The story of the early Iron Age in India during the period estimated at circa 1000-200 B.C. has been told here with the help of mutually-supporting archaeological and literary evidences. A broad and tentative picture of the tenor of life in the Iron Age has been presented objectively on the basis of the available evidence of the cultural equipments. The study inescapably includes an extensive treatment of the iron-using megalithic culture of south India.