History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s2: B. Mehargarh To Taxila

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s2

Language: English

v1.c17.s2.t1 Bead Industry of Chanhu-daro — 12 parts
v1.c17.s2.t2 Steatite Beads — 6 parts
v1.c17.s2.t3 Some Lothal Products — 12 parts
v1.c17.s2.t4 The Beads at Taxila — 10 parts

B. Mehargarh To Taxila

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We would now briefly review in this section the minerals and gems found in the successive periods from pre-Harappan Mehargarh to Taxila around the onset of the Christian era.

Table 2 listing some material artifacts found in the successive phases of Mehargarh in Baluchistan prove that a large number of materials in the pre-Harappan and mature Harappan cultures were of indigenous origin. A large variety of stone tools were produced during the 7th-4th millennium B.C. period not only in the Mehargarh area but also in the Ganga-Vindhya complex and Bagor area in Rajasthan. Blades and burins of flint, quartzite basalt, dyke basalt, chalcedony, obsidian, jasper, chert etc. were produced in large scale around Mehargarh, Kile Gul Mohammad, Damb Sadaat, Balakot etc.

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Alabaster or gypsum bowls used to be made using tabular drill at Damb Sadaat and Mundigak. Around 5000 B.C. there was a workshop for soapstone beads at Mehargarh. Shell bangles, rings, beads and pendants used to be made in the pre-Harappan sites from the Indian variety of Śaṅkha (Turbinella pyrum Linn). Hornell (1918) and Mackay (in Marshall, 1931, II: 564-66) have described how the walls or the hollow tubular piece could be sawed for producing bangles and the inner columella for making beads and inlays. Chisel or burin, saw and drill were used to produce diverse objects. The remarkable work of Dales (1977 & 1979) has shown shell beads in Balakot (located near the sea-coast), Period I and working floors in Period II covered with large quantities of shell bangles in all stages of manufacture. The appearance of faience suggests the early use of sājji māṭṭi -like effervescence deposits of the soil containing sodium salts.

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Table 1 — Some C¹⁴ Dates Related to Metallic Ore Mines in Ancient India (Half Life of C¹⁴ 5730 years)

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| Date | Site | Comments | Source |
| 380±50 B.C. Mochia mine, Zawar | *Terminalia sp* sample BM 2381 Zn-Pb ore mining | -do- | |
| 170 B.C. | Zawarmala | a sample from a set of steps | Willies (1987:84) |
| 200 and 140 B.C. | -do- | ‘Timber chamber’ and burnt wood in ‘Main Chamber’ samples | Willies (1987:86)140±60 B.C. |
| 60±50 A.D. | -do- | Timber from Launder BM 2149 | -do- |
| 1750± 60 A.D. | -do- | Zinc smelting site, charcoal, BM 2223 | -do- |
| 1810± 50 A.D. | -do- | Balaria mine timber BM 2338 | -do- |
| 140 ± 200 B.C. | Ambamata, Banaskantha, Gujarat | 12 m. distance in No.3 West Drive.65 m. depth PRL-53. Copper-Lead-Zinc ore | Agrawal et al (1976: 135) Shekar(1983:178) |
| 1130±100 A.D. | -do- | Wood sample from bore-hole A-100. | PRL-66 |
| 30±70 A.D. | Hatti, Karnataka | Site no.1. Gold ore | Agrawal et al (1975-76:139) |
| 110±70 A.D. | -do- | Site no.2. Gold ore | -do- |
| 170±35 A.D. | Ingaldahal, Karnataka | Copper mine 30-40 m.depth. Wood sample BM 2364 | Paliwal et al |
| 220±110 A.D. | -do- | PRL-252 | Chakrabarti (1986:194) |
| 475±115 A.D. | Kolar, Karnataka | Sample TF 879. Champion reef 50 m. depth, Gold ore. | Agrawal et al (1975- 76:139) |
| 685±90 A.D. | -do- | Sample TF 1199. Superficial excavations. Gold ore | -do- |
| 1070±80 A.D. | Bandlomattu Hill, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh | TF 805. Copper ore | Agrawal et al (1976: 135) |
| 1320 A.D. | Bandlomattu Hill, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh | TF 806 Copper ore | Agrawal et al (1976: 135) |

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In the Mature Harappan Phase, certain gem minerals like lapis lazuli and turquoise might have been imported to Mohenjo-daro from Iran. But the bulk of limestone, gypsum, alabaster etc. came from the local sources. Steatite was not only locally available but also indigenously processed from the manufacture of beads and seals. Nepheline-sodalite rock and yellow stone of Jaisalmer came from Rajasthan.

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Table 2 — Materials in Mehargarh Phases (Jarrige, 1979 & 1984)

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Excavation in the DK area of section G in Mohenjo-daro conclusively proves that copper and bronze items and castings were manufactured from the Indian ores such as oxide and sulphide ores of copper, lollingite (containing arsenic etc.). Argentiferous lead ore and alluvial washings of tin ore (cassiterite) also must have been processed.

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Two special items found at Harappa are coral and mica. Coral was not at all noticed at Mohenjo-daro where micaceous clay was used but no mica as a separate piece was found as in Harappa. The yellowish limestone, grey granite and basalt were to some extent special in Harappa.

Bead Industry of Chanhu-daro

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The Chanhu-daro Harappan site showed not only metals such as copper and bronze but also the manufacture of a wide variety of mineral and gem-beads. Different types of beads have been unearthed from Chanhu-daro in course of excavation. Among the numerous specimens, many were found unfinished, broken in boring or rejected on account of bad colour and the like, thus proving these were locally made and not imported.

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Agate and carnelian were the materials most generally used in the manufacture of beads during this period, carnelian being decidedly the rarer. Somewhat less common were faience, vitreous paste, steatite and products made out of it. Beads made of other materials were copper or bronze, shell, lapis-lazuli, jasper, a variety of hornblend, crystal, quartz, Amazon stone, chalcedony, limestone, onyx, fuchsite-quartzite, haematite, breccia, plasma; no amethyst bead was found. Thus, it is proven from all the beads discovered at Chanhu-daro, that the site was undoubtedly a great bead-making centre. Most of these beads came from the quarters of the craftsmen who made them, not only for themselves but also for distant cities.

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On a broader perspective, Horace Beck (1933 & 1941) placed the Indus beads under the following three headings: I. White on red, the most common type, I. Black on a white coloured base, III. Black on a red ground. Among these, only two types i.e. I and II have come to light at Chanhu-daro.

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The patterns of the Type I beads were made by using as paint a coat of alkali, such as carbonate of soda and then fixing it by heat. The paint is left with a glossy white surface and adheres to the stone so firmly that it is almost impossible to remove it by simple means. The technique is still carried on in Persia, on the borders of China and sporadically in Sindh. In the last province, the juice of a plant is mixed with alkali, presumably to keep it from flaking off the stone before it has been made fast by heat.

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It is uncertain what medium was used to produce the black coloured patterns on the type II beads. The white back-ground was formed by flooding the red carnelian with the alkali, thus creating a white opaque surface. According to Horace Beck it is also possible that a copper solution was used as the paint. Thus to apply fine and even lines and firing on the beads, the greatest skill must have been required.

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Two unfinished beads of lapis lazuli prove that this stone was actually worked upon at Chanhu-daro; the finished specimens are not therefore likely to be importations. The source of this mineral is thought to be Badakshan, while new provenances for amazonite is to be found in the pegmatites near Jhajha (Monghyr Dist., Bihar), the Nellore district, Madras and Ahmedabad.

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The two beads of fuchsite-quartzite are particularly interesting, because this rare mineral was never used at Mohenjo-daro. A large cup, carved in almost pure fuchsite was found there, together with a collection of copper and bronze tools and other objects. The colour of this stone is light green and its source is most probably Mysore.

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Four wafer-shaped mother-of-pearl beads were unearthed from Chanhu-daro. Beads of this particular substance are very rare at Mohenjo-daro. Jade does not seem to have been used at Chanhu-daro, and this statement also applies to various other stones that were used for bead at Mohenjo-daro. A large number of nodules of carnelian and agate were discovered from Chanhu-daro - the former being as a rule easily distinguishable from the latter by the darkness of its skin.

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The carnelian beads were made from roughly flaked stone blanks averaging 0.58 inch in diameter and 0.21 inch thick. Each of these beads has been bored with a chert drill. All the holes were splintered rather than cut, and were necessarily smoothed down and polished later. Before this was done however, the heads were shaped by grinding. A number of these were probably stung on a thread, or more likely on a piece of copper wire, and then rolled to and fro on grit-stones of various grades, each bead being allowed sufficient play for its rounded edge to be properly formed.

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The agate beads had first been severed from the parent nodule by sawing and then by splitting. The shaping of barrel-cylinder type was carried out entirely by careful flaking. When all depressions and irregularities had been smoothed away by grinding, the object was then polished. Before this final finish took place, the bead had to be bored, a process that was carried out from both ends by means of drill.

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Quite significantly, broken drills were found everywhere in Mound II and though these might have served again in the boring of the shorter hardstone beads, it is obvious that the drill-makers, if indeed the bead-makers did not manufacture their own tools, must have been hard put to supply the demand. Though unfinished beads of hard stones have been found on many Sumerian sites, only one stone drill has been found in that country. This was identified by Beck among some objects from Ur. Thus Mackay comments “indeed it is not at all unlikely that bead-making in Sumer was carried on by Indian craftsmen”.

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The segmented beads have appeared over such a wide area in India, that it is quite impossible to say where the type originated. Indeed such a simple form of bead need not have had a particular region of origin at all. At Chanhu-daro as well as Mohenjo-daro, such beads were produced by a kind of mass production. These were made in long rods which after glazing were to be divided into segments of uniform length. The rods found at Chanhu-daro were too long and too delicate to have been used for any other purpose than to be broken into convenient lengths.

Steatite Beads

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Small blocks of steatite in light yellow, dark-grey and black were not uncommon in various parts of Mound II. Many of them bear the marks of the saw which had cut them up into shapes suitable for both beads and seals. Pieces that could not be used for any other purpose were ground into powder and then compressed into blocks, from which beads and even occasionally seals were made. This made-up steatite is always white in colour and was probably calcined before compression. It is often very difficult to detect the difference, especially as objects composed of it are more often than not coated with a glaze.

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Although Hoarce Beck was not disposed to agree that reformed steatite was used by the people of the Harappa culture, F.A. Bannister of the Mineral Department of British Museum reported that steatite paste would become indistinguishable from the natural material after being subjected to a very high temperature. In ancient India, the steatite beads were sometimes heated to a temperature exceeding 1200°C, and it has been proved that (the heap of ) minute beads were treated to this degree of heat. These must have been composed of a paste which could be forced thorough fine tubular instruments.

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Among all the beads found from Chanhu-daro, the pile of minute steatite beads was an exceptional find. The manner in which these beads lay in lines on the pile proved that these were originally strung together. F.A. Bannister and G.F. Claringbull of the Mineral Department of the British Museum who examined some of these beads, reported that the beads are small hollow cylinders which vary in external diameter 1/2 (.019 inch) to 1 mm and in length from 1/2 to 1 1/2 mm. When freed from loosely adherent soil, they are pure white and very hard. Nearly every bead is furrowed along its length spirally, always in a clock- wise direction. It is not uncommon to find two beads joined together with the spiral furrowing running continuously and in perfect alignment from one to the other. The physical and chemical data are conclusive about the material from which these beads were made. Their specific gravity is 2.85 and the refractive index of crushed fragments is 1.60. The beads can be fused only in the electric arc, and then yield glassy spheres with a lower specific gravity 2.72. Except magnesium and silicon no other element could be detected with the quartz spectrograph. X-ray powder photographs show that the beads are steatite that has been completely dehydrated and heated to a temperature exceeding 1200°C.

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Recently, Hegde et al (1982) have examined the Harappan microbeads made of steatite and obtained from Zekda, located in Banaskantha district in the northern part of the Gujarat State. The raw material was aluminium-containing talcose steatite available in Ambaji near Zekda. The X-ray diffraction patterns in the finished beads revealed the presence of silica in the form of cristobalite and anhydrous magnesium silicate in the form of enstatite. When talc is heated around 900°C it loses its water of crystallisation, forms cristobalite and enstatite, and improves its hardness from one to seven on the Moh scale.

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The Harappans used steatite, a soft stone for making seals and beads and then hardened the same. A paste of finely ground talcose steatite was squeezed through one millimeter diameter perforations having 0.5 mm diameter copper of bronze wires in the centre of the perforations to produce hollow tubes which were cut into small bits and then hardened by firing at 900°C. According to Hedge et al, this was the method of production of steatite beads.

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The majority of the beads found at Chanhu-daro were unfinished, broken in boring which proves that these were actually made at Chanhu-daro. This inference has been corroborated by the discovery of the bead factory with furnace here. To the north-west corner of the main street of the Mound II was a remarkable building with several furnaces; this evidently housed the bead factory amongst other fabrication facilities.

Some Lothal Products

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At Lothal, manufacture of steatite beads and seals was as impressive as in Chanhu-daro. Special features at Lothal were however pertaining to agate, carnelian and shell (Rao, S.R., 1979 & 1985).

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Among the semi-precious stones, carnelian was the most popular, not only because of its attractive red colour and translucency but also on account of the easy availability of agate (from Rajpipla conglomerate, Rangpur etc.) which was cooked to produce different shades of red, yellow and lemon carnelian/sard. These are all crypto-crystalline silica belonging to the chalcedony family of minerals. The colour of red carnelian is due to ferric oxide disseminated in the silica matrix, and the yellow and brown to hydrated ferric oxide.

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Yellow or brown stones, when exposed to the action of heat, gradually assume the red colour (characteristic of carnelian) owing to the hydrated ferric oxide losing water and becoming anhydrous.

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The Block E of Lothal showed bead factory, furnaces and more than 600 beads of carnelian in different stages of manufacture. Its primacy for the tradition of etched carnelian beads is unquestionable.

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Various types of marine, estuarine and fresh water shells - particularly chank Xancus (Turbinella; pyrum linn.) - were used at Lothal in the manufacture of precision instruments, ladles, engravers, knives, inlay pieces, gamesmen, personal ornaments such as beads, bangles and pendants, and occasionally for seals.

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While the dock collections at Lothal included both marine and fresh-water species of shells, the township collections specifically abounded in chank amongst other things. Hundreds of columella of chank-shell, rejected flakes, unfinished bangles and other finished objects of shell, found in the workshops of Lothal, confirm that shell-working was a flourishing local industry. One of the workshops encountered in street 1 was devoted to shell-bead industry.

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The process of sawing, engraving and giving final shape to the shell objects was almost identical in Kathiawar and the Indus Valley. The saw marks on the columella and the valva clearly show that the shell was turned slowly while sawing with a bronze wire.

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The thick rings produced from the septum were sawn into thinner pieces for making bangles. The walls of the chank-shell were made use of in preparing bowls and ladles (1.4 to 4.6 in. diameter).

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A very interesting instrument made of shell is a hollow cylindrical object with symmetrical loop-like curves, produced at regular intervals by partially sawing across the opposite margins. Four grooves on the upper margins of the cylinder and four on the lower when joined, give intersecting lines producing exactly 45 degrees. The instrument must have served the same purpose as a modern compass and helped in marine and land survey, alignment of road etc. Another leaf-shaped object with a semi- circular end might have been used as a plectrum for playing on a stringed instrument.

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Mention may also be made of the use of bones and ivory at Lothal. There was trade of ivory between India and Sumer. Ivory was used for making kohl rods, gamesmen, jar-stoppers, ceremonial knives, and most interestingly, scales upto 46 mm distance with the smallest division being 1.7 mm.

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Agate and carnelian continued to be the principal gem minerals for making beads during the Historical Period. Out of the sixty beads of semi-precious stones recovered from the IVth phase (post 600 B.C. period) of Atranjikhera in Western Uttar Pradesh, 25 were agate beads, 15 carnelian, 10 jasper and 8 quartz (Gaur, R.C., 1983). At Hastinapura, 211 beads were found in successive phases starting from 1000 B.C.; 78 were made of carnelian and agate (Lal, B.B., 1954 & 1955). At Ahichchhatra (post 300 B.C.) a large majority of the stone beads were made of banded and etched agate and carnelian (Dikshit, 1952).

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Three principal types of etching, as discussed earlier, were noticed on carnelian beads (Dikshit, 1952). The long-barrel circular beads and leech-shaped beads were found not only at Ahichchhatra but also at Kaushambi, Taxila etc. The beads must have had common origin of manufacture; etched agate and carnelian possibly came from the Cambay area.

The Beads at Taxila

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The beads recovered at Taxila number over 8500, a quarter of the number from the Bhir Mound, 65 p.c. from Sirkap and the rest from Dharmarajika and other sites (Marshall, 1951, 1975). A stratigraphical table of beads from Sirkap, Taxila is provided in Table 3. The inhabitants of the Bhir Mound area preferred agate, carnelian, shell, bone and glass - blue and green. In the later- day Sirkap inhabitation, we find continued uses of agate and carnelian and considerable uses of shell, glass, faience, quartz crystal, garnet, malachite etc. (vide Table 3).

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The etched carnelian beads belonged to all the three varieties as described by Beck (1933 & 1941): (a) etched in white by sodium carbonate or other alkali solutions, (b) etched in black by copper or iron nitrate on the white background or (c) on the natural colour. This confirms the continuity of the tradition of etched beads in India.

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Glazed quartz beads, found even in the Bhir Mound, became more popular during the first century A.D. Saka-Parthian period. The process of glazing consisted in heating the bead with soda until the quartz fused and flowed as a glaze over the surface.

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Spectroscopic examination made by Beck (1933) showed that the surface of the beads, thus treated, contained a large quantity of soda, though the interior was free from it. Some reagent must have been used to provide pale blue colour to the beads. Natural quartz is more beautiful when polished than when glazed; therefore, the only purpose of glazing was to provide colour on the molten surface.

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Marshall’s view (1975: Chapter 37, p. 739) is “that the real purpose of glazing was to give to quartz the appearance of beryl or aquamarine, both of which were very rare and very much prized. Pale blue would give to quartz an appearance like that of beryl or aquamarine, and this no doubt is why one of these beads from Sirkap was cut to the shape of a hexagonal cylinder, which is the natural form of beryl”.

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Pliny (N.H. 37.20) wrote that the lapidaries cut all beryls to a hexagonal from, because the colour is heightened by the reflection from the angles. Apparently, he Table 3 — Stratigraphical Table of Beads from Sirkap, Taxila (Taken from Marshall, Chapter 37, p. 734). (Not including the gold and silver specimens)

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| Material | Pre-Greek | Greek | Early Saka | Saka Parthian | Surface | Total |
| *Semi-precious stones :* | | | | | | |
| Agate | - | 1 | 10 | 111 | 3 | 125 |
| Amethyst | - | 1 | - | 10 | 1 | 12 |
| Aquamarine | - | - | 2 | 1 | - | 3 |
| Beryl | - | - | - | 2 | - | 2 |
| Carnelian | 1 | 3 | 21 | 215 | 11 | 251 |
| Carnelian, etched | - | 1 | - | 8 | - | 9 |
| Chalcedony | - | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | 5 |
| Garnet | - | - | 3 | 24 | 2 | 29 |
| Jasper | - | 2 | 2 | 20 | 2 | 26 |
| Lapis-lazuli | - | 1 | 3 | 28 | 2 | 34 |
| Malachite | - | - | 7 | 40 | 2 | 49 |
| Onyx | - | - | 1 | 2 | - | 3 |
| Quartz crystal, colourless | - | 1 | 2 | 46 | 2 | 51 |
| Quartz crystal, yellow | - | - | - | 4 | - | 4 |
| Quartz crystal, glazed | - | 1 | 2 | 39 | 1 | 43 |
| Quartz crystal, opaque | - | - | - | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Turquoise | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Blue serpentine | - | - | - | 5 | - | 5 |
| Red serpentine | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| | 1 | 12 | 55 | 561 | 27 | 656 |
| *Common stones:* | | | | | | , |
| Granite | - | - | - | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Limestone, white | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Limestone, nummulitic | - | - | - | 3 | - | 3 |
| Marble | - | - | - | 2 | - | 2 |
| Steatite(soapstone) | - | - | 2 | 7 | - | 9 |
| Shale | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | 2 |
| Nondescript | - | - | 2 | 11 | - | 13 |
| | | | 5 | 28 | 2 | 35 |

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| Material | Pre-Greek | Greek | Early Saka | Saka Parthian | Surface | Total |
| Metals (excepting gold and silver): | | | | | | , |
| Copper | - | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| *Miscellaneous* | | | | | | , |
| Amber | - | - | - | 7 | - | 7 |
| Coral | - | 2 | - | 2 | - | 4 |
| Shell | 1 | 16 | 224 | 1,144 | 58 | 1443 |
| Bone. | - | - | - | 11 | 2 | 13 |
| Faience | - | 13 | 7 | 198 | 4 | 222 |
| Ebony | - | - | - | 2 | - | 2 |
| Ebonite | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Jet | - | - | - | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| | 1 | 31 | 231 | 1,368 | 65 | 1696 |
| *Glass* | | | | | | , |
| Ambe | - | - | 2 | 56 | 1 | 59 |
| Black | - | 1 | - | 17 | 2 | 20 |
| Blue. | - | 8 | 27 | 203 | 9 | 247 |
| Cobalt blue | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Pale blue | - | - | 2 | - | - | 2 |
| Peacock blue | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Cream-coloured | - | - | - | 3 | - | 3 |
| Green | 1 | - | 10 | 336 | 5 | 352 |
| Grey | - | - | - | 68 | - | 68 |
| Orange opaque | - | - | - | 139 | - | 139 |
| Red | - | 1 | - | 5 | - | 6 |
| Violet | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| White opaque | - | - | - | 22 | 1 | 23 |
| Yellow | - | - | - | 4 | - | 4 |
| Yellow opaque | - | 6 | 182 | 1,437 | 1670 | |
| Blotched | - | - | 1 | 2 | - | 3 |
| Multi-coloured and colourless | 1 | 9 | 31 | 474 | 18 | 533 |
| | 2 | 25 | 255 | 2,769 | 81 | 3132 |
| Terra-cotta | - | - | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| | | | | | | |
| *Total* | 4 | 69 | 549 | 4,734 | 178 | 5,534 |

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was unaware that the hexahedral was the natural form of beryl. Beryls came mainly from the Coimbatore district of Madras. Pliny also made a very significant statement: “The people of India, by colouring crystal, have found a method of imitating various precious stones, beryls in particular”.

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Intermediate in properties between glazed quartz and fused glass is faience, which is made by breaking up quartz into small grains, adding a small amount of lime, and fusing until the surface of the quartz has flowed and cemented the whole into a solid mass. The quality of the faience depends upon the fineness of the grains and the degree of fusing. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa produced some unusually fine-grained and hard faience, but most of the samples were coarser and more friable. This commoner variety was locally produced in Taxila for making beads during the later Saka-Parthian period. Compared to the Bhir Mound collection, the Sirkap collection showed much larger faience, glass and shell beads. Whereas in the former collection, the percentages of the beads made of semi-precious stone, glass and shell were 42, 32 and 14 respectively, the corresponding percentages in the later-day Sirkap became 12, 50 and 26 respectively. The figures show the spurt of artificial gem industry, mentioned in the drama Mṛcchakaṭika.

Linked texts (10)

Mṛcchakaṭika — Śūdraka, Sanskrit
Naturalis historia — C. Plinius Secundus, Latin
Harappā
Mohenjo-daro
Lothal
Chanhu-daro
Mehrgarh
Mundigak
Bagor
Uri