Harappan Settlement Pattern on the Desert Margin with Special Reference to Hanumangarh District
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Indian Journal of Archaeology Harappan Settlement Pattern on the Desert Margin with Special Reference to Hanumangarh District Dr. Vikas Pawar Dr. R.N. Singh Dr. Cameron Petrie Dept. of History Dept. of AIHC & Archaeology Department of Archaeology MD University, Banaras Hindu University, University of Cambridge Rohtak Varanasi Cambridge CB2 3DZ, Haryana, India-124001 Uttar Pradesh, India-221005 United Kingdom Ph. No. +91-9813257268 Ph. No. +91-9415270188 Ph. No. +00447910990959 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] The District Hanumangarh came into existence by carving out from Ganganagar district on July 12, 1994 as the 31st district of Rajasthan state.1 The district covering a total geographical area of 9656.09 sq. km2 is located between 28°46'30’’ to 29°57'20’’ North latitudes and 73°49'55’’ to 75°31'32’’ East longitudes.3 It is surrounded by Ganganagar district in the west, Bikaner district in the south-west, Churu district in the south, Sirsa district of Haryana in the east and Firozepur district of Punjab in the north. The district derives its name from its headquarters in Hanumangarh town which is located at a distance of 64 km south-east of Ganganagar on the Sadulpur-Hanumangarh branch line of the northern railways. It is well connected also by road. The town was earlier known as Bhatner. In the year 1805, Maharaja Surat Singh of Bikaner seized Bhatner after conquering Bhatis and as the day of his victory was Tuesday which is known as the day of god ‘Hanuman’, Bhatner was renamed as Hanumangarh by him.4 Previous Work Not much exploration was done in the area under study. In the early decades of 19th century Lt. Col. Todd explored a small part of this area and reported some ancient sites like Kalibangan5 etc. L.P. Tessitori, an Italian scholar, in the course of his exploration visited Kalibangan in 1917 and 1918.6 Aurel Stein carried out extensive explorations along River Ghaggar and discovered a number of Proto-historic and Historical sites.7 A. Ghosh also explored this area and discovered some sites e.g. Sothi, Sher Pura and Nohar.8 The Harappan sites explored by Ghosh were revisited by K.N. Dikshit.9 They confirmed the existence of pre-Harappan pottery in this region. In 1980 K.F. Dalal explored Bahawalpur and Bikaner region along with the 'Lost' Saraswati River that is the only noteworthy work involving methodical survey and surface collection of ceramics.10 R. C. Thakran also explored some sites falling in Suratgarh and Hanumangarh Districts.11 Later V. Shinde piloted a random survey along the Ghaggar basin in search of Harappan sites.12 Apart from these explorations a few sites in the present study area namely, Kalibangan, Sothi, Nohar (trail excavation), Dabdi, Dabli Was Chugta and Karanpura have been excavated. 20 | P a g e www.ijarch.org Harappan Settlement Pattern on the Desert Margin Special Reference to Hanumangarh District Excavations at Kalibangan were started during 1960-61 and came to an end in 1968-69 after nine seasons of excavations.13 It has yielded the remains of Early Harappan (Period-I) and Mature Harappan (Period-II) culture. A few sherds akin to Hakra ware were found from the lowest levels of period-I.14 Sothi was excavated twice, first by A. Ghosh15 and later on by K.N. Dikshit.16 It has yielded evidences related to Early Harappan, Mature Harappan and Rangmahal cultures. The term Sothi-Siswal complex came into existence after excavations at Sothi and Siswal. Dikshit17 also took some trial trenches at Nohar in 1978. It has yielded the remains of early Harappan, Harappan and Historical remains. Dabdi (2006) was excavated under the Joint Direction of R.C. Thakran and Amar Singh. It has yielded remains of Early Harappan period single culture site. Most of the pottery having incised design and main shapes are bowls and basin. In the house of antiquity unique type of micro terracotta beads and micro beads of steatite were found.18 Dabliwas Chugta/Kamana (2011) was excavated under the Joint Direction of R.N. Singh (B.H.University, Varanasi) and C.A. Petrie (Cambridge University) under UKIERI project.19 Excavation carried out at Dabliwas Chugta have produced a number of significant results relating to the location and distribution of protohistoric settlements in the hinterland of Kalibangan, the preservation of those settlements and the geographical landscapes within which those settlements lie. Ghaggar floodplain deposits appear to surround the site, but are especially prevalent and thickening to the south, indicating that the site was located on the margins of a substantial former floodplain that continued to seasonally aggrade before, during and after the occupation of this site during the early-mid 3rd millennium BCE. The slow annual accumulation of eroded fine soil derived material would have provided a naturally replenishing and moisture retentive soil and ground water system, where the moisture would have gradually evaporated after each period of monsoonal flooding and the groundwater table would slowly fall before the next monsoonal replenishment.20 The excavation at Karanpura during 2012-13 and 2013-14 has revealed two cultural phase, viz., Early and Mature Harappan with a transitional phase noticed in some pockets. Karanpura is the only site in Lower Chautang valley, which has now been excavated in a horizontal manner, more scientific analysis will help in better understanding of the evolution of culture and the spread of Harappans during the mid-3rd millennium BCE. The excavator claim the site to around 16 ha during the Mature Harappan period, while the settlement was smaller during the Early Harappan period.21 The area under study during the proto-historic time period was not much populated but was densely populated during the Historical and Medieval times, as can be judged by the number of sites reported from this region22. This area comes under arid and semiarid zone. Why these people settled here in such arid conditions? If they settled here than why they moved and where. Distribution of Settled Area of Different Cultural Periods: Since the settlements record for the ancient times considered here will never be complete, my position is that the absolute numbers and sizes of the sites is a portion of what was actually a part of the historic record. Secondly, archaeological exploration has proceeded in a way that has 21 | P a g e www.ijarch.org Indian Journal of Archaeology led, more or less, to the same proportion of site reported from each phase. Thus, looking not at the absolute numbers and size of sites but at the relative magnitude of change between period can offer us a hint in seeing trends in population growth and settlement size. Most of the sites are shown multicultural occupation that presented difficulty in front the explorer that what is the actual size of site during the distinct culture. So we are taking the size either single or last period (surface period) to conclude the total floor area of different periods. The earliest culture identified in the area of present study is Early Harappan culture. The total number of Early Harappan sites is 71 but only 9 sites are available for actual size. The total floor area occupied during this period was 427.84 hec. Settlement patterns of the Early Harappans were conditioned by the behaviour of the river providing an active flood plain and navigability of the river for internal trade, climate, accessibility to natural resources and trade routes, both internal and external. Settlement data for the Early Harappan culture (Fig. no. 01) are given below: Settlement Data for the Early Harappan Culture (Estimates of settled area) Total Sites known 71 Sites with known size estimate 09 Sites with unknown size 62 Settled area of sites with known size 54.50 hec Estimated settled area of sites unknown size 373.34 hec Estimated total settled area 427.84 hec Average site size 6.02 hec 22 | P a g e www.ijarch.org Harappan Settlement Pattern on the Desert Margin Special Reference to Hanumangarh District Early Harappan Settlement s Fig. 01: Map showing distribution of Early Harappan settlements (After Pawar 2012) Harappan period is identified as the manifestation of Harappan culture due to its extraordinary urbanized form. During the course of exploration fifteen sites were identified which belong to mature Harappan period (Fig. no. 02). The total floor area occupied during this period was 123 hec. The average settlement size is 8.20 hec. Settlement Data for the Mature Harappan Culture (Estimates of settled area) Total Sites known 15 Sites with known size estimate 05 Sites with unknown sizes 10 Settled area of sites with known size 41 hec Estimated settled area of sites with unknown size 82 hec Estimated total settled area 123 hec Average site size 8.20 hec 23 | P a g e www.ijarch.org Indian Journal of Archaeology Harappan Settlement s Fig. 02: Map showing distribution of Harappan settlements (After Pawar 2012) An interesting feature of the Harappan settlements in the study area is that the total number of settlements is lesser than the Early Harappan. This may be due to the fact that while reporting the Harappan remains from a site the explorers based their findings on the basis of a few typical Harappan pottery-forms like perforated jars, dishes with flaring rims, dish-on-stand with a long stem, triangular terracotta cakes, goblets, etc. It is possible that in the rural settlements, the Early Harappan tradition continued and some such sites may have been contemporary with the Harappan phase but either these did not come into the contact or these rural culture did not borrowed typical Harappan elements.