An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c16.s22: 11.22 Russet-Coated Painted Ware
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c16.s22
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11.22 Russet-Coated Painted Ware
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This is a distinctly characteristic pottery of the early historical culture of the lower Deccan and s. India. The earliest discovery of this pottery probably goes back to 1880s by Foote ‘from a group of old graves … exposed from high flood of the river’ Tungabhadra, located opposite to HAMPASAGARA (Foote, 1916). Explorations and excavations in different parts of the region in the last 80 years especially from 1947 indicate the wide-spread of the pottery at sites like NEVASA, LANJWADA and SANGALOI, the last two respectively in Taluks Bhalki and Bidar, KONDAPUR, MANJRA and JANGAON to as far down as the tract of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, excluding the W. Ghats, e. and w. coastal areas, n.-e. Andhra Pradesh and the three s.most Dts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
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Some of the excavated habitation sites with this pottery are: NEVASA, MASKI, BRAHMAGIRI including the burials, CHANDRAVALLI, TIRUKKAMPULIYUR and ALAGARAI, and the Megalithic [4.17.10] urn burials at PARAVAI, MANGALAM and NATTUKALPALAYAM. They have revealed the occurrence of this pottery regionally in varying proportions and in different phases of the early historical culture datable to c. 3rd century B.C. to 3rd century A.D. in the habitational deposits along with other pottery in the Godavari-Kaveri area, and in the Megalithic burials in the Coimbatore-Madurai area. Earlier in view of the then known extent of this pottery in the Deccan and of its being characteristic of the ‘main Andhra period’ along with the Sātavāhana coins particularly of Vāsiṣṭhīputra Pulumāvi (c. A.D. 131-55) and Yajñaśrī (c. A.D. 169-96), and its stratigraphic relation with other special pottery fabrics, such as the Rouletted Ware [11.21] and amphorae [11.19] characteristic of 1st-2nd centuries A.D., the pottery was designated as Āndhra Ware (Wheeler, 1947-8). Subsequent explorations and excavations and a comprehensive study of all the known material have clearly proved its occurrence in the pre-Christian context as well and over a wider extent. Considering its technical characteristic Thapar, 1957, has rightly redesignated it as the Russet-coated Painted Ware. Its concentration is in the area s. of the Krishna.
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The pottery is in two fabrics: black-and-red ware and red ware, fine and coarse. On the exterior of the upper part of the vessels are executed linear paintings in kaolin. Thereafter the entire surface is covered under a thin wash of reddish-brown ochre. When minutely observed the red wash is seen to contain a network of cracks. The crackling is believed to be due to saltglazing. Alternatively it is explained as being due to the varying degree of shrinkage of the dressing into the body clay, along with the possible presence of small quantities of organic matter, salt and other fluxes under typical firing conditions.
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The chief types in the lower Deccan are: the deep bowl with indistinct disc base or round bottom and vertical side; shallow bowl with sagger base; and vase with outcurved rim, convex body and round bottom. The painted designs are rectilinear, such as series of parallel vertical lines; intersecting sets of parallel oblique lines sometimes with alternate vertical parallel lines; vertical lines with horizontal lines intersecting at right angles; criss-cross; parallel curved lines with serrations on one side in vertical or horizontal positions; sets of parallel vertical lines alternately with a row of dots; horizontal straight parallel lines; horizontal parallel slashes; parallel vertical lines with festoon-like lines within concentric semicircular lines; comb-like design; wavy lines between dotted bands; and parallel rows of dots. The last two types are found mostly at a site in Tarabanahalli near Bangalore. A design of two rows of parallel curved lines with serrations on the shoulder and the body of a squat vase from MASKI is noteworthy. In the s. comprising the region of Dts Tiruchchirapalli, Madurai and Coimbatore the types are essentially the deep bowl and vase with variants. Some bowls are concave-sided and carinated or concave-sided with sagger base. Besides the rectilinear designs including parallel horizontal lines curvilinear designs are more common, such as parallel horizontal wavy lines and concentric semicircles.
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Stratigraphically, at TIRUKKAMPULIYUR and ALAGARAI this pottery occurs in the earliest period dated to c. 3rd century B.C. to 3rd or 4th century A.D. but is heavily concentrated in the lower layers. In relation to the levels containing the Rouletted Ware and Arretine Ware [11.20] datable to c. 1st century B.C. and 1st century A.D. at ARIKAMEDU and URAIYUR, the lower layers containing the ware can reasonably be held to be earlier. In the Krishna-Tungabhadra area, at CHANDRAVALLI and BRAHMAGIRI the layers of the early historical culture containing this pottery precede the layers with the rouletted ware and overlaps with the last phase of the Megalithic culture [4.17.8]. But in the Godavari valley where the pottery is scanty, as at NEVASA, it occurs along with the Rouletted Ware in Pd V dated to the 1st-2nd century A.D. This suggests that this pottery developed from the white-painted Megalithic pottery in the s. and gradually spread n. wards into the Krishna-Tungabhadra area, the Godavari valley forming the peripheral zone.
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Foote, R.B., 1916, *Indian Prehistoric & Protohistoric Antiquities*, Madras. Thapar, B.K., 1957, in *AI*, 13, pp. 72-6. Wheeler, R.E.M., 1947-8, in *ibid.*, 4, pp. 203, 236. For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—A. SUNDARA