The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c14.s1.t2: Harappan culture
The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c14.s1.t2
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Harappan culture
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As one moves eastwards, leaving these inhospitable highland valleys, into the plains of the Indus, one sees a marked change: the higher cultures flourishing in the main valley of the Indus. "The Iranian aspect of the society has disappeared", says Fairservis, "and another influence, the Indian in ritual, artifacts, architecture can be clearly discerned." But unfortunately for us, the Pre-Harappan cultures in the main basin are yet shrouded in obscurity. Earlier, Mackay noticed sherds of the Quetta wet ware in the "lower levels" of Mohenjo-Daro.⁴ Similarly Wheeler found a few sherds in: (1) occupation layer underlying the defences, (2) from the material accumulated during the construction, and (3) from the material of the rampart and incidental platforms. They show affinities to pottery from Periano Ghundai, and Pre-Harappa layers of Amri. "In these groups, the contrast, between the true Harappa sherds introduced at the time of construction, and the non-Harappa sherds of the preceding or lingering occupation, is so marked as to indicate the probability of a basic difference of culture...... The provisional inference, is that the building of the defences marked the first impact of Harappa culture on this site, and that the builders were preceded hereby a town—or village—occupation representing a variant or even alien culture".¹
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⁴ MACKAY, E. J. Further excavation at Mohenjo-Daro, Vol. II. pl. 67. Nos. 1 and 2; Vol. I. p. 184.
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¹ WHEELER, R. E. M. "Harappa, 1946: The Defences and Cemetery R. 37", *Ancient India* No. 3. New Delhi. Jan., 47 p. 91.
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Similarly F. A. Khan claimed a mature Pre-Harappan culture at Kot-Diji² in the Khairapur district of Sind, "Indeed there are strong indications to support the view that the early settlers whom we shall call Kot-Dijians, possessed a highly developed culture of their own, from whom the people of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro borrowed certain artistic and other ideas including the systems of town-planning and fortifications, which are the most extraordinary systems known to Indo-Pakistan pre-history". About the pottery, he reports that there is difference in fabric, form and decoration from the Harappan. Pending further studies it is difficult to make any comment on this. *The possibility of a late movement of the Harappans southwards into Sind cannot be over-ruled.*
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² At a press conference on February 26th, 1958 at Karachi and circulated by the Director General of Archaeology in India. New Delhi.
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Let it be stated straight away, that in the present stage of our studies, the formative stages, if any, of this great Urban civilization have yet to be explored. Even the so-called "Pre-Harappan" Kot-Diji casts the same burden on the archaeologist. Hence the relation of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa to the "Upland communities" of the Pre-Harappa period, cannot be specified, inspite of certain common artistic and ceramic elements.³ At present it appears to us like Minerva born in a panoply. As Sir Mortimer put it, "the integrity of the Indus civilization stands unchallenged". The greatest challenge to the archaeologist, is to explain the origin of this great urban civilization, with its "impressive bulk" of inter-relationship with those of Western Asia and its "abundant and significant variation" in its sculpture, art, seals, terra-cottas, language and script.⁴ Only the spade, discriminately used, can cut this Gordian knot, and help us understand this jumble of words without a meaning. The true epi-centre of the Harappa culture needs to be ascertained.
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³ The relation between the Upland communities and the Urban folk of the river basin requires further investigation. But it is very interesting to recall in this connection the position of the "Fertile Crescent" and the Sumerian and Babylonian plains. There the "incipient agriculturists" did not move into the plains till their collective organization was developed to the extent of handling problems of irrigation after its initial discovery. BRAIDWOOD, R. J., *Near East and the Foundations of Civilisation*, Eugene, Oregon, 1952.
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⁴ WHEELER, MORTIMER, *Indus Civilization*, Supplement to Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, 1954, p. 94.
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In recent years, with the remarkable discoveries of Lothal in Kathiawad by S. R. Rao, we know the true extent of the Indus valley civilization from the foot-hills of the Himalayas to the south coast of Kathiawad. Similarly the studies of Fairservis throw a new light on the chronology. As a result of careful assessment, Dr. Wheeler suggested the limits of this great civilization between 2500 and 1500 B.C. From the appearance of Harappan influences at Damb Sadaat in phase III, dated to 2050 plus or minus 200, Fairservis rightly comments: "The archaeological evidence at this stage, indicates that the Harappan civilization was in swing during the period represented by Damb Sadaat II—III in the Quetta valley, and Surjangal—Rana Ghundai III in Loralai, that it was expanding northwards into Baluchistan in Damb Sadaat III times and after the occupation of Surjangal......This would mean that Harappa was occupied after 2000 B.C. Considering the chronology as a whole, it seems that 1500 B.C. for the end of Harappan is too early. A date nearer 1200 B.C., or later is probably more accurate since it allows for the not inconsiderable expansion, and establishment of that civilization in areas remote from its apparent place of origin".¹ In his latest work, he suggests, that in view of the Carbon dating, he would put the limits of the Harappan from 2100-1200 B.C.² In view of the Saragon link, this revised date can be applied only to the Baluchi area, on the periphery of the Indus Basin. Does it represent a back wash or a survival?
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¹ FAIRSERVIS: "The chronology of the Harappan civilization and the Aryan invasions". Recent archaeological research. Man. LVI. Art. 173. Nov. 1956.
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² FAIRSERVIS: op. cit. p. 357.
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Considering the wide extent of this civilization in space, we cannot accept any single arbitrary date for the whole area. It is not improbable that the Harappan might have survived in the peripheral zones of Baluchistan, W. Rajputana for a longer time than in its epi-centre. For example, we have such an evidence in its southern periphery. With the excavations at Lothal, Rangpur, Somnath, Amra and Lakhabawal, we have very good reason for believing that Harappan survived in a pure form for a longer time in Kathiawad, and continued in a decayed State with new elements right upto about 500 B.C. We shall discuss this in greater detail, while dealing with Gujarat. (See Chapter VII)
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Post-Harappan cycle
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We are as much ignorant about the origin of the Harappa, as about its final extinction. But two remarkable facts stand clear: the advent of a new people and the desiccation of the Rajputana desert. The later half of the II Millennium B.C. was a period of turbulent movements of peoples, destruction and the appearance of new languages all over Western Asia. Right from the Anatolian plains of Turkey, this is due to the advent of Indo-Europeans and India has not Fig. 26. (After Piggott)
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HARAPPA CULTURE
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STRATUM I
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STRATUM II
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HARAPPA CEMETERY H
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JHANGAR CULTURE
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JHUKAR
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escaped this impact. But it is necessary to remember one important fact, that these violent semi-nomadic people adopted a major portion of the cultural traits of their victims, whom they conquered and subjugated. *Thus all over the Old World, the Aryans have proved to be vague and obscure, though the legacy of their languages has contributed to the history of civilization.* Hence it is not out of place to discuss a few points about the authors of the destruction of the Harappa civilization and the Aryans.
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Wheeler, Piggot and Childe, built up an elaborate hypothesis, based on the excavations conducted by Wheeler, at Harappa in 1946. He attributed the destruction to the authors of the Cemetery-H and adduced literary evidence to support the fact that the Rigvedic Aryans destroyed these cities. The first part of his contention that the Cemetery-H people destroyed Harappa is correct. But his more controversial identification of Cemetery-H folk with the Aryans cannot be accepted at the present stage of our knowledge since their pottery has not been identified with certainty from the rest of the Indus basin.
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Heine Geldern¹ and more recently Fairservis² have identified the other Post-Harappan culture of Jhukkar with the Aryans. Heine Geldern depends on the animal headed pin, trunnion axe, bronze dagger from Fort Munro and the antennae sword, which he derives from Luristan, for his contention that the Aryans moved into India about 1200-1000 B.C. According to Fairservis pottery found at a number of sites—Dabar Kot, Moghtul Kala and Kaudani (with broad black lines of black and red running horizontally above the body of the vessel, loops and hatching along the rim, and various geometric and curvilinear patterns, and belonging to Rana Ghundai IV), has Jhukkar affinities. Since the Jhukkar culture overlies the Harappan at Chanhudaro, the stratigraphic relation also supports their hypothesis.³
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¹ HEINE GELDERN, ROBERT. "The coming of the Aryans and the end of the Harappa civilization", Man, LVI, Art. 151. Oct. 1956.
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² FAIRSERVIS. 1956. op. cit.
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³ MACKAY, E. J. Chanhu-Daro excavations—1935-36. American Oriental Series 20. New Haven. 1943.
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However, in spite of a slightly greater distribution of these Jhukkar and its related industries, it also suffers from the same fact viz. its discontinuity further east into the Gangetic basin.
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Finally, a third claim has been put forward by B. B. Lal on the basis of a very substantial body of evidence. If the story of the Aryans, as revealed by our literary sources, has any validity, it speaks of a people who established their first homeland in the valleys of Sarasvati and Drishadvati after consolidating their hold in the upper valleys of the Indus basin. It was in this Brahmavarta that... gave us the Rigveda. Gradually, they spread into the Gangetic basin. On the strength of his excavations at Hastinapur and his extensive exploration in the upper Gangetic basin, he found a pottery called the "Painted Grey Ware at the lower levels of a number of sites, associated with Indian literary tradition. Since these settlers formed part of the early Aryan stock in India, he ascribed this ware to the Aryans. "May it, however, be emphasized", warns the author, "that the evidence is entirely circumstantial and until and unless positive ethnographic and epigraphic proofs are obtained to substantiate the conclusions they cannot but be considered provisional."¹
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¹ LAL, B. B. "Excavations at Hastinapura and other explorations in the Upper Ganga and Sutlej basins 1950-52. Ancient India 10 & 11, New Delhi.
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Before we close our summary of the problem of the Aryans, a slight digression into the Harappan will not be out of place. T. N. Ramachandran has put in a very powerful plea for identifying the Indus valley civilization itself with the Aryan. While he claims to have deciphered the script on the seals, he has continued the line of studies started by him earlier, the interpretation of art motifs with the help of literature. He interprets the seals—their pictographs, scriptographs and the script—with the help of corresponding verses from the Rigveda.² This is in line with Hronzy's earlier attempts, who also read the Indus valley language as Indo-Aryan.³ As already stated earlier, this hypothesis cannot be accepted nor completely refuted, till the script is deciphered with the help of some bi-lingual seals or inscriptions. It is therefore, a problem of methodology.
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² RAMACHANDRAN, T. N. Presidential Address of the Ancient India section, at the All India History Congress held at Agra—Dec. 1956.
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³ HRONZY, BEDRICH. Ancient History of Western Asia, India and Crete, Translated by Jindrach Prochaaka, Prague, 1952.
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Thus this problem of the Aryans has come to the forefront and at the present stage of our knowledge it is impossible to give a final answer. Of all the three or four hypotheses (including Ramachandran's) the best from the archaeological point of view is that of the "Painted Grey Ware folk". Further discussion of this problem will be attempted, after a consideration of the other areas, in Appendix 'I'.
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Our knowledge of the Upper Indus basin, above the confluence of the five great rivers of the Punjab and the Ghaggar, is clearer. Commanding the main communications into the Subcontinent, and with a better rainfall, on account of its existence at the foot of the Himalayan chain, and drained by rivers fed by the ice fields, the Punjab continuously supported large scale agricultural communities. We do not yet know the exact authors of the destruction of the Indus civilization. Nor do we know much about the Cemetery-H people, who have been credited with this role, unless they be one of the large groups of Post-Harappan people who moved into the plains of the Indus. Leaving these gaps, which the spade alone can ultimately fill up, we go little east towards the Indo-Gangetic divide. The explorations of Shri Ghosh and the excavations of Dr. Y. D. Sharma¹ at Rupar and of Shri B. B. Lal at Hastinapur have opened a new chapter in Indian archaeology. We are well on the way to bridge this yawning gulf between the Harappan and the Early Historic cultures of India. The rough outlines are emerging and only the links will have to be forged.
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¹ Sharma, Y. D. "Past Patterns in Living as Unfolded by Excavations of Rupar" *Lalitkala* Nos. 1 and 2, April 1955 to March 1956 pp. 121-129.
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Following the Harappan, we have probably, what Ghosh has called the "Sothi Culture",² from a number of sites in the Drishadvati Valley, characterized by the widespread occurrence of a crude ill fired pottery, which for no better reason, has been called the "Ochre washed ware". While some forms show affinities to Harappan, the fabric is closer to that of Hastinapur, Bhadra-bad and other copper hoard sites in the Gangetic basin. Since its stratigraphic relation to either the Indus or the Gangetic valley cultures yet remains to be established, it is better to be wary.
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² Ghosh, A. Presidential Address, Archaeology Section, XVII Session, Oriental Conference, Ahmedabad, 1953.
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But of all the various Post-Harappan cultures, the most widely spread, and the movements of which can be directly traced into the Gangetic basin, is that of the Painted Grey Ware culture. At Rupar,³ on the Sutlej, the habitation begins with a Harappan and is succeeded after a distinct break by the Grey Ware culture. This sequence neatly ties up with the Early historic period, characterized by the advent of the Gangetic valley Northern Black Polished Ware. This Grey Ware culture seems to have a wide distribution in the Valleys of Sutlej, Sarasvati and Drishadvati in the Punjab-Bikaner area. We eagerly await some work on the other side of the Pakistan border.
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³ Government of India, *Indian Archaeology* 1953-54. A review published by the Archaeological survey of India, 1954.
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Finally, with the excavations at Rupar and Hastinapur, the gap (which is dramatically called the "Dark Period") is closing up. Ghosh well summed up the position of Grey Ware-Harappa relations when he said: "While it is admittedly premature to hold that the latter people (Grey Ware folk) were no other but the Aryans, it is doubly premature to say that the Aryans had nothing to do with the disappearance of the Harappans. Even if that be the future consensus, the possibility will remain that the descendants of the Harappans, after the end of their glorious days, lived somewhere in India, still holding to their culture, if in a modified form, to contribute its traits to the pattern of Indian culture, either directly or through the Aryans or some other agency. Otherwise, the existence of Harappan elements in Indian culture will remain unexplained".⁴
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⁴ Ghosh, A. "Notes", *Ancient India* No. 10 & 11, 1954-55. p. 3.
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Yes, it survives. In the pivotal point—the Proto-historic tri-junction—the old Brahmavarta (Sarasvati and Drishadvati valleys) and north-eastern Rajaputana, all the streams of Proto-historic cultures mingle, and our immediate task is to explore for overlaps and contacts. This is very well borne out by the recent discoveries at Ukhlina, near Meerut, of a thick red ware of "Harappan fabric" with typical terracotta cakes. A few sherds of the same type were also found in the Grey Ware levels of Kausambi. But for the cakes, the only other identifiable type is the dish-on-stand. So the possibility of these being either very late Harappan or being derived from the other Post-Harappan cultures has to be stressed. Kausambi seems to carry some of the architectural elements of Harappa like the fortifications and corbelled drain? From this point of view the occurrence of Grey Ware and black-and-red ware at Ukhlina make it very interesting. The survival of so many Indus valley symbols on our Punch-marked coins remains an enigma. Similarly the clear evidence for slightly later dates for the Harappan, and the close inter-links of its direct descendant Post-Harappan cultures of Kathiawad, with the Pre-N.B.P. proto-historic Chalcolithic cultures of Central India, suggest the possibility of a Harappan survival in the peripheral regions to the east, west and south of the main Indus basin. Thus Harappan might have direct contacts with some of the Post-Harappan cultures of the sub-continent. Does it not fit in with the geographic factors already enumerated?
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Finally, the story of the Indo-Iranian border lands is one of continuous contacts between both the countries, and it also serves its function as a bridge between the cultures of Iran and India. These cultural influences need very careful scrutiny and since we know sufficient surface-material, the more urgent need seems to be stratigraphic excavations. Col. Gordon has shown the close affinities of the material from the Moghul Ghundai cairns and Sialk B cemetery (about 1000 B.C.).¹ More evidence of this late contact with Iran has been brought forth by Beatrice de Cardi from Londo and other sites in Baluchistan. As Stuart Piggot puts it:
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¹ GORDON, D. H., "Sialk, Giyan, Hissar and the Indo-Iranian Connections", Man in India, XXVII, 1947, pp. 195-241.
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"It looks as though contacts between India and the West were either continuous for nearly a millennium after 2000 B.C., or more probably there were two movements of peoples from Northern Persia towards India, one (Shahi-tump, Jhukkar etc.) fairly soon after 2000 B.C., (the Indian evidence implies that it cannot be earlier), and the other (Mughul Ghundai, Jiwanri, Londo) round about 1100 or later".² (See Fig. 27)
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² Review of the above paper by Stuart Piggot in Antiquity, XXIV, No. 96, Dec. 1950.
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Gangetic Basin
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Now when we cross the Indo-Gangetic divide, we leave the Harappan in space and time. The most important, and intriguing relics of this region are the enigmatic copper hoards from the Gangetic basin, studied by Heine Geldern,¹ Stuart Piggot,² D. H. Gordon,³ and B. B. Lal.⁴ Lal, by a fine typological analysis has shown that they differ from the Western groups and also points out the circumstantial but yet unproven association of the so-called "Ochre washed pottery" with these hoards. The reported discovery of Grey Ware at the hoard site of Pariar in Unao District, U. P. is encouraging and I hope it will receive early attention. But one interesting fact emerges; with such highly specialized and evolved copper tools, testifying marked technological achievement, is it too much to conjecture that their advent marks the beginning of the clearance of the semi-tropical jungles of the Gangetic basin? (Fig. 28)
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¹ HEINE GELDERN, "Archaeological traces of the Vedic Aryans", *Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art*, IV, 1936, pp. 87-113.
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² PIGGOT, STUART, "Prehistoric Copper Hoards in the Gangetic Basin", *Antiquity*, XVIII, 1944.
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³ GORDON, D. H., "Early use of metals in India", *Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute*, LXXX, 1950.
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⁴ LAL, B. B., "Further Copper Hoards from the Gangetic basin and a review of the problem", *Ancient India*, No. 7, 1951.
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Fig. 27. (After Gordon)
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All along the flanks of the Vindhyas, particularly in Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand, we have extensive surface collections of Neolithic stone tools. These are typologically indistinguishable from the Bellary-Raichur ones, studied in detail already. The collections of these from the British Museum are being studied by Dr. F. R. Allchin. Could this mean the expansion of the early agricultural communities into the main riverine tracts after their mastery of metallurgy, which enabled them to clear the jungles and drain the swamps? But it is significant to note that this event more or less precedes the expansion into, and the establishment of the people using the Painted Grey Ware, identified very reasonably by the Aryans by Shri B. B. Lal.
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Hastinapur is the most important type site, in that it serves as a link with the east and the west.⁵ Here Lal discovered 5 phases of culture, the earliest of which shows circumstantial evidence of association with the Gangetic valley copper hoards. This fact is very important in the light of the excavations conducted at Maheshvar-Navdatoli in 1952-53 and 1957-58. As will be pointed later, the earliest agricultural communities in Malwa carry with them large number of Harappan and Post-Harappan (Western) traits. But in the latest excavations five copper-bronze (?) celts were found. Two of them have rounded and flared cutting edges and one of them has a deep shoulder, suggesting a Gangetic valley origin. Similarly at Kallur (Raichur District, Hyderabad State), we have the antannae swords. Hence there is a growing evidence of a Copper Age epi-centre in the Gangetic basin and the most urgent task seems to be to follow up Hastinapur with systematic explorations in the Gangetic basin. The second period marks a distinct break and is characterized by the Grey Ware. The people of this period built mud houses and practised [Figure: COPPER HOARDS
• FLAT CELT
- SHOULDERED CELT + BAR-CELT
* MID-RIB 'DAGGER'
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⁵ LAL, B. B., "Excavations at Hastinapur and other explorations in the Upper Ganga and Sotlej Basins", *Ancient India*, Nos. 10 & 11, 1955.
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After V. A. Smith.
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DOUBLE-EDGED AXE
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¤ ADZE ○ SAWN/HAMMERED RING ● HARPOON ⊗ ANTENNAE SWORD ⊚ BENT SPEARHEAD OTHERS
- FORT MUNRO SWORD
- TRUNION CELT
- SHAFT-HOLE AXE
- ASE/ADZE After B. B. Lal
• 'OCHRE-WASHED WARE
- STONE 'BAR-CELT'
- ROCK-PAINTING
- COPPER/BRONZE IMPLEMENT]
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Fig. 28. Typical group of copper and bronze implements from India, particularly from the Gangetic basin with an inset map showing the distribution of the main types.
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agriculture and cattle breeding. We have the earliest evidence of rice cultivation in this period. Other finds included copper arrowheads, nail parer, sickles, antimony rods, weights of chert and jasper, bangles and bone points. This occupation seems to have been abandoned owing to floods, indicated by the erosion of the face of the mound. After a break, the third period marks the advent of the N.B.P. and iron (barbed arrow heads, chisel, sickle, latch, etc.). The people built fine burnt brick houses. The next phase falls well into the historic period indicated by Sunga coins etc. At present the Grey ware seems to have spread over the Upper Indus and the Gangetic basins.
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The latest season's work at Kausambi (1957-58) has revealed a horizon of 'Painted Grey Ware' in a slightly modified form, significantly suggesting its eastward spread. But the most interesting evidence is the occurrence of a few 'Harappan' (?) red ware sherds, one of them being a portion of the base of a dish-on-stand. The fortifications and the corbelled drain is also taken as an indication of the survival of certain Harappan traits. As already mentioned at Ukhlina in the Meerut District was found Grey Ware and black-and-red ware in association with Late or Post-Harappan pottery with terracotta cakes. At Kanouj also a few sherds of black-and-red ware were found. The excavation conducted by Shri G. R. Sharma at Kausambi, by Shri Ghosh at Rajgir, by Shri Krishnadeva at Vaisali and by Shri Vijayakant Misra at Patna, have clearly demonstrated that the N.B.P. originated in the central Gangetic valley about the 6th century B.C. and rapidly spread all over India.
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The most significant discovery is the finding of black-and-red ware at the lowest levels of Sonepur below the N.B.P. in the Gaya District¹. Thus the excavations at Patna, Rajgir and Sonepur show that the black-and-red ware again provides a link between the Proto-historic grey wares and the Historic period represented by the N.B.P. Thus this entire problem of these black-and-red wares needs a careful study. Does it suggest a spread of this ware along the flanks of the Vindhyas south of the river Ganges? In that connection, the discovery of a few sherds at Kanouj, and the mention of megaliths by Cockburn in the Mirzapur District, indicate interesting possibilities.
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¹ Indian Archaeology, 1956-57.