An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c15.s1.22

v1.c15.s1.22

Glass beads deserve a separate mention because of their abundance but they are very imperfectly recorded. No true glass is reported from the Harappa sites of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, but its people were able to mould and fuse excellent articles of faïence and glazed quartz beads with a frit akin to glass. However the Chalcolithic levels of MASKI (1st millennium B.C.) and the PGW [4.15] levels of HASTINĀPURA have produced evidence of glass. The *Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa* and the *Vinaya-piṭaka* refer to *kāca* but the first unmistakable and a relatively large number of them are reported from Bhir Mound, Taxila. In the early Mauryan period glass beads of diverse colours and forms are available. Stratified eye beads involving an advanced technique are reported from Taxila from *c.* 3rd century B.C. onwards. ŚRĀVASTĪ, KAUŚĀMBĪ, PĀṬALIPUTRA, MAHESHWAR, KOPIA, AHICCHATRĀ, RAJGHAT⁴, TRIPURĪ and several other sites have given abundant evidence of glass beads of various types and techniques. By the beginning of the Christian era the use of glass became quite common and intaglios, finger rings, bezels, lenses and miniature casets were manufactured. In the history of Indian glass and glass beads two periods are significant. The first is the Graeco-Roman and the second is the medieval. In the former examples like those of lace glass, ribbed glass, swirled glass, cameo glass, mosaic glass and millefiori glass have been reported from sites like Taxila, ARIKAMEDU, NEVASA, KARWAN and UJJAIN. These are obviously non-indigenous techniques and it is clear that these beads were imported into India or were manufactured by Graeco-Roman artisans settled in India. It may however be noted here that except at Taxila no proper and precise documentation is available. Nevertheless local artisans seem to have mastered the technique of differently coloured glass and moulded glass. This is evidenced by the Sātavāhana sites of NASIK, KARAD, KOLHAPUR, MASKI, CHANDRAVALLI and a large number of other ones. Beads of deep blue glass with a white streak and the red-on-white popularly known as 'Venetian' beads are typical of the 2nd century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D. in India. Another fossil-type of the early historical period is the 'gold-foil' bead, the technique of which was invented by the Romans and was introduced into India through trade contacts. The technique involved the sandwiching of a gold leaf between two layers of transparent glass. Lug-collared and *āmalaka* beads are again typical shapes of the early centuries of the Christian era. Indigenously made different types of 'eye beads' involving the sticking of pellets of blue or black colour over a white glass body are again very common in the Ganga valley in the Mauryan to Gupta periods. But swirled glass beads are very rare in India. Another noteworthy variety is of cane glass of Indian red, deep cobalt-blue or pale-purple shades. However cane glass is found to have been used for beads in India only in the early historical period. Semiprecious stones were preferred to glass and the *Divyāvadāna*, a late Gupta work, specifically warns against cheap imitation of precious stones by Ceylonese merchants in glass.