An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s15.1

v1.c9.s15.1

This culture has been christened after its very distinctive ceramic industry, viz. the Painted Grey Ware (PGW) [11.14]. Made of fine-granied and well-levigated clay, the ware is grey in colour, having been fired under reducing conditions in the kiln [16.12]. Its distinctive shapes are the dish, bowl and a *loṭā*-like vase, together making the typical Indian dinner set used even today. The pots are often painted in black colour with designs which include dots and dashes, vertical, oblique and criss-cross lines, concentric circles and semicircles, a chain of short spirals, sigmas, *svastikas*, etc. But the ware accounts for hardly 10% of the entire pottery of the culture. There are other pottery fabrics occurring with it [11.14], viz. the Black-slipped Ware [11.13], black-and-red ware [11.6.3] and red ware, the last being in fact the most prolific.