Mesolithic Age in India: Microliths, Sites and Bhimbetka Rock Paintings

Overview

The Mesolithic Age, or Middle Stone Age, is the period of Indian prehistory from about 12,000 to about 10,000 years ago and lies between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic. It began with a warmer climate, and its people, still hunters and gatherers, used microliths, tiny stone tools set in handles, and painted the largest body of prehistoric rock art in India, above all at Bhimbetka.

Mesolithic Age: The Middle Stone Age in India

What Is the Mesolithic Age? Time Period and Meaning

The name comes from Greek, in which mesos means "middle" and lithos means "stone", so the Mesolithic Age is the Middle Stone Age, lying between the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) and the Neolithic (New Stone Age). Hodder Westropp introduced the term in 1866 for a stage between those two, and some scholars use the word Epipalaeolithic for the same stage. Because its typical tools are microliths, it is also called the microlithic age.

The change that opened the age was in the climate. Around 12,000 years ago the world became relatively warm, grasslands spread, and grass-eating animals such as deer, antelope, goat, sheep and cattle increased. People moved from hunting large animals in groups to a broader way of life that mixed hunting, fishing and gathering, and they needed smaller, sharper tools for it.

The dates differ from region to region. In Europe the Mesolithic runs roughly from 15,000 to 5,000 years ago, and in the Middle East, where it is called the Epipalaeolithic, roughly from 20,000 to 10,000 years ago. The Indian dates of 12,000 to 10,000 years ago belong to the same worldwide change that followed the end of the last great Ice Age.

Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic Ages Compared

The three ages differ most in their tools, their food and how long people stayed in one place. The Palaeolithic was the age of large hand axes, flakes and blades used by hunter-gatherers who moved constantly; the Mesolithic added microliths set in handles, a wider range of food and the largest body of rock painting; the Neolithic brought polished tools, farming and villages.

Table 1. Difference between the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic Ages
Feature Palaeolithic Mesolithic Neolithic
Time 2 million to 12,000 years ago 12,000 to 10,000 years ago From about 10,000 years ago
Tools Hand axes, flakes, blades Microliths set in handles Polished tools, mortars and pestles
Food Hunting large animals, gathering Hunting, fishing, gathering Crops such as wheat and barley
Animals Hunted Hunted; first signs of herding Sheep, goat and cattle reared
Settlement Constantly on the move Some longer stays, burials Villages
Art Few paintings (Bhimbetka Period I) Most paintings (Period II) Paintings on granite rocks

Microliths: Mesolithic Age Tools

What Are Microliths? Shapes and Types

A microlith was made by breaking a small blade from a stone core and trimming it sharply into shape. The trimming left a typical piece of waste called a microburin. Archaeologists sort the tools into two families. Laminar microliths are slightly larger and closer to blades; geometric microliths, shaped as triangles, trapezes or lunates, are characteristic of the Mesolithic and the Neolithic.

Left: Five common shapes of microliths, each only a few centimetres long: Lunate, triangle, trapeze, point and backed blade. Right: Three composite tools. A spear or harpoon armed with 6 to 18 microliths as barbs; an arrow with only one or two; a sickle or saw with a row of blades set in a groove of a curved handle. Resin and fibre fixed the stone to a handle of wood or bone, and a broken microlith could be replaced while the handle was used again.

The rock shelters of Lekhahia in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, show the order in which these shapes appeared, layer by layer:

  1. Earlier forms: Parallel-sided blades, backed blades, points, lunates and scrapers.
  2. Then triangles: Triangles appear, but trapezes are still absent and there is no pottery.
  3. Then both: Geometric and non-geometric tools together, with pottery coming into use only after the geometric tools.

Microliths themselves are older than the Mesolithic. In India they appear at Mahadebbera and Kana in West Bengal in the Upper Palaeolithic, between 42,000 and 25,000 years ago. In the Mesolithic they became the usual tool, and most stone tools of the period are tiny.

Mesolithic Age Tools in Use: Hafting and Composite Tools

A single microlith is too small to use alone. Microliths were stuck onto handles of bone or wood with resin and fibre, which is called hafting, to make composite tools such as saws and sickles and the points and barbs of spears, harpoons and arrows.

  • Many to a weapon: A spear or harpoon could carry 6 to 18 microliths, but an arrow needed only one or two.
  • Easy repair: A dull or broken microlith was easy to replace, while making a new handle took more work.
  • Old tools too: Older varieties of tools stayed in use alongside the microliths.

The rock paintings show these tools at work. Hunters at Bhimbetka are painted hunting in groups with barbed spears, pointed sticks, arrows and bows, and some are shown with traps and snares to catch animals.

Mesolithic Sites in India

Bagor, Tilwara and Langhnaj: Mesolithic Sites of Western India

Western India has some of the best-studied Mesolithic sites. Bagor, on the left bank of the Kothari river in the Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, is the largest Mesolithic site in India. It has been excavated horizontally, that is, opened across a wide area rather than in a narrow trench, and it has three cultural phases.

  • Bagor, Rajasthan: Five human skeletons buried in a planned manner, and evidence that people who still hunted had begun to keep animals.
  • Tilwara, Rajasthan: A village on the Luni river where evidence of the Mesolithic culture has been excavated.
  • Langhnaj, Gujarat: In Mehsana district; bones of wild animals of the Mesolithic period, among them rhinoceros, wild boar, chital, nilgai and blackbuck, with seven human skeletons and a large number of microliths.

The animal bones at Langhnaj show that the land around the site was a mix of savannah and forest with wetlands in between, which supported both hunting and gathering. The University of London and the Deccan College, Pune, excavated there from 1944 to 1963.

Mesolithic Sites of the Vindhyas and the Ganga Valley

The Vindhya hills and the Ganga valley form the second great cluster of Mesolithic sites. The Adamgarh hills near Narmadapuram in Madhya Pradesh have rock shelters with paintings, and Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic tools have been excavated there.

  • Lekhahia, Mirzapur: Skeletal remains from a rock shelter, some finds older than the microliths, and the layered sequence of tool shapes.
  • Chopani Mando, Prayagraj: On the Belan river, excavated by G. R. Sharma in 1967 and 1977; its three phases run from the Palaeolithic through the Mesolithic to the Neolithic, and its finds include circular and oval huts with hearths, hand-made cord-impressed pottery, microliths and remains of rice.
  • Sarai Nahar Rai, Pratapgarh: A microlithic settlement whose finds point to hunting, fishing and early burial practices.
  • Mahadaha, Pratapgarh: A Mesolithic settlement of the Ganga valley, excavated in 1977 and 1978.
Map of north and central India with the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Chambal and Narmada, the Thar and the Vindhya hills, and twelve numbered sites. Habitation sites of the west and centre: Bagor in Rajasthan, the largest Mesolithic site; Tilwara in Rajasthan; Langhnaj in Gujarat, with bones of wild animals; Adamgarh near Narmadapuram, with tools and painted shelters. Rock art: Bhimbetka, with about 500 painted shelters; the Pahargarh caves near Morena, with over 600 paintings; Anangpur and Mangar Bani in Delhi NCR; Lakhudiyar near Almora. Habitation sites of the Ganga valley: Sarai Nahar Rai and Mahadaha in Pratapgarh; Chopani Mando on the Belan, with huts and pottery; Lekhahia in Mirzapur, whose layers give the order of the tools. Earlier: Kana in West Bengal, where microliths are dated between 42,000 and 25,000 years ago.

Chopani Mando marks the move from food gathering towards food production. The early dates proposed for rice in the Belan valley and the middle Ganga plain are disputed, however. Fresh studies of nearby sites such as Koldihwa and Lahuradewa place clear farming much later, so the rice here is best read as a sign of change rather than of full farming.

Mesolithic Rock Paintings: Bhimbetka and Other Sites

Bhimbetka Rock Shelters: Location, Discovery and World Heritage

The richest rock paintings of India are in the Vindhya ranges of Madhya Pradesh and their extensions into Uttar Pradesh, hills full of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic remains. The largest and most spectacular site is the Bhimbetka rock shelters in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, about 45 kilometres from Bhopal in the foothills of the Vindhya range. Its natural shelters lie in massive sandstone outcrops inside the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary, about 800 in all, 500 of which bear paintings.

  • Discovery: Found in 1957‑58 by the archaeologist V. S. Wakankar, who spent years surveying the hills.
  • Five clusters: Groups of natural shelters with paintings that run from the Mesolithic to the historical period.
  • World Heritage: Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.
  • Living links: The traditions of the 21 adivasi villages around the site still resemble those shown in the paintings.

The site is more than an art gallery. Its shelters were lived in from the Stone Age onwards, so tools, layers of occupation and paintings are found together, and the paintings can be read beside the life of the people who made them.

Bhimbetka Cave Paintings: Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Chalcolithic

The paintings of Bhimbetka are grouped into seven periods by style, technique and superimposition. The first three are Period I (Upper Palaeolithic), Period II (Mesolithic) and Period III (Chalcolithic); four more follow.

  • Period I, Upper Palaeolithic: Linear drawings in green and dark red of huge animals, bison, elephants, tigers, rhinos and boars, beside stick-like human figures; the green paintings show dancers, the red ones hunters.
  • Period II, Mesolithic: The largest number of paintings; the themes multiply while the figures grow smaller, and hunting scenes predominate. Some scenes are read as a war between three tribes shown by their animal totems; others show musical instruments, mothers and children, men carrying dead animals, drinking and burials.
  • Period III, Chalcolithic: The cave dwellers' contact with the farming communities of the Malwa plains; pottery and metal tools are shown, and the paintings share motifs such as cross-hatched squares and lattices with Chalcolithic pottery. The vividness and vitality of the earlier periods disappear.
Drawing of a sandstone rock face at Bhimbetka with three periods of paintings, one over another. Lowest and oldest, Period I, Upper Palaeolithic: A huge animal drawn in outline in dark red, with stick-like human figures. Over it, Period II, Mesolithic: A group of small hunters with bows and a hunted animal; this period has the largest number of paintings, with smaller figures and hunting scenes predominating. On top, Period III, Chalcolithic: A cross-hatched lattice in white, a motif shared with Chalcolithic pottery; this period shows contact with the farmers of the Malwa plains, pottery and metal tools, and is less vivid. Newer layers lie on top of older ones, and some shelters carry as many as 20.

Themes, Colours and Style of Mesolithic Rock Paintings

Mesolithic artists loved to paint animals. Elephant, bison, tiger, boar, deer, antelope, leopard, rhinoceros, fish, frog, lizard, squirrel and birds all appear, sometimes chasing men and sometimes hunted by them, painted with fear in some scenes and with tenderness in others. A careful study of the animals at Bhimbetka has also found sloth bear, wolf, hyaena, hare, monkeys, turtle and peafowl, with deer and antelope the most numerous, and one domesticated dog.

  • Human figures: Humans are drawn in a stylised way and animals naturalistically; women, the young and the old, and children running and playing all appear.
  • Daily life: Community dances, gathering fruit or honey, women grinding and preparing food, and scenes that seem to show family life.
  • Marks: Hand prints, fist prints and dots made by the fingertips.
  • Colours: White, yellow, orange, red ochre, purple, brown, green and black, with white and red the favourites.

The colours were made by grinding rocks and minerals. Red came from haematite, known as geru, green from a green variety of the stone chalcedony, and white perhaps from limestone. The powder was mixed with water and a sticky substance such as animal fat, gum or resin, and applied with brushes of plant fibre. A chemical reaction with the oxide on the rock surface is believed to have kept the colours intact for thousands of years.

Why Mesolithic People Painted: Meaning of the Rock Art

The purpose of the paintings can only be inferred, but their placing gives clues. Some were painted in the shelters where people lived; others in places that do not seem to have been living spaces at all, which may have had religious importance. Some of the finest are high up, near the ceilings of the shelters, perhaps so that people could see them from a distance.

  • Power over animals: Paintings of hunts and dying animals may have given people a sense of power over the animals they would meet in the open.
  • Ritual: Communities today still paint or engrave rocks in rituals at birth, death, coming of age and marriage, and dance masked in hunting rites.
  • Record of life: The paintings show early people's way of life, food habits, daily activities and, above all, how they thought.

The skill is plain to see. The artists kept both proportion and tonal effect in their animals, told stories in dramatic scenes of hunts and dances, and made animals look more youthful and majestic than they perhaps were. The rock paintings are the greatest wealth these people left behind.

Other Rock Art Sites: Lakhudiyar, Pahargarh, Anangpur and Karnataka

Rock paintings have been found in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar, and in the Kumaon hills of Uttarakhand. The first discovery in India was made in 1867‑68 by the archaeologist Archibald Carlleyle, and the first scientific article on Indian rock paintings was published by J. Cockburn in 1883.

  • Lakhudiyar, Uttarakhand: Rock shelters on the Suyal river about 20 kilometres from Almora, the name meaning one lakh caves; men, animals and geometric patterns in white, black and red ochre, and hand-linked dancing figures.
  • Pahargarh caves, Madhya Pradesh: Near Morena, over 600 paintings in red and white ochre of humans, animals and abstract shapes.
  • Anangpur and Mangar Bani, Delhi NCR: Mesolithic sites with cave art and tools.
  • Kupgallu, Piklihal and Tekkalakota, Karnataka: Paintings on granite rocks, mostly from the Neolithic and later periods.

At Lakhudiyar the layers show the order of the colours. The earliest paintings are in black, over them come red ochre paintings, and the last group is white. The same superimposition that fills Bhimbetka helps date the art at every site.

Life in the Mesolithic Age: Hunting, Burials and the First Herding

Pottery and Longer Stays in the Late Mesolithic

Towards its end the Mesolithic shows the first signs of settled life. Some sites counted as Mesolithic show the use of pottery and textiles, and the more lasting settlements lay close to lakes, rivers or the sea, which gave a steady supply of food. At Lekhahia pottery comes into use only after the geometric microliths, the huts and pottery of Chopani Mando point to people staying in one place, and the three phases and burials at Bagor suggest that people returned to the site again and again.

Mesolithic Food, Burials and the Beginnings of Herding

Mesolithic food came from many sources. Hunters followed herds of grazing animals and learned their food habits and breeding seasons, which may have led them to think of herding and rearing the animals themselves; fishing became important; and wild wheat, barley and rice were gathered in different parts of the subcontinent.

  • Herding: Keeping a few animals alongside hunting, as at Bagor, was the first step towards herding.
  • Burials: Five planned burials at Bagor, seven skeletons at Langhnaj, skeletal remains at Lekhahia and burial practices at Sarai Nahar Rai show care for the dead; Mesolithic burials were simple.

The Mesolithic gives way to the Neolithic as farming and settled villages take hold.

Previous Year UPSC‑CSE Questions

Each question comes with an answer outline.

  1. UPSC Mains 2015 GS‑IMesolithic rock cut architecture of India not only reflects the cultural life of the times but also a fine aesthetic sense comparable to modern painting. Critically evaluate this comment.
    Answer outline

    The outline sets out what the question asks, the main arguments, relevant examples and the direction of the conclusion; it is not a full model answer.

    Directive verb: Critically evaluate

    Approach: Accept the claim with evidence on culture and on aesthetics, then set out where it needs care.

    Introduction: The Mesolithic rock paintings of central India, above all Period II at Bhimbetka, form the largest group of prehistoric paintings in India (about 12,000 to 10,000 years ago).

    Body (sub-themes to develop):

    • Cultural life: Group hunting with barbed spears, bows and arrows, traps and snares; community dances, honey gathering, women grinding food, children at play; burials and family scenes.
    • Aesthetic sense: Naturalistic animals with proportion and tonal effect, dramatic hunting stories, animals shown more youthful and majestic than life.
    • Technique: Red from haematite (geru), green from chalcedony, white perhaps from limestone, mixed with fat, gum or resin and laid on with plant-fibre brushes; layers of superimposition.
    • Where the claim needs care: These are paintings in natural rock shelters, not rock-cut architecture; humans are only stylised; the dating of many layers rests on their order.

    Conclusion: The paintings are a rich record of prehistoric life and skill, but the comparison with modern painting should be made with care.

Sources

Editorial Disclaimer

This article draws on the NCERT textbooks and the other sources listed in the Sources section. Dates for prehistoric sites are revised as new methods are applied.

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