Abstract The Southern Granulite Terrane of India exposes remnants of an interbanded sequence of orthoquartzite–metapelite–calcareous rocks across the enigmatic Palghat–Cauvery Shear Zone (PCSZ), which has been interpreted as a Pan-African terrane boundary representing the eastward extension of the Betsimisaraka Suture Zone of Madagascar. Zircon U–Pb geochronology of metasedimentary rocks from both sides of the PCSZ shows that the precursor sediments of these rocks were sourced from the Dharwar Craton and the adjoining parts of the Indian shield. The similarity of the provenance and the vestiges of Grenvillian-age orogenesis in some metasedimentary rocks contradict an interpretation that the PCSZ is a Pan-African terrane boundary. The lithological association and the likely basin formation age of the metasedimentary rocks of the Southern Granulite Terrane show remarkable similarity to the rock assemblage and timing of sedimentation of the Palaeoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic shallow-marine deposits of the Purana basins lying several hundred kilometres north of this terrane. Integrating the existing geological information, it is postulated that the shallow-marine sediments were deposited on a unified land-mass consisting of a large part of Madagascar and the Indian shield that existed before Neoproterozoic time, part of which was later involved in the Pan-African orogeny. Supplementary material: Details of the zircon U–Pb LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses of samples are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18793 .

Abstract Extending along the east coast of peninsular India, the Eastern Ghats expose a deep section through a composite orogenic belt that once formed part of the Proterozoic mobile belt system within East Antarctica and East India. The critical evaluation of the existing geological and isotopic data strongly suggests that this orogenic belt includes not only the granulite facies Eastern Ghats Belt but also the Nellore–Khammam Schist Belt and lower grade units at the southern margin of the Singhbhum Craton. The present authors propose its subdivision into four crustal provinces with widely different geological evolutions. The Rengali and Jeypore Provinces formed at the margin of the Bhandara Craton in the Late-Archaean. In the Krishna Province, volcanosedimentary rocks equivalent to the Cuddapah Supergroup accumulated, probably on the Dharwar Craton in the Palaeoproterozoic, and the major tectonometamorphic event took place between 1.67 and 1.55 Ga, subsequent to a short-lived igneous activity. The Eastern Ghats Province, which shows considerable similarities with the Rayner Province of East Antarctica, was strongly affected by pervasive deformation, high-grade metamorphism and crustal-derived magmatism between 1.1 and 0.9 Ga, which extensively modified the crustal structure of present eastern peninsular India. Neoproterozoic and Early Phanerozoic tectonothermal activities were largely restricted to pre-existing shear zones, but the present configuration of the composite orogenic belt may have been achieved only during the Pan-African Orogeny.