Land of seven rivers: History of India's Geography (3 page)

Moreover, many Indian animals came into
the subcontinent from the east. The tiger is one such example. There is some
disagreement about the exact origins of the big cat. Some scholars claim a Siberian
origin while others prefer to locate it in South China. Two-million-year-old remains
of the tiger’s ancestors have been found in Siberia, China, Sumatra and
Java. However, the animal is a relative newcomer to India. The genetic data as well
as fossil finds suggest that the Bengal tiger came to inhabit India fairly recently,
perhaps no more than 12,000 years ago.

Meanwhile, where were the humans? There
is now general consensus that, anatomically, modern humans evolved in
Africa around 200,000 years ago. This fits both genetic data as
well as archaeological remains. Genetic studies show that the San tribe of the
Kalahari (also called the ‘Bushmen’) are probably the oldest
surviving population of humans. Members of this tribe show the greatest genetic
variation of any racial group and are therefore likely to be direct descendants of
the earliest modern human population.
¹⁰

Modern humans, of course, were not the
first hominids to have walked the earth. More than a million years ago, pre-modern
humans like Homo erectus used stone tools and had wandered as far as China and Java.
At the time that modern humans were evolving in Africa, their close cousins, the
Neanderthals, were already well established in Europe and West Asia. In other words,
we are the last survivors of a large family tree and, in the early stages, it would
not have been obvious that we would emerge as the most successful species. Indeed,
there is evidence that our first attempt to leave Africa was a failure.
Archaeological remains in the Skhul and Qafzeh caves in Israel show that modern
humans may have made their way to the Levant about 120,000 years ago. Their passage
may have been helped by the fact that the planet was enjoying a relatively wet and
warm inter-glacial period that allowed them to wander up north. However, this
climatic period did not last and a new Ice Age started. The early settlers either
died out or were forced to retreat. Neanderthals, better adapted to the cold,
probably reoccupied the area.

For the next 50,000 years, our ancestors
remained in Africa. Around 65–70,000 years ago, a very small number,
perhaps a single band, crossed over from Africa into the southern Arabian peninsula.
¹¹
It is amazing that despite all their superficial
differences, all non-Africans are descendants of this tiny group of wanderers.
¹²
This means that non-Africans have very little genetic variation. This has
important implications for our susceptibility to global pandemics.

Climate and environment had a very
significant impact on the expansion of modern humans.
¹³
Our planet goes through natural cycles of cooling and heating. When early
humans made their way out of Africa, the earth was much cooler and much of the
world’s water was locked in giant ice-sheets. As a result, sea-levels were
as much as 100 metres lower than today and coastlines and climate zones would have
been very different. Thus, the early band of humans migrating from Africa to
southern Arabia would have had to make a relatively short crossing across the Red
Sea. Furthermore, they would have found an Arabian coastline that was much wetter
and more hospitable.

It appears that modern humans next made
their way along the coast to what is now the Persian Gulf. The average depth of the
Persian Gulf is merely 36 metres.
¹⁴
With sea-levels 100 metres below current levels, this area would have been a
well-watered plain—a veritable Garden of Eden. The groups of early humans
would have found this a very attractive location and probably enjoyed a significant
population increase. Expansion into Central Asia and Europe would have been
difficult at this stage because of the Ice Age. However, they would have spread out
along the Makran coast into the Indian subcontinent. Note again, that the Indian
coastline would have been different from what we see today and, in many places, the
shore would have been 25–100 km out from current contours.

At some stage, branches of the Persian
Gulf people pushed their way farther into the Indian subcontinent. The landscape
being traversed by these early migrations
had
supported other hominid
populations.
¹⁵
In Europe, we know that the Neanderthals steadily withdrew westwards till one
of the last bands died out in a cave in Gibraltar. However, it is unclear what
happened to the pre-modern hominids of Asia. The eruption of the Toba volcano in
Sumatra 74,000 years ago may have played some role in their extinction as
excavations in Jwalapuram show that peninsular India was covered in volcanic ash
from the eruptions. Experts still disagree on the impact but it is possible that the
eruption may have decimated the population of pre-modern hominids that lived in the
subcontinent at that time. This would have cleared the way for new immigrants, who
appear to have spread quickly through the subcontinent and then through to South
East Asia. Some scholars believe that the indigenous tribes of the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands may be remnants of the earliest migrations into the region.

One branch eventually reached Australia
around 40,000 years ago and became the ancestors of the aboriginals. Genetic studies
confirm that the Australian aboriginals do have a genetic link with aboriginal
tribes in South East Asia. However, for a long time researchers could find no direct
genetic link between present-day Indians and native Australians. Some scholars even
argued that this group may have avoided India altogether and used a route through
Central Asia.
¹⁶
A study published in 2009 by the Anthropological Survey of India finally found
genetic traces to link some Indian tribes with native Australians.
¹⁷
Note that these are very tiny traces—966
persons
from twenty-six tribes were tested but only seven individuals showed possible
genetic links. Still, we have a possible solution to the puzzle. The researchers
also suggested that the Indian and Australian groups had separated about
50–60,000 years ago.

Meanwhile, a sizeable population
remained in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf and the subcontinent for several
thousand years. Scientists think that many important genetic lineages emerged from
this area at this time. During the relatively warmer inter-glacial periods,
sub-branches would have spread farther out into Europe, Central Asia and so on.
However, note that temperatures would have still been far lower than present-day
levels and that there would have been several climatic cycles. This means that we
are not dealing with a landscape that is static. Research into the Persian Gulf
people is still relatively new and hindered by the fact that the area is now mostly
underwater. Nonetheless, scholars like Jeffrey Rose are painstakingly reconstructing
the history of what they call the ‘Gulf Oasis’.

This is a stylized and simplified
account of what happened over tens of thousands of years. We are dealing with very
tiny Stone Age bands of 50–100 individuals over vast expanses of time and
space. Their movements would not have been systematic or linear. There would have
been random wanderings, retracements and dead ends. Just as there were groups coming
into the subcontinent, there were groups going out. Indeed, geneticists feel that
India may have been the source of a number of important genetic lineages that are
now found worldwide. Natural calamities, hunger, tribal wars and, most importantly,
disease would have decided who
survived and who did not. It is
important to remember that a tiny difference in the constellation of circumstances
in the Stone Age could show up as a dramatic difference in the genetic make-up of
today’s population.

There are plenty of remains of these
early humans in Stone Age sites scattered across India. Bhimbetka in central India
is one of the most extensive sites in the world although it was only discovered in
the 1950s. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The hilly terrain is littered
with hundreds of caves and rock shelters that appear to have been inhabited almost
continuously for over 30,000 years.

The country’s climate and
wildlife would have gone through a lot of change over this long period. For
instance, the finding of beads and ornaments made from ostrich-egg shells show that
the bird was once common in India. It is possible that the Stone Age fashion
industry pushed it into extinction by targeting the eggs. Bhimbetka has rock
paintings of animals and hunters from the Stone Age as well as of warriors on
horseback from a later time (perhaps the Bronze Age). The paintings provide
intriguing glimpses of the ancient origins of Indian civilization. As the
BBC’s Michael Wood puts it, ‘Looking at the dancing deity at
Bhimbetka with his bangles and trident, one can’t help but recall the
image of the dancing Shiva’.
¹⁸

The last full-blown Ice Age started
around 24,000 years ago, reached its peak around 18,000–20,000 years ago
and then warmed up. From 14,000 years ago, the ice sheets were melting rapidly, the
sea-levels were rising around the world and weather patterns were changing. The
Persian Gulf began to fill up 12,500 years ago.
¹⁹
Around 7500–8000 years ago, the
Gulf Oasis was
completely flooded. One wonders if this event is remembered as the Great Flood in
Sumerian and Biblical accounts.

The Persian Gulf people would have been
pushed out in waves by rising seas and desertification. Recent archaeology does
suggest a spike in new habitations on higher ground appearing around 7500 years ago.
²⁰
We also see growing evidence of maritime activity. A small clay replica of a
reed boat and depiction of a sea-going boat with masts from this period have been
found in Kuwait. In other words, by this time we are dealing with a Neolithic
population capable of farming, domesticating animals and building boats. Some groups
would have made their way into Central Asia, taking advantage of warmer
temperatures. Others would have made their way into Europe where earlier migrations
had already pushed out the Neanderthals. By this time, groups from South East Asia
had already established themselves in China and the warmer climate would have
allowed them to expand. Modern Chinese are now thought mainly to be descendants of
the South East Asians group with inputs from people coming via Central Asia.

Meanwhile, what was happening along the
Indian coastline? We know that the Indian coastline also moved several kilometres
inland to roughly approximate what we would now recognize. Does this account for the
fact that the Indians too have their own account of the Great Flood? According to
this ancient legend, Manu, the king of the Dravidas, was warned by the god Vishnu
about the flood. So he built a large ship and filled it with seeds and animals.
Vishnu, in the form of a fish, then towed it to safety. Manu and the survivors are
then said to have rebuilt civilization. The parallels with
the story of Noah are obvious.

While the sea moved inland all along the
coast, computer simulations suggest that there were two places where very large land
masses were inundated. One was where we now have the Gulf of Khambat (Cambay), just
south of the Saurashtra peninsula of Gujarat. The other land mass extended south
from the Tamil coast and would have included Sri Lanka. Were there large human
populations living in these areas at the time of the floods? It is very difficult to
tell since the sites are under water.

In 2001, however, marine archaeologists
identified two underwater locations in the Gulf of Khambat that seem to be remains
of large settlements that would have been flooded 7500 years ago.
²¹
There is still a great deal of controversy over the exact nature of these
discoveries but, if true, these findings would be truly remarkable. Since I have not
personally examined the evidence, I reserve my judgement for the moment. Still, it
would be reasonable to say that the changes in weather patterns and the sharp rise
in sea-levels must have caused significant displacements in Neolithic populations
during this period.

It is often argued that migrant
Neolithic groups from the Persian Gulf area took the knowledge of farming to other
regions. There is indeed evidence that some of the first crops to be farmed
systematically in the subcontinent, around 7000
BC
in
Mehrgarh, Baluchistan, were West Asian species such as wheat and barley. Thus, it
used to be thought that Indians learned to farm from West Asian migrants and only
later managed to domesticate local plants such as eggplant (brinjal),
sugarcane and sesame.
²²
More recently, however, researchers have uncovered evidence that Indians may
have independently developed farming, including the cultivation of rice. If there
were large urban settlements off the Gujarat coast, they too surely knew how to
farm. Was farming developed by the people who lived in the submerged cities and was
the technology then carried by refugees to the interiors? Or, were there parallel
innovations in different places? We are still learning a lot of things about this
period, and it remains a developing story.

Whatever the truth about the submerged
cities and the invention of farming, we know for sure that India supported a fairly
large human population by the end of the Neolithic age. Who were these people? How
are they related to present-day Indians?
²³

Till the early twentieth century, it
was believed that India was inhabited by aboriginal stone-age tribes till around
1500
BC
when Indo-Europeans called
‘Aryans’ invaded the subcontinent from Central Asia with horses
and iron weapons. Indian civilization was seen as a direct result of this invasion.
Although the date was entirely arbitrary and not backed by any textual or
archaeological evidence, this theory appeared to fit the pattern of later Central
Asian invasions as well as explain certain linguistic similarities between Indian
and European languages. Most importantly, it was politically convenient at that time
as it painted the British as merely latter-day Aryans with a mission to civilize the
natives.