An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c12.s4: 7.4 Palynology
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c12.s4
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7.4 Palynology
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Palynology encompasses a wide range of studies based on the morphology and distribution of pollen and spores in space and time. These range from the study of pollen and spore fall-out on the face of the earth to the find of adulterants in different grades of honey, to the identification of allergenic substances in dust particulates, to the study of pollen morphology in relation to plant taxonomy and to the reconstruction of vegetational and environmental histories through pollen analysis of sedimentary deposits. In India palynology is known in practically all its diverse ramifications. It has contributed to Indian archaeology by way of the reconstruction of palaeo-environments of man over sections of the Quaternary Age [9.8]. The picture is far from complete but important gains have been made in some regions, notably Kashmir and Rajasthan.
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In Kashmir pollen studies of lower *karewa* lake deposits, dating from the Pliocene/early Pleistocene [9.8.2] times, have indicated significant changes of climate ranging from cool, moist temperate through cool dry temperate to cool, moist temperate conditions, but it has not yet been possible to relate these changes to any stratigraphically significant horizons indicating major glacial and interglacial periods [7.3].
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Most of the other pollen-analytical work has been confined to the Late Quaternary period. Here it has been demonstrated that after the last glacial in the Himalayas, corresponding to the Weichselian glacial in Europe, deglaciation was in progress at elevations as high as 3120 m (Toshmaidan) 14000 to 15000 years ago. Subsequently the vegetational altitudinal belts are shown to have moved up the mountain slopes progressively, indicating rise in temperatures. A period of temperatures higher than those of the present was reached some time during the middle post-glacial time. Subsequent changes in the vegetation indicate that the temperatures started to drop off before 3000 years ago. Phases of forest clearance resulting from human agricultural and other activities have been demonstrated both in the Kashmir valley (Haigam lake) and in the Kumaon Himalaya (Naukuchiya Tal) but in the absence of any ¹⁴C dates their chronology cannot yet be established. Small-scale forest clearance for agriculture, based on ¹⁴C-dated pollen profiles, has been shown to go back to at least 2000 B.C. (Khajjar lake) and large-scale clearance to periods onwards from A.D. 550 (Rewalsar lake) in Himachal Pradesh.
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In Rajasthan studies supported by absolute datings of three salt lakes—Sambhar, Didwana and Lunkaransar—in w. Rajasthan, and of one freshwater lake, Pushkar, in the Aravalli hills have brought out important changes in the environmental history of Rajasthan in relation to the development of human cultures in n.-w. India over the last 10000 years. The palaeo-environmental sequence is divided into five phases corresponding to five pollen zones as revised in Singh *et al.*, 1974.
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Phase I, before 8000 B.C., stratigraphically determined, is representative of severe arid environments under which the sand-dunes, now stabilized, are suggested to have been active. The period generally corresponds in time to at least the latter part of the Last Glacial in the Himalayas and is considered to have been extremely unsuitable for human habitation in Rajasthan. The conditions changed dramatically at the beginning of Phase II, 8000-7500 B.C., as shown by the infilling of large and small inland drainage basins with freshwater and the resulting deposition of lacustrine sediments. The date of this change coincides with the Late Weichselian/Flandrian boundary of w. Europe. The improvement in the availability of freshwater opened up possibilities of human migrations into the area. The vegetation comprised an openland steppe which was rich in grasses, *Artemisia* and sedges but poor in halophytes. *Artemisia, Typha angustata* (bull-rush), *Mimosa rubicaulis* and *Oldenlandia*, which now grow under areas of comparatively high average annual rainfall (above 500 mm), flourished in the semi-arid belt, while the first-two plant taxa had encroached even as far as the arid belt (100 to 250 mm mean annual rainfall), both suggesting that a general westward shift of the rainfall belts had taken place. Vegetation destruction through burning by man is suggested to have started together with the first occurrence of Cerealia-type pollen at about 7500 B.C. and continued thereafter throughout Phases III and IV. The increase in swamp vegetation and the intensification of vegetation cover inland together with the maxima of all mesophytic elements, including *Syzygium cuminii, jamun*, in Phase IV, c. 3000-1000 B.C., indicate an increase in rainfall. However there was a short relatively dry time about 1800-1500 B.C., and only a marginally wet period between 1500-1000 B.C., at Sambhar which coincides with the decline of the Indus culture [4.9] in n.-w. India. Between Phases IV and V there is a hiatus in the pollen preservation and at the same time there is stratigraphic evidence that the salt lakes started drying. At Pushkar there is evidence that the vegetation showed a marked change to a drier plant assemblage in the Aravallis. The onset of this aridity seems to have been widespread. The climate did not ameliorate until Phase V, early centuries A.D. to the present, at which time the RANG MAHAL culture the remains of which imply good water supply flourished in Rajasthan. The amelioration since the onset of aridity, however, has been small and has not led to any significant change in the overall climate of w. Rajasthan.
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Sharma, C., & Singh, G., 1972, in *Palaeobotanist*, 21, 2, pp. 144-62 (for vegetational history of Khajjar lake); in *ibid*., 21, 3, pp. 321-38 (for Rewalsar lake). Singh, G., 1963, in *ibid*., 12, 1, 73-108 (for post-glacial vegetational history of Kashmir); 1971, in *Arch. and Physical Anthropology in Oceania*, 6, 2, pp. 177-89 (for Indus civilization in the context of climate and ecology in n.-w. India). Singh, G., & Agrawal, D.P., 1976, in *Nature*, 260, p. 232 (for ¹⁴C evidence for deglaciation in n.-w. Himalayas). Singh, G., Joshi, R.D., Chopra, S.K., & Singh, A.B., 1974, in *Philosophical Transactions*, 267B, pp. 467-501 (for late Quaternary vegetation and climate of Rajasthan). Vishnu-Mittre, Gupte, H.P., & Robert, R., 1967, in *Current Science*, 36, 20, pp. 539-40 (for late Quaternary vegetation in Kumaon). Vishnu-Mittre, & Sharma, B.D., 1966, *Studies of Post-glacial Vegetational History from the Kashmir Valley, 1, Haigam Lake*. Vishnu-Mittre, Singh, G., & Saksena, K.M.S., 1962, in *Palaeobotanist*, 11, 1-2, pp. 92-5 (for pollen analysis in the lower *karewas*).—G. SINGH