Abstract The Proterozoic Cuddapah Basin of south India hosts a number of unconformity-bound sequences deposited over continental crust. The Palaeoproterozoic Papaghani Group with basal polymict conglomerate unconformably overlies the Archaean Peninsular Gneiss and set the stage for Palaeoproterozoic sedimentation following a long hiatus. Two cycles of fluvial–shallow-marine psammite–carbonate–pelite sedimentation in the western part of the basin (Papaghni sub-basin) is punctuated at different levels by mafic flows, sills and dykes, and less common acidic tuffs. Each of the sedimentation cycles fosters extensive carbonate platforms with dolomitic stromatolites and algal laminites. Emplacement of shallow crustal intrusives at the end of the first cycle was possibly linked to thermal anomalies in the mantle and associated widespread crustal extension in south India. Brittle fault-slip analysis from the western Cuddapah indicates repetitive extensional to strike-slip regimes. This paper proposes a likely late Palaeoproterozoic shallow-marine sedimentary sequence of the Nallamalai Fold Belt as allochthonous, thrusted over the successions of the Papaghni sub-basin and the Kurnool Group in the western part of the basin. Inversion of the Papaghni sub-basin and the development of regional erosional unconformities is discussed in the context of Palaeoproterozoic and early Mesoproterozoic orogenic events at the SE margin of India.