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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c39: Social Factors In The Development Of Technology

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c39

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English

Contents

Social Factors In The Development Of Technology

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A presentation of the subject covered under the title would necessarily be tentative rather than exhaustive for several reasons. Since we would start with pre-historic India, the period under coverage is indefinite in the beginning. The end of the period is also indefinite since there are controversies as to when the ‘ancient’ period in India ended: the decline of the Gupta empire, the death of Harṣavardhana or the advent of Islam in India (we accept the last, i.e. the ‘medieval’ period being assumed to start at 1200 A.D.).

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The complete history of such a vast indefinite period, for a vast sub-continent with ill-defined geographical borders, such as India, is yet to be written. It is doubtful whether such a ‘complete’ history would ever be written. A ‘concise’ history of Indian science in the ancient period, compiled by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), has merely provided conceptual framework for further investigations and elaborations. The said compilation could not separately deliberate on ‘technology’ which we define as applied sciences related to natural and synthetic materials; nor could it adequately touch upon the philosophical and social factors. Evidently these topics were left for future deliberations (Chattopadhyaya, 1986)¹.

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To postpone the writing of history of science and technology till the general history is worked out in completeness, would be as absurd as to wait for the sea-waves to subside before a plunge is taken. Similarly no useful purpose is served by deferring an attempt to provide a philosophical and sociological basis to the growth of science and technology in antiquity.

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Of course, only a conceptual framework or a paradigm may be provided, and we caution the readers that paradigms may not be immortal. History is a continuous re-assessment of the past and, like the physical science, the history of ancient India has been well-known to be a grave-yard of rejected paradigms. Fresh discoveries and thoughts on ancient India are of surprisingly modern vintage, and we would illustrate in this essay how our previous concepts on Pre-, Mature- and Post-Harappan history are undergoing metamorphosis. As new facts emerge, we must be in continuous search for fresh and more plausible paradigms (Biswas and Biswas, 1989). The ‘factors’ underlying the origin and growth of science and development of technology are complex and subjects evoking controversies. This article therefore should be treated as preliminary position-paper articulating the present author’s views on the interpretations of established facts, and raising questions rather than answering them decisively. We have drawn heavily from the writings of D.D. Kosambi, R.S.Sharma, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya etc. and yet ventured very often to disagree with them, leaving the matter of drawing the final (?) conclusions to the future readership and posterity.

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Our presentation is divided into several distinct parts:

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(A) Pre- to Post-Harappan social evolution linked with technology

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(B) The issues of the Vedic age, iron age and second urbanisation

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(C) Five centuries in India before Christ

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(D) Five centuries after Christ

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(E) The issue of medieval decadence.

(A) Pre- to Post-Harappan Scenario

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Mortimer Wheeler wrote in his book *Indus Civilization* (1968) that this civilization is a book ‘whose first and last chapters are missing’. Intensive research and new findings made during the last quarter of a century have largely restored the missing chapters. As a matter of fact there has been a sea-change in our concept of Pre-, Mature- and Post-Harappan scenario.

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Gregory L.Possehl has edited the proceedings of the 1979 Kashmir conference on Harappan Civilization attended and contributed by 49 world-renowned participants (Possehl, 1982). Forty papers were published; in the concluding paper, Robert H. Dyson, Jr. summed up the recent and profound paradigm changes in the study of the Indus Civilization (Dyson, 1982, pp. 417-27). He wrote :

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‘The specific paradigms which defined the study of Indus Civilization in the earlier years, and which must now be abandoned, include the concepts of: (a) a sudden and late origin, (b) a long period of widespread and static cultural uniformity, (c) a sudden and uniform collapse caused by (d) an invasion of the Indo-Aryans (with an assumed second millennium date)’.

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We may briefly mention the various justifications made by Dyson, quoting other reputed scholars, while discarding the four above-mentioned paradigms. We may also add some of our own observations.

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(a) Jean-Francois Jarrige’s presentation of the discoveries (1977) at Mehrgarh (also spelled Mehargarh), Kachi District, Baluchistan, documented (Jarrige, 1982, pp. 79-84) the introduction of a subsistence economy to the north-western part of India well before 5000 B.C. Later Jarrige reported ‘the first coarse ware’ of the neolithic settlement dated sixth millennium B.C. and the early graves of the 7th millennium B.C. showing shell, turquoise, lapis lazuli, beads, pendants and sacrificial young goats buried with the dead (Asthana, 1985, See Foreword by Jarrige). There were also the Mother Goddess human figurines. These indicate very early cultural contacts with Iran, Afghanistan and maritime people and development of the Mother Goddess sacrificial cult. Workshop for soapstone beads show sixth and fifth millennia craft specialisation and beginnings of long distance trade. The needs of agriculture caused increasing population in the alluvial areas. During the first half of the 4th millennium B.C. cylindrical jasper drills were evolved to serve the bead factories, and copper metallurgy was initiated, as evident from crucibles of the period containing some copper adhering to the walls. The latter evidence demolishes the hypothesis proposed by D.P. Agrawal (1971) that ‘the metallurgical know-how had already diffused from Iran, hence we get in the Harappan culture (3rd-2nd millennia) a full-blown technology right from the beginning’.

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The basic pattern of craft specialisation, mass production of potteries, terracotta figurines etc. at Mehrgarh clearly preceded the Mature Harappan Period. This is in consonance with Kenneth Kennedy’s interpretation of the human skeletal evidence that there had been a stable population in the north-western part of the sub-continent for several millennia prior to the Harappan period (Kennedy, 1982, pp. 289-295).

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The early settlement in the north-west was aided by the topography: gentle hills not too far from rivers, absence of dense forest, nearby maritime route for trade, pasture land and land suitable for cultivation of cereal crops. In such a topography, the earliest Indian civilization flourished at least several millennia before Iran developed village cultures. Shashi Asthana has rightly commented:

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“The Indus civilization was conceived locally in the court- yard of one or more of the Pre-Harappan cultures - Baluchistan was not only a nuclear zone of several Pre-Harappan Cultures (Amri, Kot Diji, Sothi), it also served as a barrier to mass infiltration of the West Asian cultures. Some feeble alien waves did come but soon got assimilated” (Asthana, 1985). A chapter in Asthana’s book is appropriately titled ‘The Collapse of the Irano-Centric View’.

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Further work is necessary so that the following problems are resolved. What was the precise origin of the Pre-Harappan Sothi culture which thrived in the Sarasvati valley? Were there specific influences towards it from the earlier Ganga-Vindhya (6570-4530 BC C-14 dates) and Bagor-Puskar neolithic traditions? The Ganga-Vindhya Culture did not spread like the Mehrgarh tradition; was it on account of the formidable dense forest in the Gangetic valley?

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Before the onset of the third millennium B.C., the Ganeswar - Jodhpura complex (around Jaipur district, Rajasthan) started to feed the Pre-Harappan Sothi, Kalibangan I and Mature Harappan cultures with chalcolithic materials (Agrawala and Kumar, 1982, pp. 125-34). The Sarasvati - Hakra river route (not extinct in the Colistan desert, Pakistan) was studded with Pre-Harappan settlements of artisans who specialised in fabricating intermediate and finished chalcolithic (copper and bronze) products. Thus there is enough evidence to suggest that the Mature Harappan civilization did not originate suddenly. The Harappan culture was indeed indigenous, synthetic and gradually evolved, and this permitted regional diversities and cultural interactions within and across its boundaries, without its central character being lost. We do not yet know how the concepts of planning the cities, trade infrastructure and central control emerged in the Early Harappan millieu. We are seriously handicapped by our ignorance of the Harappan script. But in the technology sphere, we may well imagine that the emergent urban culture, based on indigenous Pre-Harappan tradition, triggered new innovations such as the lost wax process of casting, diverse uses of minerals and metals, some imported and most locally processed.

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(b) Despite broad similarities, common seals, the use of standard bricks and weights, specific patterns of city layout etc., the heterogeneities in Harappan settlements clearly indicate diverse components in culture and tradition. Subsistence patterns were different in the major sites: wheat and barley at Mohenjodaro, Chanhudaro and Harappa; barley at Kalibangan; and rice and millet at Rangpur and Surkotada. Sacrificial altars appear to be absent at Mohenjodaro and Harappa (which show Pasupati cult and Mother Goddess figurines as at Mehrgarh) while present at Lothal and Kalibangan.

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Mature Harappan sites indicated different funerary practices. At Kalibangan, the cemetery yields abundant evidence for heterogeneous funerary practices with mutually exclusive areas. Social differentiation was strongly indicated. The Hakra river settlements were under Mature Harappan control.

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The transition of Kalibangan I to Kalibangan II indicates intrusion of the central Harappan authority and culture into a predominantly rural and agricultural millieu. Similarly the full- bloomed Indus culture made its appearance at Banawali (Hissar district, Haryana) with ‘proverbial dramatic precocity’ bringing in gold, etched carnelian and lapis lazuli jewelleries, seals and weights of merchants, Mother Goddess figurines, objects of copper, arrowheads, spearheads, sickle blade, double spiraled pins, fish hooks etc. This place was evidently an important trading center along the Sarasvati river, with well-demarcated acropolis and downtown, inhabited by Rgvedic paṇis.

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Chanhu-daro was a bead manufacturing centre. Whereas Mohenjo- daro must have been the capital, showing prolific varieties of metals and gem minerals, Harappa was more of a manufacturing centre containing many more furnaces and exhibiting specialities not found at Mohenjodaro - such as coral, mica, yellowish limestone, yellow arsenic. The last item is interesting; Harappan copper was often heavily alloyed with arsenic (to substitute scarce tin, scrap bronze pieces were carefully stored in jars) whereas Lothal copper had no trace of arsenic.

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Thus the previously held notion of ‘static cultural uniformity’ in the Harappan sites needs very serious alteration. Of particular importance is the cluster of Sarasvati valley sites which showed pre-Harappan Sothi-type trends, earliest agricultural fields, and despite intrusion of Harappan potteries, seals and artifacts, undeniable evidences of Rgvedic sacrificial altars and social stratification. The Harappan civilization represented unity and diversity. The Rgvedic culture on the banks of Sarasvati river network (mistaken as alien Aryan intrusion) belonged to the Indus civilization in the wider sense and yet represented very special features particularly sacrificial altars, pastoral cum agricultural community suffering economic exploitation in the hands of Rgvedic paṇis coming from the Indus valley. The Rgvedic strife was a civil war between tribes speaking the same language but different dialects. The Aryan- Dravidian theory is an over-statement of the reality.

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(c) The Harappan civilization did not collapse suddenly or uniformly. The field evidence shows that the decline was irregular, long-drawn and caused by different factors in different areas. These factors included changes in coast-lines, repeated floods in the Indus valley, the drying up of the Sarasvati-Hakra river system due to drought and tectonic changes, collapse of the Ur and Sumer civilizations (the trade with which had sustained the technologies in and around Mohenjodaro), civil strife and so on. Probably all these factors contributed to the slow but inevitable downfall of the first urban civilization in India.

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The major shift of population due to the drying of the Hakra (or Sarasvati) river (Mughal, 1982, pp. 85-95) was certainly of crucial importance. A significant population moved east from the Hakra area into Haryana and Uttar Pradesh; this is attested by the number of sites in this region going up from two to three in the Mature Harappan to sixty or more afterwards. Harappan potteries were gradually replaced by PGW in the Ganga-Yamuna valley.

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There was also a perceptible shift towards the south. New Harappan sites without antecedents came up in western central India. Bronze technology was transmitted to Daimabad. The Harappan technology was persistent and prolonged in Gujarat. A nexus was established between the Harappan culture in Gujarat and the Ahar Chalcolithic culture around Udaipur in Rajasthan. It is most probably the Ahar people who mined zinc ore in the Rajpura- Dariba mine (C-14 dates 1260 B.C., 1136 B.C. etc.) and pioneered the making of cementation brass (an effort to substitute tin in bronze) which was definitely used in Lothal and later at Atranjikhera (Biswas, 1993).

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Like the first chapter of the Harappan civilization, the last chapter of the ‘book’ is also likely to be deciphered and written in greater detail.

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(d) Writing on the recent paradigm changes, Dyson’s fourth and last point related to the so-called ‘invasion of the Indo- Aryans in the second millennium’. He observed :

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“The invasion thesis becomes a paradigm of limited usefulness. There is a continuing lack of agreement over the criteria by which the presence of the Indo-Aryans can be demonstrated and, even more surprisingly, an absence of a rigorous analysis of available archaeological evidence against the cultural content of traditional Vedic literature” (Dyson, 1982, 417-24).

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The skeletal record is mute and does not suggest any large scale massacre or the intrusion of any new race in the Harappan civilization (Kennedy, 1982, pp. 289-95). Dales questioned: “Where are the burnt fortresses, the smashed chariots and the bodies of the invaders”? (Dales).

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The history of the Indo-Aryans continues to haunt the study of Harappan civilization. At Kalibangan we find the Vedic sacrificial altar in a Harappan millieu. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Fairservis and many other scholars had to accept that the Indo- Aryans could have been in the Indus Valley a thousand years before the end of the Harappan civilization.

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Brain-washed by the linguists, the archaeologists vainly look for the evidence of Aryan intrusion. Jim G. Shaffer however writes categorically :

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“Current archaeological data do not support the existence of an Indo-Aryan or European invasion into South Asia at any time in the pre-or proto-historic periods. Instead, it is possible to document archaeologically a series of cultural changes reflecting indigenous cultural development from pre-historic to historic periods. The early Vedic literature describes not a human invasion into the area, but a fundamental restructuring of indigenous society that saw the rise of hereditary social elites.

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“The linguistic similarities (between the Indo-European languages) that are cited as proof of these human invasions have alternative explanations — What was theory became unquestioned fact. It is time to end the linguistic tyranny” (Shaffer, see Lukacs, ch. 4, pp. 77-90).

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The present author elaborated the theme in his 1990 essay on The Aryan Myth (Biswas, see Ray and Mukherjee, 1990, pp. 29-47) quoting Professor H.D. Sankalia’s letter (dated 10 October, 1986) written to him:

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“These theories (of Aryan intrusion) cannot be proven, unless definite knowledge regarding script, language etc. can be had—. The old problems, first raised in 1930, have remained unsolved”.

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The problem is artificial and falsely created. Like Shaffer, the present author also asserted (Biswas, see Ray and Mukherjee, 1990, pp 29-47) that the archaeological and literary (Vedic) data are easily correlated in terms of the obvious and alternative paradigm namely that the Ṛgvedic culture was autochthonous in the Sarasvatī valley overseeing the Indus valley civilization. These were indeed sister civilizations. At sites like Kalibangan and Bhagwanpura, the Ṛgvedic culture was Pre-Harappan which, in the words of B.B. Lal, ‘formed the base on which the Mature Harappan appeared like bubbles on a vast lake, only to disappear and merge into the waters of the lake itself (Lal, see Possehl, 1982, pp. 335-38).

Social factors underlying first urbanization

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It is difficult to make firm statements on the subject except that the gravitation of diverse cultures (with strong technological components) towards Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Kalibangan was a long-drawn process. The motivations were essentially economic with some theological overtones.

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Stone, copper and bronze implements were used, and therefore Harappan era could be characterised as bronze age. Bronze was used more for decorative and agricultural/production purposes and less as a raw material for warfare. Hoes and celts must have been used for cultivating annually inundated Indus valley agricultural fields. Technology was sustained by agricultural surplus as attested by the huge brick-built granaries.

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Several kinds of technologies such as gold, silver, copper, bronze metallurgy, pottery and bead industry flourished on the basis of well-established furnace technology. Sun- and fire-baked bricks had been evolved much earlier in the Mehrgarh culture, R.S. Sharma writes: ‘obviously the laying out of towns with intersecting streets and perfect drainage system, and the erection of houses all made of burnt bricks, must have required a huge staff of bricklayers, masons, wood-cutters, charcoal burners, metalsmiths, engineers, a fact which bears testimony to the great organizing feat of the Indus valley people’ (Sharma, R.S. 1983).

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The other means of livelihood were cotton-growing, textiles, carpentry, river-and sea-based trade. Although magic, theology and priestcraft played strong roles in the society, the overriding power structure specialised in trade and its efficient management. The earliest specimens of writing on seals were probably meant for book-keeping. The use of uniform weights ensured standardisation and control over the huge Harappan network. The theological component of the culture promoted the studies of astronomy and geometry which were sustained in the Rgvedic and later Vedic cultures after the collapse of the Indus valley civilization.

(B) The Vedic Age, Iron Age and Second Urbanisation

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Chattopadhyaya insinuated that ‘one reason for the objection against the theory of Aryan invasion... seems to be frankly chauvinistic, (Chattopadhyaya, 1986, pp. 360-371). The present author countered the charge by quoting the internationally reputed scholars (Biswas and Biswas, 1989, Biswas 1990. The possible objections to the newly emerging paradigm (Dyson’s beautiful summary outlined in detail in the previous section (A) of this article) were also successfully met (Biswas, 1990, pp. 37-45).

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One of the possible objections has been that the Rgvedic civilization was rural and could not have anything common with the urban, Harappan tradition. This objection merely illustrates ‘the absence of a rigorous analysis of the Rgvedic literature’ as mentioned by Dyson (1982) and quoted earlier. The Rgvedic god Indra, ‘the destroyer of cities’, merely symbolized the tillers and pastoral people taking up arms and using horses against the oppression perpetrated by the urban rulers and plunderers coming to the Sarasvati valley from the west and the south. Hundreds of cities were no doubt destroyed by the Rgvedic warriors (archaeological excavation revealed the burning of the Harappan site Surkotada) (Shaffer; see also Lukacs, pp. 77-90), but the victor Divodāsa himself became the ruler of a few such cities (RV. 4.26.3) specially of those made of aśma (stone) (RV. 4.30.20). The Rgvedic people knew palaces ‘with many pillars’ (RV. 5.62.6) and ‘many doors’ (RV. 7.88.5). They adored efficient city administrators (RV. 1.173.19). Kalibangan, the third important urban centre of the Harappan civilization, flourished on the confluence of the Sarasvatī and Dṛṣadvati, and has been widely claimed as a Rgvedic site.

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In the semi-urban surroundings, the Rgvedic agriculturists, carpenters, wheelwrights, weavers (of wool), leather workers, blacksmiths, medical men, poets and rich men (traders) lived together; the blacksmiths used to approach the rich people (hiraṇyavantam) and offered to make for them metallic artifacts and ornaments (RV. 9.112.2, 10.53.9 etc.)

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The Rgveda described in part the chalcolithic culture in the foothill of the Sivalik mountains extending along the valleys of the Sarasvatī river system. It notes the Pre-Harappan transition from the neolithic to the chalcolithic period : aśmanmayi vasi (10.101.10) or stone-made implement to vasim ayasim (8.29.3) or metallic axes. In the very first hymn (1.1.1) the text eulogizes fire as ratnadhātamam or cradle of gems meaning gold, silver or copper. We have noted in the Rgveda the following words/items related to minerals and metals (Biswas, Chakravarty and Biswas, pp. 49-66):

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Jewel, grinding or sharpening stone, metalsmith or black- smith, bellows blowing air, melting gold or metal, sharpening metal. Gold, golden necklace, head ornament, ear-ring (*hiraṇya-karṇa*, 1.122.14), coin, silver, anklet, ring, breast-plate, bangle, copper (*ayasmaya tamba*, 5.30.15). Metallic leg, razor, bucket, cymbal, javelin or lance, lute, needle, scissor, sword, knife, sickle, ploughshare, shield, metal stick used for roasting meat, cooking vessel etc. The references to the blacksmiths, bellows, melting of metals and many artifacts of gold, silver and ayas (probably copper and bronze), and also of traders, river navigation, urban games like dice-playing, multi-storey buildings etc. clearly signify that the authors of the Rgveda were quite familiar with the urban life of the Harappan standard, notwithstanding their preferences for rural simplicity and religious fervour.

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In his legitimate attempt to glorify the Harappan civilization, Chattopadhyaya has unnecessarily sought to underrate the scientific contributions of the Rgvedic civilization. He writes:

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“The concept of *rta* - containing the idea of the laws of nature - could never have occurred to the Rgvedic poets as ordained by any omnipotent Divine Creator for the simple reason that the mono-theistic theology was totally unknown to them” (Chattopadhyaya, 1986, p. 392).

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This is indeed strange! Chattopadhyaya has missed Rgveda’s clear message on the unity of Godhead and monotheism (1.89.10, 1.164.46, 3.55.1-22, 8.58.2, 10.82.3 etc.) and its clear statements that ‘one *rta* exists everywhere’ (4.40.5) and ‘one Indra appears differently through illusion’ (6.47.18)? He made another sweeping generalisation when he wrote:

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“Only one among the many philosophical trends in India, namely Vedanta was keen on denying logic and rationalism in order to make room for an abject faith in the scriptures” (Chattopadhyaya, 1986, p. 47).

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Chattopadhyaya conveniently ignored the scientific (and even agnostic) spirit of the Nāsadīya Sūkta (*RV*. 10.129.1-7) which raised the issue of the created world and wondered whether any intellect is in possession of all the knowledge about the created world. The Vedic world-view started with the spirit of enquiry and search for the truth. Ofcourse theological fundamentalism and the evils of casteism and priestcraft crept into the Indian society, ‘but we should not forget that the entire phenomenon took place more than three millennia before the public humiliation of Galileo before the Inquisition. We have endorsed Chattopadhyaya’s basic thesis of a dialectical struggle between reason and anti- reason in the Indian thought-world with the rider that this struggle existed in all civilizations, and exists even to-day down to the psychological plane of an individual (Biswas and Biswas, 1989).

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The dark period of Indian pre-history viz. the second millennium B.C. may best be described as the period of mass migration and re-formation of the Indian Society. The Rgvedic strife did not represent any conquest by the alien; it was a civil war ultimately won by the peace-loving, oppressed agriculturists living in the north-eastern part of Haryana/Punjab and not by horse-riding barbaric outsiders.

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The defeated tribes left India through Afghanistan and Iran, and were later known as the Zoroastrians; this is proven by a sudden extinction of the Harappan sites in Baluchistan and Afghanistan around second millennium B.C. Within a few centuries, the Sarasvatī valley people moved eastward on account of drought and shift in the river bed due to tectonic movement. They were in search of perennial water or sadānīra.

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At first they moved along the Himalayan foothills avoiding the Gangetic valley covered with dense forest. Later they were able to clean the forests by using fire and iron implements, The Indus valley people moved towards Gujarat and Central, Western and Peninsular India.

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Archaeological excavations have established that chalcolithic cultures existed in the Central and Western India continuously from 2000 B.C. to 900 B.C. Three successive cultures - Kayatha, Malwa and Jorwe arrived on the scene with typical pottery styles. The traditions of pottery styles, copper and bronze castings, bead manufacture etc. might have been introduced by the migrating Harappans. On the other hand, the great visibility of the megalithic cultures in Peninsular India and the onset of iron age in Karnataka region around 1200 B.C., without much of a chalcolithic background, indicate predominant indigenous traditions devoid of any Harappan precedence.

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In the eastern India, Copper Hoards people had developed copper metal technology sometime before 1500 B.C. Using Singhbhum area ores the artisans could smelt high grade copper; they knew closed casting, alloying by arsenic and lead, annealing and cold work for hardening the tools (Agrawal, 1971, pp. 205, 242; Agrawal, 1982, pp. 213-214).

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Probably this technology was developed by itinerant smiths moving from Bengal-Bihar area to the Gangetic Doab in Uttar Pradesh, the artefacts becoming more sophisticated in the latter area. The anthropomorphic figures developed by them could be either ritual totem or missiles or simple scarecrows.

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The tradition of itinerant smiths was probably a common feature of most cultures in the ancient world. The metalsmiths at Harappa used to receive intermediate ingots from the smiths around the Hakra river who probably got the smelted copper from Ganeshwar- Jodhpura area in Rajasthan by the river route.

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The same river route enabled supply of copper-made fish hooks, mirrors, bangles etc. to Kalibangan where the last stage of fabrication might have been made. The Rgveda also records (9.112.2) an itinerant smith looking for a customer to sell his metal-tipped arrow.

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The chalcolithic culture people in the West Bengal sites of Pandu Rajar Dhibi, Mahishadal etc. used pre-PGW ochre washed potteries and had cultural contacts with chalcolithic Central India (Malwa and Navdatoli), South-East Asian countries such as Thailand and most importantly the PGW-developing people coming from the Sarasvati valley and representing the Vedic tradition (Dasgupta, 1967, p. 896).

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S.P. Gupta beautifully summarised the phenomenon of cultural contacts:-

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"The period of second millennium B.C. in India is not as 'dark' as was thought a couple of decades back. Broadly speaking, the western regions had the late phase of Harappan culture, the southern regions the neolithic-chalcolithic complex and the eastern region the hoards” (Gupta, 1963; 1965, p. 896).

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A fusion of the three traditions must have taken place during five centuries 1500-1000 B.C. while Indian sub-continent entered the Iron Age and the period of second urbanisation. Though of uncertain dates, the Indian epics described Rāma’s cultural contacts with the eastern and southern civilizations and Kṛṣṇa establishing some cultural hegemony across the sub-continent prior to submergence of the Dwarka township, an event which has been recently attested through marine archaeological recovery of the artefacts and their thermoluminescence dating.

The Iron Age and Second Urbanisation

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The present author has presented elsewhere (Biswas, 1991, ch. XII) elaborate and critical discussions on the onset of Iron Age in India. Discovery and use of iron started around 1200 B.C. indigenously in at least three nuclear zones - Karnataka in the south (e.g. Komaranhalli, 1200-1100 B.C.), U.P. Rajasthan area in the north (chalcolithic Ahar transmitting the tradition of furnace technology and first iron in the neighbouring Atranjikhera site in U.P. C-14 dated 1155 B.C.) and West Bengal-Bihar area in the north-east (partially reduced iron oxide in Pandu Rajar Dhibi, 1250 B.C. and carburized iron celt showing pearlite in Barudih site dated 1200 B.C.).

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The above data clearly suggest cultural contacts between the three nuclear zones and indigenous diffusion of iron technology from one zone to another. The remote possibility of Sialk VI iron-making tradition (which flourished only after 9th century B.C.) influencing the whole of India through the immigrant Aryans (Banerjee, 1965) may be safely ruled out. There are enough evidences of early experimentation, imperfect solid-state reduction, wastage of iron in the slag etc. in the sites of each of the three nuclear zones to justify the theory of indigenous origin.

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The metalsmiths of Komaranhalli and Tadakanahalli evolved lamination technique (alternate layers of non-carburised wrought iron and carburised iron) (Agrawala, Narain and Bhatia, 1990), centuries before the appearance of the earliest known (outside India) laminated object (Egyptian knife, 900 B.C.).

Social Factors in Pre-historic India

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As we approach the ‘historical period’ in ancient India, it may be profitable to dwell on the title of the paper: ‘Social Factors in the Development of Technology in India’. The earlier scholars, plagued with the paucity of data, erroneously presumed that the Harappan technology ‘suddenly’ developed, probably imported from Iran. While advocating the indigenous model, we do not ignore the factor of gradual diffusion of scientific knowledge and technical know-how through trade contact. As a matter of fact, we insist that technological development and urbanisation (a related phenomenon) have often been sparked by trade contacts with other cultures.

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Pre-Harappan and Mature Harappan India exported through trade routes, ivory, carnelian beads, conch-shell products, copper and bronze artifacts and even cultural components like the concepts of gods - Varuna and Mitra, and the linguistic loan-words (Altin Depe of Central Asia was a Harappan outpost). In return, tin, turquoise, lapis lazuli etc. used to be imported. Traders assisted in the two-way diffusion of culture and technology. Large scale racial intrusion or invasion (long before Alexander's era) must be regarded as a mythical concept unless positively proven.

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How the technologies were invented in Harappan India can only be surmised and never conclusively proven. The Harappan script has not been deciphered, and the ‘social factors’ can only be a matter of conjecture.

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Gordon Childe deliberated on the phenomenon of ‘urban revolution’ in the ancient world and the ‘ten criteria’ which accompany it (Childe, 1950; Possehl, 1979). He also mentioned that one trait of urban revolution was the creation of ‘exact and predictive sciences’ such as arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. Childe could have included material technology (not science) as one of the traits of early urbanization. Though widely quoted, his ‘criteria’ or indices are ‘delineatary rather than explanatory’. His analysis evokes many subsidiary questions. Why the agricultural surplus does not always lead to the formation of cities, and how did some ancient cities (like Mathura) prosper without any agricultural surplus in the immediate neighbourhood? What induces the emergence of a ruling class to dominate over a city? What provides sufficient driving force for artisans to move from the rural to the urban environment?

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It appears that a critical measure of trade, cultural and even military contacts with neighbouring states provide vital stimuli to the growth of civilizations, cities and technology. This factor has been overlooked by many scholars including Childe. Ecological and military factors (civil war) must have damaged the Harappan civilization, but its collapse was ultimately due to the loss of short-range and long-range trade links.

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The phenomenon of the second urbanization in India (beginning in the early part of the first millennium B.C.) was not totally unrelated to the first urbanization, despite the contrary claims of the earlier scholars. The migrants from the Indus and the Sarasvati valleys took long time to acclimatise and rehabilitate themselves in the unfamiliar terrains of hills and forests inhabited by un-friendly people. But they carried with them traditions of pottery, beads of semi-precious stones, artifacts made of copper and its alloys and so on. At Bhagwanpura, we find Harappan pottery and Painted Grey Ware side by side and no broken skull (Lal, vide Possehl, 1982). The fact of continuity of Indian civilization, even through the ‘dark period’ of second millennium, cannot be wished away. The excavation at Atranjikhera in western Uttar Pradesh indicate (Gaur, 1983) a continuous transition from 1400 B.C. - at first the Aharian chalcolithic culture using BRW pottery, copper alloys and even brass, and gradually evolving PGW, glass and (the wonder metal) iron technology. The recovered ecological and political stability once again made the conditions ripe for the emergence of power structure, trade contact, new technology and urbanization.

The Role of the Iron Age

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The issue of the Iron Age influencing second urbanization in India has been widely debated. R.S. Sharma suggested that the discovery of iron resulted in speedy clearance of forest, more extensive cultivation through the use of iron ploughshare, accumulation of large agricultural surplus and formation of city-states. This model has been criticised on many counts.

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Iron was discovered as early as 1200 B.C., but its widespread use in the Gangetic valley did not start, according to Sharma himself, before the sixth century B.C. The artisans in the Rajasthan-Uttar Pradesh area took many centuries to standardise reduction-smelting, lamination and fabrication of iron artifacts, and they did not have sufficient good grade iron ore for mass production. Kosambi had pointed out that the spurt of iron technology in India had to wait till the Vedic cultural people crossed the Ganges in Bihar, moved south and gained proper access to the iron ore deposits (Kosambi, 1965).

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Prakash and Tripathi have meticulously noted (Prakash and Tripathi, 1986) that the early PGW-era iron tools were war implements like spear heads, arrow heads, dagger, knives, and building materials like rods, pins and nails. Only a few agricultural tools e.g. axes and sickles were made in iron. Spades and ploughshares came much later. Thakur asserted (Maity, Thakur and Narain, 1988) that iron implements such as axe, plain or socketed, hammer and ploughshare were conspicuous by their rarity, if not absence, even in the 500 B.C. NBP sites; this fact negates Sharma's hypothesis. Furthermore, A. Ghosh pointed out (1973, specially ch. III) that the clearance of forest, done in the epic/PGW era was more by the use of fire rather than iron implements. Cultivation used to be done more by hoes, sickles and wooden ploughshares tipped with iron rather than iron ploughshares and axe which became popular only around 4th/3rd century B.C.

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Agricultural surplus was no doubt generated during the early part of the first millennium B.C., supporting non-agricultural crafts. But this did not by itself promote urbanisation. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya has included in his book (1991) two invited articles written by Ranabir Chakravarti (Chattopadhyaya, 1991, Appendix I, pp. 305-350) and N.R. Banerji (Ibid, pp. 371-396) which touch upon the above issues. Chakravarti and Banerji tend to support the criticisms against Sharma's model.

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We propose that the emergence of the new technologies and the Iron Age was one amongst many factors underlying second urbanization. Besides, this was a cyclic relationship, urbanization further promoting iron technology. Was there a deeper cause promoting both? Ghosh accorded priority to the social need/political demand for surplus rather than the capacity to produce the surplus as a result of technological innovations (Ghosh, 1973). His argument was in favour of the greater role of a ‘power structure’ without which a surplus could not appear the moment it is asked for (Chakravarti, 1991, pp. 305-350). The megalithic culture in the Peninsular India produced iron and agricultural surplus, and yet no urban tradition.

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Following the leads provided by Childe, Sharma and Ghosh, we may try to go deeper into this problem. What causes the emergence of a ‘power structure’ articulating ‘socio-political needs’? Basically it is a psychological drive-against complacency and for consolidation of existing resources and distribution mechanism by centralisation; it is also promoted by an expansionist urge to meet shortage of resources by trade or conquest, and even cultural expansionism viz. to propagate one brand of religion or culture. This urge could be articulated in the ancient world as physical/social/political ‘needs’ only when there was an opportunity, when there were trade contacts with the neighbouring states. This reality of psycho-physical situation promoted in the ancient world - and still promotes in the modern world - urbanization and breakthroughs in new science and technology simultaneously. Ultimately, urbanization and technology activate each other in a cyclic fashion, Chakravarti pointed out (Chakravarty, 1991, pp. 305-350) that urbanization also meant new ideas and a revolt against tradition and conservatism.

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We propose that the situations as enunciated in the previous paragraph must have ripened prior to the first and, a millennium later, the second urbanization in India. The Yajurveda referred to not only gold, silver, copper, bronze, tin and lead, but also the newly discovered iron, the black metal - *śyāma* or *kṛṣṇāyasa* (*Sukla Yajurveda* 18.13). *Bṛhadāraṇyak Upaniṣad* (3.9.18) mentioned a tong handling hot charcoal, and in *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* (*Śat.Br*), we find references of leather bellow blowing air into a furnace, blow-pipe used by the smelter and so on (1.1.2.7, 1.6.3.16). *Śat.Br* also described a large number of iron implements and the emergence of gold-based money economy: ‘with gold they do nothing, and yet it is an object of respect’ (5.5.5.16). Even lead was used as a medium of barter (*Śat. Br.* 12.7.2. 10-12). Heavy pieces of lead were used in the art of weaving. Barley and rice were traded for lead (*Śat. Br.* 12.7.2.10); sheep’s wool was also used as a medium of barter for obtaining grain and other commodities (*Śat. Br.* 12.7.2.10).

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The late Vedic literatures clearly describe the prominence of the non-agricultural professionals: smelter, smith, carpenter, cloth manufacturer, leather worker, potter and jeweller etc., who could thrive only on agricultural surplus and some kind of administrative protection and control.

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International trade seems to have started a millennium after the collapse of the Harappan civilization and before the ‘historical period’. Around 1015 B.C., King Solomon of Palestine received from Ophir - now identified as Sauvira in the Gulf of Cambay - gold, silver, ivory and peacocks. Homer reported trade with India. Thus the process of second urbanization in India had started right in the beginning of the first millennium B.C. through initial trade contacts and gradual territorial expansions.

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Around 1000 B.C., Hastinapura settlement brought in from outside agate and carnelian beads, and the first settlement of Taxila started at Haithal. *Chāndogya Upaniṣad* refers (5.11.5) to a *janapada* or township in which there is no liquor or adultery. It is quite evident that the late Vedic era (1000-600 B.C.) initiated the establishment of the famous (sixteen) *mahājanapadas* or states most possibly sometime during the 7th-6th century B.C. period.

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During the latter half of the sixth century B.C., the Persian king Cyrus had made an unsuccessful onslaught on India. During this time, Ujjain in India became a leading centre for the manufacture of iron war implements. The king Pradyota, contemporary to Gautama Buddha, ascended the throne of Ujjain around 528 B.C.

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He attacked Kauśāmbi and Taxila years before the Persian king Darius occupied Taxila in 518 B.C. For many decades thereafter, the Persians used to take Indian gold, precious stones, brass, iron-tipped arrows and even Indian soldiers to assist them in their fights against Greece. Pythagorus might have visited the Jain settlements in the Western India during this time. The second urbanization took place in India amidst a clearly emerging international backdrop.

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The social factors underlying the nascent urban technology included the new geographical-cum-geological scenario. The sophistication of iron technology in the Bihar sites like Rajagriha was essentially on account of the proximity of iron ore deposits in the Singhbum area (Kosambi, 1965), which also produced alluvial washings of gold (the name of the river ‘suvarṇarekhā’ is suggestive).

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Hegde has adduced conclusive proof for the geographical /geological basis regarding the development of the successive categories of potteries (1200-300 B.C.) in the Ganga-Yamuna basin (Hegde, 1987). Thick deposits of ferruginous, plastic, secondary clay in this area were laboriously elutriated to produce 10-100 µm clay particles, free from the larger and heavier particles (of feldspar, quartz, limestone etc.) and paste of this was used to produce the famous PGW or Painted Grey Ware. The black pigment on BSW (Black Slipped Ware) corresponded to magnetite (Fe3O4).

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Evidently the sun-dried ware was painted with a suspension of finely ground red ochre (Fe2O3 as such or hydrated) which was locally available, and then baked in reducing atmosphere, surrounded by cowdung cakes in gajapuṭa fire.

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Lastly, the Northern Black Polished Ware or NBPW also showed under an electron microscope opaque crystals of magnetite (produced similarly) in a background of amorphous glass-like matrix which assayed 11-13 p.c. Na2O and 2-4 p.c. CaO. For producing this glassy glaze, sājjimāṭṭi or reh, the alkaline, natural efflorescence, profusely found in the Ganga valley, chiefly in the mid-eastern and eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, was used (Hegde, 1987). This sājjimāṭṭi assays 20-40 p.c. Na2O, 50-70 p.c. silica and 5-10 p.c. lime. Availability and use of sājjimāṭṭi enabled the PGW people to produce not only the famous glassy glaze in NBPW but also the soda-lime glass (Hegde, 1987; Tripathi, 1976; Roy, 1986; Sen and Chaudhuri 1985). Very significantly Atranjikhēra and Hastinapura produced the earliest samples of glass in India. The Harappan people could produce faience but not glass.

Social Philosophy and Technology

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The Ṛgvedic culture in the Sarasvatī valley shared many Indus valley traditions such as pottery and bronze-making styles, use of burnt brick, use of seals, binary and decimal digits for standardisation, geometry in altar construction, astronomy etc. The Vedic literature amply testified the spirit of enquiry. In the Nāsadīya Sūkta (RV.10.129), the origin of creation was discussed. The existence in nature of a self-supporting principle was inferred (RV.10.129.5).

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In the Atharvaveda the genesis of conch-shell and pearl were speculated upon (4.10. 1-7). The Satapatha Brāhmaṇa propounded a theory of material evolution (6.1.3. 1-5). Kāṭha Upaniṣad mentioned atoms and molecules (1.2.20). Uddālaka Āruṇi a historical figure, who travelled from Taxila to North Bihar, and was mentioned in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, was a materialist or hylozoist, who propounded that everything in the universe including man evolved out of three elements, and even mind is a product of matter. He preceded Theles of Greece by nearly two centuries, and has therefore been claimed by Chattopadhyaya to be the ‘first scientist in the world’.

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In the Vedic literature there are several references to applied science and technology. The Yajurveda mentioned the newly discovered black metal iron as well as glass (kāca), an ornamental article (Sen and Chaudhuri, 1985). Chāndogya Upaniṣad mentioned the then existing sciences of elements (bhūtavidyā) arithmetic (rāśi), mineralogy (nidhi) etc. The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa described the smelting of gold, components of the smelting apparatus, the use of borax as flux, joining of different metals and so on. The Vedic culture also evolved the traditions of speculative logic on body and mind, and linguistics. The medical tradition of Caraka must have been initiated by the vaidyas of the Vedic period.

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The positive sciences of the Hindus were thwarted to some extent by the retrograde institution of caste. Originally, there was the division of labour but no hereditary caste (ṚV. 9.112.3).

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Gradually, separation was introduced in the society by the dominating priestcraft, and this caused degeneration and the rise of varṇāśrama or hereditary caste (ṚV. 10.90.12). The white Yajurveda referred to the vaidyas (medical men) in derogatory terms.

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At a time when the potters had developed beautiful PGW and NBPW potteries, the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā prescribed (Kashikar, 1969) that the ritual milking pot should be prepared by one belonging to any of the first three social orders, but not by a potter of the lowermost caste! The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa categorised people as well as metals in caste denominations (13.2.2.16-19, 13.3.4.5) : the upper caste gold was meant for kings and brahmins whereas the lower caste iron was meant for ordinary people. This trend of categorising even metals and other materials under the four ‘castes’ persisted for centuries. The Gupta era Amarakośa listed the metallurgical equipments under śūdravarga!, professional guilds, degenerated into sub-castes, the social barriers of which rarely permitted the necessary exchange of technical information amongst themselves or with the brahmin scholars who would keep the Vedas out of bounds from the lower caste artisans. It has been well-said that ‘the evils that caste system engendered cannot be over-estimated’.

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(C) Five Centuries in India before Christ

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The process of second urbanization in India, initiated after the seventh century B.C., is well-described through the terms jana, janapada and mahājanapada, used by Pāṇini (dated around the middle of the fifth century B.C., Agrawala, 1953). Whereas jana meant a compact clan, the emergence of janapada was characterised by aggregation of people of different languages, faiths and professions (Atharvaveda, Pṛthvi Sukta, 12.1.45). Pāṇini equated citizens or janapadis as professionals practising different trades (Aṣṭādhyāyī, 4.1.42; also Yāska’s Nirukta 1.1.5). Pāṇini’s ten (later sixteen) mahājanapadas were big states with capitals in the cities which promoted diverse trades such as those of potter, blacksmith, carpenter, barber, washerman, bow-and-arrow maker, weaver, blanket-maker, dyer, gem- maker and jeweller, miner, goldsmith etc. Patañjali wrote that each village must have the first five. The last few ones were closer to the cities and met the requirements of the king and the state. The literary and archaeological sources broadly agree in placing the innovative period of Indian coinage in the 6th-5th century B.C. (Mukherjee and Lee, 1988, vide Appendix on Emergence of Coinage).

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The emerging power structures and rivalries promoted technology which was meant to protect and augment the power structures in return. As the *mahājanapadas* grew in size, the national and international boundaries came under dispute and military confrontation. We find 600 B.C. mud ramparts and the use of sun-dried and fired bricks in the fortifications of this era (600-500 B.C.) at Ujjaini, Eran, Kaushambi, Rajghat etc. The iron and weapon industries flourished simultaneously. The Persians intruded into a part of north-western India, took away some gold and brass, used Indian iron-tipped arrows against the Greeks and introduced Persian punched coins (siglos) into India. Precious stone industry was set up at Śrāvastī.

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In the area of the civic amenities there were terracotta ring wells. At Sringaverapura was erected a brick-built storage tank with arrangement for settling and removal of clay.

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In the intellectual world there were many dissenters to the Vedic culture. Apart from Gautama Buddha (563-483 B.C.), the Jainas, Ājīvikas and the materialists such as the Cārvākas or Lokāyatas protested against the Vedic ritualism and theological fundamentalism. The intense intellectual ferment resulted in speculative philosophy and logic (Seal, 1985).

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Pāṇini (middle of the 5th century B.C.) not only elevated his work of grammar to the level of a science of languages but also deliberated on several scientific terms. *Padārtha* (Aṣṭādhyāyī 1.4.96) came to mean a well-defined material, and *sattva* meant the metallic essence (1.4.57). *Pramāṇa* indicated measuring standard, then authority and lastly scientific or logical proof (3.4.51). Pāṇini honoured the tradition of searching for truth by explaining that *upajñā* meant discovery of a new knowledge, not handed down by tradition. This new knowledge was supposed to give rise to a new enterprise or application, that is *upakrama* (2.4.21; 4.3.115 and 6.2.14). Thus, Panini laid the philosophical foundation of science and technology.

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