Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c6.21

c6.21

NEOLITHIC—The Old Stone Age culture had a very long duration dating back to about half a million years and continuing up to about ten to seven thousand years B. C. As against this the Neolithic age had a much shorter duration of a few thousand years and therefore linked with the earliest historic cultures of India. The Neolithic man was primarily producing food by an agricultural industry. He was using hand-made pottery, specially utensils for cooking. The Neolithic implements were ground and polished. The tools included celts, axes, adzes and hammer-stones. The polished handled stone axe is the distinguishing tool of the Neolithic man. In the Ṛigveda there are two significant words, viz. aśman-mayī vāśī and ayasī vāśī. The real significance of these words does not seem to have been understood. Vāśī was a kind of adze from which the Hindi word basūlā or basūlī is derived. The stone adzes seem to have been stone celts of the Neolithic man used for cutting (वाशीभस्तक्षतारमन्मयीभिः RV. X. 101. 10). The copper celt (ayasī vāśī) was a weapon of Tvaṣṭā (वाशीमेको बिभर्ति हस्त आयसीमन्तर्देवेषु, RV. VIII. 29. 3). The Neolithic man did not know the use of metals and he was using only stone tools. In South India he was followed by people using iron. In North India, copper-using culture succeeded the Neolithic man of which Mohenjodaro is the best example. Here is a transitional stage in which the use of stone celts is found together with that of copper celts. The Aryans in the Ṛigveda also were using both of these but mostly the copper tools, as in the Ṛigveda Tvaṣṭā, the divine architect (antar deveshu), is credited with having in hand a copper celt. The same god is associated with a copper axe (ayasa paraśu, RV. X. 53. 9.) Those who were armed with such handled copper celts were known as vāśī-mantaḥ.