The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c13.s1.t1.2

c13.s1.t1.2

The problems of tropical India are of a different character from the Glacial and Peri-glacial zones. It is generally believed, that, in the tropical areas, there were fluctuations of wet and dry conditions, depending respectively on more or less precipitation. There is no unanimity of opinion between the various scientists about the relation of these wet or Pluvials and dry or Inter-pluvials with the Glacial and Inter-glacial periods. But one school of thought believes pluvials to be the secondary effects of, or simultaneous to, glacial periods. But in India, whatever be the relation between the Glacial and Pluvial periods, there is a substantial body of evidence of periods with more and less precipitation all over the country. Cammiade, Burkitt and Richards¹ were the pioneers in these studies and they demonstrated a succession of wet and dry periods on the east coast of India in the Godavary and Krishna basins. Here the evidence was based on the formation and redeposition of laterite, a soft rock with a concentration of iron and allumina.