History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c39.s2.t2.6

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.