6.5 India

The sub-continent of India had substantial human occupation from the early Stone Age onwards.

Map of India - source freeworldmaps

India produced hand-made, cord impressed, pottery around 8,000 BC, firstly flat and shallow items then deeper bowls, using relatively sophisticated kilns. The discovery of rice husks to temper clay pottery around this date at the Koldihawa and Mahagara sites in the Ganges Basin of East India is taken by some experts to indicate domestication of rice and its close link with early pottery, but others question this interpretation.

However, barley was cultivated in North India around 7,000 BC. At this time to the west of the Indus Valley, in the hills of the present Baluchistan, early settled farmers also domesticated wheat and a variety of animals including, a little later, cattle. Although it is possible that the farming technology was transferred from the Middle East, it is more likely to be indigenous as the dates are so similar and the emphasis is on humped cattle rather than goats or sheep. This, possibly the first farming culture in South Asia, was named after the first settlement discovered – Mehrgarh. This settlement was the regional centre for ceramic production and high-quality, hand-made, slip-painted, kiln-fired pottery was made here around 6,000 BC. Symbols were painted on some of these that eventually contributed to a written script. Burials took place in open spaces in the settlement, with the dead wearing ornaments, such as beads, made from bone, shell and limestone together with pottery grave goods. Surprisingly they practiced dentistry at this early date – nine human molars have been found with holes from 1.3 to 3.2 mm deep using flint drills.

It is of note that Baluchistan and to the east the Indus Valley region lie on the ancient route used by successive waves of migrations from the Indo-Aryans to Huns, and later by Turks and Mughals to South Asia over the passes in the Hindu Kush.