Ancient Indian History – Pre-History & Indus Civilization

Geological Time Scale & Major Epochs

• Earth forms $4.6\ \text{billion years ago}$; timeline divided into Eons, Eras, Periods, Epochs
• Precambrian (includes Archean, Proterozoic)
  • Archean: earliest crust; first life > 2.5\ \text{billion y.a.}
  • Proterozoic: oxygen rise, soft-bodied organisms
• Phanerozoic Eon subdivided into:
  • Paleozoic Era
  – Cambrian $542 - 488.3\ \text{m.y.a.}$: explosion of hard-shelled life
  – Ordovician $488.3 - 443\ \text{m.y.a.}$: earliest cartilaginous fish
  – Silurian $443 - 416\ \text{m.y.a.}$: plants/spiders invade land
  – Devonian $416 - 359.2\ \text{m.y.a.}$: “Age of Fishes,” amphibians appear
  – Carboniferous (Mississippian $359.2 - 318\ \text{m.y.a.}$, Pennsylvanian $318 - 299\ \text{m.y.a.}$): coal forests; reptiles emerge; single super-continent forms
  – Permian $299 - 252.2\ \text{m.y.a.}$: reptiles dominate; ends with largest extinction
  • Mesozoic Era
  – Triassic $252.2 - 199.6\ \text{m.y.a.}$: first dinosaurs; Pangaea breaks
  – Jurassic $199.6 - 145.5\ \text{m.y.a.}$: dinosaurs flourish; first birds; small mammals
  – Cretaceous $145.5 - 65.5\ \text{m.y.a.}$: flowering plants; ends with dinosaur extinction (K-T event)
  • Cenozoic Era
  – Paleogene: Paleocene $65.5 - 55.8\ \text{m.y.a.}$, Eocene $55.8 - 33.9\ \text{m.y.a.}$, Oligocene $33.9 - 23\ \text{m.y.a.}$
  – Neogene: Miocene $23 - 5.3\ \text{m.y.a.}$ (warm; apes first appear), Pliocene $5 - 2\ \text{m.y.a.}$ (global cooling; bipedal hominins; continental drift intensifies)
  – Quaternary: Pleistocene $2\ \text{million} - 10{,}000\ \text{BC}$ (Ice Age; discovery of fire); Holocene $10{,}000\ \text{BC – present}$

Prehistoric Cultural Phases (South Asia–centric)

• Pleistocene cultural sequence:
  • Paleolithic $2\ \text{million} - 10{,}000\ \text{BC}$
  • Mesolithic $10{,}000 - 8{,}000\ \text{BC}$
  • Neolithic $8{,}000 - 4{,}000\ \text{BC}$
  • Chalcolithic $4{,}000 - 2{,}000\ \text{BC}$

Paleolithic Age Detailed

Lower Paleolithic $2\ \text{million} - 50{,}000\ \text{BC}$

• Subsistence: hunting & gathering; earliest stone technology (core tools)
• Tool types: hand-axes, cleavers, choppers
• Control/discovery of fire (crucial for warmth & cooking)
• Indian sub-continent sites:
  • Hungsi (Karnataka)
  • Sohan Valley (Punjab, Pakistan)
  • Hiran Valley (Gujarat)
  • Thar Desert (Rajasthan)
  • Pahalgam (Kashmir)

Middle Paleolithic $50{,}000 - 40{,}000\ \text{BC}$

• Characteristic technology: flake tools for sharper edges
• Major sites:
  • Narmada River Valley (M.P.)
  • Tungabhadra Valley (Karnataka)
  • Sanghao Caves & Potwar Plateau (Pakistan)
  • Puruliya & Bankura (W. Bengal)
  • Malprabha & Ghatprabha Valleys (Karnataka)

Upper Paleolithic $40{,}000 - 10{,}000\ \text{BC}$

• Innovations: burins (engraving/fishing), bone points, beginning of art (monochrome cave paintings)
• Key Indian localities:
  • Bhimbetka rock shelters (Raisen, M.P.; along Narmada)
  • Lokhaiya village (U.P.)
  • Tool scatters in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka & Chota Nagpur Plateau

Mesolithic Age $10{,}000 - 8{,}000\ \text{BC}$

• Transitional phase; warmer post-glacial climate
• Microliths: tiny retouched blades for composite tools
• Domestication begins
  • Global first: dog in Israel/Palestine
  • Indian first evidence at Adamgarh (Hoshangabad, M.P.)
• Cultural artifacts:
  • Bone ornaments – Mahadaha (Pratapgarh, U.P.)
  • Antler/horn equipment – Damdama (Allahabad, U.P.)
  • Paintings: both monochrome (white) & polychrome (white, red, green); brushes from twigs & squirrel-tail fur
• Site highlight: Bagor (Rajasthan) on Kotari River—dense microlithic horizon

Neolithic Age $8{,}000 - 4{,}000\ \text{BC}$

• "New Stone Age" term coined by John Lubbock
• Hallmarks:
  • Agriculture & animal husbandry established
  • Domesticated crops: wheat, barley, rice
  – Earliest wheat & barley: Mehrgarh (Baluchistan, Pakistan); houses of mud-brick
  – Earliest world rice: Yangtze River valley (China)
  – Earliest Indian rice: Koldihawa (Allahabad, U.P.)
• Notable Indian sites:
  • Burzahom (Kashmir) – pit dwellings, dog burials
  • Maski & Brahmagiri (Karnataka)
  • Payampalli (Tamil Nadu)
  • Giyak & Kiari (Ladakh)

Chalcolithic Age $4{,}000 - 2{,}000\ \text{BC}$

• Copper first metal exploited; stone tools continue → "copper-stone age"
• Western Maharashtra heartland (Jorwe culture)
  • Majority villages along Godavari River
  • Pottery: light yellow & reddish surfaces; painted motifs; forced shift to ceramics due to copper usage
  • Shakambari venerated as fertility goddess
  • Principal sites:
  – Daimabad (Ahmednagar) – bronze chariot sculpture
  – Songaon (Pune)
  – Inamgaon (Nashik)

Key Anthropological / Archaeological Facts

• First Homo erectus fossil in India: Hathnora (Narmada Basin)
• Earliest hominin globally: Africa, $4.2\ \text{m.y.a.}$
• Epithets:
  • "Father of History" – Herodotus
  • "Father of Indian Prehistory" – Robert Bruce Foote (discovered Pallavaram hand-axe, 1863)
  • "Father of Protohistory" – John Marshall (former Director-General ASI; excavated Harappa, Mohenjo-daro)
  • "Father of Indian Archaeology" – Alexander Cunningham

Evolutionary Line (Cenozoic–Quaternary)

• Primates → Pliopithecus → Proconsul → Dryopithecus → Oreopithecus → Ramapithecus → Australopithecus → Paranthropus → Homo erectus → early Homo sapiens (e.g., Solo, Rhodesian) → Neanderthal → Cro-Magnon → modern Homo sapiens sapiens
• Quaternary Ice Ages begin $2\ \text{m.y.a.}$; modern humans arise $\approx 200{,}000\ \text{y.a.}$

Ancient River-Valley Civilizations (Chap 2)

Mesopotamian Civilization

• Flourishes $\approx 5{,}000\ \text{BC}$ between Tigris–Euphrates; present Iraq/Iran/Syria/SE Turkey
• Dominant peoples: Sumerians, Akkadians (Semites)
• Sumerians produced earliest known script (cuneiform)
• Religion: polytheistic yet secular city-administration
• Architecture: burnt-brick houses, ziggurats

Egyptian Civilization

• Unified kingdom $\approx 3{,}100\ \text{BC}$ along Nile
• Innovations: date-palm cultivation, hieroglyphs, solar calendar
• Belief in afterlife → pyramids & funerary Sphinx; elaborate mummification
• Contemporary with Indus Valley Civilization (IVC)

Chinese (Yellow River) Civilization

• Begins $\approx 4{,}000\ \text{BC}$ around Huang-He (Yellow) River
• Loess soils enable intensive agriculture; millet first, later rice in south
• Well-developed trade networks with other Old-World areas

Indus Valley / Harappan Civilization Overview

• Temporal span: broadly $3{,}000 - 1{,}500\ \text{BC}$ (Mature phase $2{,}600 - 1{,}900\ \text{BC}$)
• Geographic footprint: triangular region $\approx 850{,}000\ \text{km}^2$; largest Bronze-Age urban culture
• Extent marked by key peripheral sites:
  • Manda (J&K) on Chenab/Indus
  • Alamgirpur (U.P.) on Hindon/Yamuna
  • Daimabad (Maharashtra) on Pravara/Godavari
  • Sutkagen-dor (Balochistan) on Dasht River (westernmost)

Major Harappan Sites & Salient Finds

Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan) – discovered $1921$ by Daya Ram Sahni

• Bank of Ravi River; large granary; evidence of brick reuse for 1875 Lahore-Multan railway
• Finds: printed pottery, dice, copper scale, vanity box, bronze Nataraja image; phallic (lingam) symbol worship

Mohenjo-daro (Sindh) – discovered $1922$ by R.D. Banerjee

• On Indus River, "Mound of the Dead"
• Public works: Great Bath, granary, pillared assembly hall
• Artifacts: bronze nude dancing girl (“Banjara Lady”) in tribhaṅga pose; steatite bearded priest-king; Pashupati seal (proto-Shiva with tiger, elephant, rhinoceros, two deer)

Dholavira (Khadir Bet, Kutch, Gujarat) – excavated by J.P. Joshi

• Island city cut by Tropic of Cancer; threefold town plan (upper, middle, lower)
• Huge water reservoirs; inscribed signboard in Indus script; Iranian-style seals → trade hub

Lothal (Gujarat) – S.R. Rao, $1957$

• On Bhogava River; nicknamed "Manchester of Harappan textile"; 6-sector township
• World’s oldest known dockyard (tidal), bead furnace, terracotta measuring scale; seals linking to Mesopotamia & Iran

Kalibangan (Hanumangarh, Rajasthan) – A. Ghosh & Luigi Pio Tessitori

• Ghaggar/Saraswati bank; both Pre-Harappan & Mature layers
• Unique: furrowed ploughed field; 7 fire altars → fire cult (Murukan)
• Camel bones recovered

Surkotada (Bhuj, Gujarat) – J.P. Joshi, $1964$

• Notable for equid (horse) skeletal remains inside fort

Rakhigarhi (Fatehabad, Haryana)

• Largest known Harappan city (over $150\ \text{ha}$); still under excavation

Sutkagen-dor (Dasht River, Pakistan) – Aurel Stein

• Western trade outpost; links with Babylon; copper axe, ash-filled pot

Society, Economy & Beliefs of Harappans

• Religion: polytheist & largely secular governance
  • Deities: proto-Shiva/Pashupati (yogi in horned headdress), Mother Goddess (fertility), animistic forces (trees, rivers)
  • Phallic (lingam) & yonic symbols common
  • Fire altars at Kalibangan; yet no clear temple architecture
• Social life: toys (terracotta cart, whistles), marble dolls; but no musical instruments recovered so far
• Animal husbandry: elephant, donkey, goat, sheep, cattle, camel; horse evidenced only at Surkotada
• Technology:
  • Bronze metallurgy; copper tools; no knowledge of iron
  • Script: pictographic; written Boustrophedon (alternate line direction); undeciphered
  • Standardized weights (binary system) & linear measures (Lothal scale)
• Pottery:
  • Well-fired red ware with light yellow slip; utilitarian & decorative
  • Types: plain, painted (black designs), and glazed/varnished for shine
  • Decoration tools: cord-impressions, incised motifs, slip painting

Causes Suggested for Harappan Decline

• Natural calamities: earthquakes (Raikes & Dales), floods (S.R. Rao), shifting/ drying rivers (D.P. Agrawal cites Saraswati desiccation)
• Epidemics: leprosy, tuberculosis traces in skeletons
• Gradual ecological & socio-economic factors likely combined rather than single invasion hypothesis