History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c15.s4.t1: Kayatha Ware
History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c15.s4.t1
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Kayatha Ware
v1.c15.s4.t1.1
The discovery of the Chalcolithic phase in the prehistory of the Deccan in 1950 has brought to light a whole new range of ceramics which is essentially painted black-on-red and its varieties. These painted pottery cultures - characterised by the use of copper and stone tools and hence the label chalcolithic are distributed in Central India and the Deccan and are datable to the second millenium B.C.
v1.c15.s4.t1.2
Of these, the Kayatha culture (Circa 2000 - 1800 B.C.), so named after the type site Kayatha, (Dist. Ujjain, M.P.), and the Malwa culture (Circa 1700 - 1300 B.C.) are both distributed in Malwa which roughly comprises the western districts of the present Madhya Pradesh. The former is characterised by three distinct ceramic wares viz., the Kayatha ware, the red-painted buff ware and the Kayatha combed ware (Fig. 3). The Kayatha ware is a sturdy fabric represented by bowls, dishes and large storage jars. It is treated with a red wash over which designs are executed in deep purple. The pottery is of extremely fine fabric, made of well levigated clay which is devoid of any impurities. The other ware is buff coloured and bears paintings in dark red; it is also of fine fabric but is thin walled. The most representative forms in this ware is a *loṭā* with blunt carination and globular jars with outcurved rim.
v1.c15.s4.t1.3
The combed ware is not much different from the Kayatha ware so far as the fabric is concerned. It bears combed designs, but occasionally painted patterns also occur. The painted designs on all the Kayatha wares are linear and geometric such as lines and dashes and lozenges and triangles etc (Ansari and Dhavalikar, pp. 4-5).