Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s1.38

v1.c20.s1.38

Banerjee (1965: 65-67) proposed that the megalith builders of Peninsular India might have picked up iron age culture around 800 BC either from the migrant Aryans or the cairn burial people of the North-Western India. The iron age of the cairn burial people in Pirak of Baluchistan, Swat Valley and Gufkral at Kashmir are all dated around 900-800 BC which is much later than the Tadakanhalli date of twelfth century BC. Thus, there was little possibility of the megalith builders ‘picking up’ iron age culture from the cairn burial people of the North-West. It could have been the other way round. There are four distinct possibilities regarding the origin of iron-age culture in the North-Western India: (a) indigenous development, (b) influence of the migrant megalith people from the South who shared the burial traditions, (c) influence of the Atrañjikhera/ Ahar PGW culture, or (d) influence from the Iranian culture of Sialk VI after ninth century BC. The possibility of Sialk VI iron-making tradition influencing the whole of India through the immigrant ‘Aryans’ or the cairn burial people may be safely ruled out.