A History of Agriculture in India v1.c21: Chapter 15. Burzahom—A Neolithic Relict Culture in a Refuge Area

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c21

Language: English

v1.c21.s1 Burzahom — 17 parts
v1.c21.s2 Agriculture — 15 parts
v1.c21.s3 Polished Stone Axes—Their Use — 6 parts
v1.c21.s4 A Relict Culture — 9 parts
v1.c21.s5 References — 2 parts

Chapter 15. Burzahom—A Neolithic Relict Culture in a Refuge Area

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NEOLITHIC culture is characterized by polished stone axes, crude hand-made pottery with evidence of cultivars of primitive kinds or their wild progenitors.

In the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, the existence of Neolithic cultures has been established in six different geographical regions: (i) Northern, covering Kashmir, the Kangra Valley in Himachal Pradesh (excavated site, Burzahom); (ii) North-western, covering Baluchistan, Swat and the contiguous areas of the Upper Sind Valley in West Pakistan (excavated sites, Kile Gul Mohammad, Ghaligal and Saraikhola); (iii) Central-eastern, covering Chota Nagpur plateau with its peneplains in various districts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal (excavated sites, Barudih and Kuchai); (iv) North-eastern, covering Assam, Chittagong and the sub-Himalayan regions including Darjeeling (excavated site, Daojali Hading); (v) North Bihar, covering the District of Saran (excavated site, Chirand); and (vi) Southern, covering peninsular India (excavated sites, Brahmagiri, Sanganakallu, Maski, Piklihal, Utnur, Nagarjunakonda, T. Narsipur, Hemmige, Paiyampalli, Tekkalakota, Terdal, Hallur, Palavoy, Kupgal and Kodekal).

Burzahom

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Burzahom in Kashmiri means the place of birch. In the past this place was possibly covered with a forest of birch (*Betula utilis*).

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The megalithic site of Burzahom situated on the Yendrahom Karewa below the Mahadev peak, about 16 kilometres north-northeast of Srinagar, was discovered by De Terra and Paterson in 1936. It was excavated by T.N. Khazanchi, Raghbir Singh and K.M. Srivastava of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1960 and onwards. About nine other sites of Burzahom culture have been discovered in the terraces of the Jhelum River. Allchins are of the view that the finds of ground stone axes in the Kangra Valley in Himachal Pradesh also probably belong to this group.

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Excavations at Burzahom up to 3.6 metres, reaching the virgin soil, disclosed three cultural layers. The earliest settlers were ‘pit-dwellers’ (c. 2375 B.C.). Cut into the upper Karewa bed, the pits were circular or oval and varied from 1½ to 2½ metres in depth. The mouth of pit was narrow. The bottom was usually flat, over which ashy deposits were noticed, signifying human occupation. A landing-step was provided in a deep pit. In one case, two nearby pits were interconnected by means of a small arched corridor plastered with mud. There were niches in the walls. The occurrence of charred reeds and post-holes in one of the pits suggests that a roof of reeds was provided. The pit-deposits yielded polished stone axes, bone tools, and hand-made, mat-impressed steel-grey pottery, which included a deep bowl with pedestal base and a jar with a flaring rim. A few wheel-made burnished sherds of red ware were also noticed.

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In a wide and deep pit, with a charred lining, were found a large number of animal bones, especially of the deer, indicating that the pit was used as a communal hearth.

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In the succeeding phase, pit-dwellings were abandoned and the inhabitants began living in mud houses built over the ground. The floors of these houses were often plastered and occasionally painted in red ochre. The potter's craft further improved with the introduction of the wheel. Towards the close of the phase, copper came to be used, although sparingly. The people depended largely on hunting and fishing, as is evident from the scenes depicted on carved stone slabs. An engraved stone slab was discovered by Khazanchi fixed in a tank-like rectangular structure, which could be dated 1200-1300 B.C. It depicts a hunting scene. A man holding a spear is throwing it at the hind quarters of the stag. Another in front is shooting an arrow at him. A dog with an uplifted tail is depicted chasing the stag (Fig. 116).

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The tools of the people of Burzahom, especially the stone pounders, querns and lunar knives, suggest that there was also some agriculture.

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Period III was marked by intrusion of new ideas. Deep and wide pits were cut into the underlying floor-levels of Period II for erecting megalithic structures. In one case, a rubble wall was built over a dwelling-pit. Though no clear plan was discernible, the complex formed a rough semi-circle, opening on the south-eastern side. For keeping the stones in position, a dry-rubble packing was provided. About 1.50 metres below the surface was exposed a huge stone of the megalithic complex. One of the megaliths is still standing (Fig. 115).

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Burials. Thirteen burials, eight human and five animal ones, were recorded within the habitation-area. They were buried in circular or oval pits, coated with lime from inside. A noteworthy feature of the human burials of Phase II was the use of red ochre on the bones. Four human skeletons were buried in a crouching position. The burials showed both primary and secondary interments. The former showed extended articulated skeletons, and the latter only selected bones. No grave-furniture was noticed. Pet animals or their bones were sometimes deposited with the human remains.

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Pottery. The pottery of the Neolithic Periods I and II was characterized by a grey hand-made ware with shades of dull-red, brown, buff and burnished black surfaces. In the earlier period, the pottery was coarse both in fabric and finish, and was represented by the bowl, vase and stem. In Period II a burnished black ware of medium fabric made its appearance. It included such shapes as the dish, sometimes with provision for a stand, bowl, globular pot, jar, stem with triangular perforations and a funnel-shaped vase. A distinctive type in the grey or black burnished ware was a high-necked jar with a flaring rim, globular body and flat base. On the lower part of the neck were incised oblique notches. Mat-impressions formed exclusive designs on this ware (Fig. 114).

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In Period III, the pottery, predominantly of red ware, was generally wheel-made, though the fabric was coarse.

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Burzahom (Kashmir) Schematic Section

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Fig. 114. Schematic section of Burzahom, Kashmir Valley. The lowermost layer has pit dwellings, c. 1800 B.C. The menhir marks a burial spot (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)

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Period IV, roughly belonging to an age earlier than the Buddhist site of Harwan, ascribable to the third or fourth century of the Christian Era, yielded a red ware of fine-to-medium fabric, often slipped and mostly wheel-made.

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Tools. About 2,000 bone tools were recovered from the excavation. The main types are harpoons for fishing, needles with or without eyes and awls for stitching skins, spear points, arrowheads and daggers for hunting, scrapers for treating skins, borers, chisels and polishers for working on tools, and perforated knives for agricultural operations. Sankalia observes that the clothing of the people of Burzahom must have been largely of leather, and was cut with flake-knives and stitched with needles and bodkins. Tools were also fashioned out of antlers. The greatest frequency of bone tools was observed in Period II (Fig. 117).

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About 1,500 stone objects consisted of polished axes, harvesters, polishers, pounders, chisels and mace-heads (Fig. 118). The larger axes were for heavy work, and the smaller ones for lighter work. The hoes were also of two types; the larger ones were over 10 inches [25 cm] long and 3 inches [7.5 cm] broad. The flake knives were double-edged and one-edged. Double-edged picks, querns and grinders were also found. These are typologically different from their southern counterparts.¹

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¹ *Indian Archaeology 1961-62—A Review*, Archaeological Survey of India

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Dog Burials. The ritual burial of animals is another feature of Burzahom. Like human beings, animals were buried in oval pits, with their inner sides plastered with lime. The animals found in the burials were wolf, wild dog and ibex. Pet animals, particularly dogs, were sacrificed and buried along with the corpses of the owners, who probably desired their company in the next world. Allchins are of the view that the dog burials, pit dwellings and bone tools suggest the influence of Neolithic culture of northern China. Sankalia believes that it had contact with the pre-Harappan culture of Kot Diji and with the Hissar III culture of Iran.

Agriculture

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A crop-cutting instrument with two holes, the like of which has been known from China, indicates that cultivation was practised here (Fig. 118). No direct evidence of cereals grown by the Neolithic Kashmiris has come forth, but seeds of weeds, like *Lithospermum arvense*, species of *Trifolium*, *Lotus corniculatus* and other species of *Lotus*, *Medicago denticulata* and *M. falcata*, and species of *Ipomoea* and *Euphorbia* have been recovered (Fig. 120). Most of these are weeds occurring in cultivated fields, dry pastures and wastelands, and are usually associated with the cultivation of wheat and barley.

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Recent pollen analyses carried out in the Haigam Lake, not far away from this site, reveal that the origin of cultivation in the valley started within the blue pine forests which were cleared by the Neolithic man. The climate was much cooler than at present. Subsequent clearances were confined to the broad-leaved forests of oaks and alders which had replaced the conifers. Tree pollen rapidly declines after cutting of the forest-trees, and in its place there is a sharp rise in the pollen of herbaceous plants and the emergence of new weeds which are associated with the cultivation of crops. The cultivation was of a shifting type.

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Shifting Cultivation. *Jhuming*, or shifting cultivation, is still practised by the tribals in the hilly areas of Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Orissa. It is estimated that 338,502 hectares of land was subjected to shifting cultivation in Orissa and 27,287 hectares in Assam (1966).

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Sinha thus describes *penda*, or shifting cultivation, practised by the Maria Gonds of the Abujhmar Hills: "The cultural pattern of the Hill Maria centres around the principal subsistence economy of *penda*, shifting cultivation. The technology of shifting cultivation is intimately adjusted to the ecology of Abujhmar Hills."

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The *penda* cultivation begins with the felling of trees at a site decided upon by the village elders at a ceremony after the harvest festival, *kaqsar*. The villagers start felling trees after a communal ceremony at the *penda* plot. There is no formal allotment of land, but villagers divide the land by mutual discussion, the size of each plot depending on the number of persons in the household to be fed and capable of doing a full day's work with axe and hoe.

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Disputes are practically unknown even today in the Abujhmar Hills, as there is ample land for all. Each *penda* is cultivated for two years, and each year the villagers cultivate a new *penda* and an old *penda*. The conventional cycle of forest regeneration of the Hill Maria is about 18 years.

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After the initial operations of clearing, the Hill Marias get ready to set fire to their dried plots. They have the practical knowledge of the local climate, and schedule their firing operations in such a way that the fields receive the monsoon showers within a week.

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The village leader goes to the field to start the forest fire and immediately after that each villager sets fire to his respective field. Sowing starts by the third week of June immediately after the break of the monsoon and the date of the first sowing is decided by the headman in consultation with the elders.

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Immediately after the completion of sowing, and sometimes in between sowing, the whole *penda* is fenced by wooden logs and bamboos. This is the communal work of all the able-bodied members of the village. The crops cultivated in the *penda* include millets, pulses, small-sized maize, chilli, oilseeds, sweet-potato, arum, pulses and beans. Rice is grown only in semi-permanent or permanent plots near the streams.

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Every phase of *penda* cultivation is marked by some rituals. There are rituals for the choice of the *penda* site, the first felling of trees, the first sowing, the harvesting and the eating of the first crops. The *penda* land is considered to be the land of the clan god. When the new grains of the crop concerned have been garnered, the village headman of each village sends word to the *pen-waddai*, or clan-priest, who worships the clan god at his shrine, *pen-rawar*.

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Apart from the fact that there is adequate land on the Abujhmar Hills for penda cultivation, the collecting and hunting of forest products and animals are an important source of food. Among the forest plants and products, nuts of the siari, green mango, sulphi-juice, mahua flower and seeds, young bamboo shoots and seeds, and various kinds of roots and tubers, and mushrooms are important.

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Hunting, an exclusively male occupation, is more popular at the foothills than on the hilltops. Community hunting is generally organized between the harvesting and sowing seasons, the principal game being various types of deer. They also hunt peafowl, jungle fowl and hare. They show a remarkable knowledge of the habits and habitats of the various game animals and birds.

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Fishing, on a small scale, is done quite extensively in the hill streams throughout the region. Fishing-rods, various types of bamboo and cane cages and traps are the main fishing-tools.

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While the purely hunting-fishing-gathering economy of the Onge of Little Andaman sustains a total tribal population of about 150 today with a density of 0.56 per square mile (1.45 per square kilometre) and an average family size of 3.06 only, the shifting cultivator Hill Maria Gonds of the Abujhmar Hills have a density of about 9.³ per square mile (24 per square kilometre).²

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² Surajit Sinha, Primitive Hunters, Shifting Cultivators, The Times of India Annual, 1974

Polished Stone Axes—Their Use

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The polished stone axe, prima facie, does not seem to be an efficient tool for cutting trees. How was it used by the Neolithic man? It seems that the Neolithic man had discovered the secret that the life of the tree is in the bark and not in the dead wood in the centre. The bark contains the living cells of the phloem, through which food materials are transported from the leaves to the stem and the roots, and the xylem whose cells pump water from the roots to the leaves. If the bark is removed, the tree dies. It is easy to cut the bark of a tree with the aid of a polished stone axe. The practice of killing trees in this manner is called ring-barking. After the bark is removed in this manner, the tree is left to dry thoroughly and after that it is burnt.

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It was estimated by experiment that one man can clear a hectare of forest in five weeks if he uses a stone axe.³

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³ Coles, J.M. ‘Experimental Archaeology’, Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., 1966-67, p. 7

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During the Neolithic Age, it seems that men cleared large areas of primeval forest with polished stone axes, burnt the clearings and planted small fields of cereals near their huts and used the rest for pasturing animals. An experiment was carried out by two Danish archaeologists, Jorgen Troels- Smith and Svend Jorgensen, with Neolithic polished stone axes. They obtained a number of Neolithic flint axe blades from the National Museum in Copenhagen. The axe blades were inserted in a rectangular hole in the haft of ash wood (Fig. 121). It was found that if the haft was not to be split, it must not hold the blade too tightly but must leave room for a little side-wise play of the blade when it struck. They discovered that the proper way to use the flint axe was to chip at the tree with short, quick strokes, using mainly the elbow and the wrist. They concluded that the Neolithic men could have cut large clearings in the forest with their flint axes without great difficulty. After the felled trees had more than a year to dry, brushwood and branches cut from the trees were spread over the area to be burnt. Then it was ignited along a 30-foot-wide [9-metre-wide] belt by means of torches of burning birch bark attached to stakes. As soon as the ashes cooled down, part of the area was sown with primitive varieties of wheat (einkorn and emmer) and naked barley. The seeds were spread on the ground and raked with a forked branch (Fig. 122). For comparison, two sets of plots were sown—one burned and one unburned but hoed and weeded. The contrast in results was remarkable. On the unburned ground, the grain scarcely grew at all, but the burned ground produced luxuriant crop which was harvested with a flint knife and a flint sickle. In the second year, the burned plots yielded a much smaller crop.⁴ This is what happens in *jhum* areas of India. After 2-4 years, the yields decline, and the fields are invaded by tall grasses and weeds, followed by bush and forest. The land is again subjected to *jhuming*. At each turn of the cycle, the soil becomes more and more depleted of plant nutrients and productivity becomes less and less. When *jhuming* is done on hillsides, there is enormous loss of top soil due to erosion.

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⁴ Iversen, Johannes, Forest Clearance in the Stone Age, Agricultural Beginnings, 1956

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The polished stone axe is a tool which led to major advancement in the life of the people. It enabled man to cut jungle trees and clear the land for cultivation. It led to the development of carpentry. Thus ploughs, wheels and boats could be manufactured, and wooden houses could be constructed.

A Relict Culture

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When one compares Burzahom with Chalcolithic sites of Sind, the Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, one cannot help remarking that it was situated in a refuge area which continued to preserve techniques which had long been superseded in the area which came under the influence of the Harappan Chalcolithic culture. This is not surprising, as even in the present age there are widely different patterns of farming in India. Whereas the Punjab has modern agriculture with the use of tractors, tube-wells, electric [Figure: Fig. 116. Hunters of Burzahom holding a stag at bay. The man with a bow is shooting an arrow, and the one behind is flinging a spear. A dog with tail uplifted is chasing the stag Fig. 117. Bone-tools discovered from Burzahom. The second and fourth from left are needles, and the sixth is a harpoon Fig. 118. Polished stone-tools (neoliths) from Burzahom, Kashmir Valley, 1800 B.C. On the top are stone-axes. In the centre is a ring stone and below are a stone-axe and a chopper (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)

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Fig. 115. The megalith at Burzahom, Kashmir Valley

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Fig. 119. The Neolithic axe (also called celt or adze), made by the combined techniques of chipping, grinding and polishing, has a sharp convex cutting edge, and the butt end is pointed. These neolithic axes are from different parts of India. The top two are from the villages of Lodhwara, Chakla and Bankat, Karwai Tehsil, Banda District, Uttar Pradesh, collected by A.P. Khatri; the left one in the second row is from a village near Pinjore, Himachal Pradesh; the central axe and the right one on the second row are surface finds from the Raichur District, Karnataka; at the bottom is a chisel from the Raichur District

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Fig. 120. Seeds of weeds associated with cultivation, from Neolithic of Burzahom, Kashmir. Left to right: top row, *Lithospermum arvense* and *Ipomoea* sp.; bottom row, *Trifolium* sp., *Lotus corniculatus* and *Medicago* sp. (After Vishnu-Mittre)

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Fig. 121. A stone-axe was reconstructed by mounting the Neolithic flint head on a copy of a Neolithic haft preserved at the bottom of a bog in Denmark. It was found that the full swing of the modern woodsman often chipped or broke the head. Using short, rapid strokes, the experimenters learnt to fell trees having a diameter of more than 30 cm in 30 minutes. To fell small trees, they chopped all the way round the trunk (After Johannes Iversen)

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Fig. 122. *Top*: Trees were burnt by covering them with brushwood and igniting a 9-metre strip. When the strip was almost burnt out, the larger logs were used to light the next one. *Middle*: The seed was sown (*left*) by hand in the warm ash, and the seedbed was raked with a forked stick (*right*). The plants sown were barley and two primitive varieties of wheat. *Bottom*: Barley had grown to this height six weeks after it had been sown in the ash of the burnt brushwood and trees. Barley sown in plots not covered with ash grew very poorly motors, diesel engines, and chemical fertilizers, Orissa, Assam, and large areas in Madhya Pradesh still pursue primitive agriculture. There are jungle tribes in Kerala who still hunt with bows and arrows.

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Burzahom also explains the anomalous position of Neolithic cultures in India which, unlike those of other countries, are younger or contemporary with the Bronze Age cultures. Surely, it could be expected that neolithic sites as old as the fifth or sixth millenium B.C. would be discovered in Baluchistan and Himachal Pradesh, which would enlighten us about the beginning of agriculture in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. A preliminary report of the French archaeologists about the excavations at the site of Merchrag, about 150 kilometres to the south-east of Quetta on the banks of the Bolan River, points in this direction.

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Polished stone axes have been discovered as surface finds from many parts of India. Stone axes in the top row of Fig. 119 were discovered by A.P. Khatri from the Kurwai Tehsil in the Banda District in Uttar Pradesh. They were worshipped as Shiva lingams in way-side temples. Stone axes at the centre and right of the second row in Fig. 119, now in the Museum of Evolution of Life, Chandigarh, were discovered as surface finds in the Raichur District, Karnataka. At the bottom is a chisel from the same area.

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Recently a neolithic settlement has been discovered by Devendra Handa, about 25 km to the north of Hoshiarpur on the banks of a small river at Dhol Baha. It has yielded pointed butt variety of celts. Polished stone axes have been discovered as surface finds in villages near Pinjore on the Sirsa River, and are kept in the Museum of Evolution of Life, Chandigarh (Fig. 120, second row, left). These are indications of Neolithic settlements in the Siwaliks in northern Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. This is a region in which Palaeolithic tools have been discovered at a number of places (Fig. 31). It seems that this area, which has numerous freshwater rivulets, has been inhabited by man from about half a million years onwards.

References

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Allchin, B. and R. *The Birth of Indian Civilization*, Pelican, 1968 *Indian Archaeology, 1960-61, a Review*, ASI, New Delhi, 1961 *Indian Archaeology, 1961-62, a Review*, ASI, New Delhi, 1964 Iversen, J. *Forest Clearance in the Stone Age*, in *Agricultural Beginnings*, 1956 Khazanchi, T.N. Pit Dwellers of Burzahom, in *The Illustrated Weekly of India*, Sept. 5, 1976 Pande, B.M. Neolithic hunting scene on a stone slab from Burzahom, Kashmir, *Asian Perspective*, Vol. XIV, 1973 Sankalia, H.D. *Prehistory and Protohistory of India and Pakistan*, Poona, 1974 Sinha, S. Primitive Hunters, Shifting Cultivators, *The Times of India Annual*, Bombay, 1974

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Thapar B.K. *Problems of the Neolithic Cultures in India: a Retrospect*, Puralattva, No. 7, 1974 Thapar, B.K. *Early Farming Communities in India*, Ms. 1977 Vishnu-Mittre, Protohistoric records of agriculture in India, *Trans. Bose Res. Institute*, Vol. 31, 1968