There is evidence in the Mesolithic and Upper Paleolithic cave paintings of central India that masks have been used in South Asia since at least 15,000 BC, and possibly much earlier: dancing figures-some clearly wearing animal masks and carrying bows and arrows, others wearing what seem to be more abstract masks-appear, for example, in the rock art of Bhimbetka and Ladi-ki-Karar. While the dating of these images remains tentative and the function of the masks highly conjectural, entoptic designs accompanying some of the masked figures indicate that trance ceremonies may have been involved and suggest dances of exorcism and renewal.

Miniature clay masks and mask like images have been found at Mohenjodaro and what seems to have been an actor's terra cotta mask was unearthed at Chirand and dated from the 3rd - 4th Century BC, while masked Priests seem to have officiated in ceremonies of Assyria and Sumer. Masks of various materials-gourds, wood, leaves, clay, and papier mache-are still used by the adivasi peoples of India in agricultural, fertility and curing ceremonies, frequently evoking connections to the animal and chthonic realms. One of the most elaborate uses of masks in South Asia is in the Sanniya Yakuma (also known as Thovil) healing ceremonies of Sri Lanka, in which a series of 18 sickness causing demons and their leader, Maha Kola Sanniya, are summoned; their influence over the afflicted patient is countered by a company of ritual specialists using masks, trance, showmanship, and humor. A more secular masked form in Sri Lanka is the Kolam, also featuring elaborate demon and animal masks.

The various interlocking and competing strands of Hinduism have also frequently deployed masks. Particularly of note are Shakti masks, representing the more active, feminine aspects of divine power, often used for exorcistic purposes in Southern and Eastern India. These forms seem to have blossomed first in the 7th Century AD, as Tantric Saivism rivaled and eventually eclipsed Buddhism in these regions. A particularly old and well-preserved form of Shakti masked dance is Gambhira, performed in the Malda region of West Bengal and, at least previously, in adjacent parts of what is now Bangladesh. Other instances of Shakti mask usage, often associated with exorcistic practices and especially performed at the time of Chaitra Parva, can be found scattered through West Bengal, southern Bihar, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh, as well as in several sites in southern India. Of particular note is the interaction of this tradition with adivasi traditions of masking (as in the Mukha Khel traditions of West Bengal) and the expansion of these hybrid traditions to include the portrayal of other Puranic tales and stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, as in the Bhavada tradition danced by the Konkana peoples living on the border of between Gujarat and Maharashtra and the masked Chho dances of West Bengal that deploy a wide variety of papier and cloth mache masks to portray humans, gods, demons, and animals. In Seraikella, Bihar, a variant of this tradition was refined under royal patronage in the 1930s and the repertoire was expanded to include metaphysical themes incorporating anthropomorphic masks for such characters as Night, the Moon, and a Boatman and his wife ferrying across life's treacherous waters.

The Ramayana has been especially receptive to the use of masks and mask like puppets (sometimes called parvas ) worn over the entire body of the actor. Usually, the deployment of masks is confined to the animal and demonic characters in the epic. Thus, the ten-headed Ravana's demonic family and followers, as well as the monkey army led by Sugriva and Hanuman, are frequently portrayed with masks; these range from the relatively simple papier mache helmet masks of Desia Nata in the Koraput region of Orissa to the elaborately decorated cloth and metal masks used in the vicinity of Varanasi. A similarly selective use of masks for animals and demons in the portrayal of other Hindu myths may found in such widely separated forms as the venerable Bhaona tradition of devotional play in Assam and the Krishnattam of Kerala, which features beautifully carved and painted masks for Jambhavan and Narakasura.

In the rock art of India (as well as Europe and Africa and in cultures as widely separated as Ancient Egypt and the Northwest Coast of America), masks have proved particularly apt in portraying theriomorphic beings. An elephant-headed human figure is featured in a 1,000 BC rock painting in India, where the elephant-headed Ganesha is to this day similarly portrayed; as the god of propitious beginnings he is often summoned at the start of Indian plays. Even more striking are the wooden and papier mache masks used to represent the man-lion avatar of Vishnu, Narasimha: examples of Narasimha masks are found in the modern Gambhira repertoire, in the Prahlada Nataka of Orissa, in the Kuchipudi repertoire of Andhra Pradesh, in the Bhagavatamela and Terukuttu of Tamil Nadu, and in the Yakshagana repertoire of Karnataka. Animal masks continue to be used in secular dances as well, including those deployed with two person animal costumes (kolas) in wedding celebrations and on festive holidays in the Ganjam hills of Orissa, and the deer and tiger masks used in Kashmiri Bhand Pather. A very similar mask to the one used for excellent comic effect in Kashmir is used touchingly as a grief stricken mourner of Hussein's death in the Iranian Ta'ziyeh.

Still, masks are relatively rare in secular contexts in South Asia, and masks representing the human face, as in the Chhau tradition of Seraikella and the 19th century practice of the comedic Ruhozi in Iran are very much the exception, not the rule. Masks were used in the pan-Indian Sanskrit theatre tradition, but, there too, seem to have been used sparingly and mostly for animals and demons. Instead, the play of human emotion on the face was elaborated under the rasa/bhava system and this elaboration of facial display stressing plasticity of response has also found its way into the folk theatre traditions, often abetted-in Teyyam, in Kathakali, in Yakshagana, and in many other forms-by an elaborate use of highly stylized makeup, with the effect of creating what has been referred to as a pliant mask.