Introduction Systematic Field Investigations Carried out in the Field of Archaeology During Recent Decades Have Thrown Fresh
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
FRESH LIGHT ON THE MATERIAL BACKGROUND OF EARLY CULTURES OF GANGA PLAIN Vibha Tripathi Department of AIHC and Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Benaras [email protected] Abstract The Ganga Plain witnessed the rise of cities and the first imperial power of India in the middle of the first millennium BCE. Recent studies being carried out by scholars have shed fresh light on dimensions like the beginning of agriculture, and technological developments in India, especially an early emergence of iron in the region under discussion. This communication brings together all the recent findings and shares ideas and thoughts regarding the formation of early cultures of Ganga plain. Introduction and Neolithic was recovered (Sharma et al. Systematic field investigations carried out in the 1980: 100-101). The stage was thus set for a field of archaeology during recent decades have settled agrarian life in the Vindhya-Ganga plain. thrown fresh light on early cultures of the Ganga This paved the way for the rise of civilization in plain. Availability of relatively more efficient and the Ganga plain during succeeding centuries. reliable tools for analysis of material remains There appears to be an evolution of culture unearthed through scientifically conducted from an early farming stage to the Early Historic excavations has added new dimensions to period that is perceptible in technological our understanding of cultures. The emergent innovations, ceramic and terracotta art, craft picture is more authentic and clearer now. production, metallurgy, agriculture, and other Therefore, it may be apt to review the earlier aspects of life evidenced in archaeological concepts and theories at this juncture. For remains. The present paper proposes to instance, we now definitely know that the draw attention of scholars to the important Gangetic alluvial plain was not a cultural developments that took place in the Ganga void when Videgha Mathav crossed over the Plain over the millennia. Taking cognizance of Sadanira. They must have come across some the overall growth in social, economic, cultural, indigenous people. The nature of contact of the and political fields, Sir Mortimer Wheeler used two may be a subject of deeper inquiry. What the termed ‘Ganges Civilization’ at par with the is certain, however, is that the fertile plain was ‘Indus Valley Civilization’ for this region. The already occupied by early farming communities Ganga Plain witnessed the rise of cities and moving down from the nearby Vindhya– the first imperial power of India in the middle of Kaimur hilly tracts, perhaps in search of better the first millennium BCE. Recent studies being pastures. This is fully attested by similarities carried out by scholars have shed fresh light on in pottery and other artifacts found at sites dimensions like the beginning of agriculture, in the two eco-zones. The Mesolithic folk that and technological developments in India, inhabited parts of the North-Central Vindhyas especially an early emergence of iron in the had acquainted themselves with wild species region under discussion. The recent radiocarbon of food grains during the course of foraging for determinations assigned to cultural horizons their sustenance, and at a later stage started with markers of the socio-cultural changes experimenting with animal husbandry and taking place over the millennia need serious plant breeding. Cultivated rice grains (oryza consideration in cultural reconstruction. We sativa) were excavated along with its wild variety cannot afford to ignore the new dates and (oriza nivera and rufipogon) at sites like Chopni remain oblivious of the new evidences. Here, Mando where a complete sequence of culture we are faced with questions like: in what way from the Epi-palaeolithic to the Proto-Neolithic can the early beginning of crop cultivation in the Tripathi 2017, in Rethinking the Past: A Tribute to Professor V.N. Misra (S.G. Deo, Andre Baptista and Jayendra Joglekar Eds.), pp. 250-264, Pune. ISPQS: www.manandenvironment.org ISBN: 978-81-908330-6-6 Fresh Light on the Material Background of Early Cultures of Ganga Plain Vindhya-Ganga Plain change our perception of number of high mounds dotting the alluvial cultural development taking place in the region? plain. Though the nearby hilly terrain of the Shouldn’t we re-examine the chronologies Vindhya-Kaimur range was inhabited from the regarding the beginning of iron and NBPW Stone Age, the alluvial plain was first occupied culture afresh in light of new 14C dates? What by cultures like the Ochre Coloured Pottery- can be the cultural implication of these early Copper Hoard culture in the upper Ganga plain dates coming forth from excavations? In view and by Neolithic folk in the middle Ganga plain. of recent developments, can we interface the It was succeeded by the Black and Red Ware technological development and socio-cultural culture that made scanty use of copper relying changes? Does craft specialization caused largely on bone tools for their subsistence. This by use of better tools and implements lead to period was followed by the introduction of iron intensified demand of products? Did it lead without much change in the cultural milieu. to full-fledged specialist groups? If so, how A true Age of Iron sets in the subsequent did it influence social structure? Could it also centuries. However, in the upper Ganga plain, lead to further classification, segregation and a cultural break has been discerned between hierarchical structure of society of Early Historic the OCP, the succeeding Painted Grey Ware India? Such problems call for a critical evaluation (PGW), and the Harappans migrating towards of the nature, content, and context of material the Yamuna-Hindon Doab. The gaps have remains at different periods of human history. now been filled by recent excavations at sites The issues voiced here are of vital significance like Sanauli (Sharma et al. 2004; 2006) to our understanding of techno-economic and Bhagwanpura, Katpalon, Nagar, Dadheri (Joshi social changes that took place in the region 1993), and more recently at Alamgirpur (Singh over the millennia. An attempt is made here to et al. 2013). Such an uninterrupted cultural re-examine the context of material culture. And sequence has great significance so far as an if need be, to evolve a fresh paradigm of study understanding of the process of growth of of the cultures of the Ganga plain. culture is concerned. The process of such It is not possible to discuss all the facets of changes must indeed have been a slow and culture in a short paper like the present one and complex one. Continuity between cultural hence it is aimed here to focus on a few issues horizons, if testified, raises possibilities of like: 1. Cultural sequence and inter-relationship interactions and thereby diffusion of cultural between supposedly two distinct cultural traits howsoever tenuous they appear in their phases; 2. Early beginning of agriculture and its expression in material form. The presence of cultural ramifications. 3. Recent radiocarbon certain Harappan cultural traits that appear dates related to – (A) advent of Iron, (B) NBPW in subsequent times of Indian civilization may Culture and the significance of the early context be attributed to such contacts, physical or of their incidence. The cultural sequence found ideational. Future research may underline such commonly in excavations at sites of the Ganga interactive mechanism with greater clarity. The Plain is briefly described below. Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) culture which succeeded the BRW cultural horizon in 1. Cultural Sequence the middle Ganga plain and the PGW in the The Ganga plain with its hospitable terrain has upper Ganga heralded material prosperity been termed by B. Subbarao (1958) as an ‘Area and urbanization to the Ganga Plain. The date of Attraction’. After the decline of the Indus bracket of 600 to 300 BCE assigned to the Valley Civilization, the cultural foci gradually NBPW culture earlier is now being challenged shifted from the Indus-Saraswati plain to the by recent radio-carbon dates. There are more 14 Ganga plain. The alluvial plain bordered by the than a dozen C dates from sites in the middle Vindhya-Kaimur hills had already been host to Ganga plain that average out to 1000 BCE. If a rich variety of cultures for centuries. An un- these are accepted, we may have to reconsider interrupted cultural sequence under a deposit the chronology assigned to the advent of several meters high is evidenced at a large coinage, writing, permanent buildings with 251 Rethinking the Past: A Tribute to Professor V.N. Misra sanitation arrangements, and fortification – all proto-Neolithic phase of Chopani-Mando on denominators of urban traits. the one have and its recurrence at Koldihwa Mahagara and Panchoh on the other would also 2. Beginning of Agriculture suggest continuity between the Proto-Neolithic Credit for the origin of rice cultivation was and Neolithic. A transition from gathering of earlier given to China. But the picture has now wild rice to its cultivation is also indicated. As changed with recent evidence reported from regards domestication, inter-linkage between sites in the south-central Vindhyas and the the Proto-Neolithic and Neolithic is also adjacent plains. There are AMS dates from suggested.’ A continuous cultural sequence some of the recently excavated sites go back from the Mesolithic to Proto-Neolithic and the to as early as 8th-7th millennium BCE. We succeeding Neolithic period has presented come across a clear-cut evolution of paddy a different picture. The succeeding Neolithic grains from its wild to domesticated species cultural horizon at Koldihwa and Mahagara at sites like Chopni Mando. Appropriate tool yield both, wild and cultivated varieties of typology of the Mesolithic people optimized rice and small millets right from the earliest the advantages. Besides tool-typology, the strata of the Neolithic period.