History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c10.30

v1.c10.30

In other departments of Neolithic culture, Orissa is very poor and though all the Garhjat States are rich in Neolithic remains, no attention has been paid to this subject by the chiefs of the State except that of Mayurbhañja. The important subject of Neolithic Ceramics has been generally neglected by Archæologists in India, and pointed attention was drawn to the subject after my discovery of painted pottery along with Cherts and Cores and Pictogrammatic seals at Mohen-jo-daro in the Larkana district of Sindh in December, 1922. Previous to that date the only careful observer of Neolithic culture in India was the late R. Bruce Foote, whose notes on this subject in his catalogue of the Madras Museum are replete with information. But the absence of interest in the Neolithic period of a very backward province like Orissa has prevented its wealth of resources from being systematically explored. On the important subject of Neolithic Culture in Orissa there is nothing very particular to say at the present moment. There is not a single Neolith in the Madras Central Museum from the northern districts of Ganjam, Vizagapatam and Godāvari. In the important collection of Neoliths in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, there is not a single specimen which J. Coggin Brown could refer to any of the districts of the Eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, from Balasore or Medinipur to the Kṛiṣhṇa-Godāvari Doab. The occurrence of Megalithic tombs or burial urns in Ancient Orissa is still problematical and no information exists with regard to them. So also in the case of the Sub-Neolithic phase or Chalcolithic Culture Orissa is still a closed book to us. The very great interest recently aroused among Archæologists all over the world by my discovery of one of the oldest Chalcolithic Cultures at Mohen-jo-daro almost loses its significance when we come to Orissa. Yet the neighbouring country abounds in specimens of the Copper age. The country to the south of the Narmadā is generally regarded as having passed from the sub-Neolithic phase to the Halstatt Age but in Orissa we find a regular age of copper intervening between the Neolithic and Iron ages.