Completed B.Com from DAVV, Indore
Cleared CS, CWA (CMA) and CA Final (Group I)


Abhyudaya Kelkar

To construe or decode 'The History of India' is one of the most cumbersome things to do for a common man, due to the variety of reasons. Most of the Indian history is shrouded in myths, legends and mysteries. To chalk out a structure or outlining or defining it requires several inputs from numerous sources. Also, there are certain techniques involved to do it. Since it is never easy to interpret the undefined past of this almost continent, buried under the various layers of hundreds of cultures spanning many millennia, there are 'hordes' of hurdles that make the study difficult albeit interesting. The history begins with zero, i.e. the Stone Age. And this is exactly what we are going to discuss in the lessons, apart from the sources of history, the hurdles and positioning. The Stone Age can be divided into three parts viz., Old, Middle and New ones. Along with these three, we shall also discuss two quasi-Stone Age topics - Chalcolithic Age and Megaliths. However these two cannot be designated as 'Stone Age' cultures, yet the two 'lithic' periods contribute substantially to the beginning of Indian History, in some way or the other.

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English

Ancient India: The Beginning

General Awareness

Indian History

Prehistoric Age

Ancient History

History

UPSC CSE

Ace the toughest competitive and government exams in India 

Test Preparation

Union Public Service Commission Exams (UPSC)

Here begins the first part of the whole Course 'Ancient India'. For the convenience of students, the entire course has been divided into seven parts viz., 
1. The Beginning
2. Indus Valley Civilization 
3. Vedic Period and Iron Age
4. Mauryan Period
5. Post-Mauryan Period
6. Gupta Period
7. Post-Gupta Period.

This is an overview lesson of the Part-I. This part deals with the sources of Indian History, it's problems, techniques of study and positioning, along with the three segments of Stone Age plus Chalcolithic Age and Megalithic Cultures. So this set of eight lessons will constitute 'The Beginning of Indian History.'  This is least cared and perhaps least interesting portion of the Indian history as it becomes extremely difficult for us to correlate it with the past. Nevertheless, we have tried to make it as lucrative as possible.

Overview of the Course (Ancient India) and Part I (The Beginning)

India belongs to the ‘Old World’ and one of the oldest civilizations, and perhaps the only surviving civilization since past four millennia. That gives us ample sources of indigenous as well as foreign observations about India. The footprints of the people, kings, personalities, religious figures,etc. left behind tell us what the country, society and circumstances looked like. Many travellers too tell us what India was in the past.  

These all constitute ‘The Sources of Indian History’, which has been broadly classified into three distinct categories :
1.	Literary Sources : Whatever was written
2.	Archaeological Sources : Whatever has been unearthed or recovered from the past in physical form.
3.	Other Sources : Whatever is left behind and not covered under the previous two categories. 
This is how the history of India can be interpreted.

The Sources of the Indian History

Interpretation of Indian history is an uphill task, basically because of two reasons – Intertwined legacies and the tendency to remain unsystematic. That means a confusion made worse by unrecorded chronologies and events coupled by the web of rumours and traditions.

Indian History is widely considered an unwritten one and rightly so, due to many factors like absence of proper sequencing, reliable dating and span of rule of kings, engulfed by romanticism and exaggerations, lack of measurements., etc. 
Why exactly Indians are uninterested in recording their past is a matter of study and debate. But the outcome is a horrible confusion, which can be interpreted through numerous theories. The invasions and the havoc added to the agony. 

It is extremely shocking that the two widely era-systems used in India don’t have a reliable beginning. What exactly happened in 57 BC for initiating the Vikrama Era and what happened in 78 AD for starting the Shaka Era is still buried under the heap of mysteries of Indian History.

This lesson is meant to bring out certain difficulties one faces while studying or interpreting the history of India.

The Problems While Studying Indian History

Most of the students and many tutors are careless about positioning the history of India. It is essential to locate and mark a starting point to begin the study of Indian history to get a proper insight and holistic view. 

Geology, Anthropology and Biology constitute elements of history which are separately studied in those respective disciplines. However while studying history, we have to consider those aspects as well. So dating of Earth, emergence of humans, etc. are relevant for history to some extent. At least to understand the beginning and to place a starting point, these factors should be taken into account.

Furthermore, there are certain techniques used by archaeologists which are rarely discussed. So, we will also study about those techniques, particularly the most popular ones.

The Geological Timescale

Usually we start studying history from Stone Age. The Stone Age is divided into three parts, the first one being ‘Palaeolithic Age’ or ‘Old Stone Age’ in Greek. This Palaeolithic Age itself is divided into three sub-parts – lower, middle and upper.

Man was basically a hunter and food gatherer throughout this period. The only notable differences were those of types of stones and variety of tools. So these two things bifurcated the three Paleolithic periods. 

There is also a map used in the lesson to depict the various palaeolithic sites to enable the understanding and locating comfortably on blank maps, especially in the Mains.

The Palaeolithic Age in India

Mesolithic Age saw a sea change in lifestyle of humans. They changed their habitat and methods of hunting, tools, etc. Domestication of animals also began during this period as evidenced from Adamgadh and Bagore, 

The most striking feature of this age is use of ‘Microliths’ and flourishing of Microlithic industry. You can understand what microliths are, through the pictures used in the lesson.
By the end of Mesolithic Period, man started initial farming and therefore started producing food. So in a nutshell, it can be said that the tale of transformation of man from food gatherer to food producer is the history of Mesolithic Period.

As it was previously done for the lesson on Palaeolithic Age, a map has been used to depict the various palaeolithic sites to enable the understanding and locating comfortably on blank maps, especially in the Mains.

The Mesolithic Age in India

Neolithic Age brought revolutionary changes in the life of man. Introduction of wheel, extensive use of fire, pottery, agriculture, settled life, lethal and more finished tools- This whole can give you a clear picture how Neolithic Age brought an end to an early man with nomadic or quasi-nomadic lifestyle.

Beginning of settled life is also the beginning of civilization in crude sense. So if we observe carefully, the human civilization begins with the Neolithic Period only. 

Although Neolithic Age began way too earlier in the Levant, it spread eastwards later on, reaching  South Asia (Indian Sub-continent) by around 7000 BC. Mehrgarh was the first and much advanced site than the other Neolithic Sites in India. 

The Neolithic Age as whole, lasted up to 1000 BC in India ending in the South.
It can be arguably considered the last phase of Stone Age. Although Chalcolithic Age can be considered a period of Stone Age, but association with copper and alloys and much more advanced lifestyle makes it a separate chapter.

The Neolithic Age in India

The Chalcolithic Age saw the usage of working metals for the first time. It was copper that gave new dimensions to the human civilization. Copper meant mining and metallurgy on the one hand and sophisticated tools, equipment and machinery made of the metal and its alloys on the other.
Since copper was used with stone, the period became a Chalcolithic Age, instead of stepping into the Bronze Age. Nevertheless there were many parallels and regular close contacts of these Chalcolithic cultures with the Indus Valley Civilization, the Bronze Age Civilization of Indian Sub-continent.
In this lesson we will see how the lives and lifestyles transformed from agricultural settlements to towns in the Chalcolithic period, thus initiating civilization in the sub-continent outside the Indus Valley.  
Students are advised to watch the pictures and maps very carefully and separately, if required.

The Chalcolithic Cultures of India

Megaliths are one of the important chapters of Ancient Indian History. Although it had a parallel existence with Iron Age, it is being covered in this part on two accounts. Firstly, these megaliths were unassociated with the other prevailing civilizations to a large extent. Secondly, extensive use of stones and rocks being the dominant feature of these cultures made it suitable to place them alongside the Stone Age topics.
In the previous lesson, we saw that Chalcolithic cultures used Copper along with stones. Here we will see the use of iron along with stones. The use of stone was however limited to ceremonial purposes and not for tool-making. Nevertheless an association with ’stones’ can be argued as a reason to put this lesson in the very first part. We will encounter a similar problem while placing the Sangam Age as well.
  Students are advised to watch the pictures and maps very carefully and separately, if required. Perhaps no description will be enough to explain the concept of Megaliths, unless we use pictures and maps.

The Megalithic Cultures in India

MBA | 7+ Years of teaching Experience | Appeared in MPPSC Mains | Teaching- History, Polity & MPGS at top offline institute of MP.

Hari Singh Rajput

(Hindi) Deep Discussion of Vedic Civilization

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Sudarshan Gurjar

In this course, the educator discusses the stone age.
The course will be beneficial for UPSC CSE Aspirants.

(Hindi) The Stone Age: UPSC CSE

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Arti Chhawari

the course deals with prehistoric times based on the book "Ancient India" by Ram Sharan Sharma

(Hindi) Stone age and Chalcolithic Farming Culture

B.sc. physics from HPU Shimla
Qualified cds (written ) | IAS Aspirant |

Shikha Raj

The Pre- Historic Age

I'm D.S YADAV , I have complete m.a (polictical science)and ph.d (jncu)apearing

Ds Yadav

इस विषय में, शिक्षक विल बेसिक अवधारणा प्रागैतिहासिक युग की चर्चा करेंगे, और इस विषय का विश्लेषण करेंगे

प्रागैतिहासिक युग - UPSC CSE

MA in Applied Human Rights from Sheffield Hallam University, BA (Hons.) History from LSR, reader, dancer, love to teach, AIR 42 in 2018 UPSC

Nandini Maharaj

This course will discuss NCERT Class 6 and NCERT Class 12 Part one together. These two books cover ancient Indian history - from pre-history to 6 cent CE. Ancient History is one among the must read subject to cracking CSE. Understanding The Ancient History is presented by Nandini Maharaj. As the course starts one will gain an introduction to the prehistoric era. Further, one will understand and learn the basic features and the theories related to Harappan Civilisation along with the political, economic and social life during Harappan Civilisation. The causes for the decline of Harappan Civilisation are described next. One will also learn about Chalcolithic and Megalithic Period through this course. The major religions like Jainism and Buddhism are also a part of this course. Tags: Ancient History, Harappa Civilisation, History for UPSC CSE, India History, Indian History, Resources on History, UPSC History, Fundamentals of History for UPSC CSE, Fundamentals of History for IAS Exam, History Syllabus for UPSC CSE, UPSC Online, UPSC Exam, UPSC Examination, UPSC Syllabus, UPSC IAS Exam, IAS Questions, IAS Syllabus, IAS Preparation, IAS Exam Syllabus CSE Exam, CSE Syllabus.

Lessons

9 lessons • 1h 20m

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Overview of the Course (Ancient India) and Part I (The Beginning)

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The Sources of the Indian History

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The Problems While Studying Indian History

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The Geological Timescale

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The Palaeolithic Age in India

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The Mesolithic Age in India

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The Neolithic Age in India

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The Chalcolithic Cultures of India

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The Megalithic Cultures in India