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A History of Agriculture in India v1.c26.s5: Life in the Early Iron Age in North India

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c26.s5

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Life in the Early Iron Age in North India

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Banerjee thus describes the pattern of life in the Early Iron Age. It was a period when forts were constructed to safeguard the township against surprise attacks, as exemplified at Ujjain or Kausambi. As the towns grew up on river banks, the advantage of the river waters was also taken to protect the forts with deep moats. The forts were provided with gateways and passages. A fort conjures up pictures of warfare. The equipments of the times were, however, flimsy and consisted of iron arrow-heads, spear-heads and daggers.

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The repertoire of iron objects comprises knives, arrow-heads, spear-heads, wedges and axes. There are indications of local manufacture of iron objects in the form of slags found at Hastinapur. This manufacturing meant indeed not only the mining of ores but also the existence of smithy, involving smelting and forging.

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Fishing must indeed have been resorted to, as indicated by conical terracotta net-sinkers.

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The use of a copper borer points to craftsmanship in wood or metal.

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The articles of toiletry consisted of antimony rods, nail-parers of copper, and of a hollow terracotta object with segmented interior that has been described as a hair-cleaner.

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Among ornaments were glass bangles. This is the earliest evidence of glass manufacture in India.

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Beads were made of materials like agate, carnelian, jasper, glass, copper, bone and terracotta. The beads of terracotta are pear-shaped and often biconal. These were supplemented by ear-ornaments in the shape of convex discs with concave sides, made of bones or agate and brightly polished.

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The weaving of baskets was practised and their impressions upon the soil were preserved.⁶

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⁶ Banerjee, N.R. The Iron Age in India, pp. 196 to 199

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The Caste System. The caste is foreshadowed in the varnas of the early Aryans, but it became a reality in the later Vedic period. The Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas were the white-skinned Aryans. The Brahmanas who expounded the Vedic texts spread the Aryan culture in the newly conquered regions of central and eastern India. The Kshatriyas (Rajanya), who were the rulers and warriors, established the Aryan colonies in the east and the south. The Vaishyas were the agriculturists and traders. Some of them worked as artisans. At the bottom of the social pyramid were the Shudras, the aborigines, who were the farm labourers, hewers of wood and drawers of water. The Shudras were not allowed to read the sacred texts nor to approach the sacred fire. The aborigines who lived in the jungles were the Nagas, who worshipped the cobra (nāga).

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The economic classes of other countries are represented by castes in India. Kosambi states that caste is class on a primitive level of production. Peasant families engaged in agriculture formed a distinct caste. They were served by carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, weavers, leather-workers, tailors, drawers of water, oil-pressers, etc., who formed distinct castes. This type of division of labour continues even now in rural India. Only in States with modern agriculture and industry there are signs of its break-down.

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Occupations. The passage below in which the names of castes and variety of professions are given indicates the richness and variety of the socio-cultural and economic life of the Aryans of the later Vedic period.

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Fig. 155. Painted Grey Ware pots and dish from Hastinapur, 1000 B.C. to 800 B.C. (Courtesy: National Museum, New Delhi)

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Fig. 156. Young Hariana bulls at the Hissar cattle farm. The Hariana breed of cattle is associated with the Aryans. It is confined to the Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh where the Aryans settled [Figure: Fig. 157. Smelting of iron was a major achievement. Iron provided a hard metal from which axes, ploughshares and sickles were fabricated. This led to great progress in agriculture (Reconstruction from the Museum of Evolution of Life, Chandigarh)]

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Fig. 158. The girl is scaring away birds from a pearl-millet field with a sling (Courtesy: Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi)

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Fig. 159. Black Polished Ware from Yelleswaram, an Iron Age site in Tamil Nadu (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)

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Fig. 160. Iron objects from Megaliths in South India. At the right is a sickle and at the left is a sword. In the middle is an axe with a ring-fastener. At the top is an arrowhead. c. 300 B.C. (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)

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‘Brahmin, Rajanya, Vaishya, Shudra, thief, eunuch, adulterer, dancer, *nattuva* (dancing master), drummer, veena-player, gambler, secret lover, maidens, lovers, flatterer, unbeliever, courtesan, clown, bald-headed one, hairy one, the too tall one, the dwarf, the fat one, village headman, accountant, graceful girl, hunchback, sluggard, sleepy one, the garrulous one, loud musicians, conchshell-blowers, the half-blind one, the deaf one, unmarried elder brother, goldsmith, engraver, potter, chariot-maker, carpenter, bow-string-maker, hunter, keeper of dogs, tanner, trader, iron-smelter, watchman, ploughman, elephant-keeper, shepherd, butcher, rope-maker, author, investigator, physician, the star-gazer (astronomer), inciter to quarrels (war-monger), women who make scented oils, the barren woman, the leper, the mother of twins, the dumb, the lame, the rogue, and a host of others (*Sukla Yajur, Anuvaka*, 396). The list is not however a catalogue of mere names, but a study of the characteristics of each, in which its special feature or character is touched off by an illuminating epithet denoting the object or quality associated with it. Thus, the ploughman with food, the rich man with prosperity, the woodcutter with light (fire), the dancer with music, the star-gazer with scientific knowledge, the investigator with vast knowledge, the thief with darkness, maiden with love, the war-monger with suffering and poverty, the iron-smelter with anger, the adulterer with lust, the sower of seeds with auspiciousness, the courtesan with pleasure, and so on.’⁷

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⁷ Aiyer, A.K.Y.N. *Agriculture and Allied Arts in Vedic India*, p. 65

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The subdivision of occupations is an indicator of progress in economy. We hear of hunters, of several classes of fishermen, of attendants on cattle, of fire-rangers, of ploughers, of charioteers, of several classes of attendants, of makers of jewels, basket-makers, washermen, rope-makers, dyers, chariot-makers, barbers, weavers, butchers, workers in gold, cooks, sellers of dried fish, makers of bows, gatherers of wood, doorkeepers, smelters, footmen, messengers, carvers, seasoners of food, potters, smiths and so forth. Professional acrobats are recorded, and players on drums and flutes. Besides the boatman appears the oarsman, and the poleman.

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Social Life. On the whole, there seems to have been some decline in the position of women in this period : in one of the Sūtra texts, her wergild is assimilated to that of a Shudra and her lack of proprietary power must have tended to decrease her prestige. The polygamy of the Kings is now fully established; and, presumably, the practice of the sovereigns was followed by the richer of their subjects. On the other hand, the preference for sons becomes more and more pronounced: ‘a daughter is a source of misery, a son a light in the highest heaven.’

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Two important features of later village life in India appears in the forms of the astrologer and the barber. Of women’s work we learn of the dyer, the embroiderer, the worker in thorns, and the basket-maker. The merchant is often mentioned, and the usurer has a special name: it is of interest that the term Sreshṭhin occurs several times, denoting at least a wealthy merchant, and possibly already the word has its later technical sense of the head of a merchant guild.

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The advance of civilization is seen also in the more extended knowledge of the metals; as compared with the gold and the *ayas*, of doubtful meaning, of the *Rig-Veda*, this period knows tin, lead, and silver, of which ornamented bowls are made, while *ayas* is differentiated as red *ayas*, presumably copper, and dark or black *ayas*, which is iron.

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Houses. Houses were constructed of mud, or at best of sun-dried mud-bricks, and no more than barely recognizable lengths of walls in crumbling desolation can be accounted for in the excavated sites. Burnt bricks were not, however, unknown as excavation at Ahichchhatra has shown.

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A variety of wild cane was used, along with the husks of rice, to reinforce the mud or mud-brick walls with plaster, as observed at Hastinapur. As rains were heavy in the region where the Painted Grey ceramic occurs, the roof was thatched.

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Money. There were no coins, though the path to this development was already opened by the use of the *kṛiṣṇala*, the berry of the *Abrus precatorius* (*rati*), as a unit of weight. We hear in the *Brāhmaṇas* of the *śatamāna*, a piece of gold in weight equivalent to a hundred *kṛiṣṇalas*; and such pieces of gold were clearly more or less equivalent to currency and must have been used freely by the merchants, of whose activities we hear so little in the sacred texts. The *nishka*, originally a gold ornament, was also at this time a suit of value; and the cow as a unit was probably in course of supersession.⁸

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⁸ Rapson, E. J. (Ed.) *The Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, pp. 120, 122, 123

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Clothes. The style of clothing seems to have continued unchanged, though we hear more of the details; among other things are woollen garments, robes dyed with saffron, and silk raiment.

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Sports. The amusements of the day were, as in the period of the *Rig-Veda*, the chariot race, dicing and dancing.

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Food. Various eatables are mentioned in the texts of this period. The *apūpa* is a cake mixed with *ghee* (clarified butter) or made of rice or barley; *odana* is a mess, generally of grain cooked with milk. Special varieties are those made with water, milk, curds or ghee and beans, sesame or meat, and named appropriately, such as "*tilaudana*". A porridge made of grain, barley or unhusked sesame, slightly parched and kneaded, is called *karambha*. Barley-gruel (*yavāgū*) and decoctions of other grains are also referred to.

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Meat-eating seems to be fairly common. The *Satapatha Brahmana* prescribes the killing of a goat in honour of a guest. Generally, meat was eaten on the occasion of some ceremony or other, but such ceremonies were performed almost every day. It appears that the killing of cows gradually came into disfavour. The normal meat-diet consisted of the flesh of the sheep and the goat, the usual sacrificial victims.

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Among the chief products of milk may be mentioned curds (*amiksha*), sour milk (*dadhi*), fresh butter (*nava-nita*), *payasya* or curds consisting of a mixture of sour milk and hot or cold fresh milk, butter, mixed with sour milk (*prishad-ajya*), *phanta*, the first clotted lumps of butter produced by churning, and finally *vajina*, a mixture of hot fresh milk with sour milk. This formidable list of milk-products and their mixtures shows the great popularity of milk.

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*Sura*, an intoxicating spirituous liquor, is often mentioned. Though tolerated as an ordinary drink, it is often condemned as leading to quarrels and as seducing men from the path of virtue, like dicing and meat-eating (A. VI.70.1). The Sautrāmaṇī sacrifice is of the nature of an expiation or penance for an indulgence in *sura*. Probably, it was prepared from fermented grains and plants. It was kept in skins. The *Yajur-Veda Samhitas* mention a beverage called *masara*, which appears to have been a mixture of rice and *syamaka* with grass and parched barley, etc. *Madhu* primarily means "sweet" as an adjective, and so denotes any sweet food or drink such as the Soma or milk. The sense "honey", though known in the *Rig-Veda*, is only now its most definite sense, and there are taboos against its use by students and women under certain circumstances.⁹

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⁹ Majumdar, R.C. and Pusalker, A.D. (Ed.). *The History and Culture of the Indian People—The Vedic Age*, pp. 457, 458

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Pastoralism. The *Yajur-Veda* helps us to draw some conclusions about the mode of life of the Aryans for the period 1000-800 B.C. and the attached book, the *Satapatha Brahmana*, extends the information to about 600 B.C. 'Even cursory reading', says Kosambi, 'shows that pastoral life formed the basis of Yajur-Vedic society, as of its ritual. Nevertheless, the growing importance of agriculture and of metals is made very clear in a prayer (still recited): 'May for me....milk, sap, clarified butter, honey, eating and drinking at the common table (*sagdhi* and *sapiti*), ploughing, rains, conquest, victory, wealth, riches, prosperity....low-grade grain (*kuyava*) food, freedom from hunger, rice, barley, sesame, kidney-beans, vetches, wheat, lentils, millet and wild rice (prosper through the sacrifice). May for me the stone, clay, hills, mountains, sand, trees, gold, bronze, lead, tin, iron, copper, fire, water, roots, plants, what grows on ploughed land, what grows on unploughed land, tame and wild cattle prosper through the sacrifice (*yajna*)'. 'This may be dated at about 800 B.C., and shows that the Aryans had begun to face new problems of production in the Iron Age.¹⁰

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¹⁰ Kosambi, D.D. *The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline*, p. 85

Cites (6)