153950What are the characteristics of early Indian civilization?

153950

What are the characteristics of early Indian civilization?

Before the 19th century, due to the lack of historical materials, people knew almost nothing about the prehistory of India.

Some major archaeological discoveries in the 20th century changed that. The misunderstanding that the history of India is the history of the Aryans in the past has been completely denied with the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization; the arrival of the Aryans is no longer considered the beginning of Indian civilization.

Archaeological research shows that India has become a human settlement in the Paleolithic period. By the time of the Aryan invasion, many peoples had settled in India, and the composition of these inhabitants was complex; some of them had a highly developed culture. Of these ancient inhabitants, only Vedic and early Tamil texts retain some vague records, the rest rely entirely on archaeology.

A few scattered early hominin fossils (later named Narmada man) found in the Narmada Valley region suggest that India was inhabited by humans at least during the mid-Paleolithic period. The genus classification of Narmada is undetermined (Homo erectus or Homo sapiens); ages range from 200,000 to 500,000 years ago. The Late Paleolithic began about 40,000 years ago and ended 15,000 years ago.

The Mesolithic corresponds to the Holocene in geology. Mesolithic cultures are widely distributed across the subcontinent and in Sri Lanka; the earliest Mesolithic sites have been found in Sri Lanka, while the northernmost sites are found in the Hindu Kush Mountains, where the culture appears to be a direct development of the Paleolithic culture of the same region.

According to the opinions of Indian scholars, the subcontinent did not experience the Mesolithic Age, and the Neolithic Age followed after the Paleolithic Age. However, according to the characteristics of the development of stone tools, the Mesolithic stage is generally still divided from the Neolithic Age, which began about 30,000 BC and went through a time span of 25,000 years.

In places such as West Bengal and southern India, many small stone tools and flints of the Mesolithic Age have been found; a tool-making site has been found in Langraj, Gujarat, and crude pottery, human and animal bones have been found here. Bagor in Rajasthan is also an important site.

The Mesolithic culture of India is characterized by the use of so-called microlithic tools. The microlithic tools are smaller than the stone tools of the Paleolithic Age, and the processing is more meticulous. There are various types of scrapers, meat cleavers, hand axes, drills and so on. Mesolithic inhabitants still lived by fishing, hunting and gathering, although some evidence has been found that may indicate that domesticated animals and small-scale farming were already practiced at this time. In any case agriculture and animal husbandry were not the main way of life during this period.

The oldest cave paintings in India were found in Paleolithic sites; in the caves where people lived in the Mesolithic Age, rock paintings appeared more frequently, and they showed vivid scenes of human activities such as hunting. Some sites may have preserved traces of the earliest religious activities.

It is estimated that the Mesolithic Age in India ended at the latest 5,000 years ago. Modern humans (Homo sapiens) entered the subcontinent during this period, about 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

Around 6000 BC, all parts of India entered the Neolithic Age. The Neolithic culture has a wider distribution. Neolithic cultures in Baluchistan and Sindh appeared earlier; discovered sites east of the Indus belong to a later age.

The Neolithic culture in different regions has different durations: in Balochistan, the Neolithic culture quickly evolved to the stage of combined use of gold and stone; while in Kashmir and the Central Indian forest region, the Neolithic culture appeared later and ended later. Important Neolithic sites have also been found in Mysore and Assam. Inferred from the sites in Balochistan, the culture of the region is closely related to the neighboring Iranian and Afghan cultures.

The Neolithic culture has a wider distribution. The Neolithic culture of India is generally later than the culture of the Mesopotamia. Although the use of rough stone tools has not been completely abandoned at this time, most of the stone tools used by people in the Neolithic Age have been polished and processed tools suitable for more different purposes. Copper utensils have been found in very isolated areas.

The inhabitants of this period left some tombs, and tombs belonging to the Neolithic age have been found in Kashmir and in Brahmangiri, Piklihar and other places in southern India. They tilled the land, raised animals and mastered the method of making fire. Sites found in Burzahom caves in Kashmir indicate pottery was made at this time. They can build boats and weave cloth.

However, it has not been determined at this time whether the nomadic and hunting lifestyle has been shifted to settled farming. The Neolithic people on the plateau in the Mysore region were apparently nomadic. It is difficult to say whether the inhabitants of Neolithic India were of the same race as the inhabitants of the Paleolithic.

The Chronolithic Age in India, or the Copper Age, was proposed by some scholars as an age between the Neolithic and the Harappan civilization. Its specific time is about the middle of the 4th millennium BC to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC.

The tools used by people in this era are still mainly stone tools and bone tools, but metals have also entered human life. Gold may be the earliest metal used by the primitive inhabitants of India, but they only use it for ornaments. The earliest metal used as a practical tool may be copper, which is often found in the remains of the era of combined use of gold and stone. The form of copper ware includes axes, chisels, copper rings and copper bars. The culture of this period was largely based on animal husbandry and farming, with people raising cattle and sheep, and growing barley, wheat and beans.

The cultures of the era of the combination of gold and stone are mainly found in the land between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, as well as in Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat.

The oldest known Indian civilization is the Indus Valley Civilization of the 3rd millennium BC, usually named after Harappa (in Western Punjab, Pakistan), where its representative site is located, and is called the Harappan culture. The Harappan culture, after reaching a fairly developed and mature state, declined for reasons that are still unknown and eventually disappeared completely.

The Harappan culture was replaced by a new cultural system brought by the Aryans who entered India from the northwest, and this culture (sometimes called the Vedic culture after its holy scriptures) was the origin of classical Indian culture.

The caste system probably appeared at this time. This historical period is the so-called period of nations, and is often referred to as the period of the Buddha because Buddhism was born in this period. The spiritual life of India was very active in the era of nations, and many philosophical or religious schools emerged, among which Buddhism and Jainism have the longest influence.