The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c12.s3: Post-Harappan
The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c12.s3
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Post-Harappan
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In the last few years, a good deal of work has been done in Central and Southern India on the Chalcolithic cultures, which are Post-Harappan and which precede the Historic period commencing about 500 B. C. Enough light has been shed on their interrelation and these cultures are characterized by the common use of painted pottery and a highly specialized blade-technique. While some of them represent survivals of the Harappan, others show certain older traits mixed with new elements which penetrated into this sub-continent about the beginning of the first millennium.
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The valuable link with Western Asia is lost when we come to the end of Indus Valley civilization. Nowhere, except at Harappa, has an overlap been noticed between the main Harappan civilization and the succeeding cultures of the Punjab.
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Till 1944, the whole of the Deccan peninsula remained a vague cross-word puzzle. But Sir Mortimer Wheeler has left behind a fine working system of chronology based on the impact of Roman trade and the consequent deposition of Roman coins and coin hoards of known date, and other antiquities. Now the recent work in India has, more or less succeeded in disentangling a fairly satisfactory system of early historic and proto-historic chronology. It is not possible to go into the details of chronologies of individual regions, but it is proposed to discuss a few crucial types of pottery, which serve as definite diagnostic traits, and of Brahmagiri, on account of its importance to South Indian archaeology.
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The most crucial pottery, on which the whole fabric of proto-history depends is the so-called Northern Black polished ware on account of its bright black surface, which seems to be the more common and characteristic type.
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We are not in a position, yet to decide its origin and the exact technique of manufacture, except that it is made of very finely levigated clay and fired to a very high temperature under reducing conditions, probably in a sagger, as suggested by Rawson.¹ Dr. Wheeler recognized its importance for the North Indian sites where it occurs in comparative profusion, and attributed it to the Pre-Alexandrian levels at Taxila.¹ While this pottery occurred from 6 to 13 feet, a hoard of coins with one of Alexander, in a mint condition, was found at six feet. But the more recent excavations at Kausambi, Rajagriha and Vaisali have shown that the focus of this pottery is the Gangetic basin, particularly the ancient Magadha, where it occurs in very large quantities and varieties and that Taxila marks a peripheral distribution. The chief type site is the ancient capital of Vatsa, Kausambi, on the left bank of the river Jamuna. Here, N. B. P. occurs at the lowest levels of the Historic period, and the construction of city's ramparts has been placed to the beginnings of the 6th century B. C.² There are quite a good thickness of deposits below the main monastery of Ghoshitarama, dated to the 3rd century, B. C. But the importance of this section can only be appreciated when the report of these excavation is published. Before we close this note, it is necessary to caution the use of this Gangetic Valley date to the peripheral areas of Central, Western and Southern India. Since the most probable agency of these movements was trade and political conquest, it may be dated a little later, even upto the 3rd century B. C.
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¹ RAWSON, P. S. "Surface treatment of Indian pottery" *Man*, 1953. Art. No. 58.
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¹ WHEELER AND KRISHNADEVA. *Ancient India*, No. 1. Jan. 1946. pp. 55-8.
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² GHOSH, A. *Presidential Address—Archaeology section*. XVII Session of the All India Oriental Conference. Ahmedabad. 1953.
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The N. B. P. spread over various parts of the country from Taxila in the north-west to Gaur and Pandua in the east and Amaravati in the South. But outside the Gangetic valley, it occurs in very small quantities and usually at the Buddhist sites. Does it signify that they were the carriers? For example, at Bairat, an N. B. P. bowl, nicely mended with copper wires, occurred in the excavation. This pottery seems to have spread very rapidly in view of what we have seen at Taxila. At Maheshvar and Ujjain, the N. B. P. occurs at the intermediate levels of black-and-red ware and iron, suggesting again, an infiltration into this area about 5th century or slightly later. Hence this ware can safely be dated to the five centuries preceding the Christian Era, in view of its occurrence also with the coins of the Satavahanas at Nasik³ and Nevasa.⁴ The whole chronology of the Grey Ware depends on this pottery, as they stratigraphically belong to the Pre-N. B. P. Phase.
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³ SANKALIA, H. D. AND DEO, S., B. *Excavations at Nasik and Jorwe*, Poona. 1956.
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⁴ Government of India. *Indian Archaeology 1955-56*. New Delhi. 1956.
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In central India, the black-and-red ware occurs in the Pre-N. B. P. Phase but it becomes profuse with the N. B. P. (Fig. 29).
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Another very important fabric of pottery, which has a very wide distribution, is the Red polished Ware. Its focus is Gujarat and Kathiawad, where it occurs in nearly forty sites and in profusion. It is very distinctive by its fine clay body and its high resemblance to the Roman Samian and other Red wares of western Asia. Curiously it has the circumstantial association of Graeco-Roman antiquities; Cameo, bronze handle with the figure of Eros, Sculpture of Poseidon, Roman coins and clay bullae at a number of sites.¹ Some of the forms are characteristically Indian and it may be inferred that it represents the adoption of the Roman technique, as a result of commercial contacts. Though the forms are Indian, their chronology, luxurious character, limited occurrence at all sites and the characteristic association of Roman antiquities is too much of a coincidence to ignore this compromise. The Gangetic valley red wares are much inferior in fabric as well as in the treatment of the surface.
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¹ SUBBARAO, B., *Baroda through the Ages*. M. S. University Archaeology series No. 1. Baroda 1953. Appendix 1.
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This pottery with its focus in Western India has been very well-dated to the Kshatrapa Period (the first four centuries of the Christian era) by the excavations at Baroda, Timbarva (Karvan), Variav, Vadnagar, Amreli and Vasai by the association of large number of coins. Fortunately, we can trace its further expansion all over the country by the widespread occurrence in small quantities of a very characteristic diagnostic type—a narrow necked "sprinkler type"—right from Rupar in the Punjab to Bangarh in Bengal and Chandravalli in Northern Mysore. This occurs nowhere before the Christian era and inspite of a number of sites where they occur together, it is nowhere reported to overlap with the N. B. P.²
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² At Rupar and Prakasha, Dr. Sharma and B. K. Thapar have dated their sequence on the basis of the N.B.P., which they have assigned a date between 500-100 B.C. Hence, here sprinklers have been included in the Post-N.B.P. phase beginning with 100 B.C. This does not vitally affect the date of this ware consequently.
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Now, we pass on to Brahmagiri, on which the whole south Indian chronology rests.³ The solid datum for the chronology of the site is the Rouletted ware, dated to about the 1st century A. D.
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³ WHEELER. *Brahmagiri and Chandravalli*—1947. *Ancient India* No. 4. New Delhi. 1947-48.
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The associated local pottery is the so-called Russet coated criss-cross painted ware, described as the "Andhra" ware for convenience. The next earlier culture, namely the Megalithic, was found overlapping with the Andhra. Wheeler estimated the duration of the Megalithic culture to about 250 years and was greatly influenced by the dramatic context, provided by the break up of a "universal state" as being instrumental for a folk wandering from the south. Hence he ascribed it to the beginning of the 3rd century B. C. or a little earlier about 236 B. C. (death of Asoka). Dr. Wheeler himself has warned us against any "theoretical attempt to build up a time scale on the depth of the strata". Now the more recent work described later, calls forth a slight revision of the chronology at Brahmagiri without disturbing the main datum. The most important factor is the occurrence in large areas of Northern and Central India of the typical megalithic black-and-red ware in unimpeachable earlier deposits dating almost to the beginning of the first millennium B. C. Its gradual spread southwards will be indicated later. The most important fact is the close affinities of the chalcolithic burials at Bahal and the incompletely investigated pits near the cists V and VI at Brahmagiri which, on Wheeler's own admission, are appreciably earlier than the designated megalithic culture.
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The second factor is the 'Andhra' pottery itself. At Brahmagiri, Maski and Sanganakallu, a fine distinction could be made in the technique. The so-called Russet coated pottery technically, retains the forms of the black-and-red ware. B. K. Thapar has pointed out that there seems to be a difference in the firing, since the exterior rim portion is well-burnt.¹ We see the survival of a few 'Megalithic types'. As Wheeler put it, "The two commonest types on which this characteristic decoration is found are dishes with an internally beaked rim, and particularly partially straight sided bowls. The former occasionally bear concentric rings of rouletted pattern on the upper side of the base. The straight-sided bowls seem to be an inheritance from the simple ceramic of the Megalith culture".² Besides, the amount of the bright red-slipped ware increases. There is a nice negative evidence for this very significant ceramic change. Salihundam, on the east coast of India, yields larger quantities of bright red-slipped wares, and the Red Polished Ware and there is a significant absence of the black-and-red ware. The site can be dated otherwise to the 3rd Century A. D. Similarly Nagarjuna-Konda, the Ikshvaku capital of the III century A.D., on the banks of the river Krishna, also yielded very little quantity of black-and-red ware. Thus the chronology of the Russet coated Andhra ware, which is absent at Salihundam and Nagarjuna Konda, can now be dated to about 100 B.C. to 200 A.D. Besides, this pottery has nothing to do with the political dynasty of Andhras, since it does not occur in a very large portion of the old Andhra Empire in Central and Western India, at a number of well-investigated sites. It curiously confines itself to the lower valleys of the Krishna and Godavari. Besides, it has very close affinities in technique to the well-known Coimbatore and other Megalithic painted pottery. It seems to be a local but widespread south Indian pottery.³
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¹ At the Symposium held at Delhi, Government of India, under the auspices of the Department of Archaeology in September 1957. Also see Thapar B. K. "Maski-1954-A chalcolithic site of the Southern Deccan" Ancient India No. 13, Jan. 1957, P. 73.
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² WHEELER, R.E.M. "Brahmagiri and Chandravalli-1947" Ancient India, No. 4. New Delhi. 1947-48, p. 237.
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³ DR. M. SESHADRI of the Mysore University has unearthed a cist yielding this type of pottery with wavy-line decorations.
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A more urgent need for a revision seems to be the correlation of the North Indian and South Indian archaeological chronology. Now, the Vindhyan barrier has been successfully broken by the recent work at Maheshwar. With our knowledge of the age and distribution of the N. B. P. belonging to the early centuries preceding the Christian era, we can clearly see its movements in space and time towards west, east and south from its focus in the Gangetic valley. Similarly, in the early centuries of the Christian era, we have another pottery, the Red Polished ware and its movements towards east, north and south can be followed in space and time, from its focus in western India. With the help of this pottery again, we can link up with Brahmagiri and Chandravalli in the Andhra Period. Hence, a slight downward revision of the Brahmagiri chronology seems to be essential to reconcile the evidence from the north and south. This would enable us to place the Megaliths in the Pre-Mauryan period, without upsetting the Roman datum. Even for the "Andhra pottery", the 1st century A.D. should be a central date instead of a terminal date. These changes would enable us to place the infiltration of metals into the Central Deccan to a period about the beginning of the 1st Millennium B.C. The more obvious and urgent desideratum is to conduct one or two large scale excavations in the Central Deccan to verify and corroborate the sequence of Sanganakallu, Brahmagiri, Maski and Piklihal.
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Before closing this discussion on chronology, let us remind ourselves of the magnitude of the sub-continent and the horizontal spread of the various strata of cultures in time and space. Some of these time-space coordinates are becoming clearer and we should bear in mind the time for their spread. Hence the need is for a more flexible and dynamic approach while interpreting the material relics in different parts of the country, sometimes as we shall see, of two cultures in different zones, but yet belonging to the same complex with common diagnostic traits. Hence it is difficult to draw horizontal lines across the lines of vertical development in different parts of the country, since the horizontal expansion was influenced and even retarded by the geographic barriers within the country.