An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c16.s16.1

v1.c16.s16.1

The early discoveries of the NBPW were at SARNATH near Varanasi (J. Marshall in *ASI-AR 1904-5*, p. 59), at BHITA near Allahabad (in *ibid.*, *1909-10*, p. 40; *1911-2*, pp. 37, 80-1), where it was described as 'fine black lustrous' and in the lower levels of Bhir Mound, Taxila (Marshall, 1951, 2, p. 432), where it was regarded as the Greek Black Ware, with an uncertainty as to whether it was imported or made locally. A list of the distribution of the ware was published by R.E.M. Wheeler and Krishna Deva, in *AI*, 1, 1946, pp. 55-6, who christened the ware as the 'northern black polished ware', now spelt with capital initials. This list contained 18 sites and pointed to the Ganga basin as the main centre of the ware. The list was revised by Lal and Thapar [*AI*, 10 and 11, 1954 and 1955, pp. 143-6], where 26 more sites, some of them in Maharashtra and Orissa, not covered in the first list, were added. Nigam, 1961, pp. 45-6, published a third list with 111 sites, the largest number of which (52) were in Uttar Pradesh, the next in order of frequency being Madhya Pradesh (20), Bihar (14), Maharashtra (4), Rajasthan (3), Andhra Pradesh and Delhi (2 each). Thapar's later map [*AI*, 20 and 21, 1964 and 1965, p. 72], emphasized the geographical limits of the ware. Yet another list by Agrawal, Nath and Gupta, 1971-2, contained notices of NBPW sites as reported in *IAR 1953-4* to *1969-70*. Since then the horizon of the ware has considerably enlarged. The latest list, up to 1976, has been given by Roy, 1977; according to it 415 sites have produced this ware or its assemblage covering a distance of about 2121 km from n. to s. and about 1790 km from e. to w., the n.most site being Udegram in Swat, though Charsada and Taxila are the more extensive n. peripheral settlements, and the s.most limit being marked by CHEBROLU, Dt Guntur, farther s. than the better known sites of AMARAVATI and DHARANIKOTA. The w.most site is PRABHAS on the Kathiawad littoral and the e.most are BANGARH, Dt W. Dinajpur, and CHANDRAKETUGARH, Dt 24-Parganas. The main concentration of sites is in the e. part of the upper Ganga valley with its epicentre in Uttar Pradesh, which contains 292 of the total of 415 known sites. Thus the spread of the ware can claim a larger area than any other known ware of India, perhaps even larger than that of the Harappa Ware [11.3]. [This wide distribution has been variously ascribed to the spread of Mauryan imperialism (Ghosh, 1973, p. 15, with references), of Buddhism (Subbarao, 1968, p. 46) or of iron technology through trade routes (Agrawal, 1971, p. 244).]