Contents: Introduction. 1. The land and people. 2. The pre-megalithic cultures of Deccan. 3. The megalithic types in the contiguous regions of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. 4. Excavations at Pochampad and Kadambapur. 5. Comparative study of the megalithic burials of the Godavari basin with those found in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. 6. The races. 7. Chronology. 8. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

"The megaliths in the Godavari basin reveal the arrival of megalithic builders migrated from different areas of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The recent excavations of these burials at Pochampad and Kadambapur yielded rare specimens of pottery, viz., high-necked vases, bowls in curvilinear-shapes, tapering sides and perforated stands. The neolithic chalcolithic sites excavated from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh bear resemblance to the ones excavated in the Godavari basin which suggests that at different times the people from Karnataka and Andhra had migrated and settled in the Godavari basin, where they came into contact with the megalithic folks of Vidarbha.

"The present work deals with the influence of earlier neolithic chalcolithic culture over the megalithic, the pottery types and their transformation, their burial patterns and cultural contacts that existed in the Vidarbha region and bears stamp of author's painstaking efforts in understanding the dynamics of cultural growth which the readers would find highly informative and fascinating. " (jacket)