Prehistoric India: Palaeolithic and Mesolithic

The Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic)

Prehistory is the long period before writing. Everything we know about it comes from archaeology (the study of things left behind): stone tools, bones, hearths (fireplaces), rock paintings and, later, pots and houses. Historians name each age after the main material used for tools: the Stone Age (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic), then the Chalcolithic, when copper came into use beside stone. (“Lithic” means stone; palaeo, meso, neo mean old, middle, new.) The dates below are rough and vary from region to region.

The Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age was the age of hunter-gatherers. With no farms, they moved with the seasons and lived near water and good stone. In 1863 Robert Bruce Foote found a hand axe at Pallavaram near Chennai, the first Palaeolithic tool identified in India. Tools from Attirampakkam in Tamil Nadu have been dated to about 1.5 million years ago, among the oldest in South Asia. The only early human fossil from India is a skull cap (the top of a skull) found at Hathnora in the Narmada valley (Madhya Pradesh) in 1982.

Remember the pattern: tools got smaller and sharper over time, from heavy hand axes to flakes (thin chips struck off a stone) to thin blades. The Upper Palaeolithic matches the time when modern humans (Homo sapiens) spread across India, the last Ice Age ended and the first rock art appeared.

What UPSC asks

Prelims: site and tool pairs (Attirampakkam, Hathnora, Nevasa). Mains: why prehistory is known only from archaeology.

The Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic) and rock art

The Mesolithic (about 12,000 to 8,000 years ago, lasting much longer in some areas) came after the Ice Age. A warmer climate brought more grass, forests and animals. People still hunted, fished and gathered, but they began to stay longer in one place and, at a few sites, to herd animals.

The typical Mesolithic tool is the microlith: tiny stone blades, often under 5 cm, fixed into wood or bone handles to make arrows, spears and sickles. Bagor in Rajasthan, the largest Mesolithic site in India, and Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh give the earliest evidence of animal domestication (taming animals for human use) in India. Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha and Damdama in the Ganga plain (Uttar Pradesh) show the first planned burials: the dead were laid in graves with tools and ornaments.

Rock paintings show us how these people thought. Bhimbetka, near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, has over 700 rock shelters. V. S. Wakankar discovered it in 1957, and it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. The paintings run from the Upper Palaeolithic to the historical period, and most belong to the Mesolithic. They show hunting, dancing, honey collection, animals such as bison, deer, tigers and elephants, and, in later layers, riders and processions. Colours came from minerals: red from haematite (geru), white from limestone, green and yellow from other stones.

Mains 2015 asked candidates to critically evaluate this comment: Mesolithic rock-cut architecture of India not only reflects the cultural life of the times but also a fine aesthetic sense comparable to modern painting. The question really means the rock art of shelters such as Bhimbetka, Adamgarh and Lakhajoar. It shows daily life (hunting, gathering, dance, family scenes) and real skill: movement, X-ray style animals (bones and insides drawn as if seen through the skin) and balance. “Critically evaluate” means give both sides. Limits: figures are mostly stick-like, there is no depth (perspective), dating is uncertain, and “comparable to modern painting” is a modern judgement.

What UPSC asks

Prelims: microliths; Bagor and Adamgarh; Bhimbetka facts. Mains: rock art as culture and art (2015).