Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c6.s12: Madhya Pradesh

Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c6.s12

Language: English

c6.s12.t1 Narbada Valley — 3 parts
c6.s12.t2 De Terra's Stratigraphy — 2 parts
c6.s12.t3 Nature of Industry : De Terra — 16 parts
c6.s12.t4 Tools — 8 parts
c6.s12.t5 Contemporary Fauna — 2 parts

Madhya Pradesh

Narbada Valley

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Further eastward the Upper Narbada Valley has long since been known for its rich fossil Middle Pleistocene fauna. A palaeolithic tool was also found at Bhutra in 1873 in association with fossil mammals. Later the Valley was surveyed by DE TERRA and PATERSON¹¹⁷ in 1935 and a correlation of the stratigraphy, the tools and fossil evidence was attempted.¹¹⁸

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¹¹⁷ DE TERRA and PATERSON, op. cit., pp. 313-20.

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¹¹⁸ DE TERRA and PATERSON, op. cit., p. 316 and p. 319.

De Terra's Stratigraphy

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The stratigraphy as reconstructed by them is as follows:

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| Black Soil | } | Upper Pleistocene and Later (Holocene) |
| Fine Gravel | } | |
| Pink silt | } Upper Group | |
| Gravel | } | Middle Pleistocene |
| Pink silt | } Lower Group | |
| Gravel | } | |
| Laterite | | |
| Basal Rock | | |

Nature of Industry : De Terra

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This brief—very brief indeed and most inadequately described and illustrated—study indicated the presence of various types of industries—Early and Late Sohan and the Abbevillio-Acheulian. At some localities there is a mixture of the different types, whereas at one locality near Narsingpur the Late Sohan seems to replace the Acheulian culture. DE TERRA would, however, tentatively suggest that the Narbada Lower Group represents the true Acheulian and Early Sohan, and the Upper Group the Late Sohan Industry.

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*Views : Later Workers*

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These very far reaching conclusions have not been corroborated by subsequent observers. McCown and BANERJI examined the sections in 1958 and KHATRI in 1959.¹¹⁹ The writer and SUBBARAO have studied in some detail the sections at Maheshwar,¹²⁰ about 100 miles down stream from Hoshangabad.

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¹¹⁹ Very tentative inferences are given in *I.A.R.*, 1958-59, p. 27 and 1959-60, p. 22. Khatri mentions some 40 pebble tools on block-on-block technique from the gravel layer at Piparia and thinks that these represent the earliest lithic industry on the Narmada. Some by SEN are reported in *I.A.R.*, 1960-61, pp. 59-60.

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¹²⁰ *I.A.R.*, 1958-59, p. 30.

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It appears first from McCown's observations that nowhere do we get a clear stratigraphical picture as postulated by DE TERRA. These seem to be "reconstructions." Even the laterite which starts the entire series was not noticed by all the observers. No doubt, they have discovered the tools and fossils in the gravels, but never in the pink silt. More important is the fact that it is difficult to decide which is the "Lower Group" of gravels and which the "Upper" without a prolonged longitudinal survey of the valley.

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*Stratigraphy at Maheshwar*

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At Maheshwar on the contrary the stratigraphy is much more clear. Though no laterite exists and though no bed has so far yielded any fossil, the superposition of the two groups is there. The lower gravel is very often eroded. Wherever it is preserved, it is seen as a comparatively thin, highly cemented bed. Three of such exposures are :

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(i) down stream of Maheshwar, near the Ganesh nala from which an early semi-rolled Abbevillian hand-axe was extracted ;

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(ii) in the nala behind the Maheshwari river, about a mile upstream from Maheshwar ;

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(iii) on the opposite bank, near the Kasrod nala.

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The second group resting on the lower pinkish clay is usually very well preserved. It can be seen down stream on the Maheshwar side, particularly in the Sahasradhara nala, and secondly in the Maheshwar nala where it caps the lower groups, and on the opposite bank for nearly two to three furlongs near the Kasrod nala. This nala which almost runs parallel to the Narbada has in its high cliff-like, vertical, sides, the finest exposures of the second gravel. In its constitution, it does not materially seem to differ from the first ; only it is not so well cemented as the latter. In future, if any detailed investigations are to be conducted, this nala should receive a high priority.

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*Climatic Sequence (See Fig. 37)*

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Our studies further revealed the fact that the second gravel is capped by nearly 60 ft. of yellowish silt, the entire formation being nearly 80 ft. from the water level and constitutes the topmost terrace (T1). This was later extensively eroded during a wet phase. Later the hollows or depressions so caused were filled up by another aggradation in the subsequent dry phase. This deposit of comparatively fine gravel with trap, chalcedony, jasper as its prominent constituents and capped by a brownish silt forms another terrace (T2) at a height of about 60 ft. from the water level. The gravel is fairly well cemented. Its best exposures are near the Kasrod nala and downstream from Maheshwar. In its turn, the fringes of terrace 2 are covered by a very loose kankary gravel and silt during the latest aggradation. Thus at Maheshwar the following climatic sequence can be inferred from the river deposits :

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¹²¹ This may rest against the black soil or cover it, and its nature and cause of formation has been confirmed by this year's (September 1961) phenomenal floods.

Tools

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Tools present a problem. For very few tools were found in situ from the gravel layer, nos. 1 and 3. No tools were found at Hoshangabad from the pinkish layers 2 and 4. But if the in situ tools are any guide, it may be said that already by the earlier gravel phase man manufactured tools from huge cores by alternate flaking on block-on-block or stone hammer technique. This has left behind a number of excellent cores and a still greater number of big flakes with a high angle and no platform. Some of these flakes are turned into "scrapers" or choppers having one side suitable for a hand-hold. One does not know what DE TERRA means by pre-Sohan flakes from the Narmada, for none of these is illustrated. But the writer feels that DE TERRA had such large, high angled flakes in mind.121a

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121a One of these is illustrated here. See Fig. 5, 2, p. 11.

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Associated with these flakes are a few hand-axes. Those extracted from the lowest gravel are of the Abbevillian type with large concave flake scars and cortex. However, the collection does include ovates and other finer hand-axes of Acheulian type, but so far Maheshwar has yielded a large number of flakes, cores, cleavers and a few hand-axes.

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The number of cleavers is on the whole larger. This is understandable, because it was more convenient to convert flakes into cleavers. These include several types.

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So far, however, no tools have been found in these gravels which resemble the Late Sohan which comprises a large percentage of Levallois flakes. Such material occurs in gravel III and the overlying silt and is found in abundance on the surface.

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McCOWN and BANERJEE, however, did find a few Levallois flakes of quartzite in what they call "second gravel."¹²² It is, therefore, possible that in the Narbada valley man had come upon this technique in the late Middle Pleistocene times. What is therefore needed is to search the two gravel deposits more carefully.

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¹²² This is also the observation of KHATRI. See I.A.R. 1959-60, p. 22.

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In summary, then, it may be said that during the Middle Pleistocene period (as determined by rather profuse fossil fauna) in the Narbada valley, as elsewhere, the hand-axe culture flourished, and the elements like pre-Sohan tradition were but a part of the same hand-axe culture, not a distinct culture.

Contemporary Fauna

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Besides, gastropods and clams, the forests teemed with wild elephant (*Elephas namadicus* Falc.), wild horse (*Equus namadicus* Falc.), wild ox (*Bos namadicus* Falc.), *Hippopotamus palaeindicus* F. and C., *Stegodon insignis* F. and C., *Rhinoceros unicornis* Lim., *Sus* sp., *Trionyx* sp., *Stegodon ganesa* F. and C. *Emys* sp., *Ursus namadicus* F. and C., *Leptobos frazeri* Rut, *Cervus duvancelli*.

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Thus some 13 extinct species of mammals were man's contemporary. So far only three, the elephant, rhinoceros and ox have been found on the Godavari.