Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c10.s3: Nuclear Zones East of Indus
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c10.s3
- Language
- English
Contents
- v1.c10.s3.t1 Pre-Harappan Culture in Rajasthan — 4 parts
- v1.c10.s3.t2 Ganeshwar-Jodhpura Culture — 18 parts
- v1.c10.s3.t3 Sothi Culture on the Sarasvati Valley — 9 parts
Nuclear Zones East of Indus
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Ganga-Vindhyan Complex of Chopani-Mando, Mahagara and Koldihwa was the second nuclear zone in Indian pre-history which showed the process of neolithic evolution as in Mehargarh starting from seventh-sixth millenium BC. Both the nuclear zones exhibited settled villages with huts, cultivation of plants and domestication of animals. Due to proximity to the West Asian Cultures, Mehargarh blossomed into Bronze Age Culture while the Ganga-Vindhyan Complex being in relative isolation could not move beyond the neolithic stage.
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The three sites of Chopani-Mando, Mahagara and Koldihwa are located on the river Belan some 77-85 km south-east of Allahabad. During the epipalaeolithic period (around 17000-23000 BC), only chert was used for tool-making while in the succeeding phases even chalcedony, agate, carnelian, jasper, quartz etc., available in the Kaimur ranges, were introduced in the lithic industry. During this advanced mesolithic period at Chopani-Mando, a number of tools such as anvil, hammer stone, ring stone, rubber stone, muller etc. were made and used.
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At Mahagara, the neolithic man added polished celts, querns, mullers and ring stones for settled agricultural use. Rice plantation was perfected. Basalt was basically used for making most of the neolithic tools, while granite and quartzite were used only for making celts. The excavations at Mahagara has unearthed 2052 stone objects. Chalcedony was commonly used. The use of chert and agate was also popular; carnelian and quartz were occassionally used. All these stones were locally available in the form of river pebbles. Querns and mullers of sandstone were basically food-processing equipments. Irregular and sharp bits of sand-stone were also used as sharpeners and tool fabricators. The function of stone balls is not clear.
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Neolithic Koldihwa ushered the use of hand-made pottery, ground stone implements, celts of rounded variety fashioned on basalt, neolithic blades and microlithic tools. Further added were a few new types, the celts, adzes and chisels. Koldihwa has also yielded the rice remains embedded in the potsherds of cord impressed wares. According to the analysis, the rice belongs to the cultivated (and not wild) variety. A large number of animal bones were reported. Three radio-carbon dates from Koldihwa are: 6570 ± 210, 5440 ± 240 and 4530 ± 185 BC.
Pre-Harappan Culture in Rajasthan
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V.N. Misra has initiated research on the palaeolithic culture of Rajasthan. (1961, 1963) Most of the sites are located on the eastern side of the Aravallis. The western sites are located on the Luni Valley and these sites must have been deserted on account of low rain-fall and the onset of the desert climate.
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Middle and Upper Palaeolithic working and living floors have been found at a number of sites throughout the dry zone and notably in the Pushkar locality, near Ajmer in Rajasthan. The nature of the buried soil shows that it must have carried a substantial vegetation cover throughout the year, and therefore have been formed under conditions of greater humidity and rainfall than the present. The vegetation, the games and fresh water lakes made the growth of palaeolithic and neolithic sites, till adverse rainfall condition pushed the inhabitants east of Aravalli. Around Budha Pushkar there had been a concentration of sites with microlith industries. Discovery of a copper fish-hook in this stratum suggests an overlap between the microlithic and certain semi-urban chalcolithic cultures. (Allchins 1983: 65-69)
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In the eastern Rajasthan, most of the sites are located on stony elevations where the raw material for microlithic tools were made out of chert, quartzite, quartz and chalcedony. Bagor, situated on the left bank of the Kothari river and 25 km west of the town of Bhilwara reveals an uninterrupted occupation of the site over a period of five millennia before Christ. During Phase I (5000-2800 BC), Bagor produced the most fabulous microlith industry in pre-historic India and several hundred thousand of worked pieces. There was mass production of micro-blades and their conversion into various microlithic forms mostly 15-20 mm and some 5-10 mm in size. These were very carefully fabricated and retouched. (Sankalia, 1974; 260-64) More than forty types could be distinguished: blades, trapezes, crescents, points etc. The superb microlithic industry was essentially geared to a hunting economy.
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Around 2800 BC, Bagor entered into the chalcolithic phase evidently based upon the indigenous copper ore. Apart from bits of copper/bronze, five well-defined objects were found among offerings with two burials of phase II: one spearhead, one thin rod and three arrowheads each provided with two parallel holes near the base. The holes were evidently intended to secure the arrowheads to the shaft with the help of a string, metal wire or rivets.
Ganeshwar-Jodhpura Culture
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The clearest evidence about the Pre-Harappan chalcolithic culture in Rajasthan has been obtained in the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura area of the northern Aravalli near Jaipur. (Agrawala, 1982, 1984) Situated on the right bank of river Sabi and 100 km from Jaipur, Jodhpura has yielded Ochre Coloured Pottery, the later phase of the deposit having been carbon-dated as 2500 BC. Thus, beginning of this ware may have been as early as 3000 BC. The ware is red-slipped painted pottery with profuse linear designs, executed with the help of a sharp, short, comb-like instrument.
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Associated with similar OCP pottery is the nearby chalcolithic site of Ganeshwar which was discovered on 30 November 1977. Situated 15 km from Neem-Ka-Thana, this site (lat. 37° 40' north and long. 75° 51.30' east) yielded huge quantities of copper objects (more than 1000 were obtained by 1979). Deeper digging has shown earlier stone-age culture, and thus it is proven that Ganeshwar moved from the neolithic to chalcolithic stage before the Harappan era.
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The copper objects included arrowheads, spearheads, fish-hooks, spiral headed pins, celts, thin blades, rings, bangles, chisels, balls etc. This is the first time in the history of Indian archaeology that such a rich find of prehistoric copper objects has been found at a single small site. The presence of a round terracotta cake reminds us of similar sacrificial items at Kalibangan. The thin blades, arrowheads and fish-hooks were used in the Pre-Harappan Sothi culture sites and later in the Harappan culture sites. Not a single specimen resembles the Copper Hoard material from the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.
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Arrowheads
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Cut out of thin sheets, 400 arrowheads 5-6.5 cm in length were of barbed variety and used for hunting. Some with curved points and some with curved tip, these arrowheads without any perforation as in Bagor samples, were mounted on wooden sticks and fastened with a white glue. Some of these were found in the Harappan level at Banawali. The discovery of microliths with copper arrowheads shows that the people of Ganeshwar were still at the hunting stage. The arrowheads assay: copper 96.5 per cent, arsenic 1, silver 0.3, zinc 0.25, iron 0.2, tin 0.2, nickel 0.04 and lead 0.03 per cent. It is apparent that some arsenic alloying was done, as in Mohenjo-Daro objects. Like the Harappan spearheads, the Geneshwar spearheads were also very thin.
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Fish-Hooks
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At Ganeshwar, about 50 fish-hooks were found. These did not have barbs. The area is not very far from Bairat, the ancient capital of the Matsya Deśa and dwelling place of the minas tribe. Similar fish-hooks were recovered from the early levels of Monhenjo-Daro and Harappa; absence of arrowhead and fish-hooks in the upper levels indicate the transition from rural to urban culture in these sites. Kalibangan II however continued the use of fish-hooks.
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Celts
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More than 60 copper celts were obtained from Ganeshwar. These measured 20-25 cm in length and weighed 1-1.5 kg. All these flat celts were prepared from molds by the *cire perdue* techniques. Metallographic examination reveals that axes were cast in mould and edges bevelled by hot and cold forging. Some were cast in unventillated molds, but others in well-ventillated ones. (Allchins, 1983: 253) The name of a small Kulhāḍe-kā-Johaḍ (pond of Axes) near Ganeshwar testify to the *kulhāḍā* (axe) making tradition in this area.
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The butt portion of the celts have round indentations, the numbers of which (4-16) are in different combinations of 1-6 dots. These numbers probably reflect the contemporary system of simple arithmetic. The indentations were made with pointed copper drills which have also been found in the site. Such indentation marks were found in the later day celts of Kayatha and Navdatoli. That lead alloying might have been done during the melting of the original ingot is suggested from the analysis of a typical copper celt: copper 97 per cent, lead 1 per cent, nickel 0.5, arsenic 0.3, silver 0.2, zinc 0.1 and tin 0.1 per cent. Zinc, silver and other elements might have come from the local ore constituents.
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Significance of the Ganeshwar Discovery
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Several other facts may be mentioned to establish that the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura region was indeed one of the earliest Pre-Harappan centres for copper technology. In this hilly region are located the ancient rivers or river-tracks (flowing northward) of Kantli, Dohan, Kasaunti, Sota, Sobi etc. (arranged in order — western to eastern location). Ganeshwar is at the source of Kantli whose ancient track used to flow past Jhunjhunu meeting Drishadvati near Bhadra and Kalibangan as testified by the landsat imagery. Thus there was no difficulty for the copper goods to be despatched to the Sarasvati-Drishadvati complex and also along Hakra towards the Indus sites.
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The Dohan river originates from the north of the Baleshwar copper mines. North of Ganeshwar is situated old copper workings of Behar, and on the right bank of Dohan have been found OCP potteries and copper sheet artefacts. Dohan river which is not very far from Khetri, and once reached the ancient site of Mitathal was probably named after the tradition (extraction of metal) in the valley.
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The river Kasaunti (Krishnavati) takes its origin from Dariba copper mines and on its right bank, microliths, OCP wares and copper slags have been found on the hills of Mothooka. In the area of Baleshwar-Dariba, hillock type mounds of copper slags have been found in association with OCP ware. Copper slag along with OCP has been found at Buchera, the source of river Sota which is not far from the mines of Ahirwala and Cheeplata. Cheeplata is full of OCP and microliths. We have already mentioned that the famous Jodhpura, after which the culture is named, is located on the right bank of river Sabi.
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Thus, the river valley system and the copper bearing hills around Ganeshwar ushered in an indigenous chalcolithic culture in the Pre- and Early-Harappan era.
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R.C. Agrawala (1980) believes that the copper hoard from Kurada, located 20 km from Parbatsar in the Nagaur district also originated from the Ganeshwar locality. Of the 103 copper objects acquired in 1935, there were 55 rings, 21 curved thin blade or choppers (similar to those found in the Pre-Harappan levels of Mitathal and Kalibangan) 11 chisels, 4 ordinary bowls, 7 celts and 5 channel-spouted bowls. The cults had round dentation marks as in the Ganeshwar samples. The channel-spouted copper bowls resemble the later day Navdatoli objects and the Western Asian ceramic bowls. Probably these objects used to be sent through the land trade routes to Kot Diji, Mohenjo-Daro etc. On the same route fine-grained yellow Jaisalmer stone was also sent for the Harappan towns. (Marshall 1931: 31)
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Agrawala (1982) also reported some more pre-historic copper items which might have been made, following the Ganeshwar tradition: two long copper celts from Sabania, and copper arrow fragments from Pugal in the Bikaner district, six heavy 28 cm bar celts from Nandlalpura, district Jaipur, one heavy bar celt from Ekalasimgha, district Ajmer etc. Similar objects from Padliya, Jhadol, Elana and other sites in south Rajasthan might have originated from Ganeshwar or the contemporary site of Bagor which developed chalcolithic tradition around 2800 BC. Later we would discuss the Ahar chalcolithic tradition (2200 BC onwards) which probably started with Bagor practice as the example.
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The most notable collection of the Ganeshwar copper ware was probably in the Drishadvati-Sarasvati valley Sothi culture sites — later developed as Harappan sites — such as Kalibangan, Banawali, Mitathal etc.
Sothi Culture on the Sarasvati Valley
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The Pre-Harappan tradition in the Rajasthan-Haryana area is usually known as the Sothi culture. (Ghosh, 1964) It is characterised by a typical ware of pale red colour with black paintings laid on a whitish band serving as the secondary base. This ware was found in the site of Sothi located in the Bikaner deserts on the Ghaggar or Sarasvati, flowing through Ganganagar district of Rajasthan.
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The Pre-Harappan Sothi ware has been found at Jalilpur, 78 km south-west of Harappa along with the Kot Dijian ware. The site showed chert blades, a rectangular bead of gold sheet with tabular perforation, shell bangles, female figurines, lapis lazuli beads and copper or bronze rods.
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The best varieties of the ware have been located in Kalibangan I dated 2900 BC. This site in Rajasthan situated on the left bank of the now dried up river Ghaggar or Sarasvati showed six varieties of Sothi ware and use of white (called ‘Sothi’) paint and lime plaster. Bangles of copper, terracotta and shell, and beads made of agate, carnelian, shell and copper have been found. An axe, a parasu and more than a hundred copper artefacts of Rajasthan origin have been found.
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Criss-cross furrow marks characterise the earliest ploughed field excavated anywhere in the world.
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So far, the excavators have published only three copper objects from the Pre-Harappan levels of Kalibangan, viz., a curved blade (chopper), a celt and bangle. (Lal, 1979: 70) On the basis of personal communication however, Agrawala (1984) reports that there were 56 copper objects which included antimony rods, rings, wire pieces, lumps, bangles, pins, arrowheads, beads, rods, celts etc. No other Pre-Harappan site has reported such an array of copper objects. The obvious source was the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura industrial complex. The list of copper objects at Kalibangan further expanded during the Harappan period (after 2500 BC): apart from the above-mentioned items also added were — hooks, chisels, spearheads, knives, awls, nails, blades, earrings, drills, daggers, needles, razors, mirrors, figures of bulls etc.
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Banawali lies 15 km north-west of Fatehabad, and on the middle-upper course of a tributary of the Ghaggar, now identified as the Rgvedic Sarasvati. Period I is Pre-Harappan and shows sun-dried and kiln-fired bricks as in Kalibangan. These were meticulously standardised conforming to the ratio 1 : 2 : 3. A house complex with several hearths, ovens and fire pits indicating excessive fire activity was plausibly the workshop of a metalsmith. The ceramic inventory records all six Kalibangan fabrics, some with black and white pigments. There were a microblade of chalcedony, beads of gold, semi-precious stones, steatite (including disc beads), faience, shell, bone and clay; bangles of shell, faience and copper. (Bisht, 1982) Siswal, situated on the left bank of the Chautang river in Haryana, 26 km west of Hissar, also had a Pre-Harappan phase as in Kalibangan I.
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M.R. Mughal (1982 a, b) conducted in Pakistan a major programme of archaeological investigations into 414 sites in the Cholistan Desert of the former Bahawalpur state through which ran the Rgvedic Sarasvati river known as Hakra in Pakistan. Of the 414 sites, 99 belonged to the fourth millennium BC. Hakra ware or Jalilpur I Phase, 40 were early third millennium BC Pre- or Early-Harappan-cum-Kot Dijian ware phase and 174 represented Mature-Harappan Phase. During the Early- or Pre-Harappan Phase the main focus of occupation shifted from Kalibangan (in India) to south-west towards Fort Abbas and Yazman (on the Pakistan side). The settlements became larger as in Gamanwala (27.3 hectares, half the size of Harappa) and multifunctional — separating residential and industrial activities. During the Mature-Harappan period this trend continued. There was a further shift towards the south-west — maximum number of sites centering around Derawar Fort. Ganweriwala site (81.5 hectares), was closer to and as big as Mohenjo-Daro. Many sites were demarcated exclusively for craft activities such as the firing of pottery, bricks, small terracotta objects, the glazing of faience objects and the melting and fabrication of copper objects. At the Siddhuwala Ther, located near Derawar, Sir Aurel Stein had found a number of kilns and a copper ingot. The source of the copper metal was presumably the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura area in Rajasthan.
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Hakra or Sarasvati was a perennial river till the middle of the third millennium BC, when the water supply between Fort Abbas (on the Pakistan side of the border) and Yazman was considerably diminished or cut off. This might have caused desertion of sites and some population movement back to north-east. This reversal of population movement vector might explain the replacement of the earlier Sothi culture by the Harappan culture in the eastern sites of Sarasvati such as Kalibangan, Banawali etc.
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The Cholistan archaeological discoveries by M. Rafique Mughal clearly show how the Harappan civilization was founded, and urbanisation progressed through the spread of the chalcolithic culture from the eastern provinces of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. There were similar influx and contributions from the west of Indus also, but mostly from thr northern, middle and southern Baluchistan, i.e., from within the Indian sub-continent.