India - The Beginning

Around 40 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent drifted northwards and merged with Eurasia, raising the Himalayas. Even after the formation of Himalayas in the north, it remained an accessible island connected with a land bridge of round 50 km wide near Mt. Kailash. From the eastern Kailash ranges, emerges River Brahmaputra ending in Bay of Bengal and the Sutlej River in the west eventually meets the Arabian sea.

First human civilization

The first human civilization began to take shape in India during the prehistoric era from about 200000 BC to 3500 - 2500 BC. The dating of prehistoric history is done scientifically through a technique commonly called radio carbon dating. It is a dating method which measures the loss of carbon from the organic materials over a period of time. Dendro chronology is another method used for determining the age or date from the tree rings. The age of the tree is determined by counting the number of rings in the wood.

Therefore, by using such scientific techniques the archaeologists came to the conclusion that between 200000 BC and 40000 BC the first Homo sapiens or human being set foot on the Indian subcontinent. They soon spread throughout the subcontinent and more and more migrants started flooding India from the present day Iran. The prehistoric people usually moved in groups consisting of few families and they survived on hunting and gathering. The females gather food, took care of the children and looked after the dwellings while the group of males spent most of their time in hunting, fishing and gathering fruits.