in the Vindhyan hills as homes.
Consequences
- The paintings record daily life over a very long time, from the Mesolithic to historic times.
- UNESCO listed the shelters as a World Heritage Site in 2003.
- Among the earliest paintings found in India.
- Scenes of group hunting and dancing show people living and working together.
For the examBhimbetka in the Vindhyan hills, south of Bhopal; Age of the oldest paintings: Mesolithic or Upper Palaeolithic, as the two views differ
Prelims pointerOldest paintings: Mesolithic for UNESCO, but Upper Palaeolithic for NCERT and some scholars.
ConnectedThe Old Stone Age: India's first toolmakers (parallel); The Middle Stone Age and its tiny stone tools (parallel)
c. 7000 BCE
Farming begins: the Neolithic at Mehrgarh
Some of the earliest evidence of **farming** and **herding** in South Asia.
At Mehrgarh, near the Bolan Pass in Balochistan (Pakistan), people began to grow barley and keep sheep, goats and cattle from about 7000 BCE. They lived in mud-brick houses.
ImpactThey settled in villages of mud-brick houses, with rooms for storing grain.
Causes
- People learned to domesticate plants and animals: to tame and breed them for their own use.
Consequences
- They settled in villages of mud-brick houses, with rooms for storing grain.
- The site was lived in for thousands of years, up to the age of the Harappan cities.
- Food now came from farming and herding, not only from hunting.
- People settled in permanent villages instead of moving from camp to camp.
For the examMehrgarh on the Kachi plain, near the Bolan Pass; Main crop at early Mehrgarh: barley, not rice; Site with the earliest cotton evidence in the subcontinent
Prelims pointerThe earliest cotton in the subcontinent was found here: fibres inside a copper bead.
ConnectedThe Old Stone Age: India's first toolmakers (cause); Farming spreads: Burzahom, Chirand and the southern ash mounds (effect); Early Harappan villages and towns (effect)
c. 3500 BCE
Early Harappan villages and towns
Before the big cities came an Early Harappan phase of farming villages and small towns. It ended about 2600 BCE, when the planned Harappan cities began.
Prelims pointerThe ploughed field at Kalibangan (Rajasthan) is from the Early Harappan level, not the later city.
ConnectedIndus Valley Civilisation at its height (effect); Farming begins: the Neolithic at Mehrgarh (cause)
c. 3000 BCE
Dholavira: the Harappan water city of Kutch
Dholavira, on Khadir island in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, was lived in for about 1,500 years, from about 3000 to 1500 BCE. It is known for its water reservoirs and its three-part plan.
ImpactPeople went on living there until about 1500 BCE.
Causes
- People settled on Khadir island, in the Great Rann of Kachchh, about 3000 BCE.
Consequences
- People went on living there until about 1500 BCE.
- UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site in 2021.
- Bead-making workshops show crafts made for trade.
- Its water management is one of the best-known Harappan achievements.
For the examDholavira on Khadir island in the Rann of Kutch; Claim that Dholavira, like most Harappan cities, had only two parts
Prelims pointerMost Harappan cities had two parts; Dholavira had three: castle, middle town and lower town.
ConnectedIndus Valley Civilisation at its height (parallel); Planned cities: Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the major sites (parallel); Trade with Mesopotamia and the port of Lothal (parallel)
c. 3000 BCE
Farming spreads: Burzahom, Chirand and the southern ash mounds
From about 3000 BCE, Neolithic farming villages appeared in many regions of India at different times, from Kashmir and Bihar to the Deccan.
Prelims pointerBurzahom (Kashmir): people lived in pit dwellings and buried dogs with humans.
ConnectedFarming begins: the Neolithic at Mehrgarh (cause)
Notes and practice