The people of South India do not have well-marked racial characteristics and are a miscellany of differing physical types, resulting from a mixture of various strains over time.

Modern attempts to distinguish these strains are based on complex evidence and are matters of opinion.

The evidence related to cultural and racial problems of the prehistoric period is threefold:

• Distribution of physical characteristics among the population.

• Distribution of language-groups, which is important for cultural history even though language is not directly related to race.

• Archaeological evidence, including tools, utensils, and pottery found in different regions, offering clues about movements and cultures.

Human skeletons found in ancient graves sometimes help identify the racial elements in the population.

The study and co-ordination of these different evidence sources is still in the early stages.

Man is believed to have inhabited South India for about 300,000 years, with evidence of fossil remains found alongside primitive stone tools in river valleys like the Godavari and Narmada and mountain ranges like the Siwaliks.

In the Old Stone (Paleolithic) Stage, early humans used crude stone implements and gathered food rather than farming it.

Early tools were simple hand-axes, cleavers, Clactonian or Levalloisian flakes, later evolving to blades and burins.

Paleolithic industries in India are classified into three types:

• Chopper industries of the North (Sohan).

• Abbevillo-Acheulian hand-axes of the South (Madras).

• A mixture of both traditions in some regions like Singrauli basin, Deogarh, Jhansi, Gujarat, and Mayurbhanj.

The Paleolithic Stage is divided into Lower Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic, but it is uncertain whether India had a distinct Upper Paleolithic Stage.