An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s1: 20.1 Graffiti on Pottery
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s1
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20.1 Graffiti on Pottery
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Graffiti, mainly as post-firing scratched marks, are often found on Indian pottery. Though mostly geometric in form they sometimes resemble natural objects such as the sun, fish and man, and sometimes man-made objects, such as the ladder, boat and arrowhead. Opinion is divided on their meaning—some take them as pictographs, others as marks of identification and still others as representation of magic. But it is not certain what they really stand for.
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According to Yazdani, 1917, 1918, they are 130 in number, while according to Lal, 1960, they are around 60; others count up to 150 and odd, depending upon one's own view about certain variations. They are only rarely found on the Neolithic pottery [11.1] but are common on the Harappa [11.3], late Harappa [11.4] Chalcolithic [11.7-12] and Megalithic [11.15] pottery. They also occur as pre-firing symbols on the pre-Harappa pottery [11.2], particularly at Amri in Sind, where sometimes they are called 'proto-Harappan characters'. The Harappa sites with graffito-marked pottery are Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, KALIBANGAN, and the late Harappa ones are RANGPUR, LOTHAL (upper levels), etc. The Chalcolithic sites are NEVASA, CHANDOLI, NAVDATOLI, PRAKASH, KORAT, BAHAL, TEKWADA and others. The Megalithic sites which have yielded a large amount of pottery with graffito marks include sites like SANUR, T. NARSIPUR, FEROKE, TOZHUPEDU, JADIGENHALLI, MASKI, CHANDRAVALLI, SAVANDURG, etc.
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Some of the symbols commonly found on the pottery of the various periods may be classified as: that resembling a trident; arrowhead; bow-and-arrow; two opposed triangles meeting at apex; V-, D-, W- and I-shaped forms; 'jambs' with 'lintel'; plus sign; sign of multiplication; circle; circle cut by a vertical or a horizontal or both kinds of lines; parallel loops; zigzags of various kinds; parallel vertical lines in groups of two, four and five, sometimes cut by a transverse line, criss-cross pattern; cross with balls at four ends; coniferous trees; sun with rays; deer; and fish.
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The symbols found more or less exclusively on Megalithic pottery are: M-shape; the *m* of Brāhmī (two intersecting oblique lines joined by a horizontal line at the base); and oblique lines cut variously by different kinds of lines.
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The symbols found more or less exclusively on the Chalcolithic pottery are: human forms; a vertical line ending downwards in two sideway upturns resembling the letter *ya* of Brāhmī; star with five prongs; oblong with diagonals; oblong divided into two parts by a horizontal stroke; and elongated S.
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An analysis of 61 basic symbols made by Lal shows that 47 of them are common to the Harappa, Chalcolithic and Megalithic complexes; six belong to the Megalithic exclusively and eight to the Harappa and Chalcolithic combined. He feels that some 'definite meaning and purpose seems to be involved' in them, particularly when 'some of the symbols occur on the Harappa seals on the one hand and in the early Brāhmī seals on the other', and also because a large majority of the symbols occur at sites connected with black-and-red pottery [11.6] from the 3rd millennium B.C. to the early centuries of the Christian era, particularly in the w. half of the country. However so far it has not been possible to suggest any phonetic, syllabic or alphabetic value for them.
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Lal, B.B., 1960, in *AI*, 16, pp. 4-24. Yazdani, G., in *An. Rep. Hyderabad Arch. Dept. 1915-6*. pp. 9-10, *1916-7*, pp. 5-8.—S. ASTHANA