History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c11.s2.t2: The Malwa Culture
History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c11.s2.t2
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The Malwa Culture
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The Malwa Culture is characterized by Malwa ware (a buff-or orange-slipped pottery painted in black), by copper or stone artifacts, and by small settlements of wattle-and-daub huts. It was spread over the Malwa region (as were also the Kayatha culture and to some extent even the Banas culture), and also extends into Maharashtra.
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The excavated sites of Eran, Nagda, and Navdatoli are in Madhya Pradesh, and Inamgaon is in Maharashtra. The Malwa culture has a radiocarbon range of around 3650-3350 B.P. (Fig. 1). Navdatoli is not only the site par excellence of this culture but is also well published (Sankalia et al, 1958, 1971). In the local dialect, Navdatoli means "village of the boatmen", and the site is situated on the southern bank of the River Narmada; the site of Maheshwar, also with extensive traces of settlement, is situated on the opposite bank. The site presents beautiful panorama of the tall Vindhyas in the north, the low Satpura hills in the south, and the wide expanse of the Narmada in between with considerable alluvial deposits on either side of the river. The selection of the site clearly shows that the Chalcolithic technology was adequate only for fresh alluvium and was not capable of dealing with the black cotton soil. Each household made its own stone tools of a milky chalcedony, using the crested-ridge technique.
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The use of copper is evidenced by flat celts with convex cutting edges, arrowheads, spearheads, chisels, and a mid-ribbed sword, which was cast; all other artifacts were probably hammered to shape. Copper beads, bangles and rings are also found.
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A hoard of massive copper animal figures of a rhinoceros (Fig. 7), an elephant (Fig. 8), a buffalo (Fig. 9), and a bull chariot driven by a man (Fig. 10), all mounted on wheeled platforms, was accidently discovered near Diamabad and has been ascribed by some scholars to the Chalcolithic phase.
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Each object, however, weighs several kilograms and to use such a quantity of metal for non-utilitarian artifacts seems unlikely for a Chalcolithic phase. They can only belong to historical period.