An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s14.t1: 4.14.4 Lower Ganga region
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s14.t1
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4.14.4 Lower Ganga region
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A number of rain-fed tributaries originating in the e. slopes of the Chota Nagpur and Santhal Pargana hills join the right side of the lower course of the Ganga (Bhagirathi), the only perennial snow-fed river in the W. Bengal delta, the more notable of them being the Ajay and Damodar. The w. part of W. Bengal through which these rivers flow is mainly of flat lateritic formation interspersed with ridge-like hills. It is in this part, covered by Dts Burdwan, Birbhum (Chakrabarti, 1972), Midnapur and Bankura (Bandyopadhyaya, 1971) that the Chalcolithic sites are located. The first excavated of such sites is PANDU RAJAR DHIBI in the Ajay valley. The e.most extension of the culture is indicated by GANGADANGA near the confluence of the Ajay and Bhagirathi, the other sites being MANGALKOT at the junction of the Ajay and Kunoor, MAHISDAL, HARIPUR and NANOOR, Dt Birbhum, and BHARATPUR and BARABELUN, Dt Burdwan (information about the last two from the ASI, E. Circle, and Directorate of Arch. W. Bengal, respectively).
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At none of the excavated sites has a primary Neolithic level preceding the Chalcolithic occupation been established, although a Neolithic phase was definitely in existence in this region [4.6.4]. The find of polished stone celts in the Chalcolithic context at BHARATPUR is however significant. Besides microliths, which had a long antecedent in this part of W. Bengal, lingered even along with iron.
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No definite house plan has been traced at any site, but from the available remains it may be envisaged that the settlers lived in flimsy huts made of clay daubs and clay-plastered reed structures. The earliest occupants of PANDU RAJAR DHIBI built their huts with floors of pellety laterite, occasionally found burnt. The occupation of this small community was succeeded by a more advanced one, which paved the floors with lime plaster bearing signs of post-holes and ovens. There was also a paved passage. Similarly MAHISDAL had evidence of floors made of beaten earth with a soling of rammed burnt clay nodules. BHARATPUR had at least two habitational floors along with open hearths containing animal bones and pottery.
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The economy was based on agriculture supplemented by hunting and fishing. The discovery of a large quantity of charred rice at MAHISDAL and impressions of paddy husk at PANDU RAJAR DHIBI is noteworthy. The faunal remains at MAHISDAL include the *barasinga* and deer and feral animals like the wolf.
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There is evidence of burial practices from PANDU RAJAR DHIBI and HARAIPUR. A secondary burial represented by a headless skeleton, with grave goods including a plain black-and-red vessel and a pot of chocolate coloured were with paintings in white, was encountered at the lowest levels at PANDU RAJAR DHIBI. The succeeding phase yielded three types of burials—extended, fractional and urn. Five burials were of the extended type, in four of which the bodies were oriented e.-w.; in two the heads pointed to the e. and in the other two the heads were turned to the s., the details of the fifth one being uncertain. The grave offerings generally consisted of painted bright-red wares, copper bangles and in one case a fossil wood microlithic scraper. In addition a tubular copper bead was found along with a barrel-shaped bead of agate in one of the extended burials. A fractional burial is represented by a skeleton with severed ankles as at CHANDOLI and NEVASA in Maharashtra. Two single urn-burials covered with lids of black-and-red ware contained adult human bones. HARAIPUR yielded ten extended burials of children oriented n.-s., the heads slightly turned w., with no funerary objects.
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Black-and-red ware is the dominant ceramic tradition, with which are associated red and black wares of thin and thick fabric and lustrous red and chocolate wares. However the earliest levels of PANDU RAJAR DHIBI has a handmade grey ware of thick fabric with impressions of paddy husk, wheel-turned ware, often rusticated, and a kind of pale red ware, in addition to black-and-red wares. A kind of grey ware is associated with the black-and-red ware at NANOOR and HARAIPUR.
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The shapes in the black-and-red ware are represented mostly by carinated and lipped bowls. Small carinated vases with flaring rim, including channel-spouted bowls, are typical of the period. Further dishes-on-stand and bowls-on-stand are mainly reported from PANDU RAJAR DHIBI. Perforated pottery occurs at most of the sites. The pots are occasionally painted in white pigment with oblique strokes, dots, hyphens, chevrons, etc. The lustrous red ware and the ordinary red ware are generally painted in black or greyish white, the designs being mostly geometric. Some pots bear incised decorations.
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Apart from pottery the cultural assemblage consists of bone objects, microliths, beads of steatite and semi-precious stones, terracotta and copper objects, none of these classes of objects being however available at NANOOR and HARAIPUR. Amongst these bone objects constitute an important item and comprise a large number of arrowheads, hollow points, pins, styli [20.5], bangle pieces and decorated combs. Microliths are represented by small parallel-sided blades, scrapers, points and lunates in chalcedony, quartz, jasper, chert, etc. Microliths with crested ridge come from PANDU RAJAR DHIBI. Polished stone celts, absent at PANDU RAJAR DHIBI and MAHISDAL, are reported from BHARATPUR. Bead-making in copper, steatite and semiprecious stones was an important industry.
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Terracotta objects are scarce. A small realistically represented phallus from MAHISDAL and a human torso from PANDU RAJAR DHIBI are however noteworthy. A few crudely executed animal figurines come from BHARATPUR. Copper objects mainly consist of spiral bangles, rings, antimony rods [18.1], tubular beads, fish-hooks, etc. A flat copper celt with a convex cutting edge is a unique example from MAHISDAL. But the use of the metal was restricted.
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While it is likely that the culture travelled to the lower Gaṅgā valley from w. and c. India, the course of this spread remains untraced, though there is a broad similarity between the middle Ganga [4.14.3] and lower Ganga Chalcolithic cultures. ¹⁴C dates from PANDU RAJAR DHIBI, MAHISDAL and BHARATPUR would place the lower Ganga culture to c. 1300-700 B.C., making it later than its w. and c. Indian counterparts.
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Bandyopadhyaya, A.K., 1971, *Bankura Jelar Purakirti* (in Bengali), Calcutta. Chakrabarti, Deb Kumar, 1972, *Birbhum Jelar Purakirti* (in Bengali), Calcutta. Das Gupta, P.C., 1964, *Excavations at Pandu Rajar Dhibi*, Bull. Arch. Dept., W. Bengal, 2, Calcutta; 1966, *Exploring Bengal’s Past*, Calcutta. For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—K.P. GUPTA
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In 1975-6 the Dept of Arch., Univ. of Calcutta, under the writer, explored in Dt Birbhum and parts of Dt Burdwan a large number of already known sites in the Mayurakshi-Ajay-Kunnur stretch and was also able to locate a few new ones. It has been noticed that in the upper stretch of the Mayurakshi and Bakreswar there is a decrease of Chalcolithic settlements, but there is a general increase in the c. and s. parts of Dt Birbhum. The surveyed area can be divided into three major zones: (1) Mayurakshi-Bakreswar-Sal; (2) Sal-Kopai-Ajay; and (3) Ajay-Kunnur-Damodar-Khari.
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In the first zone the sites are concentrated in the basins of the Mayurakshi and Bakreswar, the land surface of which is the result of the deposition of alluvium degraded from the w. tableland with ferruginous laterite [9.6] occupying a large area of this tract. At some places were a number of microlithic blades in quartz and agate, some with crested ridge [16.15.2] but not always accompanied by the diagnostic black-and-red ware [11.6.5]. From near KOTASUR however a large number of sherds of the ware have been picked up; Kotasur reveals evidence of continuous habitation from the black-and-red ware stage to the late historical period. The undulation in the land surface gradually merges with the Rādha area of Murshidabad, where at CHIRUTI on the w. bank of the Bhagirathi there is evidence of Chalcolithic occupation. This seems to be the only known Chalcolithic site in Dt Murshidabad. Intensive exploration in the long stretch of the Older Alluvium between the Mayurakshi and Bakreswar has shown a number of sites indicating the springing up of a cluster of Chalcolithic settlements. The pottery includes the black-and-red, black-painted buff, chocolate-coloured, burnished red-and-black ware comprising the channel-spouted or lipped bowl, pedestalled cup of ink-pot type, etc. There is a profusion of scrapers, lunates and short blades with occasional Neolithic [4.6.4] celts.
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In the Sal-Kopai-Ajay zone a number of microlithic blades, polished stone axes and celts and terracotta figurines have been found scattered in regions adjacent to one another but the sites were abandoned after the Chalcolithic phase. The chief sites are MAHISDAL on the n. bank of the Kopai and HARAIPUR, both already excavated. At HATTIGA, Dt Birbhum, the present exploration has laid bare remains of a Chalcolithic complex comprising almost all the diagnostic ceramic types, a Neolithic celt, microlithic flakes including waste flakes, terracotta discs and beads of copper, agate and terracotta.
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In the third zone—Ajay-Kunnur-Ḍamodar, which includes the previously excavated site of PANDU RAJAR DHIBI, BARABELUN and MANGALKOT—the present exploration has shown that the s. bank of the Ajay, especially the stretch of land covered by the Ajay-Kunnur-Khadgiswari-Damodar rivers, was a much lived-in area from Chalcolithic times. Large quantities of painted and unpainted black-and-red ware, microliths and Neolithic celts have been recovered. All along the s. bank of the Ajay and Kunnur and the left bank of the Damodar there are sites which appear to indicate the possibility of a continuous occupation from the Chalcolithic to the historical times. One of the twin mounds at Ara on the Khari, Dt Burdwan, has however only Chalcolithic material—black-and-red ware, cream-slipped ware, black ware and large quantities of red ware.
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In the Tamluk region in the Rupnarayan delta the party discovered a Chalcolithic site at Jambuni on the Dulung, with a coarse black-and-red ware, microliths and a dagger-like object of bone. Ecologically the site is a continuation of Dt Singhbhum, the river Dulung forming the dividing line.
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Ray, A., 1978, in *Eastern Anthropology*, 31, pp. 543-65. For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—A. RAY
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*4.14.5 C. region.* C. India is more or less conterminous with the present-day Madhya Pradesh State and forms, as it were, a half-way house between the peninsular and n. parts of the Indian subcontinent. The available evidence for the Chalcolithic or village farming cultures in this area comes mainly from the w. part, known as the Malwa plateau, covered with fertile black soil [9.1]. The s. half forms part of the Narmada-Tapti drainage system, while the n. part is drained by the Chambal and Betwa rivers belonging to the Ganga-Yamuna system.
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Barring a few references in the Purāṇas and the *Mahābhārata* to the existence of tribes like the Nāgas and Haihayas, till the fifties of the present century practically nothing was known of the post-Stone Age cultures of the region before the 6th century B.C. Our knowledge of these cultures is entirely due to the investigations undertaken during the last three decades. With the clues supplied by the discoveries of V.S. Wakankar and others, the Deccan College and the M.S. Univ. of Baroda undertook large-scale excavations at MAHESHWAR and NAVDATOLI between 1952 and 1959. Later on three other sites were excavated: NAGDA in 1955-56 by the ASI; ERAN for several seasons since 1960 by the Univ. of Saugar; and KAYATHA during 1965-6 by the Vikram University and again by the Deccan College in 1968. [To this list has to be added BESNAGAR on the Betwa excavated by the ASI in 1963-5 and later, with incompletely published results.] While the other sites have made known only one culture—the Malwa culture, Kayatha (ancient Kāpitthaka) has revealed two more cultures—the Kayatha and Banas [4.14.1] cultures—antedating the Malwa culture. The available ¹⁴C dates, which place all these cultures in the 2nd millennium B.C., are as follows: Kayatha culture, 2000 to 1800 B.C.; Banas culture 1700 to 1500 B.C.; and Malwa culture, 1500 to 1200 B.C.
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Kayatha culture: It is the earliest known village farming culture of c. India and appears to have been introduced from outside in a mature form. It is represented at KAYATHA and also at several dozen surface sites in the region covered by the Chambal and its tributaries. The incomplete evidence from Kayatha seems to indicate that the people lived in houses with well-made floors and walls consisting of mud-plastered reed screens. The pottery belongs to three distinct fabrics. The chief fabric consists of a sturdy, wheel-thrown pottery bearing a dark brown slip and linear paintings in violet or deep-red. The vessel shapes are the bowl and basin, vase with globular body and concave neck and storage jar. An interesting feature which may hold clues for the origin of the culture is that in fabric, surface treatment and shapes, this pottery recalls the pre-Harappa [4.8] SOTHI Ware of Rajasthan. A red ware with combed decorations and a red-painted buff ware are the two other fabrics of the ceramic industry. The culture is Chalcolithic in the full sense of the term. The occurrence of two mould-prepared axes, an incomplete chisel and as many as 28 bangles of copper, the latter found in two buff-ware pots, attest to the mastery achieved in metal-working by the authors of this culture. The lithic industry is represented by a ring-stone and a short-blade industry in chalcedony made up of blades, pen-knives, points and lunates. Apart from the copper bangles Kayatha has yielded rich evidence of personal ornaments. Two beautiful necklaces, one of 173 and the other of 160 beads of semiprecious materials like agate and carnelian, were found in two pots of buff ware. The shapes represented in these beads are the long barrel, short bicone and oblate. Of equal importance is the find of a pot with over 40000 microbeads of steatite.
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Banas culture: First identified in the Banas valley of Rajasthan, AHAR² is its type site where the Deccan College carried out excavations in 1961-2. Although some of its traits like the black-and-red ware [11.6.2] had been noticed earlier at sites like NAVDATOLI, it is the excavation at Kayatha that revealed this culture as a distinct entity in c. India. Although mainly confined to the Chambal valley it appears to have spread as far s. as the Narmada-Tapti valleys. In c. India as in the Banas valley, the culture is distinguished by a characteristic black-and-red ware. Although coarse in fabric, this pottery is wheel-turned and painted in dull white colour. The designs are essentially geometric and are generally confined to the outer surface. They take the form of grouped lines or dots executed in horizontal, vertical or oblique directions; circles and lattice design also occur, albeit infrequently. The bowl and dish are the common shapes; the former has an additional decoration in the form of thin incised lines or grooves around the neck. The second major ware is a highly burnished pottery with a distinct slip, which may be red, tan, orange or chocolate in colour. The vase with pedestalled base, corrugated shoulder and long corrugated neck is an important shape in this fabric. Handmade pottery of red and grey fabrics completes the ceramic industry of the culture. The culture as represented in c. India has two additional traits which are not so well-represented in Rajasthan. As against the paucity/absence of stone tools at sites like AHAR² and GILUND, Kayatha has produced a full-fledged lithic blade industry—a development due to the paucity of copper ore in c. India. The second feature is the rich number of terracotta figurines made of fine clay and baked at a consistently high temperature so as to avoid blotchy surfaces. The bull is the common theme of this art; it is depicted in both naturalistic and stylized forms which occur side by side right from the beginning. In some cases the body is ornamented with nail-marks. From the prolific number of these objects it is surmised that a bull cult was in vogue during this period in c. India. Among personal ornaments mention must be made of biconical beads of terracotta and short cylindrical shell beads. The authors of this culture probably lived in simple houses similar to those of the Kayatha culture.
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Malwa culture: It is undoubtedly the best known of the three Chalcolithic cultures of c. India. NAVDATOLI on the s. bank of the Narmada and facing MAHESHWAR on the opposite bank, is the most important site of this culture, lying on a 25 m high terrace. From the fact that the occupation took place on the black soil it would seem that the area was covered with good vegetation prior to its colonization by the first inhabitants. The horizontal excavation conducted at this site has provided rich evidence on various aspects of the culture.
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Four phases of the Chalcolithic habitation have been recognized at this site. Phases I, II and III are respectively distinguished by black-and-red ware, cream-slipped ware and black-on-red painted ware. In the last phase a coarse red ware occurs together with the Lustrous Red Ware [11.9]. It should nevertheless be noted that the Malwa Ware [11.10]—the diagnostic trait of the culture—is found in all these phases.
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In spite of its large size the NAVDATOLI settlement was not fortified. But a mud fortification wall and a moat were found at ERAN on the river Bina; this defence complex belongs to the middle phase of Malwa occupation for which there is an isolated ¹⁴C date of *c.* 2000 B.C. However doubts have been expressed about the antiquity of this complex; some have even ascribed it to the historical period.
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NAVDATOLI has revealed excellent evidence of both round and rectangular residential structures. The former measure about 3 m in diameter and the latter 3 m×2·2 m. The roofs were probably made of hay, branches and leaves and were supported on massive wooden posts, 22 cm in diameter, raised at regular intervals around the huts. The open spaces between the posts were provided with mud-plastered bamboo screens. The house floors were made up of silt, clay and river gravel, with the surface coated with lime. The huts were provided with one- or two-mouthed *chulhas* as well as storage jars and other earthern vessels.
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The Malwa Ware is the dominant fabric of the ceramic industry. It is a buff or orange-slipped ware painted in black or dark brown. A variety of it occurring in abundance at ERAN has been called the Eran fabric. The *lotā*, concave-sided bowl, channel-spouted bowl and pedestalled goblet are the important shapes occurring in the fabric. The repertoire of painted designs is extremely rich and consists of over 600 motifs. These are both geometric and naturalistic in character. The latter group includes plants, animals and even human figures.
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As regards the level of technology, the culture is truly Chalcolithic in character on account of the use of both copper and stone. The copper tools include flat axes, chisels, arrowheads and swords/daggers. This metal was also used for making ornaments like beads, rings and bangles. The lithic industry, based mostly on the working of milky chalcedony, is characterized by the manufacture of tools on slender blades struck from prismatic cores by means of the crested-ridge technique [16.5.2]. The principal types are simple and retouched blades, backed blades, points, pen-knives, serrated blades and microlithic types like trapezes and lunates. A detailed study of the house-wise distribution of artefacts at Navdatoli has shown that each family made its own tools. These were put to a variety of uses in connection with domestic chores as well as outdoor activities like hunting and butchering wild animals.
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The authors of the Malwa culture were full-fledged farmers; they cultivated crops and also kept several domestic animals. The alluvial tracts as well as the fertile black soil of the Malwa plateau must have offered ample scope for the practice of agriculture. The evidence of charred grains from NAVDATOLI proves that wheat, barley and rice as well as legumes like black gram, green gram, lentil and grass pea were cultivated [2]. Mention also needs be made of the occurrence of charred remains of linseed and fruit like *ber* and *amla*. The occurrence of quantities of animal bones shows that animal husbandry was an equally important part of the food economy. The animals domesticated were the cattle, pig, sheep and goat [1]. The presence of bones of fish, tortoise and wild animals like the deer, black buck, gazelle and *nilgai* shows that hunting and fishing also played a part in the economy of the people.
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The origin of these cultures has not yet been satisfactorily explained. The Kayatha and Banas cultures appear to have been derived from the neighbouring region of Rajasthan. Conflicting views have been put forward regarding the origin of the Malwa culture. One view is that traits like black-on-red pottery were adopted from the Harappa culture [4.9]; other traits like channel-spouted bowls, pedestalled goblets and swords with mid-rib, which have parallels at Sialk, Tepe Giyan and other sites in w. Asia, are said to have been contributed by incoming Aryan groups. Still another view holds that the Malwa ware was copied from the painted pottery tradition of the s. Neolithic culture [4.6.8-10] [though some think that this tradition travelled in the reverse direction, cf. Thapar, 1957, p. 21].
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Ansari, Z.D., & Dhavalikar, M.K., in *World Arch.*, 3, pp. 337-45. Dhavalikar, M.K., in *Indica*, 7, pp. 85-93; 1979, in Agrawal, D.P., & Chakrabarti, D.K., ed., *Essays in Indian Protohistory*, Delhi, pp. 229-45. Sankalia, H.D., 1963, in *Artibus Asiae*, 26, pp. 312-32 (for w. origin/affinities of Malwa culture); 1974, *Prehistory & Protohistory of India & Pakistan*, Poona. Thapar, B.K., 1957, in *AI*, 13. Wakankar, V.S., 1976, in *Arch. Congress & Seminar, 1972*, Kurukshetra (for Kayatha culture). For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—S.B. DEO
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*4.14.6 Upper Deccan.* The beginning of Chalcolithic research in the upper Deccan, comprising the region of Maharashtra, started with the discovery of the Chalcolithic site at JORWE in Dt Ahmadnagar in 1950. Since then excavations at NASIK and JORWE, BAHAL and TEKWADA, PRAKASH, NEVASA, DAIMABAD, SAVALDA, BAHURUPA, CHANDOLI, SONGAON and INAMGAON and explorations in Dt Dhule have provided evidence of the sequence and various aspects of the upper Deccan Chalcolithic cultures.
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The excavation at NASIK helped in the understanding of the stratigraphic and the chronological position of the Chalcolithic black-painted red Jorwe Ware [11.11] discovered at JORWE *vis-à-vis* the early historical period [4.18.9].
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BAHAL, a habitation site, and TEKWADA, a burial site, the former on the left bank and the latter on the right bank of the river Girna, a tributary of the Tapti, were excavated by the first of the present writers. Of the five Pds revealed in the excavation the earliest, Pd I, was Chalcolithic, divisible into two phases, A and B. Phase A was characterized by the burnished grey ware of BRAHMAGIRI affinity and thin grey ware, whereas Phase B had mainly the orange-buff ware, a few sherds of the Lustrous Red Ware [11.9] having also been found. The Jorwe Ware was represented in the upper levels of this sub-pd.
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Four burials were exposed at TEKWADA, the only exclusive Chalcolithic burial site so far excavated in the upper Deccan. Of them three were urn burials and one an extended one, all belonging to Phase B.
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PRAKASH, on the right bank of the Tapti, revealed a Chalcolithic occupation in its earliest levels, designated as Pd I, which was subdivided into two sub-pds, A and B. Sub-pd A had as many as four principal wares: (1) white-painted pale-grey and black-and-grey wares, (2) the Malwa Ware [11.10], (3) decorated ware with incised and applied designs, and (4) coarse burnished and other plain wares. A single sherd of the white-painted black-and-red ware of AHAR² fabric [11.6.2] also deserves mention. The pottery continued to occur in the succeeding Sub-pd B, which however is distinguished from the former by the introduction of the Jorwe ware and the lustrous red ware.
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The sites at BAHURUPA and SAVALDA yielded evidence similar to that of Pd I of PRAKASH.
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Over 200 Chalcolithic sites, including habitation, burial and factory sites, were located in the explored part of Dt Dhule in the c. Tapti basin by the second writer. The most important results of the surface explorations were the discovery of what has been designated as the SAVALDA Ware [11.12] and of the late Harappa [4.10] sites in the upper Deccan. Besides, pottery of the black-painted orange-buff ware, similar to that found in sub-pd I A at PRAKASH and I B at BAHAL, the lustrous red ware and Jorwe ware were also found at several sites. Noteworthy was also the discovery of ash mounds [14.3] at KANDHRA, BALSANA and BHAMER, the first-named site being associated with the occupational deposit of the Savalda culture.
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NEVASA on the Pravara provided for the first time evidence of the custom of burying a child in a double urn under the floor of a house prevalent among the people of the Jorwe culture in the upper Godavari basin.
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CHANDOLI in the Bhima valley yielded a variety of pottery fabrics, including the Malwa and Jorwe wares, the former being dominant and forming 37% of the total collection.
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At SONGAON the Chalcolithic habitation, Pd I, was characterized by the preponderance of the Jorwe Ware and the burnished grey ware with a sprinkling of the Malwa Ware.
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INAMGAON on the river Ghod, excavated for ten seasons, is the first Chalcolithic site in Maharashtra which had produced a decadent phase of the Jorwe culture which survived till about 700 B.C. in a poorer form. This evidence has narrowed the gap between the Chalcolithic cultures and the early historical cultures by about three centuries. Pd I at this site represented the Malwa culture and Pd II the Jorwe culture, the latter subdivisible into early Jorwe and late Jorwe. The early Jorwe phase was the most prosperous settlement with large rectangular houses and a rich repertoire of pottery, copper tools and ornaments.
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DAIMABAD on the Pravara was excavated by the first writer in 1958-9 when the occupational deposit was divided into three phases, viz., the Neolithic [4.6], the Malwa and the Jorwe. Renewed excavations are being carried out by the second writer; this has been necessitated by the find in 1974 of a cache of four bronze figures consisting of a chariot yoked to a pair of bull and driven by a man, an elephant, a bufallo and a rhino. The excavations have provided evidence of a succession of five Chalcolithic cultures, viz. (1) the Savalda, (2) the late Harappa, (3) the buff-and-cream, (4) the Malwa, and (5) the Jorwe.
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The succession of cultures evidenced at Daimabad would appear to hold good for the upper Deccan except in the Tapti valley, where there is also evidence of the Lustrous Red Ware culture as at PRAKASH and BAHAL.
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So far the distributional pattern of the Chalcolithic settlements in the upper Deccan has been studied only in the explored part of Dt Dhule in which the average distance between any two settlements along the banks of the Tapti is 1·5 to 2 km. Away from the Tapti it varies from 3 to 6 km
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The smallest known settlement is the ash mound site at KANDHRA in the Tapti valley, measuring about one-third of a hectare whereas the largest is that of the Jorwe phase of DAIMABAD covering 30 hectares. DAIMABAD is the only known site which has provided some information about the pre-Malwa Chalcolithic cultures of the upper Deccan, in that the earliest Chalcolithic inhabitants of the SAVALDA culture here formed a well-settled agricultural community. They lived in trilateral mud-wall houses of a single, two and three rooms. The smallest single-room house or hut is 3·40 m in length and 1·60 m in width and the largest 7 m long and 5 m broad, the latter having three hearths inside and four in the courtyard, the flooring of the courtyard being also finely plastered. The floorings of all the houses are made of alternate layers of yellow silt and black clay and are finely plastered, occasionally decorated with freshwater shells. The people cultivated barley, lentil, common pea, grass pea, black gram, green gram, horsegram and hyacinth bean. Their other material equipment included copper/bronze rings, beads of carnelian and agate, microliths, tanged arrowheads of bone and stone mullers and querns [6.19].
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The successors of the people of the Savalda culture were the late Harappans as has been attested by the occurrence of terracotta button-shaped seals and potsherds respectively with engraved and painted Indus signs [20.4.1], the sturdy fast-wheel-made late Harappa [11.4] red ware of fine fabric with such types as the dish-on-stand, vase with oval-collared rim, vase with beaded rim, the ribbed bichrome ware and a mud-brick-lined extended burial, the mud bricks used being in the ratio of 1:2:4. The bronzes found in 1974 and mentioned above seem to belong to the late Harappa phase on circumstantial grounds.
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The late Harappans were succeeded by the people whose characteristic pottery was the black-painted buff or cream ware mainly made on the slow wheel and of coarser fabric than that of the late Harappa red ware of the preceding phase. They practised symbolic as well as partial burials. They had their own system of measurements as is indicated by the find of a couple of terracotta graduated rings.
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Except the part of the central Tapti basin covering Dt Dhule where the buff-and-cream ware culture seems to have been followed by the Lustrous Red Ware culture, the famous Malwa culture succeeded the buff-and-cream ware culture in the upper Godavari and parts of the upper Krishna basins in Maharashtra. As is clear from the evidence from DAIMABAD, INAMGAON and CHANDOLI the Malwa people lived in large rectangular mud-wall houses and practised agriculture. They buried their dead in various ways as is evident from the six types of burials found at DAIMABAD: (1) extended (found in the 1958-9 season); (2) double-urn; (3) large bowl placed in the mouth of a globular urn, both placed horizontally; (4) three horizontally placed small bowls of the Malwa Ware; (5) bowls of black burnished ware; and (6) lidded single urn placed vertically. The second and sixth were partial; child burials were found in the renewed excavations.
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The pottery types in the black-painted Malwa Ware, such as the *hāṇḍī*, tubular vase with funnel-shaped mouth, carinated bowl and vase with high cylindrical neck and globular body, the extended and double-urn burials, the so-called potter's marks and graffiti [20.1] occurring on the Malwa Ware continue in the succeeding Jorwe phase at DAIMABAD. This gives a linear descent to the Jorwe culture from the Malwa.
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The Jorwe culture has been studied in Maharashtra in greater detail than any other Chalcolithic culture, the main evidence coming from NEVASA, INAMGAON and DAIMABAD. This culture underwent decadence after 1000 B.C. and survived in a poorer form till 700 B.C. as is evidenced at INAMGAON.
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During the early phase of the culture people lived in a large rectangular mud-wall houses which at DAIMABAD and INAMGAON were oriented n.-w. to s.-e. One of the best examples of their houses exposed at DAIMABAD measured 7×3·5 m. It had two entrances, one each from n. and s., that from the s. having a 15 cm high step of clay. A screen divided the house into two parts, that on the w. having an ovaloid hearth, half-a-dozen unbaked large deep basins with a high pedestalled base, two of them containing lime, two large carinated bowls of the Jorwe Ware and two troughs of burnished grey ware. In this part of the house was also a small chamber in which were found a bun-shaped lid of burnished grey ware, a number of bone pieces and charcoal bits. Apart from these a large number of potsherds of various types of vases and clusters of bones in association with a few microliths and ovaloid hammer-stones were found in this part of the house. In the e. part of the house however there were a pear-shaped vase with short narrow neck of the Jorwe Ware, a quern and a flat stone around which lay a few microliths. The floor of the house was finely made and plastered and repaired from time to time. The walls were given a coat of lime both inside and outside. On the basis of calculation of the debris lying inside the house it has been worked out that the walls of the house were about 2·30 m high. The house had a finely plastered courtyard on the s. in which was placed a large jar decorated with fingertip decoration on the applied wavy strings.
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The two potter's kilns [16.12] of the Jorwe culture occurring in an n.-e. to s.-w. orientation at DAIMABAD are unique. One of them which was fully exposed measured 5 m square with rounded corners and had two stoke-holes. It consisted of a 25 cm high platform around which was constructed a mud-wall 50 cm wide at the base tapering upwards to 15 cm at the top leaving a gap of about 20 cm in between. This gap was filled with ash and earth as packing. The face of this packing was plastered from time to time and a result a third wall consisting of laminated burnt mud-wall was formed against the ash-packing which seems to have served as an insulator. The inside measured 3·50 m and was divided into two compartments by a thin burnt mud-wall. The floor of the kiln was plastered and 15 pots, of which only one was of thick coarse ware and all the rest of the Jorwe Ware, were found in one of the compartments and in the other a number of potsherds only were found. The kiln was found filled with fine gravel which had turned red due to firing. The use of gravel inside the kiln was probably for raising the temperature.
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The carbonized grains of the following wild and cultivated species of plants were recovered from the Jorwe levels at DAIMABAD by using the floatation technique: wheat, barley, rice, *ragi* (finger millet), *kodon* millet, sorghum (*jowar*), common pea, grass pea, horsegram, hyacinth bean, chick pea (gram), lentil, black gram, green gram (*urd*, *mung*), linseed, safflower and Indian jujube (*ber*).
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During the late Jorwe phase at Inamgaon the people lived in small circular houses and used coarse painted ware.
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Although the discovery of the late Jorwe phase at INAMGAON and the evidence of Megalithic habitation and monuments [4.17.6] at TAKALGHAT and KHAPA respectively, both in Dt Nagpur, ascribable to 6th-7th century B.C., have helped to some extent in bridging the gap between the Chalcolithic and the early historical periods the problem of transition from the former to the latter still remains to be investigated.
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Dhavalikar, M.K., 1973, in Agrawal, D.P., & Ghosh, A., ed., *Radiocarbon & Indian Arch.*, Bombay, pp. 138-47. Sali, S.A., 1968, in *Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bombay*, 38, pp. 207-10 (for exploration in Dt Dhule); 1970, in *Jour. Oriental Inst.*, 20, 2, pp. 93-101 (for Harappa sites in Dt Dhule). For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—M.N. DESHPANDE & S.A. SALI
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*4.14.7 S.-e. Deccan*. In the s.-e. Deccan all the early cultures remained basically Neolithic despite the Chalcolithic impact from the w. or n. Most of the Neolithic sites here [4.6.8] flourished in granitoid areas, thereby suggesting that not much recourse was taken to cultivation as a means of augmenting the food supply bestowed by nature. A continued occupation of a particular site may also indicate favourable ecological conditions; but as a matter of fact the settlements which may be included culturally and technologically within the purview of the Neolithic pattern hardly show signs of continuous occupation.
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Chalcolithic sites in other parts of India flourished by and large in the riverine plains where the systematic raising of crops was possible. In such favourable conditions the settlements would necessarily be of a permanent nature. In the Dts Kurnool and Cuddapah, away from the hills have been located a cluster of settlements yielding black-on-red pottery, which is indeed the dominant trend, and black-and-red, grey and creamslipped wares of Chalcolithic affinity. One or two workshops of disc beads of steatite have also been discovered in this region. Of these sites, PATPAD, PUSALPADU (Sarma, 1967) and SINGANAPALLI are noteworthy. A small-scale excavation carried out at SINGANAPALLI (*IAR 1967-8*), situated on the bank of a nullah, disclosed painted pottery, stone blades and fluted cores, besides microbeads of steatite and shell. In the occupational deposit, with a height of 1·5 m, traces of a limeplastered floor came to light. The settlement, ascribable to the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C., does not appear to be of a temporary nature. At the same time as these sites are not situated in river valleys the possibility of their being associated with a developed food-producing economy is remote.
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Of all the sites in the s.-e. Deccan, only KESARAPALLE in Dt Krishna (Sarkar, 1966) fulfils the criteria of a prolonged habitation. Situated in the Krishna-Godavari doab, the area around KESARAPALLE is a fertile plain and a good number of lake-like formations are also to be seen. The settlement has successive cultural deposits from the Neolithic to medieval times, the earliest yielding burnished grey ware and its associated wares along with the black-and-red ware. Apart from two small painted sherds, one of them depicting a design in black on greyish surface and the other white on black, the pottery is unpainted. On the whole the types of the black-and-red ware bear comparison with those from sites belonging to the Chalcolithic complex of c. India and Rajasthan [4.14.1, 5-8]. Animal bones were mostly of the cattle, though bones of birds and fish and heaps of mollusc shells were also there. No microliths were found, though a few developed types of neoliths were picked up from the surface. Another noteworthy feature was the occurrence of large pits, in some cases edged by post-holes.
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The Chalcolithic deposit in this 8·50 m high mound had a thickness of about 2·60 m; the lowest levels could not be reached due to the high water-table. Its last phase was found interlocked with the Megalithic habitational deposit [4.17.8]. On a rough estimate the Chalcolithic occupation may be dated from the middle of the 8th to the middle of the 5th century B.C.
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Sarkar, H., 1966, in *AI*, 22. Sarma, I.K., 1967, in *Indica*, Bombay.—H. SARKAR