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The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c15.s1: Evolution of Indian culture

The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c15.s1

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Evolution of Indian culture

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The pattern of development of material culture in India described above, is fundamentally based on the geographic features of the country, depending on factors like attraction, aridity, relative isolation and isolation. We are all familiar with the physiographic divisions of the Indian sub-continent viz., the Mountain belt, Indo-Gangetic plains and Peninsular India which is capped by the Indo-Gangetic crescent. The archaeological picture that emerges closely follows the pattern laid down by Indian Geography. The whole Indus basin bounded by the Aravallis in the east first comes under the impact of the great civilization of Western Asia, but the local environment and the strong influence of a large river basin give it a distinctive character of its own. Almost at the declining stages of this urban civilization, an infiltration of vigorous new elements lead to a great expansion into the next major area i.e., the Gangetic basin. While these great valleys were being cleared and probably drained of their marshes, the upland region of Peninsular India too gets a new impact. We find the Malwa plateau emerging as a great corridor for the vigorous colonization of the Deccan plateau by metal using communities. With their extended contacts with Kathiawad and rapid spread into the South, more or less the present ethnic pattern emerges. Even according to the literary tradition, the Aryanization of Peninsular India was not based on mass movements of people, but infiltration of small Brahmin and other religious communities and fugitives, followed by expanding political forces. But by about the 4th century B.C., the whole country begins to display a degree of homogeneity coupled with a pleasant diversity. The even distribution of perennial nuclear regions, knit together by a trans-continental communication system had facilitated this process.

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This account, based on geography and archaeology, is not belied by literature. I do not share the prejudices of some of our Western colleagues about the use of literary data in archaeology. These are questions of manner, and not of matter; of interpretation, and not of facts. The major drawback of our literary sources is their imperfect chronology and constant interpolation.¹ But some of the evidence may be used with caution. How else can one explain the beautiful and expanding vista of geographic horizons of literary works arranged in a chronological order on linguistic and other evidence by Maxmuller, Macdonnell, etc. Radhakumud Mookerji² has well condensed the geographic data from Rigvedic, Later Vedic and Post-Vedic literature. The focus of the Rigvedic age was the upper Indus Basin, particularly the eastern fringes of it, called Brahmavarta or the Indo-Gangetic Divide (Valleys of Sarasvati and Drishadvati). In the Later Vedic the west recedes into the background and regions of the Central Gangetic valley like Kosala, Videha, Anga, Magadha come into prominence. The tribes on the fringes of the Vindhyas like Andhra, Pulinda, Mutiba, Sabara, Nishada come for mention. In the Post-Vedic Sutra and Dharmasastra literature (dated by Macdonnell between 800 and 300 B.C.), kingdoms south of Vindhyas like Kalinga begin to be mentioned by authors like Panini. In the early Buddhist literature some of the kingdoms in Northern and Central Deccan appear. By the 4th century B.C., our evidence becomes abundant and varied : Megasthenes, Arthasastra, and the indisputable contemporary sermons on stone of the Emperor Asoka.

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¹ The best example is the much-quoted Mahabharata itself. Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, the distinguished scholar, says of the above text : "....the Mahabharata, which started as a series of ballads recounting the jaya or triumphs of the Pandavas gradually became elaborated into a great epic in Sanskrit by about 500 B.C. and went on expanding by the addition of all sorts of new materials for the greater part of a millennium, until it attained by 400 A.D., as is generally surmised, to something like its present huge dimensions as a vast poem of 1,00,000 verses or 2,00,000 lines." CHATTERJI, S. K., The Place of Assam in the History of Civilization of India, Gauhati, 1955, p. 14.

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² MOOKERJI, RADHAKUMUD, Hindu Civilization. p. 68.

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It is very interesting to compare the famous river hymn of the Book X of Rigveda with the later verse from the daily prayers and the Puranas.

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Compare

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इमे मे गङ्गे यमुने सरस्वति शुतुद्रि स्तोमं सचता परुष्ण्या ।
असिक्न्या मरुद्वृधे वितस्तयार्जीकीये शृणुह्या सुषोमया ॥
RV. x. 75.5

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with

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गङ्गे च यमुने चैव गोदावरि सरस्वति ।
नर्मदे सिन्धु कावेरि जलेऽस्मिन्सन्निधिं कुरु ॥

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MOOKERJI, R. K. Fundamental Unity of India, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1954. pp. 35 and 37.

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In view of what we have stated above there is no need to re-emphasize the value of the communication system of the country. It was the development of the trans-continental highways or trunk roads, that forged the bonds of unity between the various regions and strengthened the centripetal forces by enabling free movement of peoples, goods and ideas. We have seen already enough archaeological evidence of these movements. But, our history based on literary sources is a distinct contribution of the Aryans, who created or inspired the whole mass of Indian literature. As they slowly moved (influencing and being influenced by the Pre-Aryan elements), Indian history based on literary sources is the story of their geographic knowledge and ignorance of the country. But by about the Buddhist Period, they knew about the whole of India, north of Vindhyas and a few regions to the south of it. Very soon, probably due to strong political and economic pressure, communications were firmly established. The best evidence is provided by the early Buddhist literature. On the one hand we read of Jivaka, the physician of Bimbisara, who studied at Taxila, while we have the classical passage giving us the story of Bavarin and his pupils staying on the Godavary at Paithan (Pratisthana).¹ There is a description of all the towns on the route from Paithan to Vaisali. By the time we come to the Mauryan period, Asokan inscriptions are our best guide, due to their location on the highways. And the story of the third Buddhist Council is well-known.

Prehistory

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Prehistory is the most undeveloped of all the branches of Indian archaeology. Except in two or three areas, our evidence predominantly rests on typology, and unless we can establish stratigraphic basis for this succession, we will not carry forward the bounds of our knowledge. But from the large amount of surface collection a sufficiently plausible scheme of things is emerging, but it remains to be verified and demonstrated.

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About the *Early Stone Age*, we have a good idea of the nature and extent of the cultures, but their inter-relation and chronology await further work. While the peri-glacial zones show a predominant pebble "chopper-chopping" cultures, the Peninsular portions of our sub-continent show predominantly an industry characterized by the hand-axes and cleavers. A wide-

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अळ्ळकरस पतिट्ठानं पुरिमं महिस्सति तदा।
उज्जेनिलवापि गोनद्धं वेदिसां वनसाह्वयम् ॥ ३६
कोसाम्बीन चापि साकेतं सावत्थिन च पुरत्तमम् ।
सेतव्यं कपिलवत्थुं कुसिनारञ्च मन्दिरम् ॥ ३७
पावाञ्च भोगिनगरं वैसालिं मगधापुरम् ।
पासनकञ्च चेतियं च रमणीयं मनोरमम् ॥ ३८
सुत्तनिपात ५. १. ३६-३८

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spread uniformity emerges at the end of this age with the appearance of the "Prepared platform" or the Levallois technique. Several attempts have been made to establish climatic cycles. Unless our techniques improve with a greater use of natural and physical sciences, we will not go forward.

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The next phase is characterized by an equally widespread industry of scrapers, blade, burin and borer in fine grained materials like chert, jasper, agate etc., and it also seems to be derived from a Levallois tradition, as in Africa. Its stratigraphy is perfectly clear in the Narbada valley, the Bombay area and the Pravara and Godavary valleys. Here again, there is no place for complacency; the need is for more and more stratigraphic studies. This has been designated as Middle Stone Age.

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The third phase of Indian Prehistory, called here, the Late Stone Age, is also becoming clearer. The identification and elimination of the Blade industry at Maheshvar and the origin of this technique, by the writer, has removed a major snag in our attempts at understanding the large quantities of what are indiscriminately called 'microliths' (Fig. 38). Hence the field is clear and we see distinctly two horizons of Microlithic industry—Geometric and non-Geometric. In certain areas, Tinnevelly and Birbhanpur, we have evidence of a considerable antiquity for this microlithic industry without the association of pottery. In both the areas geological and pedalogical evidence has been adduced to demonstrate their antiquity. Similar non-geometric industries occur in the Chakradharpur area and a few other areas.

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Similarly there is an equally widespread distribution of Geometric microlithic industries all over the continent. We have not yet got positive evidence, that these succeeded the non-geometric, but typology suggests it and nothing more will be said at this stage. Again pottery is never associated with the non-geometric industries. As in tropical Africa, these microlithic industries which are generally supposed to fit into an environment with light vegetation, have been perfectly adapted to a life of hunting and fishing in jungle areas. Curiously, nothing resembling an arrow-head or even bi-facially retouched point, has ever been produced in the country, except in the remote Tinnevelly (probably as a result of contact with Ceylon). Yet the asymmetric point with a strong central ridge and a thick back, may be a substitute, as suggested by Zeuner. In a tropical country with forests, a wood, probably with a burnt tip can be equally effective. It is this very adaptation of these primitive hunting communities to a thickly vegetated forests and hills that led to a cultural diversity in the Neolithic period. In certain areas with very little agricultural potential, these cultures survived. Probably they were also driven out into these unfavourable environments by the agricultural communities themselves. Hence we see in areas like Gujarat, Malwa and Maharashtra, these hunting communities survived till they were displaced by their brethren who came with heavy metal tools or stone tools. Finally in the areas of isolation, this hunting-fishing economy might have lasted still longer!

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INDIA & PAKISTAN MAP SHOWING SOME OF THE FIND SPOTS OF CHALCOLITHIC BLADE INDUSTRY

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The Neolithic period, the last stage of Indian prehistory really brings into lime-light the environmental diversities within the country. These primitive agriculturists domesticated cattle and cultivated the fields around their hills in tropical and semi-tropical scrub jungles. As they depended on basalt or diorite for their stone tools, they preferred the Gneissic-metamorphic areas of the country and the foot hills of the Vindhyas. While Neolithic agricultural communities began in the Indo-Iranian borderlands in the early 4th millennium B.C., they survived in Central Deccan till about a 1000 B.C.

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Sometime in the later half of the 2nd millennium B.C. (depending on the Chinese evidence) or even later, a wave of Austro-Asiatic or Proto-Australoid elements penetrated into India from the east. We have a large distribution of their typical shouldered celt or adzes with oblong sections. But let it be stated here, that there exists a general opinion, that the sawn axes of South-east Asia, and the oblong or square axes of that region and Eastern India represent an adoption in stone by the primitive people of metal tools of their more fortunate brethren. A similar attempt has been made to connect certain stone celts and copper bar celts from the Gangetic basin. These indicate the co-existence of both these cultures—Copper age folk in the plains and Stone age folk in the uplands. A study of culture contacts between the Plain Indians and the White settlers of North America by Hodges¹ has shown how the traders, the trappers, who penetrated into the interior for barter of fur and hides, tried to copy the Indian tool forms in steel to make them more acceptable. "The process of translating stone and antler proto-types into metal, and these back into stone, is not in itself very remarkable, and in principle could be repeated ad nauseum".

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¹ HODGES, H. W. M. "Braves, Beakers and Battle-axes", *Antiquity*, XXI, 1957, p. 142.

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Thus it seems with the advent of the copper technology, the semi-tropical river valleys with their swamps and marshes, were cleared and drained. This meant a displacement of the earlier Neolithic people. Hence in the forested hills of Vindhyas and Chota Nagpur plateau, we see congeries of so-called Neolithic tools (peninsular elliptical-section type as well as the square-axe type). Thus, some of the later Neolithic folk, like the earlier batch of hunting communities, were consigned to the hills with the advent of large scale agricultural communities in the main river basins. These unfortunate folk were the precursors of most of our tribal people.

Proto-history

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When we leave Prehistory and our survivors of a prehistoric age, we come to the "matrix of our civilization", the stage of the large scale agricultural communities with a knowledge of copper and bronze. Here again, we see the familiar pattern of a slow advance of civilization. Naturally, the Indus basin, as Spate calls it, is an extension of the environment of South West Asia. Similarly Braidwood calls it a periphery of the nuclear Near East. The rest of the country to the east of the Aravallis must have been in a Late Stone Age or Neolithic cultural level. Pre-Harappan and the Harappan cycles did not spread eastwards. Sometime at the end of this great urban civilization, two great landmarks appear in our cultural horizon. While the *Aryans came from the west and destroyed or displaced the great urban civilization of the Indus basin*, a widespread technological progress of the Gangetic basin is suddenly registered, either simultaneously or even a little earlier. We are completely ignorant about their origin. While Piggot, Heine Geldern and Gordon tried to derive this Gangetic valley from Western elements, Lal has made an attempt to support an independent origin. Yet the solution of the problem of their origins require an intensive attack on the Gangetic valley.

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This era is the most formative period characterized by the movements along the main communication system. This accentuated still further the environmental diversities and laid the foundations for the later Indian civilization. While the Harappans seem to have fled southwards and eastwards, the Grey Ware folk moved eastwards into the Gangetic basin. These movements set in more migrations. Thus this formative Post-Harappan era may be described as the " Era of movements " (Fig. 39).

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The most important cultural groups of the Post-Harappan cycle are:
1. Grey Ware
2. Chalcolithic cultures of Malwa and the Deccan
3. Ahar Painted Black-and-red ware culture
4. Harappan and its derivatives of Kathiawad
5. Copper-hoard culture (Gangetic Valley Copper Age)
6. Post-Harappan cultures of Sind and
7. Londo and other Border cultures.

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We do not have any stratigraphic evidence for the 6th and 7th groups, as they merely represent surface collections and grave pottery. Similarly the exact status of the 5th viz. Copper-hoard culture is somewhat vague and depends on the circumstantial evidence of pottery affinities of Hastinapur I with that of hoard sites.

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Thus we are left with four major elements of Proto-historic India, which vitally affected the patterns of her culture. The most significant feature is their distinct regional character (Fig. 39). As the Grey Ware culture and the Chalcolithic groups are stratigraphically Pre- N.B.P., their contemporaneity has to be taken for granted. Yet certain resemblances between the decorations on the Ahar painted black-and-red ware and the Grey Ware deserve further studies. The latest excavations at Navda Toli, conducted by the Deccan College and the Baroda University, threw further light on the nature of the Chalcolithic cultures of Central India and Deccan. The earliest level is characterized by the occurrence of black-and-red painted ware and cream or white slipped ware. While the former connects it with Ahar the latter connects with Somnath IB, and Rangpur IIB indirectly. Similarly the typical lustrous red ware occurs in Phase IV at Navda Toli, thus again confirming that all these cultures were in contact with each other.¹ The concave bowls and basins in an unslipped fine fabric of Phase II connect it with the Deccan. At the same time the Central Indian cultures show some vague affinities in design and forms with Iran, particularly Sialk. Hence none of these four main cultures can be derived from each other and all of them co-existed for a long time mutually influencing each other. Finally there are two remarkable links: Firstly the blade industry, employing the technique of crested guiding ridges appears, as far as we know, from the Harappan and survives right through to the end of the Chalcolithic cultures about 500 B.C., till it became extinct with the appearance of iron. Secondly, the copper celts found in the lowest levels of Navdatoli show two-fold influences like its pottery. They show the Harappan as well as the still enigmatic Gangetic valley types.

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¹ SANKALIA, SUBBARAO and DEO. Excavations at Maheshwar and Navda Toli. Baroda and Poona. 1958.

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Before we close this discussion, we have similar close affinities between the Chalcolithic cultures of Malwa, Maharashtra and Andhra-Karnatak. Here again the sure binding link is the blade industry, which has been traced as far south as Maski, Brahmagiri and Sanganakallu. But we see one remarkable fact. The foci of the Southern Neolithic cultures was the lower basin of Krishna (Andhra-Karnatak). While the Chalcolithic cultures started a south-east movement, we see a reciprocal movement from the South. At Nevasa, the typical chalcolithic elements of Malwa combine with it, polished celt (probably indicating dearth of copper and trade with the South) and the coarse grey ware vessels, the most prominent being the Brahmagiri urn type. Similarly at Bahal on the Girna, the lowest phase Ia again shows the grey fabrics, while the black-on-red wares appear in Ib, showing again the close inter-locking of these various cultures. Hence when this Chalcolithic element with its black-on-red wares, blades and metals, penetrated further south, they could not alter the economic character of the dominant neolithic industry. Thus this inter-action of these Neolithic and Chalcolithic elements are very interesting and need further attention. Whether this Chalcolithic culture managed to spread into Tamilnad, as also the true distribution of the Neolithic in that area need further study.

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[Figure: PROTO-HISTORIC ERA OF MOVEMENTS THE MAIN STREAMS OF CULTURES OF THE PROTO-HISTORIC PERIOD 0 40 80 120 160 200 MILES AREA ABOVE 500 METRES PRE-HARAPPAN SITES HARAPPAN & ALLIED SITES POST-HARAPPAN GREY WARE SITES PAINTED BLACK-AND-RED WARE SITES PENINSULAR CHALCOLITHIC SITES COPPER HOARD AND ASSOCIATED SITES

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Thus this Post-Harappan cycle and the movements of cultures led to the establishment of large scale agricultural communities in the valleys of the Ganges, Chambal, Narbada, Tapi, Girna, Godavary and Krishna and their tributaries. It set the pattern for the development of higher cultures in India. Thus when iron appeared in the middle of the first millennium B.C., the knowledge of a cheap and easily obtainable metal of a very durable character created the necessary background for the cultural homogeneity of the major river basins, which emerges in the next period.

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