History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c39.s2.t2: Social Factors in Pre-historic India
History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c39.s2.t2
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Social Factors in Pre-historic India
v1.c39.s2.t2.1
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.
v1.c39.s2.t2.2
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.
v1.c39.s2.t2.3
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.
v1.c39.s2.t2.4
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?
v1.c39.s2.t2.5
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.
v1.c39.s2.t2.6
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.