Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c9.19

c9.19

Both the PGW and the later Vedic texts belong to the same area and period. Hence the PGW evidence can be used for a study of the later Vedic period. 315 PGW sites were reported by 1975,¹ but by now in Haryana alone nearly 300 sites have been noticed.² Therefore the total number may have exceeded 500. Consistent carbon 14 dates for several excavated sites suggest that the PGW period roughly covered the period *circa* 1000-500 B.C.³ They indicate the transformation of the Vedic people from a pastoral and semi-nomadic community into a sedentary and agricultural community. But by and large structures are poor and do not suggest social differentiation. However the use of fine PGW and a few glass objects might indicate the emergence of an upper crust in society. Iron objects appear in the upper Gaṅgā basin for the first time, but they were used mainly for war and did not contribute significantly to crafts and cereal cultivation. We therefore cannot expect much social surplus which would make possible the existence of too many professional priests, warriors, etc., living on the surplus produce and labour of peasants and various types of labourers. The material culture created conditions for the beginnings of social inequality,⁴ which became prominent only in post-Vedic times.