The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c15.s3.4

c15.s3.4

the advent of iron about 500 B.C. or earlier, and there is not a great typological difference between the northern and southern iron tools. In Central India and probably along the flanks of the Vindhyas ( south of the Ganges ) the iron occurs with the black-and-red ware. Actually N.B.P. appears in the intermediary levels of these black-and-red ware phases at Ujjain, Maheshvar and Somnath. Thus this great technological change shifts the focus to Magadha the richest area for minerals. Hence, it is the Iron Age focus, the third one in the evolution of Indian culture, that enabled the political expansion of Magadha over the rest of India, laying the foundations for the political and cultural homogeneity of the sub-continent.