An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c20.s2: 15.2 Human
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c20.s2
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15.2 Human
v1.c20.s2.1
No evidence is available for the evolution or movement of early man in India. Though there is an abundance of Palaeolithic tools [4.2-4] their authors have eluded us till now.
v1.c20.s2.2
According to Sankalia and Karve, 1949, the Mesolithic [4.5] human remains discovered at LANGHNAJ belong to a dolichocephalic population having supra-orbital ridges and well-rounded occiputs, showing Veddoid or Australoid affinities. Guha *et al.*, 1961, regarded them as of Proto-Australoid affinity similar to the Bhils and other aboriginal tribes of c. India. [But according to the study of Erhardt and Kennedy, 1965, the skeletons ‘indicate traits which are characteristic of Mediterraneans and Veddoids, but which could also include other races.’] [Not much information is available on the somatological features of the Mesolithic human remains in the GANGA VALLEY.]
v1.c20.s2.3
The skeletal remains of the n.-w. Neolithic culture [4.6.1] as typified at BURZAHOM belong to a tall, sturdy, dolichocephalic people similar in features to the present-day people of the Kashmir valley. In the Deccan the Neolithic people [4.6.8-9] were of robust construction, with large heads and a tall stature as at PIKLIHAL. They could be the ancestors of a major element of the present mixed Dravidian-speaking people of the Deccan and s. India. The Neolithic cattle-keepers of TEKKALAKOTA were of medium-to-tall stature and sturdy build and were long-headed, with a large cranial capacity and variable nose form (Malhotra, 1965). The Neolithic skulls from NAGARJUNAKONDA were long.
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Of the sites of the Indus civilization, the Chanhu-daro skulls (Krogman and Sessaman, 1943) were dolichocranial, representing a Proto-Mediterranean type in which ancestral Negroid traits manifested themselves. One group at Mohenjo-daro was of a moderate stature with a long head, a narrow prominent nose and a long face but not physically very strong. The second group was a long-headed type, very powerfully built and with a tall stature, stout eye-brow ridges and large brains. An enormous development of postauricular part of the skull was a characteristic feature. The third identified group was broad-headed, with a high cranial vault, prominent nose and flat or round shape of the occiput. (Sewell and Guha, 1931.) The population belonging to the mature Harappa culture at Harappa (Cemetery R 37) was long-headed. One type was tall, rugged and sturdily built, having pronounced eye-brow ridges, a receding forehead and broad nose with depressed root; the other was gracile, comparatively short and of weak type. The population of the later Cemetery H consisted of these types in addition to a rather tall, large and round-headed type. In the later stratum of Cemetery H, besides the long-headed and round-headed types, another medium-statured, small- and medium-headed, low-faced type was found. (Gupta *et al.*, 1962.) The LOTHAL skulls show similarity with those discovered at Sialk. Cranial indices vary between hyperdolicho to hyperbrachy. The nose shape varied from very fine to very broad. The shape of the superior face varied between hyperlepton to hypereuren. The stature varied from below medium to very tall. (Rao, 1973.)
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It will be seen from the above that the population at Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and LOTHAL possessed broad noses, though the noses of the Mohenjo-daro people were less broad then those of the other two. The population of LOTHAL had, in comparison to those of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, broad heads. The population at each site was homogeneous with respect to at least the head and nose shapes and stature, indicating thereby that the population at the site belonged to a single biological group, not recognizable into several races with distinctive characteristics. The Indus population was tall, long-headed and broad-nosed in the n.-w. region but had somewhat rounder heads in Gujarat.
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Of the Chalcolithic [4.14.6-8] sites of the Deccan, BRAHMAGIRI had a mesobrachycephalic, broad-nosed, medium-statured, robustly constituted population. Sarkar, 1960, has affiliated it to the Scytho-Iranian stock and to an autochthonous Proto-Australoid race. Erhardt, 1960, has compared the skeletons from NEVASA with those of the primitive people of the Deccan jungles. The skeletons from CHANDOLI have some similarities with those from LANGHNAJ and NEVASA. In the lower Ganga valley [4.6.4], at PANDU-RAJAR-DHIBI, the people varied in stature from medium to tall, with long head but narrow nose. MASKI in the Deccan had three physical types: (1) mesobrachycranic (Scytho-Iranian?); (2) long-headed, large-brained and stoutly built; and (3) long-headed and broad-nosed, similar to the autochthonous Australian.
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The majority of the skulls from Megalithic [4.17.9] site of ADICHANALLUR disclose a dolichocranial and mesorrhine type showing Australoid and Armenoid strains. The YELLESWARAM skulls have been found to be brachycranial showing similarities with Sialk skulls. It is seen from the scanty material available that the Megalithic people of the Deccan and s. [4.17.7-9] were mostly round-headed, tall and sturdily built. Their skeletons show a greater variability than those of the Harappans excepting the nasal dimensions.
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The early historical sites of UJJAIN and KAUŚĀMBĪ give the impression that long-headedness was prevalent in these areas, although broad-headed individuals had already started intrusion in the n.-w. part of the country.
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The human skeletal material recovered from excavations is too scanty to throw light on the relationship of the ancient peoples with the present-day ones. At present the major portion of India is inhabited by a medium-statured, mesocephalic or dolichocephalic, mesorrhine population. The population tends to have more dolichocephalic element in peninsular India, while occasionally there is an element of brachycephaly, as in the extreme s. All over India there are now areas of people with short-to-medium stature, dolichocephallic, chamaerrhine and mesorrhine population, known as Proto-Australoid (Guha, 1935). It has been held that this population covered the entire n. Indian plains at one time. The n.-w. portion of the n. plains has a tall dolichocephalic leptorrhine population. In parts of Gujarat a brachycephalic leptorrhine element is clearly pronounced. In c. India the Proto-Australoid types are predominant with various admixture from adjoining regions. The Ganga valley seems to be the meeting point of all physical types.
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The powerfully built, large-brained race with welldeveloped supra-orbital regions and enormous growth of the post-auricular parts of the skull, identified from the various Harappa sites, survives to this day in the population of the n.-w. part of the subcontinent. The more delicately made smaller type with sharp well-cut features and fine narrow nose from the Indus valley, which is close to the Mediterranean race, has entered largely into the composition of the population of n. India, especially in the upper strata of the society. The population of the Indus valley appears to have remained more or less stable in character from the Harappa times to the present day. This is due to the reason that invaders to these regions were either of similar human types or too small in number to bring about any marked changes in physical characters.
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Sarkar, 1964, finds in the dolichocephals of the Indus valley an extension of the people of Tepe Hissar I and II. A wave of mesocephals represented at Tepe Hissar also migrated to India in different waves, two of which are represented at Harappa—one in stratum I of Cemetery H and the other at Site G; the second wave shows weak traces of brachycephaly. He is of the view that an autochthonous, hyperdolichocranial element represented by Veddid or Australoid ethic strain appears to be at the base of the Indus people. Guha, 1935, is of the opinion that as the three groups found at the Harappa sites also occurred at 'Al Ubaid and Kish, a close affinity of the Harappans with the people of Pre-Sargonic Mesopotamia can be inferred. Sen, 1967, has postulated that the population in India during the Harappa times descended from earlier populations of the same regions, which would explain the regional differences in head shape between the n. and s. branches, being due to regional variations as at present.
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The presence of a non-Mongoloid brachycephalic race with round and broad face and large prominent nose which entered from n.-w. and evidence of which has been found in the later periods of the Harappa culture, was also noticed from ADICHANALLUR and cairns of s. India. At present the brachycephalic non-Mongoloid races are dominant in Gujarat, Karnataka and Bengal. Mixed with the older basic long-headed type and the Proto-Australoid races, it occurs very largely in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
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The Proto-Australoid type so conspicuous during the Megalithic period of peninsular India is one of the major elements in the aboriginal population. The entire c. and s. Indian tribes belong essentially to this type. The same can be said of the tribes of w. India and some groups in the Ganga valley. The ADICHANNALUR skulls are similar to those of the Mundas.
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With the meagre osteo-archaeological evidence at present available, only a small sector of India's racial history can be traced. It cannot also be overemphasized that physical characteristics go on changing with migration and free mingling with other ethnic types.
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Bose, N.K., 1959, in *Man in India*, 39, 3 (for a comparative study); 1963, in *Fifty Years of Science in India*, Calcutta (for progress in anthropology); 1965, in *Gazetteer of India*, 1, New Delhi. Chatterjee, B K., & Gupta, P., 1963, *Rep. on the Adittanalur Skulls*, Mem. Anthropological Survey of India, 4, Calcutta. Erhardt, S., in Sankalia, H D., Deo, S B., Ansari, Z.D., & Erhardt, S., 1960, *From History to Pre-history at Nevasa (1954-6)*, Poona. Erhardt, S., & Kennedy, A.R., 1965, *Excavations at Langhnaj*, 3, *Human Remains*, Poona. Guha, B.S., 1935, in *Census of India Rep.*, 1931, Simla; 1937, in *Outline of the Field Sciences in India*, Calcutta. Guha, B.S., & Basu, P.C., 1938, in Mackay, E.J.H., *Further Excavations at Mohenjo-daro*, Delhi. Guha, B.S., & Mitra, A.K., 1961, in *Mankind Quarterly* 2, pp. 107-19. Gupta, P., & Dutta, P.C., 1962, in *Man in India*, 42 (for Yelleswaram). Gupta, P., 1975, in *Bio-anthropological Research in India*, Calcutta. Gupta, P., Basu, A., *et al.*, *Ancient Human Remains*, Mem. Anthropological Survey of India, 20, Calcutta. Gupta, P., Dutta, P.C., & Basu, A., 1962, *Human Skeletal Remains from Harappa*, Mem. Anthropological Survey of India, 9, Calcutta. Gupta, P., Dutta, P.C., & Dutta, B.C., 1967, in *Bull. Anthropological Survey of India*, 16, Calcutta (for Amirthamangalam), Kennedy, A.R., & Malhotra, K.C., 1966, *Human Skeletal Remains from Chalcolithic & Indo-Roman Levels from Nevasa—an Anthropomorphic & Comparative Study*, Poona. Krogman, W.H., & Sassaman, W.H., in Mackay, E.J.H., *Chandu-daro Excavations*, New Haven, pp. 252-64. Malhotra, K.C., 1965, in Nagaraja Rao, M.S., & Malhotra, K.C., *Stone Age Hill Dwellers of Tekkalkota*; 1965, in Sankalia H.D., *et al.*, *Chalcolithic Chandoli*, Poona. Rao, S.R., 1973, *Lothal & the Indus Civilization*, Bombay, pp. 155-6. Sewell, S., & Guha, B.S., 1929, in Haragreaves, H., *Excavations in Baluchistan*, 1925, Mem. ASI, 35, Calcutta; 1931, in J. Marshall, ed., *Mohenjo-daro & the Indus Civilization*, 2, London. Sarkar, S.S., 1959. *Aboriginal Races of India*, Calcutta; 1960, in *Bull. Anthropological Survey of India*, ((1), Calcutta, 1964, *Ancient Races of Baluchistan, Punjab & Sind*, Calcutta. Sen, D.K., 1967, in *AI*, 20-21, pp. 178-205 (for ancient races of India & Pakistan—a Study of Methods).—For other sites see respective entries in vol. II —A K.