An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s18.t1.1

v1.c9.s18.t1.1

Prior to the advent of the early historical period we have in the mid-Ganga valley (Bihar plains) the picture of a prevalent Chalcolithic culture, typified at CHIRAND and SONPUR [4.14.3] and characterized by the black-and-red ware [11.6.4], some copper objects, mud houses, microliths, bone arrowheads and a few terracottas. Towards the end of the Chalcolithic period we find the introduction of iron with a fine and late variety of the black-and-red ware at both the sites. Thus iron was known and used in the region before the introduction of the NBPW [11.16]. The use of iron as a metal has been hailed as marking a great technological revolution leading to the rise of urban centres, with the sophisticated *de luxe* NBPW monumental architecture and beginning of writing. While there is no question of the significance of the use of iron, the point appears to have been overrated. Even before the introduction of iron there were large and prosperous settlements in India and outside, developed scripts, art and architecture and brisk internal and external trade. The view that the opening up of the mid-Ganga valley by the Aryans was facilitated by the iron tools for the clearing of thick jungles is not tenable. While there is no evidence that the mid-Ganga plains were more thickly forested than the sub-Himalayan regions of Uttar Pradesh, which had settlements even before, we have clear evidence of a flourishing Chalcolithic culture throughout the area at sites like MANER, Dt Patna, CHECHAR, across the Ganga opposite Patna, and other sites, not to speak of CHIRAND and SONPUR. But iron tools and weapons must have helped in the marching ahead of the preceding Chalcolithic cultures into the rise and growth of larger kingdoms (*mahājanapadas*) and even empires. But the evidence of this transformation is lacking.