The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c15.s1.t2.5

c15.s1.t2.5

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.