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Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c9.s5: Some General Problems

Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan c9.s5

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Contents

Some General Problems

Slow Development

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The account of Indian prehistory and protohistory here presented is indeed very much disjointed. Still the main outlines of the story—shall we say its personality—may be faintly but definitely discerned. This is a very, very slow progress of man from the age of food-gathering and general, all-purpose, tools to that of food-production and finally civilization, when with increasing needs the tools became more and more specialized.³⁴⁵ However, another change is also noticed. This is (sudden) emergence of regional variation in pottery forms

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³⁴⁵ See the charts facing p. 274.

From Food Gathering Stage to the Threshold of Pastoral Stage

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| | N. W. INDIA AND KASHMIR | RAJASTHAN | CENTRAL INDIA | WESTERN INDIA | SOUTHERN INDIA | EASTERN INDIA |
| **HOLO-CENE** | | | | RANGPUR-A | MYSORE | |
| | | | | WAI | BELLARY | |
| | | | | PANCHGANI | NELLORE | SINGHBHUM |
| | | | | LANGHNAJ-B | GIDDALUR | ORISSA |
| | | | | KANDIVLI | KURNOOL | SINGRAULI |
| | | | | LANGHNAJ-A | TERI | BIRBHANPUR |
| | | | | | NANDI KANAMA | |
| | ROHRI-SUKKUR | | | NEVASIAN-B [SR. III] | NEVASIAN-B [SR. III] | NEVASIAN-B [SR. III] |
| **LATE PLEISTO-CENE** | LATE SOAN-B | (LUNI) NEVASIAN-A | NEVASIAN-B [SR. III] (SIVNA, BETWA, DHASAN) NEVASIAN-A | (PRAVARA-GODAVARI) NEVASIAN-A | (GHATAPRABHA) NEVASIAN-A | (KHADKEI & TRIBUTARIES) NEVASIAN-A |
| | LATE SOAN-A | | | | | |
| **MIDDLE PLEISTO-CENE** | EARLY SOAN HAND-AXE CLEAVER | HAND-AXE CLEAVER | HAND-AXE CLEAVER | HAND-AXE CLEAVER | HAND-AXE CLEAVER | HAND-AXE CLEAVER |

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Fig. 123a.

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and fabrics, though tools of stone and metal (soon) became stereotyped. Equally striking is the disappearance of these pottery fabrics with the introduction of iron. No doubt, some momentous changes in the political, social and cultural life of India, are presaged by these phenomena.

Origin

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The second fact is the question of ultimate origins of the various cultures and their diffusion. Here one has to be wary, and not accept the various views very glibly, without sufficient consideration. First, there are undoubted indications, owing to the proved antiquity that all the important steps in the march towards civilization—from the state of an ape and savage to modern man,—such as tool-making, from that to specialized efforts, and then self-sufficiency in food production, discovery of metal technology—were all taken outside India in Africa and in the high grassy lands surrounding the Fertile Crescent. Secondly, owing to India's peculiar geographical position the various discoveries and inventions gradually spread to India, and some even managed to survive.

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Thirdly, that such a course of events is well supported by later and modern history. Witness for certain, the refugees from Tibet, West Panjab and East Bengal.

Paradox

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It appears however equally true that after receiving the varied cultural influences India has transformed them into something totally new; the fully urbanized (materialistic) Indus civilization, for instance; and this to be followed by a paradox, a deep-rooted spiritual and detached outlook on all things of life!! Formerly, this attitude, first preached in the Upanishads, was credited to the Aryans. Now the pendulum has swung the other way. It is variously attributed to the Dravidians, or pre-Aryans or even to the Tibeto-Mongolian element in our ethnic composition.

Partial Approach

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However, it must be said that the problem of ultimate origin and diffusion is not so simple as that. Discoveries in Palestine have already given it a rude shock. And therefore Sir MORTIMER WHEELER is (perhaps) constrained to say "Archaeology, in its search of ultimate origins, can readily overlook the possibility that those origins may lie very largely at our feet." On another occasion, he found literacy, as a test of civilization, arbitrary. All this underlines the vagueness and our very, very partial realization of the truth, because of our, often, one-sided limited approach.

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This is true also of the sister sciences of linguistics and anthropology leaning on which so many theories and counter-theories are propounded. Unfortunately, these though cautiously formulated are passed on as accepted truth doing immense harm in the sequel to peoples and nations (thus the Aryan theory in Germany and the Dravidian in South India).

Concerted Project

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Truth will always elude us, unless each of these and other disciplines are pursued intensively and also in collaboration with each other. Hence a concerted project by nations and institutions is urgently necessary to help understand the problems of origin and diffusion. Right in India, no archaeological work has been carried out in the so called "tribal areas," and hence as WHEELER would say without searching our own house, we are trying to search elsewhere. Lacking such data, no large conclusions are drawn, but some possibilities are merely suggested.

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Let us now review the important features of each of the main Stone Age Cultures and discuss some very general questions. It is widely accepted that during the Middle Pleistocene times the whole Old World was divided into two Lower Palaeolithic Cultures viz. the Sohanian (Chopper-Chopping) and the Hand-axe.

Is Sohan a different culture?

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Beginning with the Sohan itself, it must be said that the evidence given by the Yale-Cambridge Expedition, though excellent, as far as the geological aspect is concerned, leaves much to be desired so far as the discussion of the tools' significance is concerned. We have no idea at all either of the form or of the number of handaxes which were found in the Second Interglacial deposits after the Boulder Conglomerate stage. Even in the Early Sohan there is a tool type which is called proto-handaxe and similar tools have been reported from Patjitan in Java and recently more tools have come from that area. This casts a doubt on the whole question. Is it not possible to say that we have got a pebble element in the handaxe culture of the Panjab, instead of regarding it as a quite separate cultural entity? Unfortunately no statistics are available about the Early and the Late Sohan material as also for the handaxes and cleavers found from Chauntra. It is felt by the writer and some of his other colleagues in India that a re-examination of the crucial sites in the Sohan valley is necessary. Of course, this cannot be done without co-operation from Pakistan. Pertinent in this context is the discovery at Olduvai in East Africa. Here along with pebble tools flakes and nodules were found on a habitation floor. Hence Dr. DESMOND CLARK has suggested, as mentioned before, that the term "Pebble Culture" should be replaced by a more comprehensive term "Oldowan Culture."

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Another problem connected with this is the meeting ground or the contact of the Sohan culture with the Hand-axe culture. After KRISHNASWAMI reported such a contact in Northern Gujarat, so many other sites in Mirzapur, Orissa, and Eastern Rajputana—have been found and their discoverers regard these as meeting grounds of the Sohan and the Hand-axe cultures. What is forgotten in all these is that at a number of places, hand-axes were made from quartzite pebbles and when we go towards the upper reaches of the river, more and more pebbles or pebble-halves become available. This was what we observed at Hadol, Valasna, and other sites along the Sabarmati in Northern Gujarat. So what we record as a typical Sohan chopper made on a pebble may not necessarily be a tool of that culture, but simply a pebble which has been flaked into halves either naturally or artificially. But unless it shows that typical technique of the Early Sohan in which the flaking has been from the underside up, one should be very careful in recording all such pebble tools as Sohan choppers. In this, statistics are no guide. On the contrary they give a wrong direction. For instance, in Kurnool ISAAC'S collection contains nearly 40 per cent of pebble tools. Needless to say that this, if interpreted as Sohan influence, would be something very astounding. The fact is otherwise. Tools collected from the upper reaches or wherever pebbles are more, would generally give tools made on the pebbles. But it does not necessarily indicate the Sohan contact.

Uniformity in Hand-axe Culture

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It is a remarkable fact and often noted by other scholars as well, that there is almost a uniform distribution of hand-axes all over India. Even the tool types are so identical, not only within India, but the tool types from Africa, India and Western Europe are so uniform in nature, that one wonders how such a great uniformity could have been achieved in such distant times and regions when communications were so very difficult. It is still an unsolved problem of Palaeolithic archaeology, as to how one can account for this wide distribution and uniformity of types. Is it to be attributed to the slow migration of ideas or to the migration of man himself? Whatever be it, it speaks volumes for the diffusion and the way it took place. This diffusion even cuts across all kinds of raw material, whether it be flint of Western Europe, or quartz, quartzite or very coarse sandstone, as for example around Lalitpur,³⁴⁵ in Central India or dolerite in the Deccan. Man has been able to achieve beautiful results in preparing ovates, and other kinds of hand-axes and cleavers.

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³⁴⁵ Recently collected by Shri RAMESHWAR SINGH, Research Scholar of the Deccan College.

Ecological Studies

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A question which has not yet been attempted, but should be undertaken now, is the relation of the Palaeolithic industries to the geographical regions and ecology of each area. It has been found that generally man lived all along the river banks. But even here, he seems to have avoided very high altitudes, which were densely forested and very marshy areas like the river deltas. The reasons are obvious. In thickly forested, high areas, he would not find the game animals, as even today these inhabit the lower altitudes between 2500 and 500 ft. or so. For similar reasons very cold areas, like the Kashmir Valley, seem to have been found unfavourable for habitation by the Early Man. No tools have been so far found in this Valley, whereas the foot-hills abound in them. However, these are inferences which require to be confirmed by still closer examination of higher regions as well as purely coastal areas. Of course, when we say coastal areas, one has to make an exception for areas like Kandivli, near Bombay, which today are not very far from the sea and probably were not so in the Palaeolithic times either.

Pleistocene Geology

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However, the greatest need for Indian Palaeolithic studies is the search of stone tools and the related data on more scientific lines. This can be done only when students having training in several aspects of Pleistocene geology come forward and pursue the subject. It is also desirable that one or two river valleys are taken up and studied fully, rather than collections from a large number of areas from the surface or otherwise and deposited in some office or museum. It is not the stone tools that we want. But the stratigraphical evidence for these tools. For, the problem is, is there any evolution in the Indian Lower Palaeolithic as witnessed in the West and in Africa? Or is there no vertical division?

Absolute Dates

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Above all, what we need badly are absolute dates for these Stone Age industries. This can be achieved only if we lean more and more on the sister sciences of botany, geology, chemistry and others and examine in the laboratory the gravels and other things. The whole question has assumed a new turn after the latest discovery in East Africa. Tools in India, if not 17,00,000 years old, might be at least half that old!! If they are, how do we explain the subsequent development or non-development? Are the succeeding stone indusries also correspondingly older?

River Terraces and Sea Levels

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Side by side, the river terraces have to be correlated with sea levels, particularly in the lower reaches, where owing to the rise or subsidence in the sea level in interglacial and glacial times respectively, the river beds were raised or lowered. Such studies will not only tell about the various tool types, but the environment of man and this is the important thing, not the tools. When such studies are under taken, I am quite sure, that the fossil man will also be found, because so far we have got his tools, but not the man and that is naturally one-fourth of the search of the Early Man in India.

Mesolithic Problem

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We then come to the problem of the Mesolithic period in India. This can be solved to some extent only if excavations are carried out in some closed or semi-closed areas like the rock-shelters, caves, or mounds, as in Gujarat or Birbhanpur. It is also necessary to once again relate the mounds where the microliths occur to the various ecological zones. Nowadays, microliths seem to crop up everywhere. Does it mean that the microlithic man lived anywhere and everywhere or did he prefer certain, dry, sandy areas as in Western Europe and Africa and also as demonstrated by the discoveries in Northern Gujarat and the teris of South India? These are indeed important questions, because they throw light on the life of these people. Equally important is the fact of the origin of these cultures. Did these microlithic cultures follow the Upper Palaeolithic cultures, as in Western Europe? Or did they owe their origination to influences from Africa? These questions need first-hand study of the tools in India and Africa and above all material from well excavated sites.

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The sites like Langhnaj, it is believed, will lead us to incipient food-production. For the occurrence of small, quern-like stones is assumed to signify querns on which grains, if not cultivated but collected wild, were ground. Now this is an important deduction which requires to be proved by a study of these quern-like pieces and then by the study of the soil samples. If they contain any pollen grains³⁴⁴ of ancient or prehistoric grains, then it will be an important step towards the question of food-production in that time.

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³⁴⁴ Though it is doubtful if pollen grains would survive in a calcareous sandy soil.

Neolithic Question

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Neolithic studies are in a very poor stage at present. Except for surface finds here and there, nothing much is known, and typology is not a sure guide, as it is considered so often. Not only small but large scale excavations in Andhra-Karnatak where the tools abound and in Eastern India are over due. Without evidence from such excavations, no discussion of a detailed nature is indeed advisable.

Significance of Pottery Groups

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A large number of pottery groups or industries have emerged in different parts of India as a result of recent excavations. These have rightly been interpreted as guides to cultural diffusion. When for instance, NBP (the Northern Black Polished) potsherd is found as far south as Kolhapur, some hundreds of miles away from its main home in the Gangetic Valley, it may be attributed to the Buddhist bhikshus who carried it to different parts of India in their pergrinations along the continental highways. But when we examine this question in detail, regarding still earlier pottery groups, like the Jorwe-Nevasian or the black-and-red ware, the problem gains great significance and importance. When we were searching for the Jorwe-Nevasa sites along the Pravara, we found that the sherds of these could be had in far away, remote and hilly places along the tributaries of the Pravara. Even now one would not think of going to such distant corners of the Pravara Valley. One wonders then, "why did people of Jorwe-Nevasa culture go so far into the interior? From where did they come? Did they come from the south and spread northwards along the main river valleys like the Godavari and the Pravara and its tributarires, or did they come from the north and followed a similar procedure?"

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And a still more important question is, who were the bearers of these pottery industries?" When we think of pottery as an index of culture, it is not talking in a vacuum. For, pottery is so specialized in fabric as well in form, that it does represent a particular cultural trait and/or a group of people or tribe. I would not say "race" because it is too big a word and should not be used so loosely. Do the various pottery groups like the Grey Ware, the black-and-red Ware with paintings in white from Ahar, the Lustrous Red Ware of Rangpur and the particular Somnath Ware with in-turned rims and designs in panels over a matt surface represent merely cultural elements or certain groups of people or tribes? It is actually this that is at the back of our mind, when we say that in Period II at Rangpur or Period III at Navdatoli we have got this and that kind of ware. Somebody must introduce these new fashions. So far of course, we have no idea about these groups or tribes of people.

Puranic and Vedic Tribes

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Amongst the many alternatives in which this question could be discussed, I would put before you two alternatives: one is the juxtaposition of these various pottery groups with the different Puranic tribes. For instance, when we find that all along the Narmada, the Malwa Ware is spread, then is it possible to say that this might have been the pottery that was brought and made popular by the Haihayas or one of the branches of the Yadavas? In the same way, the Painted Grey Ware culture is assumed to be connected with the arrival of the Aryans. But one might go a step further and equate these Aryans with one of the tribes of the Aryans viz., the Bharatas who occupied the Ganga-Yamuna Valley. We shall have to think of similar equations for the Painted black-and-red Ware at Ahar and the two or three wares which occurred immediately after the destruction of the Harappan civilization in Saurashtra and in Sind. Of course, I do not want to press this point too far, because unless some written evidence or evidence of a more exact nature comes forward, one cannot say in text-books that the Malwa Ware represents the Haihaya penetration into the [Figure: ANCIENT INDIA English Miles 100 200 300 400 Ailas Manavas Saudyumnas Other races]

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Fig. 124. Puranic Tribes and Pottery Groups.

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Narmada Valley. For, we should avoid all these questions of race and culture which shook Europe in the late 19th century³⁴⁷ and even as late as 1930. But in a country like India which has got a very, very ancient tradition preserved in its Puranas, the two epics, and the Vedic literature, one should not over-look such possibilities, even though a large number of scholars would regard the Puranas and the epics as purely imaginary.³⁴⁸ I think that these works, however much inflated, do contain an element of truth, and particularly the lists of various ruling dynasties. They may be inflated, but names of the dynasties and other essentials should be true and approximate to truth. It is in this way that we can give some form to the Puranic dynasties, whereas our potteries may be given some individuality.

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³⁴⁷ What DANIEL calls "the application of historical names to archaeological groups in Europe." *A Hundred Years of Archaeology*, p. 149.

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³⁴⁸ Very recently, when a symposium was held in London where so many international scholars gathered, one scholar expressed such views. Cf. *Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon*, Ed. by C. H. PHILIPS, London, 1961, p. 291. Such a view of the Puranas would have been justified, to some extent, when we had nothing to offer before 500 B.C. and 2500 B.C. The discovery of the Chalcolithic cultures has changed the position as did the discovery of the Indus Civilization 40 years go.

Iranian Penetration

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Related to this is the Aryan or, better say, Iranian problem. I have already said on several occasions in lectures in Bombay as well as elsewhere, that evidence from Maheshwar and Navdatoli in the shape of particular pottery vessels,—the various vessels with footed-stands called "goblets" and the bowl with a channel spout resemble so much similar vessels from Iran, that one has got to postulate some kind of connection between Eastern Iran or Western Asia and Central India. In this context the Lustrous Red Ware from Rangpur with similar goblets gains added significance. I believe that the influences which spread to the Narmada valley might have continued in wave after wave after the earlier waves reached Narmada. Other waves followed with slightly different pottery traditions and it is this that we find at Rangpur and other sites in Saurashtra like Somnath and elsewhere, and as far down at Piklihal in the Karnatak, along with the ground stone axes according to ALLCHIN.³⁴⁹ Of course, the route to Maheshwar has got to be searched for. It might have been along the lower courses of the Narmada or the Tapi from Saurashtra or did it follow the overland route from Rajputana, the Panjab, Baluchistan, Sind, Afghanistan etc. This again cannot be answered unless the vast intermediate areas are very carefully explored and some of them excavated.

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³⁴⁹ Cf. however, GORDON, D. H., *The Prehistoric Background of Indian Culture*, p. 140, who thought that it would provide a humorous aspect to the whole question, if the earliest Aryans had brought the polished axe.

Black-and-Red ware

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Recently the black-and-red pottery has been found not only in some sites in northern India, but it occurs as far as Sonpur³⁵⁰ in Bihar, in a context which seems to be definitely earlier than the occurrence of the NBP. In fact were we to put the occurrence of this ware in space and time, it will be found that it occurs almost throughout India in very early phases. Now what does this signify? Unless the absolute dates are known, we cannot say that this pottery went from the west to east and north to south; or the process was in a reverse direction, but it is a very interesting phenomenon and needs to be examined very, very carefully, before some deductions are made regarding its movement from north to south or from south to north.

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³⁵⁰ Also spelt as Sonepur, but the former is more correct.

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The black-and-red ware problem is not a simple problem of superficially comparing the types and the fabrics from different places. One has got to examine the pottery from various areas, very scientifically in the laboratory and to say whether the processes in detail are identical or do they differ in important matters. If we can answer this question, then half of the problem is solved.

Iron Age

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Similarly the question of the occurrence of Iron in India. Iron no doubt occurs in the south in the megalithic tombs, whereas in the north it has recently occurred in the earliest levels of Ujjain, Alamgirpur and at Bahal in layers which are definitely before the NBP. But this stratigraphic occurrence is of relatively little importance, because the difference in age may be 50 or 200 years and when a close date is the requisite, such an evidence is of little use. What is therefore necessary is to obtain iron in well stratified areas and secondly to examine it in the laboratory and find out the nature of that iron and relate it to the iron found from different areas. Unless this is done, it is again wrong to go on asking about the introduction of iron in India and its migration from north to south or south to north. It is possible that there are independent sources and it was introduced at different times in India irrespective of diffusion from one area to another.

Significance

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However, whatever be the exact date of introduction of iron in India and the origin of the black-and-red ware, one thing is certain that by about the 5th century B.C., both these dominate the field. Copper is used henceforward, but not for making tools and weapons; for utensils, ornaments and toilet articles it was still preferred. The story is different with the black-and-red ware. The earlier painted wares are ousted completely. Does this indicate a mere change in the taste of the people or an intentional elimination of the local, regional groups of peoples or tribes? Can we call it a fusion of various cultures? If so, was it forced or did this fusion evolve gradually? Excavation of key sites in different parts of India should explain this phenomenon at a very crucial stage in Indian history and culture. Evidence from Nasik and Nevasa in Northern Maharashtra suggests a clear break between the Chalcolithic and the Early Historic. Data from other sites are eagerly awaited.

Horizontal Excavations

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So far we have been discussing merely the problems of prehistoric archaeology. But the very urgent need is not a mere collection of tools of Stone Ages or of the Copper Age or the evidence of pottery types, but the study of man himself. What are the stages by which man progressed from barbarism to civilization? This is a much larger question and can be answered only if we now embark upon what is called "horizontal" or "area" excavations. These alone will tell us in some details of the life of the man in the past. The era of vertical digging has played its part—a very notable one indeed—in Indian archaeology. It must now be followed by large scale excavations. These should be so planned that the origins of civilization in different parts of India can be understood and correlated.

Cites (17)