Neolithic Age in India: Tools, Sites, Pottery and Revolution

Overview

The Neolithic Age, or New Stone Age, is the period of Indian prehistory from about 10,000 years ago in which people polished their stone tools, took up farming and herding, made pottery and settled in villages; it began at Mehrgarh in the north-west and reached Kashmir, the south, the Ganga plain and the north-east much later.

Neolithic Age: The New Stone Age in India

Meaning of the Neolithic Age and the Polished Stone Tool

The name comes from Greek, in which neos means new and lithos means stone. John Lubbock coined the term in 1865, and the feature that marks the age is the polished or ground stone tool, in contrast to the flaked stone tools of the Palaeolithic. The tools gave the age its name, but the larger change was in how people got their food.

Hunters and gatherers took what nature offered; Neolithic people began to produce food. They sowed and harvested crops, kept herds, stored grain and stayed in one place, and this way of life, once begun, spread slowly across the subcontinent over several thousand years.

Neolithic Age Time Period in India: When Farming Began

The age is dated from about 10,000 years ago, but it did not begin at the same time everywhere, and in the subcontinent the oldest farming village, Mehrgarh, dates from about 7000 BCE. By 2500 BCE most of the subcontinent was occupied by Neolithic farming communities. The earliest farming villages appear in the north-west, and farming reached Kashmir, the south, the Ganga plain and the north-east much later.

  • North-west: Mehrgarh in Balochistan, near the Bolan Pass, where settled life in South Asia began, about 7000 BCE.
  • Kashmir: Burzahom, with phases between 3000 BCE and 1000 BCE.
  • South India: From about 3000 BCE, with ash mounds in the Andhra-Karnataka region from 2500 BCE.
  • Ganga plain: Clear farming villages after the middle of the third millennium BCE, and mainly after 2000 BCE.
  • North-east: Daojali Hading in Assam, about 700 BCE.

Neolithic Revolution: Meaning and the Domestication of Plants and Animals

The Neolithic revolution, also called the First Agricultural Revolution, was the move from hunting and gathering to farming and settled life. People had watched where edible plants grew and how fallen seeds sprouted; they began to protect plants from birds and animals until the seeds ripened, and so became farmers. The term Neolithic revolution comes from V. Gordon Childe, who used it in his book Man Makes Himself (1936) to show how deeply the change to farming transformed the communities that took it up.

Animals were tamed in the same way. The first animal to be tamed was the wild ancestor of the dog; later, people encouraged gentler animals such as sheep, goats, cattle and pigs, which lived in herds and mostly ate grass, to come near their camps, and protected them from wild animals. In this way they became herders.

Four cards joined by arrows. Watching nature: People learned where edible plants grew and saw seeds sprout from fallen grain. Domestication: The dog was tamed first, then sheep, goat and cattle; wheat and barley were among the first crops. Storing food: Clay pots, baskets and pits for grain, and herds kept as a store of food. Settled villages: Houses, hearths, burials and cotton woven into cloth. Note: Domestication began about 12,000 years ago and spread slowly over thousands of years; the change was gradual, but its results were so large that it is called a revolution.

The process in which people grow plants and look after animals is called domestication. People chose plants that resisted disease, gave large grain and had strong stalks, and bred the gentler animals; over time domesticated plants and animals became different from wild ones; wild animals, for example, usually have much larger teeth and horns. Domestication began about 12,000 years ago; wheat and barley were among the earliest crops, and sheep and goats among the earliest domesticated animals.

Difference Between Mesolithic and Neolithic Age

The two ages differ most in how people got their food. Mesolithic people were hunters, fishers and gatherers who used microliths, tiny stone blades set in handles, and were only beginning to herd; Neolithic people grew crops, kept animals and lived in villages, though older tools and hunting did not disappear.

Table 1. Mesolithic and Neolithic Ages compared
Feature Mesolithic Neolithic
Time 12,000 to 10,000 years ago From about 10,000 years ago
Tools Microliths in handles Polished stone axes, mortars and pestles
Food Hunting, fishing, gathering Farming and herding, with some hunting
Settlement Camps, some longer stays Villages with houses
Pottery At a few late sites Common, for storing and cooking

Neolithic Age Tools, Pottery and Houses

Neolithic Age Tools: Polished Stone Axes, Celts, Mortars and Pestles

Many Neolithic tools differ from the earlier Palaeolithic ones, which is why the age has its name. They include tools polished to give a fine cutting edge, and mortars and pestles for grinding grain and other plant produce; mortars and pestles of the same kind are used for grinding grain to this day. Tools of the Palaeolithic types went on being made, and some tools were made of bone.

  • Celts: Long, thin stone tools like an adze, hoe or axe; at Chirand in Bihar the axes are of quartzite, basalt and granite, and at Brahmagiri in Karnataka of dolerite.
  • Grinding tools: Mortars and pestles, found for example at Daojali Hading in Assam, show that people were growing grain and preparing food from it.
  • Bone and antler: Burzahom in Kashmir has polished bone tools and tools of antler and horn.
  • Later additions: At Burzahom, harvesters, celts, spindle whorls, spearheads and copper arrowheads appear in the later Neolithic phase.
  • Microliths: Still made; Chirand has nine types.

The polished stone axe mattered most. It allowed forest to be cleared on a large scale, and with the adze it shaped wood for houses and other structures, so that new land could be farmed.

Neolithic Age Pottery: Handmade Grey Ware to Cord-Marked Pots

Earthen pots of many kinds have been found at Neolithic sites. They were sometimes decorated and were used for storing things and for cooking food, especially grains such as rice and wheat and pulses such as lentils, which now became an important part of the diet. Grain was also kept in baskets and in pits dug into the ground.

  • Burzahom, Kashmir: Handmade thick coarse grey ware, fine grey ware and gritty dull red ware; globular jars and basins, some with mat impressions; burnished grey ware appears later.
  • Chirand, Bihar: Mostly handmade; half red ware and half black-and-red ware.
  • Sanganakallu, Karnataka: Usually dull brown or black, handmade from coarse clay.
  • Daojali Hading, Assam: Cord-marked pottery, rare in the Indian Neolithic, which suggests links with East and South-east Asia.

Neolithic Age Houses: Pit Houses, Mud-Brick Rooms and Wattle Huts

Settled life shows in the remains of houses. In Kashmir people built pit houses, dug into the ground with steps leading into them, which may have given shelter in cold weather; cooking hearths inside and outside the huts suggest that food was cooked indoors or outdoors depending on the weather.

  • Burzahom: Dwelling pits mostly circular or rectangular, a few oval, dug into Karewa soil; later the roofs were raised above the ground, and post holes show much use of timber.
  • Mehrgarh: Square or rectangular houses of unbaked mud-brick, each with four or more compartments, some perhaps for storage.
  • Chirand: Circular wattle-and-daub huts of mud and reeds; the earlier floors lay below ground level and the later ones at ground level.
  • Hallur and Sanganakallu, Karnataka: Circular houses with walls of bamboo and mud or clay; at Hallur the walls held up a conical thatched roof.
Cross-section of a pit house dug below ground level into the Karewa soil, with steps leading down into it and a hearth on its floor. In the later phase the roof was raised above the ground on wooden posts. Note: At Burzahom in Kashmir the pits were mostly circular or rectangular, a few oval, with steps leading down; hearths inside and outside the huts meant food could be cooked indoors or outdoors with the weather.

Neolithic Sites in India

Mehrgarh: Oldest Neolithic Site of the Indian Subcontinent

Map of the Indian subcontinent with eleven numbered Neolithic sites. North-west: Mehrgarh near the Bolan Pass, with wheat, barley and goats. Kashmir: Burzahom, with pit houses, and Gufkral, the cave of the potter. Ganga plain: Chirand in Bihar, with wheat and green gram, and Koldihwa and Mahagara on the Belan, with rice. North-east: Daojali Hading in the Dima Hasao hills of Assam. South: Sanganakallu, a factory site; Piklihal, a site of cattle herders; Hallur, with millets and cattle; Paiyampalli, with black gram; and Brahmagiri, with polished axes of dolerite.

Mehrgarh lies in a fertile plain near the Bolan Pass, one of the most important routes into Iran. It was probably one of the places where people in this region first learnt to grow barley and wheat and to rear sheep and goats, and it is one of the earliest villages known. Its earliest settlement is dated to about 7000 BCE, though a radiocarbon study on teeth places its first period between 5250 and 4650 BCE. A French mission led by Jean-François Jarrige and Catherine Jarrige discovered the site in 1974.

  • Animal bones: The earliest levels have bones of wild animals such as deer and pig; later levels have more sheep and goat, and still later levels mostly cattle.
  • Burials: In one grave the dead person was buried with goats, probably meant as food in the next world.
  • Ground stone axes: Those from Mehrgarh are the earliest from a stratified context in South Asia.
  • Drilled teeth: Molars drilled in a living person, the oldest known evidence of the practice.

Within present-day India no site yet matches Mehrgarh's date; a very early date claimed for Bhirrana in Haryana has been questioned.

Burzahom and Gufkral: Northern Neolithic Sites of Kashmir

Burzahom lies 16 kilometres north-west of Srinagar and is the northernmost excavated Neolithic site of India; its name comes from burz, the Kashmiri word for birch. It was discovered in 1935 by H. De Terra and T. T. Paterson and excavated from 1960 to 1971 under T. N. Khazanchi of the Archaeological Survey of India. Its distinctive culture is called the Northern Neolithic.

  • First phase, without pottery: Underground dwelling pits, polished bone and stone tools, and a life of both food gathering and cereal farming.
  • Second phase: Handmade pottery; the dog, sheep and goat domesticated; more pits, a sign of a growing population.
  • Later Neolithic: Harvesters, spindle whorls and copper arrowheads; beads and pendants that show contact with the regions of Pakistan and the Tibetan Plateau.
  • Burials and crops: Dogs and antlered deer buried with humans, some skulls with bored holes; wheat, barley and lentil grown.
  • Megalithic phase: Standing stones called menhirs were set up, while the way of living stayed the same.

Gufkral, near Tral in the Pulwama district, is a related site. Its name means cave of the potter, from guf, cave, and kral, potter. An Archaeological Survey of India team led by A. K. Sharma excavated it in 1981 and found five periods, from the Neolithic without pottery to the Megalithic; wheat and lentil were grown there.

Burzahom is also a protected heritage site. It has been on India's Tentative List for UNESCO World Heritage since 15 April 2014, and the Archaeological Survey of India protects it under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, amended in 2010.

Chirand, Koldihwa and Mahagara: Neolithic Sites of the Ganga Plain

Chirand, in the Saran district of Bihar on the northern bank of the Ganga, has a Neolithic layer dated to about 2500 to 1345 BCE. It was excavated by the Bihar State Directorate of Archaeology in 1962‑63 and 1970‑71, and has yielded wheat, green gram and barley, bones of buffalo and ox, paddy husk impressions on pottery, and terracotta figures of humped bulls, birds and snakes.

  • Koldihwa, Uttar Pradesh: In the Belan valley near Devghat, Prayagraj; rice and fragmentary animal bones; excavated from 1972 to 1976.
  • Mahagara, Uttar Pradesh: On the opposite bank of the Belan; rice, and cattle hoof marks on a clay surface that suggest a cattle pen.
  • Lahuradewa, Uttar Pradesh: In Sant Kabir Nagar district; very early rice grains whose status, cultivated or gathered wild, is still debated.

The early dates once proposed for rice on the Ganga plain are now disputed. Fresh dating of Koldihwa shows clear occupation only from the later Neolithic, after about 1900 BCE, so clear farming villages in the region belong mainly to the period after 2000 BCE, and the early rice at Lahuradewa may have been gathered from the wild.

Neolithic Sites in South India: Sanganakallu, Piklihal, Hallur and Brahmagiri

The Neolithic of South India began around 3000 BCE, and its special feature is the ash mound, formed by the ritual burning of large heaps of cattle dung. Its people herded cattle, sheep and goats and grew millets and pulses.

  • Sanganakallu, Karnataka: Near Ballari; a factory site with large numbers of pots, stone axes and tools; small millets and pulses, sheep and cattle, and areas for dumping dung.
  • Piklihal, Karnataka: In Raichur district, excavated by F. Raymond Allchin in 1952; cattle herders who set up seasonal camps with cowpens made of posts and stakes.
  • Hallur, Karnataka: On the Tungabhadra in Haveri district; browntop millet, black gram and horse gram, and some of the earliest crops of African origin in South India, hyacinth bean and pearl millet.
  • Paiyampalli, Tamil Nadu: In Tirupattur district, excavated by S. R. Rao in 1964‑65 and 1967‑68; black gram and millet.
  • Brahmagiri, Karnataka: In Chitradurga district, excavated by Mortimer Wheeler in 1947; polished stone axes of dolerite, and infants buried in urns.
  • Tekkalakota, Karnataka: In Ballari district; elaborate gold ear ornaments.

Daojali Hading: Neolithic Site of North-East India

Daojali Hading stands on a low hillock in the Dima Hasao district of Assam, in the hills near the Brahmaputra valley and close to routes leading into China and Myanmar. Excavated in 1961‑63 by a team led by M. C. Goswami and T. C. Sharma, it is the first stratified Neolithic site found in North-east India.

  • Shouldered celts: Typical of the site, found with its other polished stone tools.
  • Cord-marked pottery: Rare elsewhere in the Indian Neolithic.
  • Mortars and pestles: A sign that grain was grown and prepared.
  • Jadeite and fossil wood: Jadeite, a stone that may have come from China, and tools of fossil wood, ancient wood that has hardened into stone.

The finds point east rather than west. Cord-marked pottery and shouldered celts suggest links with East and South-east Asia, and the site is dated to about 700 BCE, much later than Mehrgarh.

Life in the Neolithic Age

Neolithic Age Agriculture and Domestication of Animals

Scientists identify Neolithic crops from the burnt grain found at the sites, and the animals people kept from the bones. Different crops grew in different regions, because rice needs more water than wheat and barley, and sheep and goat survive more easily than cattle in dry, hilly country.

Table 2. Grain and animal bones at some Neolithic sites
Site (state today) Grain Animals
Mehrgarh (Pakistan) Wheat, barley Sheep, goat, cattle
Burzahom (Kashmir) Wheat, lentil Dog, cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo
Chirand (Bihar) Wheat, green gram, barley Buffalo, ox
Koldihwa (Uttar Pradesh) Rice Not identified (fragmentary bones)
Mahagara (Uttar Pradesh) Rice Cattle (hoof marks)
Hallur (Karnataka) Millet Cattle, sheep, goat, pig
Paiyampalli (Tamil Nadu) Black gram, millet Cattle, sheep, pig

Animals were a store of food, because they multiplied naturally and, if looked after, gave milk and, when needed, meat. Grain had to be kept both as food and as seed, so people made large clay pots, wove baskets and dug pits. They also began weaving cloth from cotton, which could now be grown.

Neolithic Age Characteristics: Villages, Tribes and Burials

  • Polished tools: Polished stone axes, mortars and pestles, alongside older tools and bone tools.
  • Farming and herding: People grew crops and kept herds, while hunting and gathering went on in many areas.
  • Settled villages: People lived in houses in villages and produced most of their own food.
  • Crafts: Pottery for storing and cooking, and weaving of cotton cloth.
  • Care for the dead: Goats in a grave at Mehrgarh, dogs at Burzahom and urns for infants at Brahmagiri.

Archaeology does not show customs directly, so scholars draw on present-day farming and herding tribes to suggest how Neolithic villages may have lived. Among such tribes two or three generations usually live together; women do most of the farm work, men lead large herds to pasture, and land, forests, grasslands and water are shared as the wealth of the whole tribe, with no sharp gap between rich and poor.

In the north-west the farming culture of the Neolithic villages carried on into the Early Harappan stage and the cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

Previous Year UPSC‑CSE Questions

Each Prelims question is explained option by option, and each Mains question comes with an answer outline.

  1. UPSC Prelims 2021Consider the following pairs:(Historical place) | (Well-known for)
    1. Burzahom : Rock-cut shrines
    2. Chandraketugarh : Terracotta art
    3. Ganeshwar : Copper artefacts

    Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?

    1. a 1 only
    2. b 1 and 2
    3. c 3 only
    4. d 2 and 3
    How to approach this Prelims question

    Question type: Correctly matched pairs

    Approach: Test each pair against what the site is best known for.

    • Step 1: Burzahom in Kashmir is a Neolithic site of pit houses, polished bone tools and, later, menhirs; it has no rock-cut shrines, so pair 1 is wrong.
    • Step 2: Chandraketugarh, in the 24 Parganas of West Bengal, is rich in terracotta art, so pair 2 is correct.
    • Step 3: Ganeshwar, in Sikar district near the Khetri copper belt, yielded copper arrowheads, spearheads, fish hooks and bangles and supplied Harappa, so pair 3 is correct, and only pairs 2 and 3 are correctly matched.

    Trap to watch: Rock-cut shrines sound plausible for an ancient site in Kashmir, so many students accept pair 1; rock-cut shrines belong to much later periods.

    Why each option is right or wrong:

    • (a) 1 only: Wrong. Burzahom is known for pit houses, not rock-cut shrines.
    • (b) 1 and 2: Wrong. It keeps the wrong Burzahom pair and leaves out Ganeshwar.
    • (c) 3 only: Wrong. Ganeshwar is right, but it leaves out Chandraketugarh, rightly paired with terracotta art.
    • (d) 2 and 3: Correct. Chandraketugarh is known for terracotta art and Ganeshwar for copper artefacts.

    Answer: (d) 2 and 3. Chandraketugarh is known for terracotta art and Ganeshwar for copper artefacts.

  2. UPSC Mains 2015 GS‑IThe ancient civilization in Indian sub-continent differed from those of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece in that its culture and traditions have been preserved without a breakdown to the present day. 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: Comment

    Approach: Accept the claim of continuity with evidence from the earliest villages onwards, then note its limits.

    Introduction: Indian culture has continued without a breakdown, and its roots lie in the Neolithic farming villages.

    Body (sub-themes to develop):

    • Material continuity: Mortars and pestles still used to grind grain; pottery for storage and cooking; cotton weaving.
    • Food: Wheat, barley, rice, millets and pulses first grown at Mehrgarh, Chirand, Koldihwa and Hallur; virtually all food today results from domestication.
    • Settlement: Mehrgarh's farming culture carries on into the Early Harappan stage; Burzahom's Megalithic people keep the Neolithic way of living.
    • Limits: Disputed dates on the Ganga plain; continuity differs from region to region.

    Conclusion: Continuity from the first villages is real and visible, but it is a regional and gradual story rather than a single unbroken line.

Sources

Editorial Disclaimer

This article draws on the NCERT textbooks, the Archaeological Survey of India's report on Burzahom, UNESCO and Wikipedia. Dates for prehistoric sites are revised as new methods are applied.

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