The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c12.s3.20

c12.s3.20

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