[world-vedic] Did the Stone Age man live in Delhi?

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Did the Stone Age man live in Delhi?

By Rajat Pandit

 

The Times of India News Service

 

NEW DELHI: More evidence is surfacing to show Delhi, too, was the home

of the Stone Age Man. A resident of Alaknanda in south Delhi has

discovered scores of prehistoric stone tools, dubbed a ``major find''

by some experts.

 

The resident, H V Maheshwari, a physics teacher in Zakir Hussain

College, collected the crude stone tools during his morning walks in

the nearby Jahanpanah forest over the last few years. ``It became a

nashaa,'' he said.

 

But it was finally on Saturday that the find gained some legitimacy,

with a Delhi University anthropology department professor, D K

Bhattacharya, and a history department colleague, R K Chattopadhyaya,

visiting Maheshwari's house and the Jahanpanah forest for a first-hand

look.

 

``It is a spectacular discovery of prehistoric habitations in Delhi,

dating back to 100,000 years. A few similar specimens have been found

in Delhi before. But so many tools has been reported for the first

time,'' said Bhattacharya, who specialises in archaeology and is the

author of a book, Old Stone Age Tools, a must-read for students of

Ancient Indian history.

 

Most of the tools ostensibly come from the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic

period), the oldest of the primitive cultures which devised and used

rudimentary chipped stone tools like hand-axes, flakes, blades and

choppers.

 

But are these for real? ``Such tools cannot be faked,'' Bhattacharya

was emphatic, after examining the ``coarse-grain quartzite''

implements. Man was then a nomad -a food- gatherer who hunted wild

animals and collected wild fruits for food, and never settled at one

place.

 

Another significant aspect of the find are ``microliths'', tiny but

very sharp flint flakes used to make composite tools in the Mesolithic

period, which came between the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age

(neolithic). ``This is the first time microliths have been reported

from Delhi,'' said Bhattacharya.

 

Maheshwari said he first found a stone tool in a hole dug by DDA in the

forest, which forms a part of the Aravalis range. ``It was a logically,

not naturally, cut stone...I then began to dig around for more and also

began to read about them,'' he said.

 

Maheshwari wants the ``prehistoric sites'' to be protected and

developed as ``research and tourist spots''. ``I approached the

Archaeological Survey of India but they did not show much interest. I

finally managed to persuade Bhattacharyaji to come here,'' he said.

 

Bhattacharya, in turn, said Delhi's prehistoric component, represented

by the Aravalis range, has been largely ignored. ``It is educated

enthusiasts like Maheshwari who have brought to life the expanse of

these prehistoric series of occupations, spread probably over southern

and western Delhi...such evidence is coming out due to deforestation

and urban encroachments,'' he added.

 

Chattopadhyaya said the ``very interesting area'' needed to be studied

``systematically to arrive at the chronology of the occupational

history'' before it was destroyed.