An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s7.36

v1.c9.s7.36

The PGW age is an important landmark in the archaeology of n. India. It coincides in time and space with the later Vedic Age, which may be regarded as the proto-early-historical age of India. Sharma, 1975-6, pp. 132-8, demonstrates the similarity, at least the lack of contradiction, between the data derivable from the later Vedic literature and from the excavated levels of the PGW. Says Sankalia, 1974, pp. 51-2: ‘The Painted Grey Ware truly represents the ancestral form of life, seen today in the Hindus of northern India, particularly the Gangetic valley. Its pottery—including the coarse red, bright red and fine black wares—does not contain any exotic form or forms like the dish-on-stand, pots with spouts of a peculiar nature, barring, of course, a solitary specimen of a grooved grey ware stem and the small feeding cup . . . It would be logical to think that the Painted Grey Ware represents more the dawn of the historical period than the end of the prehistoric.’ With the NBPW culture, partly overlapping with and then succeeding the PGW culture, we enter into the full-fledged early historical age [4.18].