Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s3.t8: Early Iron Age Culture at Nāgdā and Ujjain
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s3.t8
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Early Iron Age Culture at Nāgdā and Ujjain
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Ujjain (23°12'N; 75° 48'E), situated on the eastern bank of Śiprā was the well-known capital of Avanti, one of the sixteen mahājanapadas during Buddha’s time. Nāgdā, on the east bank of the Chambal, is located 55 km north of Ujjain. Both the sites had chalcolithic background linked with Eran, Prakash, Maheshwar etc., and showed early use of iron which has been dated 750-700 BC by Banerjee, (1965: 14-40), the excavator of the sites. The characteristic double-slipped red ware of this era at the two sites has been found at Kauśāmbī, and Ahicchatra also.
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Pre-NBPW, Period II (750-700 BC) of Nāgdā shows earlier chalcolithic features as well as iron objects: tanged and non-tanged arrowheads, spearheads, daggers, axes including socketed ones, knife-blades, blades, celts, sickles, spoons, nails and rings. Period III ascribed to 500-200 BC shows more varieties: double-edged daggers, sickles with curved blades, hoes, bowls etc.
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We find similar trend at Ujjain. The first phase (750-550 BC) shows arrow-heads, spearheads, crowbars, spades, choppers, knives and presumably saws of iron. There is a fortification built of hard yellow clay and black cotton clay which must have been dug and processed by hard metal. A fairly well-preserved blade of an iron spade has been found in the body of the rampart.
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The presence of well-processed and extremely hard wooden sleepers or beams and columnal dressed stones in a 500 BC apsidal structure also indicate early use of iron equipments at Ujjain. Two centuries later (273-236 BC), the Aśokan craftsmen must have used hard steel or carburised iron chisels to excavate quartzose gneiss of the Barabar hills of Bihar and to finish the shafts and pillars of Chunar sandstone.
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Presenting literary and epigraphic evidences, Banerjee (1965: 18-25) has suggested that the second phase of culture at Ujjain (and the neighbouring area including Nāgdā etc.) started with the warrior ruler Pradyota defeating the Haihayas of Māhiṣmatī or Maheswar on the bank of Narmada (southern Avanti) and founding his empire of northern Avanti at Ujjain around 528 BC. Pradyota was contemporary to Gautam Buddha and the mahājanapadas at Kauśāmbī, Magadha, Śrāvasti, Taxila etc. He waged an unsuccessful war against king Pukkusāti (Pukkusārin) of Gāndhāra (Taxila) which must have taken place prior to c. 521 BC when some areas in the north-west part of India, including Gāndhāra were conquered by the Persians under Darius. Pradyota imprisoned Udayana, king of Kauśāmbī. The war-like activities in the mahājanapadas explain the fortifications at Kauśāmbī, Ujjain etc. and the increasing production of offence equipments made of iron.
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The second cultural phase at Ujjain (550 BC — ) produced a large number of iron objects including arrow-heads, spear-heads, axes, spades, points, chisels, knives, horse-bits (link with Naikund area?), sickles, door-rings, hooks, blades, clamps, sockets, choppers, latches, pivots, bars, tires, borers, rods, door chains, pans with handle etc. The Iron Age had come to Ujjain and India (we have similar array of iron items at Kauśāmbī of the NBPW era) with a full force!
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Before giving further details about the iron technology at Ujjain, we may note that this area was known as Ākarāvanti or Avanti the land of ākara or mines. Ākara has been identified with the mining township of Āgār 64 km to the north-east of Ujjain which had some iron ores on the surface. There were many other mineral deposits in the area.
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In Period II there was a workshop for the manufacture of stone-beads. In Period III (200 BC to AD 500), Ujjain produced beads of terracotta, carnelian, amethyst, garnet, chalcedony, jasper, glass, bone and ivory, bangles and ear-ornaments of copper, shell and glass, copper wire items, relief sculptures on sandstone slabs showing Gaṇeśa, Mahiṣāsuramardinī, etc. This site was well-known to the Roman traders as Ozene.
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Phase III A yielded very interesting evidence for the manufacture of beads of stone on a large scale, especially chalcedony. Rough-dressed specimens of beads were subjected to slow firing in small earthen pots with a closely fitting stopper of chalcedony, and after the rough-outs had acquired an opaque hue in the process, they were ground on slabs of sandstone with an abrasive, such as sand, and finished with the piercing of the perforation done with a drill working on one side at a time. Disc-shaped and highly polished ear-ornaments were also produced by the same method. (Banerjee, 1959)