A History of Agriculture in India v1.c22.s3.t2: Discovery of Silk

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c22.s3.t2

Language: English

Discovery of Silk

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Several of the burials at Nevasa were endowed with funerary goods, such as small pots and beads made of shell, agate, carnelian and copper. In one burial, a copper bangle was found around the leg-bone of a child; the burial was very rich in pottery as well. The most remarkable find, however, was that of a necklace of 17 barrel-shaped copper beads strung with thread, worn round the neck of a child buried in urns. A.N. Gulati, who examined the thread, is of the opinion that it was of white silk, apparently spun from cocoons on a cotton nep. This is thus the earliest evidence of the use of silk in India.

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*Bombyx huttoni*, the Indian silk moth of north-western Himalayas, is ancestral to several of the domesticated *Bombyx* according to Zeuner. There are five silk-producing species of *Bombyx* in India. In addition to *Bombyx* silk, there are species of Saturniidae which are the producers of coarser and harder tusser silk. They include *Antheraea mylitta* of India (Fig. 134), which feeds on the leaves of ber tree, *Ziziphus mauritiana*.

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Gulati found the presence of millet-cells and epidermal hairs, besides fungal spores, in the earth sticking to the copper beads. This, according to him, would indicate the use of cattle-dung in the burial rite. In addition, he noticed the presence of oil-globules in the material surrounding the string, which suggests the use of oil for anointing the body. Polished celts and an adze were also recovered. The few copper objects included fish-hooks, wires and a bangle.

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NAVDATOLI (THE NIMAD DISTRICT, MADHYA PRADESH), 1657 B.C.—1443 B.C.

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Navdatoli is a key-site of the Chalcolithic culture of the Narmada basin. Now it is a small hamlet inhabited by boatmen (*nāvdas*). The Narmada, which in the past was below the hamlet, is now about 600 metres away.

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Sankalia, who excavated this site, thus describes its culture. ‘The inhabitants built round and square or rectangular huts, raised on thick wooden posts. Around these were put bamboo screens, plastered with clay from outside and inside. At Inamgaon in district Poona, huts were constructed in a similar manner (Fig. 138). The floor was also made of clay mixed with cowdung. Both were then given a thick coating of lime, so that the house when first built must have looked spick and span. The size of the largest rectangular room was 20 feet by 40 feet [6 metres by 12 metres]. But sometimes a circular hut was only three to four feet [0.9 to 1.2 metres] in diameter, the largest being of 8 feet [2.4 metres] in diameter. So, it is doubtful, if the small one was meant for habitation. Such small huts might have been used for storing grain or hay. But normally in Period II the size of a room was 10 feet × 8 feet [3 metres × 2.4 metres]. How many persons lived in a room or a house can only be guessed. But, possibly, not more than four in a room of 8 feet × 10 feet [2.4 metres × 3 metres]. Secondly, the settlement was so often rebuilt, as evidenced by house floors, that it is difficult to distinguish the house plans by mere occurrences of post-holes. But judging from the modern village of Navdatoli, one may guess that the prehistoric village might have had 50 to 75 huts, supporting a population of about 200 persons.

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‘In one house was found a well-made rectangular pit. Its sides are slightly bevelled; all round there are postholes; on either side at some distance is a pot-rest made into the ground, and possibly the remains of a single-mouthed hearth. Inside the pit were found two charred logs of wood and the remains of two pots. These have a high corrugated neck with everted rim, a ribbed ovalish body with one or two incised bands, filled in with lime and a high hollow base.

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‘These houses were built very close to each other. But between a row of 4 or 5 houses, it appears, there was an open space, like a *chowk*. These houses were furnished, as can be expected of those days and as we find in a farmer’s house even today, with earthen pots for storing, cooking and drinking. The large storage jars were strong and sturdy but generally decorated with an engraving along the neck. But what surprises us and delights our eye is their "table service", or dinner set. It is this which distinguishes these Early Navdatolians from the modern primitives like Santals and other tribes in Chota Nagpur, for instance. The Navdatolians had a large number of pottery vessels which according to their fabric, shapes and designs fall into four distinctive groups, each having certain shapes and designs associated with a particular period. The most common is a pale-red slipped fabric with paintings in black over it. Since this occurs throughout Malwa (an old geographical name for parts of Central India), it is called the "Malwa Ware". This occurs as a major pottery fabric right from the first occupation and runs through the entire Chalcolithic habitation. However, in the earliest period only certain shapes and designs figure, both becoming more varied later.

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'Then there is a sprinkling of black-and-red ware, with paintings in white, comprising generally bowls with gracefully inturned sides and cups. This fabric is confined only to Period I, and seems definitely to be an import from the adjoining region of Rajputana, where at Ahar it occurs in profusion.

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'The third important fabric is the white-slipped one. It is associated with the first two periods only, but died out later. It has several gradations in slip and texture, but the finest is smooth, lustrous and slightly greenish-white.

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'Though it copies some of the shapes of the Malwa ware, its own distinctive shapes are a shallow dish with broad, flat rim and stand, and a high concave-walled cup with bulging bottom. An almost complete bowl of the latter in fine white slip recalls a similar vessel from the earliest period at Sialk, in Iran. A band of running antelopes and dancing human figures seem to be characteristic designs.

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'A number of querns were found, as they were left by their users, right on the kitchen floor, near *chulhas* or hearths. The *chulhas* were quite large, made with clay and thinly plastered with lime. It is, however, not to be presumed that the inhabitants were strictly vegetarians. In the debris of their houses have been found remains of cattle, pig, sheep, goat, and deer. Except for the last, all must have been domesticated and eaten. But since the grains were varied and plentiful they relied less on animal food, and hence their remains are comparatively few in number as compared to those from Nevasa.

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'The early inhabitants of Navdatoli were fairly well off. They were essentially farmers or peasants, though a section might be living by hunting and fishing. They used copper but sparingly in the shape of simple, flat axes (Fig. 135), fish-hooks, pins and rings. In a later phase possibly they used daggers or swords with a midrib. So for their daily needs of cutting

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