Peninsular India's rocks have been around for around 3600 million years. It was a component of Gondwanaland before the Carboniferous epoch. According to geologists, the Indian Peninsula never subsided permanently under the sea during the Archaean Period. It was more stiff and stable, and the mountain-building forces had had less effect on it. The Dharwar and Gondwana formations, as well as the fault valleys of the Narmada, Tapi, and Son rivers, show that it experienced block faulting and displacement throughout succeeding times.

Coal was created in the Damodar, Son, Mahanadi, and Godavari basins during the Carboniferous Period. The Deccan Trap (India's Lava Plateau) was formed by large-scale vulcanicity during the Cretaceous Period, and it consists of lava sheets that are several thousand metres thick. About 146 million years ago, magma flowed from a depth of about 40 kilometres beneath the crust, forming the Deccan Trap.