An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c16.s6: 11.6 Black-and-Red Ware (Non-Megalithic)

An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c16.s6

Language: English

v1.c16.s6.t1 11.6.5 Lower Ganga region — 6 parts

11.6 Black-and-Red Ware (Non-Megalithic)

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Whereas in the Megalithic culture of the Deccan and s. India [4.17.8-11] the Black-and-red Ware forms a distinctive diagnostic trait [11.15.3], its wide spatial and chronological distribution in other cases [4.13] discourages any belief in its having been anything more than a pottery-making technique, which produced vessels black in the interior and on the exterior top and red on the exterior body. Experiments with similar ware from Egypt, where it is called the black-topped ware, have shown that the body of the pot was first rubbed with red ochre and then burnished, whereafter the dry pot was placed upside down in the kiln with the top buried in a layer of saw-dust. The portions which did not receive any air in the kiln, i.e. the top and the interior, turned black in the reducing condition of the kiln and the part exposed to air, i.e. the exterior body, turned red in the oxidising condition (Coles, 1973, p. 152). Other techniques however are also possible.

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Following the convention of the ASI, in this work when the ware relates to the Megalithic culture the words begin with capital initials and elsewhere with small ones.

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Coles, J., 1973, *Archaeology by Experiment*, London—A. GHOSH

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*11.6.1 Harappa.* Limited quantities of the black-and-red ware occur in the *milieu* of the Harappa culture [4.9] in Gujarat (Rao, 1962 and 3, 1973), the important sites being LOTHAL, RANGPUR, ROJDI, DESALPUR and SURKOTADA. Like the other ceramics of the culture the vessels in this ware are made of well-levigated clay and burnished to produce a smooth surface. The black portion on the upper part of the exterior makes a horizontal line. The convex-sided bowl, similar to that in red ware, is the dominant type. The stud-handled bowl, the bowl with everted rim and convex body often with blunt carination and the simple dish are the other restricted types. The vessels are often painted on the interior black surface with white strokes, wavy and vertical lines in groups, concentric circles, arcs and criss-crosses.

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Rao, [1962 and 63, p. 64], claims that the black-and-red ware found with the later Lustrous Red Ware [11.9] is devolved from the Harappa, in spite of the types being different.

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Rao, S.R., 1962 & 63, in *AI*, 18 & 19; 1973, *Lothal & the Indus Civilization*, Bombay. For other sites see respective entries in vol. II.—K.M. SRIVASTAVA

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*11.6.2 Banas and c. region.* White-painted black-and-red ware was first discovered in 1952-3 at MAHESHWAR and NAVDATOLI along with the Malwa Ware [11.10] in the Chalcolithic levels and subsequently in 1961-2 at AHAR.² Exploration has brought to light about 50 sites, most of them in the Banas valley, but the ware had a far-and-wide distribution with uncertain and doubtful links from zone to zone [4.13; 11.6]. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh the following are the important sites: AHAR² and GILUND, Dt Udaipur; NOH, Dt Bharatpur (connection with the Banas ware nebulous); BHAGWANPURA, Dt Chittaurgarh; NAVDATOLI and MAHESHWAR, Dt Nimar; AWRA, Dt Mandsaur; ERAN, Dt Sagar; and KAYATHA, Dt Ujjain. In Gujarat the ware appears in Harappa association [11.6.1].

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The vessels in the concerned region are small, and the absence of medium and large vessels suggests that they were used as table ware. The range of shapes is limited, the most predominant being the bowl, though such forms as the saucer/lid, bowl/dish-on-stand and small globular pot also occur. The bowl has a convex, bulging, bluntly-carinated, concave-carinated or converging side. The lid is shallow and has a flaring side. The bowl/dish-on-stand has a cylindrical stem.

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AHAR², a type site of the Banas culture, provides a number of clues for the understanding of the shaping technique of this ware. The sections are medium to thin and show that well-levigated clay was used. Striation marks indicative of the use of wheel are absent, but instead the inner surface of a number of sherds bear irregular scooping marks. This shows that excess clay was removed to make the vessel thin when it was in leather-hard condition. Another feature is that that the rim was luted when the main body was leather-hard. The uneven, shallow and broad depressions on the inner surface of the base suggest the use of dabber [16.12] in shaping them. It is thus evident that the vessels were made entirely by hand.

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The vessels are generally decorated on the outer surface below the rim and sometimes on the inner side as well. The decorations are in the form of white-painted patterns executed before firing. The designs have a very limited range, formed generally by straight lines. wavy lines, zigzags, curved lines and dots. Short lines and dots are used as space-fillers. The designs consist of: diamonds—simple, hatched, latticed, double-lined; hatched triangles; groups of lines—straight, wavy and zigzag, vertical, slanting or horizontal; concentric curved lines; radiating groups of arches; chevrons; circles; and dots. Spirals are drawn individually, connected in a row attached to lines and between the angles of zigzag lines.

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A very small number of sherds bear graffiti [20.1] on the inner side of the vessel. The designs are ladder pattern, chevrons and bisected circle. [For chronology see AHAR ², NAVDATOLI].

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Dhavalikar, M.K., 1969, in *Purātattva*, 2, pp. 35-40 (for Tekwada). Lucas, A., 1948, *Ancient Egyptian Materials & Industries*, London, pp. 432-7. Mujumdar, G.G., 1969, in Narain, A.K., ed., *Seminar Papers on the Problem of Megaliths in India*, Varanasi (for technique). Singh, P., 1969, in Sinha, B.P., ed., *Potteries in Ancient India*, Patna, pp. 67-74. For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—Z.D. ANSARI

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*11.6.3 Upper Indo-Ganga region*. The black-and-red ware occurs in diverse geographical and chronological contexts, and even in the upper Ganga valley in two different phases—A, pre-PGW at ATRANJIKHERA and NOH, and B, with the PGW [11.14] at practically all sites associated with the latter, such as AHICCHATRA, ALAMGIRPUR, ALLAHAPUR, ATRANJIKHERA, HASTINĀPURA, NOH, ROPAR and sites in Dt Ganganagar.

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In phase A the bowl dominates the industry, followed by the basin and dish. The bowl is mainly deep with a small flattish base and tapering sides, with an incurved rim and wide mouth, with an ovaloid body and outturned rim, or with bulging sides and out-turned internally sharpened rim and tapering edge. The larger bowl has straight sides and an incipient lip, a variant having a beaded rim. A coarser variety is available at ATRANJIKHERA, the vase being available in this fabric. Some specimens of this type have an out-turned featureless rim with carinated neck, while others have a straight and thick neck; those of a somewhat better quality have concave necks.

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In phase B, contemporary with the PGW, the shapes closely follow those of the latter. The bowl is of different shapes: straight-sided; vertical-sided with a sharpened rim; tapering-sided with an incurved rim; and incurved rimmed with carination or grooves on the body. The hemispherical bowl is a popular shape. The dish with an incurved rim and convex or tapering sides is met with, but the basin and mininature pot are rare. The ware occurs in the NBPW [11.16] context as well.

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Gaur, R.C., 1969, in Sinha, B.P., *Potteries in Ancient India*, Patna. Tripathi, V., 1976, *Painted Grey Ware—an Iron Age Culture of n. India*, Delhi. For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—V. TRIPATHI

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*11.6.4 Middle Ganga region*. The black-and-red ware, both plain and painted, makes its appearance at the middle Ganga Chalcolithic [4.14.3] sites, such as SONPUR, Dt Gaya, CHIRAND, Dt Saran, and ORIUP, Dt Bhagalpur, just below the stratum associated with the NBPW [11.16]. A few sherds of medium-to-coarse fabric have also been found in the non-Chalcolithic but pre-NBPW strata at VAIŚĀLĪ. There are even examples of the survival of the ware in the NBPW levels at sites like RAJGIR, Dt Nalanda. Chechar, Dt Vaisali, and Telhara and Chillorgarh. Dt Gaya, have also yielded this ware as a result of surface exploration.

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The Chalcolithic sherds are usually wheel-turned, but handmade specimens are not altogether wanting. The vessels, both coarse and fine, are made of sandy clay and sometimes of fine husk-mixed clay and have a porous section and thick slip. The early examples from SONPUR are brittle and too small for any shape to be determined. The coarse examples from Sonpur are plain, except for a few incisions and grooves below the rim. The types from CHIRAND include the dish-on-stand, long-necked jar, lipped bowl, basin, ring-based bowl, spouted vessel, perforated pot, sometimes four-legged and with ring-base, lipped jug, trough, dish, bowl, bowl with elongated lip and *loṭā* with straight high neck and corrugated shoulder. The specimens from the upper levels of SONPUR are represented by the bowl, dish, vase and basin; they have medium-to-fine fabric and are sometimes treated with a thick slip to hide the coarse texture.

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Fig. 28. Ahar: Black-and red Ware

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Paintings where they occur are generally on the interior. The bowl and dish from CHIRAND show painted designs in groups of wavy or straight lines or dashes executed in white on black surface and the neck and shoulder of vases in creamy white. The examples from SONPUR are represented by two black rims with dark creamy lines and parallel dots. The white-painted channel-spouted bowl from ORIUP also deserves mention. The stem of the dish-on-stand specimens from CHIRAND are both plain and corrugated, while a few sherds from SONPUR show incisions and groovings below the rim.

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Sherds of the black-and-red ware have also been found in the Neolithic level of Chirand [11.1.3] but the types are different from their Chalcolithic counterparts.

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For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—S.R. ROY

11.6.5 Lower Ganga region

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The black-and-red ware is the characteristic ceramic industry of the Chalcolithic period in the lower Ganga valley [4.14.4]. It was first discovered at PANDU RAJAR DHIBI in 1959 and since then intensive fieldwork has brought to light nearly 50 sites in almost all the important river valleys lying to the w. of the Ganga. Its distribution from Dt Birbhum in the n. to the periphery of the coastal region beyond TAMLUK, Dt Midnapur, in the s. suggests a wide diffusion of Chalcolithic settlements located mainly on the flood plains of the older alluvium at a point where it merges with the wide alluvial plains of the Ganga. The following are some of the important sites: Dt Birbhum—BELUTI, DAULI, Ghurisha, Jaker Danga (HARAIPUR), KIRNAHAR, KOTASUR, MAHISDAL, MANDIRA, NANUR, Ranir Dhibi (Jashpur), POTANDA, Sakardihi and SURAT RAJAR DHIBI (Supur); Dt Bankura—CHIADA, Dihar and POKARNA; Dt Purulia—Deultaur; Dt Burdwan—Baneswar Danga, BHARATPUR, Eruar, Ganga Danga, Hazra Danga (Basantapur), MANGALKOT, Rajagram and SANTAL DANGA; Dt Murshidabad—Gitagram; Dt Midnapur—Ichapur, Natshal, SIJUA and TAMLUK.

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The principal types in order of frequency are the medium-sized vase, of which tulip-shaped and flowerpot types are distinctive, bowl, channel-spouted bowl, basin, jar, dish-on-stand and vase-stand. In the early Iron Age occurs a degenerate variety of the ware which contains, besides the common shapes, the miniature *hāṇḍī* and dish with incurved rim and convex side.

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The whole range of the industry is turned on the wheel except a few handmade specimens from the earliest level of PANDU RAJAR DHIBI. The fabric is medium, though a coarse variety occurs in the earliest and the degenerate phases. The clay is indifferently levigated and tempered with fine sand. In most pots a slip is applied on both sides except in vases which are treated with slip on the exterior and up to the neck on the interior. Some sherds have achieved a smooth and shining surface due to burnishing. Firing under different conditions has given a few pots a completely black interior and red exterior, while others are partly black and partly red on both sides; the latter occur in larger frequency.

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Some pots are painted on the inner side with a fugitive white pigment which has in most cases disappeared leaving only a faint impression of the design elements. The designs are all of frequently repeated linear patterns. The designs encountered mostly on fragmentary sherds are dots, dashes, obliques, strokes, double arches (flying birds of NAVDATOLI [11.10], rows of diamonds, series of hooks (sickle?), small thickened squares and parallel arcs with terminal loops at one end. The channelspouted bowl is occasionally stained with red ochre towards the end of the spouts. Other surface decorations are very rare. Besides grooves around the neck or the rim, occasionally a sherd is found to have on its body either an applied band of cord pattern and incised oblique notches or an incised band with criss-cross pattern. Graffiti are also extremely rare. A sherd bears on the exterior a wedge-shaped design with a vertical line in the middle and on another a motif looks like an unfinished humped bull.

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¹⁴C dates of the black-and-red ware horizons of three sites are available: MAHISDAL, Chalcolithic, early level, 1380±105 B.C., mid-level, 1085±110, late level, 1085±110; early Iron Age level with a grey ware and coarse pottery, 690±105 B.C.; PANDU RAJAR DHIBI, 1012±120 B.C. (?); and BHARATPUR, 1090±150, 820±140 B.C.

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For sites see respective entries in vol. II —S.K. MUKHERJEE