It is tempting to assume that the change from one recognised period of history to another must be marked by some kind of revolutionary change or paradigm shift. After all, empires and states usually change dynasties through violent change or warfare, at least in the public imagination. However, the reality is rarely as neat or decisive as this. The arrival of the Neolithic period to the Indian sub-continent, for example, was marked not by the sudden change from hunting and gathering to sedentary farming but a slow transition and intensification of this trend. There may have been some confrontations between people who had adopted farming and those who remained hunter-gatherers but there is no real evidence for this.

What is known is that the new forms of living emerged more or less simultaneously in a variety of sites across the sub-continent. The technology for storing food spread likewise and this produced the possibility of preserving food for lengthy periods. This is important not just in extending the food security of people with surplus food but also because ownership of that surplus provides opportunities for status. Whenever improvements in productivity and technology produce a surplus, this issue arises. Generally, of course, it is kings who get to own the surplus and buttress their own status – but the presence of the surplus makes being a king more important and encourages people to wonder whether they might like to try it themselves.

A typical Neolithic site is that of Mehrgarh in the province of Baluchistan, which has been dated to 7000 BCE. There, wheat and barley were grown and cows, sheep and goats raised. People lived in mud brick huts which had their own hearths and they buried their dead in designated burial pits.

The Chalcolithic period was marked by an increase in the production and use of bronze and tin. The value of these metals was such that they persuaded people to make greater efforts to travel long distances in order to obtain, work and trade them. There is little purpose in going to the trouble of organizing international trade if there is nothing valuable to trade. Metal changed all that. Places where it could be found suddenly became places where people wished to gather and settlements started to be founded there.

For further details, see Romila Thapar’s The Penguin History of Early India: from the Origins to AD 1300 (London: Penguin Books, 2003).