Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c6.s1.7

c6.s1.7

If the initial date of the N.B.P. Ware in the Ganges region be placed somewhere in the 5th century B.C. (see below), then the bulk of the P.G. Ware is certainly earlier than that date. At Hastināpura this ware extended downwards through 4-7 feet of occupational strata; what that represents in time can only be conjectured, but two or three centuries are a feasible guess. On this basis, and at this representative site, the beginning of the P.G. Ware might be ascribed to the 8th century B.C. The skilful excavator of Hastināpura would prefer to take it back to 'circa 1100 B.C., with a probable margin on the earlier side'. This estimate is influenced by the fact that the P.G. Ware is the earliest reputable pottery known to us from a number of town-sites—Hastināpura amongst them—mentioned as already established before the Mahābhārata war, for which F. E. Pargiter suggested a date of c. 950 B.C. The equation may be right, but the available archaeological evidence scarcely carries so long a chronology. In any case, the date of the historical elements of the Mahābhārata is highly speculative.