Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c8.s7.9

c8.s7.9

With regard to microliths, two assertions are often made. First that microliths have been found from practically every corner or part of India.²³ Secondly, that they continued to be used up to the 10th century A.D. When these statements are examined, it would appear that these need to be qualified. In the first place such statements ignored the basic differences in types of microliths and their modes of occurrence. Secondly, they were made when little was known of the cultures called "Middle Palaeolithic" and the "Chalcolithic Short Blade Cultures," respectively. Thirdly, even without excluding these two, as done by us, it will be found that no microliths have been reported from Assam, Bengal, Nepal, the Gangetic Valley proper, the plains of the Panjab²⁴ and Kerala. While the subsequent explorations have shown their existence in Western Orissa²⁵ and Western Rajputana²⁶ which were formerly blank, it is difficult to say whether the absence in the above mentioned regions is due to want of exploration or related to the geographical causes. Thus the absence in Assam and Nepal may be due to thick forests and altitude, and in the Panjab plains, the Gangetic Valley and deltaic Bengal, for want of suitable raw material and environment. The same may be the case with Kerala. Even within the known distribution of microliths, a strict demarcation based on the availability of raw material and ecology—that is surroundings or environment—is necessary. Except for four or five areas, very little is known about the rest. However, there is no positive proof to say that microliths continued to be used in secluded semi-forested regions up to the 10th century A.D.²⁷ This is one of those statements which gains currency when oft-repeated. None of the present primitive, aboriginal tribes, like the Chenchus, use microliths today, nor there is evidence that they did so, a thousand years ago.