India had much the better of a truncated first day of the decisive Test with South Africa at Kingsmead, advancing to 181 for one from 61 overs before bad light ended proceedings.
The tourists made the most of winning the toss, Murali Vijay leading the way with 91 and Chesteshwar Pujara contributing 58 to an unbroken stand of 140.
Shikar Dhawan was the sole wicket to fall, in the 14th over, edging Morne Morkel to third slip where the catch was taken by Alviro Petersen who had replaced Imran Tahir in the home team.
India also made one change from the enthralling drawn first Test at the Wanderers as Ravindra Jadeja came in for Ravichandran Ashwin.
At the start of his last Test before retiring from the longest format Jacques Kallis sent down seven overs but the majority of the bowling was done by the pace trio of Dale Steyn, Morkel and Vernon Philander, the latter having replaced Steyn at the top of the Test bowling rankings since the previous game.