History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s1.t1.1

v1.c26.s1.t1.1

Saddle querns for grinding grain or spices go back, all over the country, to neolithic and even mesolithic times, growing larger and more sophisticated with time (Sankalia 1977a, p.254). The upper stone, from being just a simple flat or round pebble, was dressed to become a muller, which could be plano-convex or biconvex for use with a flat stones, or biconcave when paired with querns curving inwards or outwards (Sankalia, 1964). The Indus Valley settlements revealed two types of querns. One was more or less flat, with a cylindrical muller that could be rolled over it with both hands, as is done today for grinding chutnies. The other had a small depression, a round grinder, and a mainly crushing action, so that grains had probably to be soaked overnight before they could be ground in these querns (Sankalia 1977a, p.254). The action is shown in the well-known clay figure from Harappa, and much later is depicted in sculpture on an eastern gateway panel in Sanchi. The latter is a 4-legged flat quern, which was first found at Harappa, but occurs more commonly in early historical and subsequent periods, like the Maurya-Gupta, all over north India and the Western Deccan (Ray, 1986, p.137).