Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c16.s1: Kayatha Culture
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c16.s1
- Language
- English
Kayatha Culture
v1.c16.s1.1
Kayatha, about 16 miles to the east of Ujjain, is the ancient Kapithaka, and the birth place of Varāhamihira. It is situated on the right bank of the river Choti Kali Sind, a tributary of the Chambal, which is itself a tributary of the Yamunā.
v1.c16.s1.2
Kayatha, ancient Kapithaka, was excavated by Wakankar in 1965-66. Later it was enlarged with the help of the Deccan College in 1968. As a result of three excavations, a fivefold culture sequence has been discovered. Not only this sequence is in a sense unique for understanding the various cultural and political movements in Malwa, but the earliest culture in the sequence, designated as ‘the Kayatha Culture’ after the type site, is known for the first time. This culture was not confined to Kayatha alone. Wakankar’s explorations have brought to light some 40 sites, suggesting a wide distribution of this culture. (Sankalia, 1974: 422)
v1.c16.s1.3
It can be dated on the basis of radiocarbon determinations to 2000-1800 BC. But according to Allchins the first period is dated by radiocarbon to be between 2400-2100 BC (Masca Correction). This culture preceded the Banas Culture as in Ahar.
v1.c16.s1.4
Although due to the restricted excavation at Kayatha no complete house-plans have been recovered, but the yield of minor artefacts was quite rich; their tool outfit was chalcolithic in character for they used both copper and stone tools. The tools of copper were doubtless scarce, for the metal was not easily available in desired quantities. The people however had mastered the technology of copper as is evidenced by the find of two fine copper axes. These have a sharp cutting edge and a lenticular section: other edge has been hammered and then thickened obviously for making it convenient for hafting. But their most noteworthy feature is that these have been cast in mould in sharp contrast to the similar artefacts of the later chalcolithic cultures of Central India and the Deccan which were just hammered into the desired shape after heating the metal. The moulds for the Kayatha axes may have been of terracotta but the possibility of stone moulds cannot be ruled out. A fragmentary chisel is also reported from Kayatha.
v1.c16.s1.5
Equally interesting is the discovery of twenty-eight copper bangles kept in thin pots. The bangles are round and solid in section and have featureless terminals. So it may be presumed that the metal was not too scarce as is usually thought. According to Sankalia, this unusually large number of metallic artefacts suggests that the Kayathans were also affluent like the Harappans. About the availability of ore, it is not certain whether native copper was available in the river beds or whether it was extracted from chalcopyrites as was probably the case with the Chalcolithic cultures of the Deccan. However, it is certain that the people of the Kayatha culture had already mastered the copper technology before their arrival at the site. (Sankalia, 1974: 428; Dhavalikar In Chakrabarti and Agarwal, 1979: 232-33).
v1.c16.s1.6
Of the personal ornaments, reference has already been made to copper bangles. But more interesting are two exquisite necklaces, composed respectively of 173 and 160 beads of semi-precious stones (carnelian, agate) which were found deposited in two red painted buff ware pots; these recall to the mind similar ones from Mohenjo-Daro. The beads are mostly long barrels, short bicones and oblates and are made of carnelian and agate, while a faceted crystal is also present. Also noteworthy is the discovery of a pot containing over 40,000 micro-beads of steatite. These were all strung in thread, and a number of necklaces thus made were similar to those in which other necklaces and copper bangles were found.
v1.c16.s1.7
Associated with copper tools was a specialised blade/flake industry. The stone used is mostly siliceous such as the fine grained chalcedony, nodules of which are present in the surrounding areas. The tool types comprise of parallel-sided blades, pen-knife blades, points, lunates with blunted back etc. This industry is later found in all other chalcolithic cultures of Central India and the Deccan. The copper-using cultures in India starting with the Harappan have always used stone blades.
v1.c16.s1.8
All the objects described above such as the copper axes, bangles and necklaces were found in a small area, obviously a part of a house which however was not found. The circumstances of their discovery suggest that the occupants of the house had to leave the settlement all of a sudden: a calamity so sudden and unexpected and at the same time of unimaginable magnitude, that the only course left open to them was to flee for life. (Dhavalikar In Agarwal and Chakrabarty, 1979: 233)
v1.c16.s1.9
Among the terracotta objects, the most important finding is one of a large number of terracotta bulls. The excavator thinks that Kayatha is the only place which has yielded so far, such a large number and such a variety of these bulls in terracotta. The inhabitants might have been Śiva-worshippers. (Sankalia, 1974: 433).
v1.c16.s1.10
This Kayatha culture is characterized by three distinct ceramic industries which have no parallel in the country. Of these the principal ware is a fine sturdy pottery which is dressed with a thick brown slip. The ceramic bears some resemblance with the dark slipped ware from Sothi in Rajasthan, so far as its fabric and the surface treatment is concerned. Some shapes — the deep bowl with beaded rim and the globular jar — are common in both wares. Even some Harappan elements are discernible in the Kayatha ware.
v1.c16.s1.11
Another important ceramic of Kayatha Culture is the buff-painted ware. The vessels of this ware have a buff surface because of the wash of that colour over which painted patterns are executed in red pigment. For preparing this red colour, the potter seems to have used haematite, chunks of which have been found at the site and a few have come from the excavated trenches as well. The shapes in this ware are few, comprising of a small or medium sized loṭā with a flaring mouth. This loṭā becomes characteristic household vessel of the Malwa and all later Indian pottery. (Dhavalikar In Agarwal and Chakrabarty, 1979: 231; Sankalia, 1974: 428)
v1.c16.s1.12
Another characteristic ware of the Kayatha culture is combed ware. It is a red pottery but is decorated with incised patterns. Potteries, bearing similar incised patterns on the vessels, have been reported from Sothi in Rajasthan. One sherd exactly identical with the Kayatha combed ware has been noticed in Sothi pottery.
v1.c16.s1.13
About the origin of this culture, Dhavalikar thinks that the affinities between the Kayatha ceramic industries with that of the Pre-Harappan Sothi culture would suggest that it was a Pre-Harappan culture already developed and flourishing somewhere in the northern parts of the sub-continent. The people of this culture appear to have been pushed out from their original habitat by the urbanized Harappans and they therefore had of necessity to migrate to new lands. They may have thus reached the Chambal Valley in Malwa. Both Dhavalikar and Sankalia have raised the same question: did the immigrants name the river Kali Sind on whose banks they settled in reviving the memory of their motherland which was lost to them? Although this is a mere hypothesis, the superior pottery, the advanced metal technology, the sophisticated ornaments — all suggest that the culture is akin to the Pre-Harappan with some Harappan elements in it. Thus, it may be that the Kayatha people, who had settled earlier in the Bikaner desert region of Rajasthan, where Pre-Harappan settlements have been discovered, later migrated to Malwa region, across southeast Rajasthan. (Dhavalikar In Agarwal and Chakrabarty, 1979: 233-34)
v1.c16.s1.14
Though the culture continued to survive at Ahar for a long time, its influence or domination in Malwa now waned. It disappeared at Navdatoli after Phase I and so also at Kayatha and other sites. Whereas at Kayatha the culture was succeeded, after some interval, by another from eastern Rajasthan, it is not known what happened to this culture elsewhere in other sites.