Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c15.s6: The Origin and Transmission of the Ahar Culture
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c15.s6
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The Origin and Transmission of the Ahar Culture
v1.c15.s6.1
The origin of the Ahar culture has not been clearly established. Some people suggested without any concrete proof that ‘Aryans from Western Asia settled at Ahar’. It is much more plausible that after the collapse of the Harappan civilization, the potters of the northern Rajasthan and the metal-smiths of the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura area around Jaipur migrated southwards and settled at Kayatha and Ahar. They indeed brought the earlier traditions of fine levigated clay technology and the Mohenjo-Daro tradition of dish-on-stand. (Sankalia et al., 1969: 221-23)
v1.c15.s6.2
Ahar imbibed the techniques of manufacturing shell objects, carnelian beads and Black- and Red-pottery as well as the technology of inverted firing from the Harappan settlement at Lothal, and these traditions were gradually transmitted towards Navdatoli, Rangpur and Atrañjikhera. (Sankalia et al., 1969: 219-21) It is thus conceivable that the metal-smelting traditions in the Ganga-Yamuna valley were developed around 1200-1100 BC with the assistance of smelters migrating from the Rajasthan sites such as Ahar.