Delineate and account for the regional characteristics of the Neolithic period in India.

Answer:

The Indian Neolithic was not a single uniform culture but a set of distinct regional traditions, differing in chronology, crops, tools and settlement. These differences arose chiefly from variations in geography, climate and available plant and animal species.

The north-western region

• Mehrgarh in Baluchistan, from about 7000 BCE, is the earliest Neolithic site in the subcontinent.
• Wheat and barley were cultivated and sheep, goat and cattle domesticated.
• Mud-brick houses with compartments for storage indicate settled life.
• It shows continuity with West Asian farming traditions.

The Kashmir valley

• Burzahom and Gufkral are the principal sites, from about 3000 BCE.
• Pit-dwellings dug into the loess protected inhabitants from severe cold.
• Bone and antler tools were abundant, alongside polished stone axes.
• Dogs were buried with their masters, a distinctive practice.
• Coarse grey burnished ware and wheat, barley and lentils are attested.

The eastern and north-eastern regions

• Chirand in Bihar yielded a rich bone-tool industry.
• Sites in Assam and Meghalaya, such as Daojali Hading, show shouldered celts.
• These forms link the north-east to South-East Asian Neolithic traditions.
• Rice cultivation, attested at Koldihwa and Mahagara in the Belan valley, was the eastern staple.

The southern region

• Sites include Maski, Brahmagiri, Sanganakallu, Piklihal and Utnur.
• Ash mounds formed from the periodic burning of accumulated cattle dung.
• Cattle-keeping was central, with ragi and horsegram the characteristic crops.
• Settlements occupied granite hills and plateau terraces.
• Grey and buff burnished ware distinguishes the southern Neolithic.

Accounting for the variation

• Climate and soil determined which crops could be raised in each region.
• Locally available raw materials shaped tool types, bone in the east, granite in the south.
• Contact with neighbouring regions, West Asia or South-East Asia, introduced different traditions.
• Chronology differed widely, the north-west preceding the south by millennia.

Common features

• Ground and polished stone tools are the defining technology throughout.
• Handmade pottery, later wheel-turned, appears at all the regions.
• Domestication of plants and animals marks the transition everywhere.
• Settled village life replaced nomadic hunting and gathering.

The Indian Neolithic therefore displays marked regional character rather than uniformity. As H.D. Sankalia and later archaeologists established, each zone developed its own crops, tools and settlement forms in response to its environment and its external contacts, so the transition to farming in India was plural rather than singular.