Question

Answer the following question in detail.

Write in detail about the ‘first farmers’ and beginning of agriculture in India.

Answer 1

1. Archaeological sites of Neolithic villages, which have been discovered prove that there were well settled villages in the Indian subcontinent, as early, as 8000 B.C.E.
2. Historian scholars generally agree that the Harappan cities evolved from these early villages.
3. Barley was the main crop grown by the farmers in these villages, where wheat was grown on smaller scale.
4. The farmers in these villages were the 'first farmers' of the Indian Sub-continent. They lived in mud houses and domesticated cattle and goat-sheep.
5. The transition from hunter-gatherer's life to the beginning of cultivation spans through 10000- 8700 B.C.E.
6. The beginning of cultivation is also the beginning of Neolithic age. The period also marked domestication of animals along with cultivation.
7. While wheat and fiaxseeds were grown, barley was the main crop in this period.
8. Modified composite tools like fishing harpoons, spears and arrows were made. Blades known as microliths and tools like sickle and scythe were used for harvesting cereals and fruits.