History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c15.s7.1

v1.c15.s7.1

The Northern Black Polished Ware (NBP) is perhaps the finest of the Indian ceramic wares of the ancient period (Krishna Deva and Wheeler, pp. 55-59).It is a most distinctive pottery which displays a high degree of technological excellence. As the very name signifies, it is essentially a pottery of northern India but has a very wide distribution in terms of space. It is found almost all over of north India, having its focus in the ancient Magadha region of Bihar, that is the area around modern Patna. It is found in Bengal and also in Central India but rather rarely in Gujarat and Maharashtra. A few specimens have also turned up as far south as Amaravati near Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. Outside India it occurs in the present day Pakistan and even beyond in eastern Afghanistan. In terms of time it can be assigned to a period from 600-200 B.C., broadly but the recent C-14 dates place the beginning of this ware slightly later in 4th century B.C.