Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. This book renders an account of our knowledge of Indian prehistory from the earliest times to the settlement of the Aryans m the north-west ln the second half of the second millennium B. C. It does not pretend to be more than a stock taking of our incomplete evidence and interpretation, as a preliminary and incentive to further work in the field. Some form of working hypothesis is essential, however drastically it may have to be revised, and I have therefore attempted to indicate What seem to me to be the nature and succession of the various human cultures making up the pattern of the earliest India. Much of the material presented in'the book is either new and hitherto unpublished or 15 a synthesis made for the first time. It is therefore inevitable that a great deal of technical detail has to be included, and much of the argument ad dressed to' the specialist in oriental archaeology. But despite this, it is hoped that a coherent story of the general course of events in prehistoric India has been presented to the non specialist reader.

This book renders an account of our knowledge of Indian prehistory from the earliest times to the settlement of the Aryans m the north-west ln the second half of the second millennium B. C. It does not pretend to be more than a stock taking of our incomplete evidence and interpretation, as a preliminary and incentive to further work in the field. Some form of working hypothesis is essential, however drastically it may have to be revised, and I have therefore attempted to indicate What seem to me to be the nature and succession of the various human cultures making up the pattern of the earliest India. Much of the material presented in'the book is either new and hitherto unpublished or 15 a synthesis made for the first time. It is therefore inevitable that a great deal of technical detail has to be included, and much of the argument ad dressed to' the specialist in oriental archaeology. But despite this, it is hoped that a coherent story of the general course of events in prehistoric India has been presented to the non specialist reader.