The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c5: Preface to the First Edition
The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c5
- Language
- English
Preface to the First Edition
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This essay on Indian archaeology was the outcome of my election to the Presidency of the Archaeology section of the XVIII All-India Oriental Conference held at Annamalainagar in December 1955. The concept of the geographic personality of India as a homogeneous unit has been so deeply imprinted in the mind of an average Indian, that it has led to a good deal of loose thinking. One can easily notice a tendency to expect a uniform development of culture throughout the Sub-continent in space and time. Opposed to this concept, there has developed, particularly outside India, an equally unwarranted assumption on the basis of the survival of certain tribes and other backward communities and the consequent differential development. This takes for granted a late development and the result of it has been a fashion to push down the dates to later periods by mixing up the evidence from the progressive and backward areas. These contradictory hypotheses were brought home to the author during his visit to London in 1954. This essay was formulated and its first draft was prepared there. It attempts a rational and objective approach to the problem of the development of material culture in India, with the object of clearing the decks for further study.
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One of the most basic features of India's cultural history is the diversity, at any point of time, in the cultural strata, technological attainments and other aspects of material culture in different parts of the country; and sometimes within the same region. Going back into history, we find, for example, the highly developed urban civilization of the Indus valley, comparable in stature and time to those of Western Asia. On the other hand, we have Stone Age communities right into the Early Historic period; and indeed into our own times, if we take the economic life of some of the tribes—the so called aboriginals of India. This differential development can, to a great extent, be explained by the ecology and geography of the various cultural regions of India. In the following pages an attempt is made to study and correlate the physical and the cultural regions from the point of view of Archaeology. This provisional zoning has to be followed by more intensive and systematic field studies.
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The second and the more important part of this work is the correlation in space and time of the archaeological sequence in different parts of the country, on the basis of a number of vertical excavations and other explorations. In the development of any study there are three stages. We start in the first stage with a bold working hypothesis to introduce an order into the chaos. The second stage begins with the application of this key solution. In the initial stages, it results in an apparent simplification and easy generalization. In Indian archaeology, we are at this stage.
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We will be inaugurating the third stage when we follow this tentative scheme with a more critical examination. More complications are bound to arise and we can face them given patience, skill, and the resources. The author will be more than satisfied if this study can stimulate more regional surveys.
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It is my pleasant duty to acknowledge my indebtedness to my teachers and few of my colleagues, who gave me the benefit of valuable discussion and criticism at various stages. I should mention Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Prof. F. E. Zeuner of the London University Institute of Archaeology, Prof. Christoph Von Furer Haimendorf of the School of Oriental and African studies, London, and my own *guru* Prof. H. D. Sankalia of the Deccan College Research Institute, Poona; and among my colleagues Prof. M. N. Srinivas and Shrimati V. A Janaki of the Baroda University and Shri B. B. Lal and Shri B. K. Thapar of the Department of Archaeology, Government of India.
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The writer himself had the first hand experience in Central Deccan, Central India and Gujarat based on his own field work. But it is not necessary to repeat that the work of a large number of my colleagues in India has contributed to the progress of our knowledge. Individual acknowledgements have been made in the footnotes, but I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for permission to refer to their works either published in a summary form or learnt from them during my comparative studies. Among them, I have pleasure to mention: Dr. Raymond and Mrs. Bridget Allchins, Dr. A. H. Dani, Shri M. N. Deshpande, Shri S. Ranganatharao, Shri G. R. Sharma, Shri B. K. Thapar, Shri N. R. Banerji, Shri R. C. Agarawala, Shri R. N. Mehta and Shri P. P. Pandya.
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Before I close this preface, I cannot adequately express my gratitude to Shrimati Hansa Mehta, the Vice-Chancellor of the University for her keen interest in the work of the Department. I would also like to express my gratitude to the British Council and the Commonwealth Universities Body for awarding me a Travel Grant to go to London. Finally I should thank Shri V. Y. Kantak, Dean, Faculty of Arts, for his ungrudging help and co-operation. Last but not the least, I should express my indebtedness to the staff and students of the Department who have helped me in various ways. Particularly I owe my nicely drawn maps and charts to Shri R. J. Khatri and Shri G. S. Telang, the Draftsmen in the Department.
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Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, September 1956.