In the world context the New Stone Age began in 9000 B.C. The Neolithic settlement in the Indian subcontinent attributed to 7000 B.C. in Mehrgarh. It is situated in Baluchistan province of Pakistan. In the before 5000 B.C., the people of the place did not use any pottery. Some Neolithic sites found on the northern spurs of the Vindhyas are considered as old as 5000 B.C. but generally Neolithic settlements found in south India are not older than 2500 B.C., in some parts of Southern and Eastern India they are as late as 1000 B.C.

The change to a Neolithic pattern, where the beginnings of agriculture and the
domestication of animals become crucial, introduced what "Gordon Childe" once argued was a revolution through the practice of agriculture. This was not a sudden, radical change, and some activates of the earlier age had anticipated these developments. It may have been accelerated in areas experiencing a change in the environment as also by the ingenuity of men and women attempting improvements in their way of life. But its ultimate effect, inasmuch as it changed the process of obtaining food and establishing new types of links between human, animals and land, was revolutionary. A larger, and up to a point predictable, production of food may perhaps have been required by a resulted in a growing population. Together with this came the possibility of storing food at least for a short time which would have further encouraged the making of posts for storage. A higher density of population in places where agriculture was practiced might also have brought about a more sedentary population. It is thought that gradually those practicing settled agriculture may, on occasion, have overwhelmed hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators. Habitats might have tended to encourage a concentration of people. This would eventually have made urbanization possible, but after a considerable experience of cultivation and sedentary occupation.

Initially the cultivators are likely to have moved from place to place before more intensive agriculture made them sedentary. There may well have been confrontation between hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators, some of the latter having only recently been hunter-gatherers themselves, although now wishing to subordinate other activities to agriculture. Ultimately, the dominance of the latter was established and the dependence on hunting and gathering would have declined. The suggestion that the transition to agriculture was made by women, who stayed home while the men hunted, is plausible. This gave women the opportunity to sow and then to tend what they had sown. But the more extensive change came with plough agriculture which was handled by men. Agriculture provided some predictability to the supply of food. The extension of cultivation required a sedentary society, and with technological advances it was in later times, for a variety of exchanges some for other items or some even for obtaining labor. This use of the extra food gradually introduced stratification into a society where some controlled the food and used it for exchange, while others were left to produce the extra food.

Technologically there was a substantial improving in tools, which were now polished. The removal of rough edges increased their functional effectiveness, as in the case of polished stone axes. The technological improvement of the polished axes as compared to the earlier ones is quite striking. Gradually, at some sites grass huts gave way to wattle-and -daub huts (constructed from branches of trees and foliage plastered with mud), and these in turn to mud-brick-structures, small granaries and water storage. Hand- turned pottery later gave way to wheel-thrown pottery, and the production of a few ornaments. Sites such as Mehrgarh, because of the extensive horizontal excavations, show a well-demarcated transition from early agriculture to the preliminaries of urbanization. The spread of agriculture has been explained as moving from west Asia to north-west India, but the evidence from sites in the latter area suggests that the transition to agriculture may have occurred more locally.

Wheat, barley, rice and millet began to be cultivated in different areas and at different times. The provenance of rice cultivation appears to have been in eastern India. Gradually, the domestication of sheep, goats and cattle was established. This provided dairy produce and some meat when required, reducing the dependence on hunting. Pastoralism and agriculture were interdependent at this stage, although the changes carried the potential of a bifurcation.

The cultivation of crops permitted some predictability and control over obtaining food, but required permanent settlement to make a qualitative change. The domestication of animals provided food more readily. Larger animals were used additionally for traction and for transportation. The increasing use of pottery allowed for storage of food, which encouraged cooking and the range in the size of the pots enabled their use in other ways. Where grave goods were buried with bodies, pots were sometimes included as items of ritual value. Large urns were also used as coffins for the burial of infants whose mortality is noticeable in these earlier cultures.

The increasing emphasis on framing in Neolithic cultures draws attention to parallels observed by anthropologist studying similar societies. Farming anticipates the potentiality for chiefdoms where initially cultivation is carried out by family and clan labour. In many early societies the family as a unit, or as a constituent part of a clan, herded animals and cultivated crops. Younger members were expected to labour for the elders. This was labour performed because of a kinship link and is prior to the induction of non-kin labour, which marks a significant social departure but which probably becomes a resource in the more developed farming associated with later, socially stratified cultures. When societies became more complex and the system changed, non-kin labour was added or replaced kin-based labour. This was the labour of those who were not kinsmen but were willing to labour for recompense, or, possibly, if they were captives they could be forced to labour for those who had captured them. The use of non-kin labour also ushers in the possibility of an increase in produce and this would have raised the question of how the increase was to be distributed. Controlling and organizing labour in such situations, whether kin-based or not, would become a major source of authority and one of the functions of the chief.

The Neolithic settlers in Piklihal were cattle-herders. They domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats. Etc. they set up seasonal camps surrounded by Cowpens made with posts and stakes. In these enclosures they accumulated dung. Then the entire camping ground was put to fire and cleared for camping in the next session. Both ash mounds and habitation sites have been found in Piklihal. The Neolithic settlers were the earliest farming communities. They broke the ground with stone hoes and digging sticks at the end of which ring stones weighing one to half a kilogram were fixed. Besides polished tools of stone, they used microlithic blades. They lived in circular houses owned property in common. In any case these Neolithic people led a settled life. They produced ragi and horse gram (Kulathi). The Neolithic people of Mehrgarh were more advanced. They produced wheat, cotton, and lived in mud-brick houses.

The people of this period used tools, and implements of polished stones. They particularly used stone axes. Which were found in large numbers in a good part of the hilly tracts of the country. The cutting tool was put to various uses by the people, and in ancient legends Parashurama became an important axe-wielding hero. Neolithic Celts, axes, adzes, chisels, etc., have also been found in the Orissa and Chota Nagpur hill areas. But traces of Neolithic settlements are generally few in parts of Madhya Pradesh and the tracts of the upper Deccan, because of the lack of the types of stone which lend themselves easily to grinding and polishing.
Based on the types of axes used by Neolithic settlers, we notice three important areas such as Neolithic settlements north-western, North-Eastern and Southern. The north-western group of Neolithic tools represents rectangular axes with curved cutting edge. The north-eastern group shows polished stone axes with rectangular hoes. The southern group is distinguished by axes with oval sides and pointed butt.

Neolithic sites occur in diverse parts of the subcontinent: in Galighai in the Swat Valley, Sarai Khola further to the south, and in the loess plateau of the Kashmir Valley that allowed pit dwellings; in Chirand in Bihar and in sites in the Belan Valley of Uttar Pradesh, such as Chopani Mando and Koldihva; eastwards to Pandu Rajar Dhibi, and further to Daojali Hading and Sarutaru; and in a cluster of sites spreading out from the Raichur doab and the Godavari and Krishna Valleys in the peninsula at Utnur, Piklihal, Maski, Tekkalakota, Brahmagiri, Hallur, Paiyamapalli and T.Narsipur,. Some of these sites were active into the historical period when a few had elements of urbanism.

Neolithic sites are scattered in various places and evolve at varying times. Among the early sites is Mehrgarh near Quetta in Baluchistan, one amid a number of village sites. This is a more impressive site than many others as it provides evidence of the continuity of the settlement over a few millennia and the gradual evolution of the continuity of the settlement over a few millennia and the gradual evolution of the settlement from agriculture towards urbanization.

Some parallels are evident at sites in the north-west, which can be attributed to a cross-fertilization of ideas and activities in the region. Settlements were not isolated and the interaction between them could have through an exchange of goods associated items, such as beads, through pastoral circuits and migrations and through confrontations. These would have created networks to channel exchange on a more regular basis, together with marriage circle and new ritual practices.

The origins of Mehrgarh have been dated to c.7000 BC. The cultivation of wheat and barley, the herding of cattle, sheep and goats, habitation in mud-brick huts with hearths, a possible granary, pit burials with personal effects, beads of turquoise and lapis, and a scatter of clay figurines are aspects of a cultural pattern that was established by the sixth millennium.

By the fourth millennia BC - also in the north-west at Kile Gul Mohammad, Rana Ghundai, Sheri Khan Tarakai, Gumla and Rehman Dheri were similarly centers of pastoral and agricultural activities as well as being located along routes crossing the area. The Nal culture in Baluchistan and the Kulli culture to the south were also part of this scene. Some of these sites change from agro-pastoralism to farming, then to the beginnings of towns, and are therefore precursors of Harappan urbanization.

Close to the Indus River in the plains were the settlements at Koti Diji and Amir, with features which were the forerunners of some of the characteristics of the Harappan culture.

The painted designs on the pottery at Koti Diji, for example, were based on the leaf of the papal/ficus religious tree, and on fish and fish scales similar to those on Harappan pottery. Koti Diji features are also evident in some of the pottery from what have been called the Sothi sites in Rajasthan, such as the pre-Harappan settlement at Kalibangan. Further east, there are some similarities in artifacts from Kunal and Banawali (Haryana). The Aravali Hills are rich in copper, and places essentially involved in the production of copper, such as Ganeshwar, were important. Practices in the alloying of metal were to become a legacy from the Harappan.
Further south in Gujarat there is evidence of pre-Harappan settlements, some at places that were preludes to important Harappan towns such as Dholavira.

Some of the settlements in Rajasthan and Punjab also carried features associated with the Hakra Plain, particularly present-day Bahawalpur and Cholistan. The Hakra River, which gradually dried up, was once a substantial river although all that remains of its upper reaches now is the Ghaggar in the Punjab. The question has been raised whether the Indus-Hakra area was more pertinent to the rise of the Harappan cities, given the dense cluster of sites in the area, than was Baluchistan and the north-west; and, if this was so, perhaps the civilization should be called the Indus-Sarasvati civilization. However, the crucial factor is not the number of sites but the nature of the sites. Judging the nature of a site does not lie in merely listing artifacts, but assessing, in this case, the role of the site in encouraging the change from evidence for the transition to urban centers lay, more likely, in the Indus plain and the north-west. In terms of access to the raw materials used in crafts production and in controlling trade, which provided the impetus to urbanization, the centers in the north-west and the Indus Plain were certainly better situated than those in Cholistan. The former were more active, and with the potential of having connections beyond the borderlands. Although the evidence from the north-west provides some indicators of the emergence of urbanism, in other areas, such as Gujarat, it has been described as a relatively sudden mutation accompanied by a notable increase in the size of urban settlements. This could have followed from the earlier Harappan reaching out into new areas and the latter adapting to the demands of the former. This might account for the seeming uniformity combined with a continuing presence of some regional features. It would also have allowed for the spread of Harappan material culture, which makes it the most expansive civilization of its time. The evolution of cities in north-western India has to be viewed not only in the local context, but also in the context of archeological changes and the movement of peoples in the borderlands and beyond, with whom there had been earlier contacts. This does not, however, preclude the possibility of areas with a potential for urbanization, such as Kutch, coastal Gujarat of Cholistan, developing this potential on the heels of the first urbanization. The large urban site of Ganweriwala, in these parts has yet to be determined. It is more appropriate therefore to continue referring to the civilization as the Indus civilization or the Harappan culture, the latter name deriving from the initial site which was one of the earlier cities of the
civilization.