Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c6.s7: Andhra
Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c6.s7
- Language
- English
Contents
- c6.s7.t1 Bhavanasi and other rivers — 3 parts
- c6.s7.t2 Stratigraphic and Climatic Correlation — 5 parts
- c6.s7.t3 Giddalur Tools — 4 parts
- c6.s7.t4 Pebble Tools : Significance — 5 parts
- c6.s7.t5 Krishna Valley — 9 parts
- c6.s7.t6 Karempudi — 27 parts
Andhra
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When we leave Orissa and proceed further southwards we enter the classic land of Stone Age man. For all the districts of Andhra Pradesh, excepting East and West Godavari, and the southern districts of Madras State, have yielded numerous stone implements of several Stone Ages, since the last century. These along with Orissa and southern U.P. form the old land mass in India, older than the Himalayas and the entire Gangetic system, and the coastal plain of the east and west coast. And in these old areas, we have some of the oldest rock formations on the earth, which form the so-called Eastern Ghat. Their sub-ridges go by the name of the Nallamalais and Erramalais. But whether you see this ridge or that, everywhere the country presents an antique look; weathered reddish appearance and dried up, very shallow, narrow streams. This is particularly striking when one passes through the old granite land with an isolated boulder perched precariously upon another and about to fall at any moment. However, a little careful examination of the land shows that the country had seen much better times in the past, when the climate was much wetter and the rivers flowed in a much broader valley. Today, inspite of scanty and irregular rainfall, the farmers by skilfully creating artificial ponds and lakes eke out a living by having two crops a year. And their green paddy fields against a copper-red, treeless, hills look particularly charming.
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Of the several districts of Andhra, Kurnool had suggested a fairly good sequence of Stone Age tools and climatic fluctuation based on the collection of CAMMIADE and interpretation by BURKITT,⁶³ which holds good for the whole of the south-east India. Since then the district has been more fully surveyed by Professor ISAAC⁶⁴ of the Andhra Christian College (previously a student of the Deccan College). The tools from Giddalur have been described in detail,⁶⁵ whereas the adjoining district of Guntur, Nagarjunakonda which was hitherto famous for its historic monuments has also yielded, relics of several earlier Stone Age and other cultures including the Palaeolithic.
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⁶³ *Antiquity*, Vol. IV, 1930, pp. 327-49.
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⁶⁴ *Stone Age Cultures of Kurnool*, a Ph.D. thesis in Archaeology, 1960, Poona University and Deccan College Libraries. The writer had the opportunity to examine a few sites with Prof. ISAAC.
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⁶⁵ SOUNDARA RAJAN, "Stone Age Industries near Giddalur," *A.I.*, No. 8, pp. 68-92.
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It is interesting that all the evidence for the Stone Age in Kurnool is provided by the smaller rivers, which criss-cross the eastern half of the District, the most important being the Bhavanasi and its tributaries, then Gundalkama, the town of Kurnool, whereas the Tungabhadra skirts the district on the north at Sailam and passes on to Guntur. *(See Fig. 16)*
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The data for the Early Stone Age comes from river gravels and as in Orissa and Madras from detrital laterite. The latter indicates that the man was not present when the laterite was formed owing to a period of much heavier rainfall than today. But subsequently when this was being eroded under another wet phase the tools of man who had lived on the laterite surface got embedded in this washed out material. Hence the tools are heavily stained with a brownish tint.
Bhavanasi and other rivers
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The same story is told by the several rivers—the chief among those examined are the Bhavanasi near Krishnapuram on the Dornala-Atmakur road, the Tigaleru at Doranala and in the upper reaches at Chintapalli, about 3 miles from Tokapalli, the Ralla Vagu at Erragondapalam, the Kandleru a tributary of the Gundalkamma, the Sagileru and its tributary Enumaleru around Giddalur and then finally the Tungabhadra at Kurnool. All these rivers flowed in a much broader bed between the two ridges of the Eastern Nallamalai in the Middle Pleistocene times, though they are now reduced to small streams. They deposited their load of pebbles over the shale, which in this region forms the basal rock. This was further covered by a 10 feet of silt, which is now weathered red and constitutes the top of terrace I at Chintapalli, for instance. At Kurnool on the other hand, the topmost terrace is very high, nearly 80 feet.⁶⁶
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⁶⁶ These observations are very briefly recorded in *I.A.R.*, 1959-60, p. 11.
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In the next wet and dry phase, this old deposit was partly eroded and covered with a whitish kankary and fine silt. This deposit forms Terrace II and contains Series II tools. At Kurnool, or properly Tandrapadu, opposite the town in the district of Mahabubnagar, this second terrace is nearly 60 feet high and covered with smaller gravels. (See Fig. 17)
Stratigraphic and Climatic Correlation
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It thus seems that in Kurnool we have at least two cycles of wet and dry phases after the formation of the laterite. A typical section on the smaller rivers will be as follows :⁶⁷
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⁶⁷ This is adopted with slight variations, leaving out the terms Sohan etc., from KRISHNASWAMI, V.D., "Stone Age India," *A.I.*, No. 3, p. 32.
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| Upper Pleistocene | Finer Gravels not lateritized | Tools of Series II | Wet Phase V |
| | Gravels and clays | Advanced Hand-axes and Levallois Flakes | Dry Phase IV |
| Middle Pleistocene | River Gravels | End of Hand-axes of Period I | Strong Wet Phase III |
| | Open Plain | Hand-axes of Period I | Dry Phase II |
| Early Pleistocene | Laterite formation on East Coast | No tools. Man absent | Long wet Phase I |
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In effect we come to the same correlation of the tools, the deposits and the climatic oscillations as observed elsewhere.
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So far most of the tool collections are from the surface and though they have been scientifically classified into various groups on the basis of physical condition, form and technique, the observations of BURKITT and CAMMIADE have been further confirmed by those of later observers viz. that in the lowest or earliest gravel or pebble conglomerate itself one finds a typologically highly advanced tool like an Acheulian hand-axe with a pebble butted one. Thus a stratigraphical division of the industry is not available as elsewhere in India.
Giddalur Tools
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Thus the tools from Giddalur,⁶⁸ for instance, are classified into 12 or 13 groups as follows :
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⁶⁸ SOUNDARA RAJAN, op. cit., p. 73.
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1. Pebble tools, 2. Rostrocarinates 3. Victoria West 4. Abbevillio-Acheulian hand-axes, 5. Acheulian hand-axes, 6. Ovoids, 7. Cleavers (of various types), 8. Clactonian flakes, 9. Scrapers on Clactonian flakes, 10. Proto-Levallois flakes, 11. Levallois flakes, 12. Cores and Core scrapers, 13. Bladish flakes, 14. Coarse burinate tools.
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This is certainly a very mixed bag and Nos. 11, 13 and 14 are indeed later as ISAAC's observation of several stratified sections in the District indicates. They belong to the second gravel deposit which is generally finer and not so well cemented.
Pebble Tools : Significance
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So far the tools are concerned the pebble tools form an appreciable number, about 40 per cent in ISAAC's very large collections. And if these are regarded as Sohanian or suggesting Sohan's influence so far south as Kurnool, then the question may be asked if the Sohan itself had not an independent origin at several places.⁶⁹ The more appropriate explanation seems to be that these pebble tools, as in South and East Africa, formed either the substratum or the invariable concomitant of the hand-axe industry.
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⁶⁹ Even at Giddalur, Locality I of SOUNDARA RAJAN, which includes the factory site between the 80th-81st milestone, the writer along with ISAAC picked up several Levallois flakes—though these do not figure in RAJAN'S inventory—and it further appeared to him that here one could see the transition from Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic. See also I.A.R., 1959-60, p. 11 for Dr. KHATRI'S observation which seems to be at variance with those of ours. See also I.A.R., 1960-61, p. 1.
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The hand-axes are indeed fine and of varied shape, whereas some of the cleavers on the single or double Vaal technique provide, as SOUNDARA RAJAN says, text-book illustrations.⁷⁰ These as well as the Proto-rostrocarinates recall similar tools from South Africa, Rhodesia etc.
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⁷⁰ Ibid., p. 70, Fig. 4, 14-15, Pl. XVIII, 14-15.
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The Levallois flakes etc. will be discussed later on the chapter on Middle Stone Age Cultures.
Krishna Valley
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At Nagarjunakonda⁷¹ in the Krishna Valley, District Guntur, an interesting series of industries—pebble tools, hand-axes, Levallois cores and flakes, blades, microliths and polished axes—covering the long period from Lower Palaeolithic to the Neolithic was discovered by SOUNDARA RAJAN. From the distribution of the various industries in different localities having varied physiological features a number of important inferences are made:
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69a See also A.I., No. 17, 1961, pp. 70, 73 and MENOHIN in Early Man ed. G.G. MACCURDY, 1937, p. 312.
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⁷¹ SOUNDARA RAJAN, "Studies in the Stone Age of Nagarjunakonda and its Neighbourhood," A.I., No. 14, (1958), pp. 49-113.
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(i) that these industries indicate almost continuous occupation by man right from the Middle Pleistocene times.
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(ii) that the people manufacturing blades lived on the higher ground, slightly away from the river, as they were self-contained so far as the raw material was concerned, and that this happened after the hand-axe people had cleared the forest and moved into the interior.
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(iii) that the folk making pebble tools only (as evidenced by Karempudi) lived on the banks of the tributaries of the Krishna viz. Naguleru etc., whereas the hand-axe folk (who might have come a little later) with their improved tools ventured to move into the forested parts of the valley.
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(iv) that thus there is a possibility of the pebble tools being earlier than the hand-axes.
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(v) that a section of the nala suggests three cycles of wet and dry phases. The earliest hand-axes belong to the first wet phase, when the coarse heavy gravels were deposited on the rock.
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In this section our attention will be confined mainly to the Lower Palaeolithic cultures and the environment of man. Before offering any comments a little detailed description of the region is necessary. There are two main sites. (I) Karempudi, a site 32 miles to the east-south-east of Nagarjunakonda, on the Naguleru river, (II) Nagarjunakonda, on the Krishna.
Karempudi
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Here there are five tool-bearing localities of which Locality I is on the eastern affluent of the river, whereas Localities II-V are on the main river.
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Locality I yielded 24 tools, of which some have a pebble cortex, and include besides pebble tools crude Early Abbevillian hand-axes and heavy Clactonian flakes and one tool on a Victoria West technique.
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Locality II gave 25 tools and the rest 10.
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These 25 tools comprise advanced hand-axes, proto-Levallois and Levallois flakes.
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Until a much larger stratified collection is available, it would appear the conclusion, on the strength of 25 tools from Locality I, that there is justification for the earlier existence of a pebble-tool culture or industry at Karempudi as in the Olduvai or East Africa is a little far-fetched, particularly when this small collection itself includes crude hand-axes. Unless there is clear, exclusive occurrence of pebble tools as at Olduvai and at a number of localities on the same river, such an important cultural stage should not be postulated.
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MAP OF KURNOOL SHOWING STONE AGE AND OTHER SITES
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[Figure: INDEX O SERIES I O SERIES II O SERIES III + EARLY HISTORIC
• SITES
• MICROLITHIC ▲ NEOLITHIC π MEGALITHIC]
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[Figure: REFERENCE TO NUMBERS 1 TURIMILLA 2 CUMBUM 3 CHINTALAPALEM 4 RAVIPADU 5 BODUDUCHERLA 6 MALINTAPADU 7 MARSAPUR 8 GOLLAPALLI 9 SIRAMPALLI 10 YERRAGUDI 11 VOWLU GUDLAVARIPALLI 12 DEVAMAK 13 MADDUR 14 PULLALACHERUVU 15 CHINTALAMADUGU 16 KOLLAPALLI-DHYVALI 17 YERRAGONDAPALEM 18 YERRAGONDAPALEM 19 DHARMAPURI 20 THIMMAPURAM 21 DORNALA 22 TONAPALLI 23 BODIGUDIPALLI 24 CHINNA SUBBAPADU 25 SANKESVARAM 26 RALLAGOTLA 27 SALAKALAVEDU 28 SHANKARAM 29 BHAIRAVAKOTTA 30 VORAMKONDA 31 SRISAILAM 32 TUMMALABAYALU 33 BAILUTI 34 PITHAKOTA 35 ATMAKUR 36 DORNACHALAM 37 VELGODE 38 BRAHMAGUNDAM 39 RAMALAKOTA 40 ITHAKOTLA 41 DUGGAMPALLI 42 PANYAM CEMENT FACTORY 43 BANAGANAPALLI 44 YAGANTI 45 PATAPADU 46 BANAGANAPALLI 47 MITTAPADU 48 MALKA PURAM 49 GORUKUTTA 50 TAVARAMALLI 51 VUPPA VANI 52 THIMMANTHRAM 53 KOMARAVOLU]
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*Nagarjunakonda*
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At Nagarjunakonda, there are six localities (A-E). No terraces—that is evidence of previous or earlier high river beds—seem to be there, as the Krishna flows through a rocky terrain.
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The localities spread over an area of some 4 square miles from the north-east to the north-south, and on the eastern or right hand side have yielded a varied assemblage of tools. Thus
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Locality A 42 ft. above the river bed, contains Abbevillio-Acheulian hand-axes, cleavers, some pebble tools, but no Levallois flakes.
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Locality B 22 ft. above the river bed, and south-west of Locality A, only flakes and flake tools of Levallois industry.
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Locality C is in a nala at the south-east foot of the Nagarjuna hill, and has a stratified 18 ft. section. The loose gravel block from the highly cemented gravel basal bed gave three tools—an incomplete Early Acheulian hand-axe and two scrapers.
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Locality D immediately overlooking the river on a slightly elevated slope gave mostly pebble tools and high bulbed Clactonian flakes and occasional hand-axes.
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Locality E, about 1/4 a mile away from the river, at the foot of the Tellarabodu hill an assemblage of blade flakes and burins and scrapers of an Upper Palaeolithic nature.
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Locality (F? though not so named), but far down in the south a nala near Lamadigudem in the gravels was noticed a Clactonian industry having flakes with high plain striking platform and early Abbevillian type hand-axes.
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Of these six localities, only Locality C has really stratified deposits on the strength of which something about the past climate can be gleaned. The 18 ft. section comprises a sequence of gravel-silt, gravel-silt and gravel-silt, the top being a thick deposit of bunded earth. While this does indicate three wet and three dry phases, it is interesting to note that SOUNDARA RAJAN⁷² assigns the gravels to a dry and the silt to a wet phase!! Normally the silt proper is believed to be laid down in a drier climate when the river was aggrading and the gravels spread under a wetter phase.
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⁷² Ibid., p. 57.
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The tools, however, from this section are only three and are indeed not helpful in saying anything about a particular cultural phase or the succession of industries in the Valley.
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*Independent chronological evolution*
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Regarding the occurrence of widely different tool complexes in Localities A, B, D, E, F, leaving out E, it may be said that unless an undisputed, exclusive, stratigraphical succession of pebble tools, Clactonian flakes, hand-axes and Levallois flakes is available, to postulate a separate and even chronological existence of different groups of people seems to be unwarranted, especially when SOUNDARA RAJAN himself says later,⁷³ "the Palaeolithic folk need not have been tied down to one single trend only, but could have experimented with many techniques simultaneously for the fabrication of tools, particularly in the incipient stages of tool-making." It is even argued after BORDES that "the Levalloisian is not necessarily a later cultural development, but one of the two basic flaking techniques often in use at one and the same time." The latter observation is no doubt true; the Levalloisian may coexist with the Clactonian, once it is known. But is it of equal cultural antiquity as the Clactonian or the purely pebble tool technique? More important is the fact that if we accept SOUNDARA RAJAN's earlier suggestion fully, all our inferences based on technique are of little chronological significance !!
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⁷³ Ibid., p. 81.
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These inferences do signify a cultural evolution of the man and his techniques, even new cultural forces, when these are borne out by undisputed stratigraphical data and relatively ample tools.
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As for Nagarjunakonda and its neighbourhood Karempudi are concerned, we may conclude that the present data do not suggest any chronological evolution from a pebble tool culture to the advanced hand-axe culture, but as SOUNDAR RAJAN has himself concluded the pebble tools seem to be an essential component of the bifacial or hand-axe culture. Further that, as has been well argued by him, that these pebble tools with a jagged wavy edge and called "chopping tools" do not show any Sohan influence as distribution maps of pebble tools are likely to imply, but are an invariable component, wherever hand-axes are made on pebbles.
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Hence it is not possible to agree with SOUNDAR RAJAN that within the same valley Localities A, B and D and F show, with our limited knowledge of tool complexes, that the man first occupied Locality D and then F and later A, B. For if the different tool assemblages do not show any chronological development, but are likely to be contemporary, then differences might be due to the availability of raw material and, as SOUNDAR RAJAN himself says, simultaneous experimentation with various techniques.
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The small excavation in the north-western part of the valley during 1959-60 yielded cleavers in the lowest layer below a pebbly layer, whereas layer 6 yielded a core and layer 5 hand-axe, whereas from layer 4 came blade-flake. This sequence is indeed very suggestive, but from a small dig nothing very much can be inferred. In particular layers 7, 6 and 5 seem to be of similar composition from the drawing and photographs.