Hunter-Gatherers in North and Central India

Description

This book comprehensively documents the hunting-gathering way of life in India from the Lower Palaeolithic to the present, based on the author’s field work in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and archaeological and ethnographic evidence from these regions. India has a history of nomadic hunting-gathering back to the Lower Palaeolithic period. The Mesolithic period witnessed significant improvement in technology based on the mass production of bladelets and their conversion into microliths used spearheads, arrowheads, knives, daggers, harpoons, etc. Paintings found in caves and rock shelters complement the picture known from excavation. Settled life based on agriculture and copper technology appeared around 6000 years ago. However, farmers did not give up hunting-gathering altogether and continued to practise it in some measure. Even after the appearance of iron technology hunting continued to be practised, and indeed it has survived right into the twenty-first century among many communities all over the country.