The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c14.s1.t5.1

c14.s1.t5.1

Crossing the Narbada basin, we enter into the Tapi valley and the upper basins of Krishna and Godavary. This land is characterized by the occurrence of the fertile black-soil, interspersed with ridges of deciduous and mixed deciduous monsoonal forests. If we recall our section on the physical and cultural environment of the Neolithic people of the Gneissic and Metamorphic areas of the lower reaches of the Krishna and the Godavary valleys, we can understand the character of the first large scale agriculturists in the heavily wooded area of Maharashtra. It is easy to adduce to positive and negative evidence for the settlement of the Chalcolithic folk with their heavy metal tools. The dry-deciduous areas of Central Deccan and the occurrence of granatoid hills with basalt and dolerite dykes is very convenient for people practising primitive agriculture and pasturage. Absence of a favourable environment, capable of supporting large communities is sufficient for our purposes. Now it becomes easy to account for the spread of this Painted Pottery culture of Malwa with their metallurgy into this area with almost similar environment.