Early settlement
- There were early hunter gatherer (=IHG) groups - currently reflected in isolated Indian tribes. Those close to the un-admixed old Indian H-G are the south Indian tribes from the Tamil country like the Irula, Malayan, Kadar, Pulliyar and Paniya. They are the deeply divergent mainland sister group of the Onge/Jarawa of the Andamans. They represent a remnant population of early out of Africa immigrants who first reached India. There they might have mixed with one or more preexisting archaic Homo (one might have been the Denisovans) but the details of that are limited. These old Indian HG tribes share a deep ancestry with the Onge, Papuans, Naasioi and Australians.
- Iranian Farmers + IHG gave rise to pre-Aryan Indians (confusingly called ancestral south Indians / ASI by Reich etal).
Neolithic age
Indo-Gangetic Plain was a savannah with scattered forests. Farming developed in the Plain between 7000-6500 BC. Also possible abortive neolithic around 11,000 BC in Horton Plains of Central Sri Lanka. Authors description of what makes a society a Neolithic society: farming, use of domesticated animals, sedentary lifestyles, pottery, & relatively advanced stone tools with no metal.
Neolithic civilization in Ganges River basin in eastern India, Nepal, Burma, & Bengal that derived from previous mesolithic hunter-gatherers. The civilization isn’t well dated, only good radiocarbon date from a site from the civilization is 2000 BC. They had stone axes & rice.
Mehrgarh
Earliest finds of cotton in world were found in Mehrgarh archaeological site. Use of red ochre in earliest Mehrgarh burials is interesting example of cultural convergence. Proto-Indo-Europeans in Ukraine, Iron Age Berbers in Libya, Toharian people from Kroraina, & Mayans in Yucatán all used red ochre for burials, & clearly were not in contact.
koThAri river
Domestic sheep near Kothari River in Rajasthan in 5th millennium BC. 3rd millennium BC Gujarat & Rajasthan had farming & herding - disputed if it was due to settlers from Indus River Valley Civilization or local hunter-gatherers who adopted that lifestyle from the west.
Lanka
Possible Neolithic farming society in Sri Lanka collapsed or reverted to hunting & gathering after climate change ruined agriculture after 5500 BC. Agriculture was reintroduced & metalworking was introduced after settlers from the subcontinent arrived after 900 BC.