cave paintings from the stone age are found across india. they show dances and rituals and suggest there was a prehistoric religion. during the epic and puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems "ramayana" and "mahabharata" were written from about 500–100 bce, although these were orally transmitted for centuries before this period. other south asian stone age sites apart from pakistan are in modern india, such as the bhimbetka rock shelters in central madhya pradesh and the kupgal petroglyphs of eastern karnataka, contain rock art showing religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music.