Culture: A Reappraisal

Vinay Kumar1

1. Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Ajagara, Varanasi, – 221 005, (Email: [email protected])

Received: 18 July 2019; Revised: 01 September 2019; Accepted: 06 October 2019 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 7 (2019): 397-404

Abstract: During the last six decades Black and Red Ware has been attracting the attention of both Indian and foreign archaeologists. This is characterized by two surface colours: Black interior and black and red or black and grey exterior with the black confined to the upper part of vessel. The bicolour effect is believed to be due to inverted firing or double firing technique. This ware was first reported in India at Arikamedu in 1945 by Mortimer Wheeler who described it as ‘Black and Red’ ware. Black and Red Ware is found in association with different and diverse cultural materials which are vastly differentiated in their location. For instance, in the pre-Harappan context, context, context, Iron Age context and many more. Besides this the most enigmatic aspect of this pottery tradition is its manufacturing technique. Hence, in the present paper an attempt has been made to find out various cultural traits and the personality of this culture.

Keywords: Chalcolithic, Bicolour, Black and Red Ware, Tradition, Fabric, Iron Age, Cultural Context

Introduction In Indian archaeology the term Black and Red Ware (BRW) has almost developed a generic meaning because of historical reasons. Consequently, a common man tends to accept this term to mean a specific cultural tradition only. In reality, however this ceramic type occurs in different areas with entirely diverse cultural and chronological context.

Black and Red Ware is a distinct pottery characterized by two surface colours: black on the interior and outer rim and red on the exterior. The bicolour effect is believed to be due to inverted or double-firing technique. The lower portion of the pot as also inside of it is in contact with the reducing flame present in the combustible material and this turns the clay in these areas black while the top portion of the pot exposed to the air turns red as a result of oxidization (Wheeler 1947). There are other archaeologists namely - Sharma (1960), Singh (1969), Misra (1967), Subbarao (1961), and Srivastava (1980) who had in different ways contributed to the identical view of inverted firing as the main technological specialty of this ceramic group. In most cases the surface bears a ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 7: 2019

shine and is often painted in white. Besides India, this Black and Red Ware is reported from ancient Egypt where it has been termed as Black topped Ware as well as Red and Black pottery (Lucas 1929) and its antiquity goes back to the fourth millennium BCE. This pottery was first reported in India in 1945 at Arikamedu by Mortimer Wheeler who designated it as Black and Red Ware (Wheeler 1947). Earlier it was categorized as representing the early historical period and was termed as sherds belonging to Satavahana period (Singh 1982). Till the end of the sixties Black and Red Ware had been found predominantly from two contexts — one belonging to Proto-historic Period from Ahar in (Chalcolithic) and the other from South Indian Iron Age graves known as Megalithic sites. The common feature of both the periods and cultures is the overwhelming content of Black and Red Ware in them. Subsequently, this ware has been reported from several sites belonging to temporally and spatially diverse cultural contexts. Black and Red Ware had an early origin starting from the beginning of the third millennium BCE and it was an important pottery type up to the early centuries of the Christian era. During this period, it is associated with Neolithic Chalcolithic and Iron Age cultures. Typologically this ware is devoid of any fossilized shape, as its shape and fabric went on transforming with the change of culture.

Occurrence of BRW in Different Cultural Contexts Black and Red Ware is found in association with different and diverse cultural materials which are vastly differentiated in their location. For instance, in the pre- Harappan context the Black and Red Ware is reported form the pre-Prabhas levels (Ca. 3000-2800 BCE) at Somnath in . This so far is the earliest radiometric date for this ware in India. Another site that has yielded this ware in the pre-Harappan context is Kunal in Haryana. Vessels from these two early sites are not only different form each other but also have no comparison in the succeeding Harappa culture. On the other hand, it is reported in the Mature Harappan context from Lothal in Gujarat, from the earliest levels (Ca. 2500-2160 BCE) associated with an indigenous Micaceous red ware. This ware is available during the Harappan period in Gujarat through all the stages of the culture, where it shows perfection in firing technique as the two colours merge with each other in a horizontal plane.

The Harappan Black and Red Ware in generally prepared out of fine clay and available in fine to coarse fabric. The shapes include convex sided bowls, basins, small pots, dishes and jars. Besides Gujarat, this ware has also been found in the early levels of Harappa culture at Rupar in Punjab. Black and Red Ware has been reported form the eastern and southern Neolithic cultures contemporary to the Harappa culture. At in Bhiar it has been found in the Neolithic level with other wares. The important shapes reported form this site are simple and spouted vases, bowls, footed cup and channel-spouted bowls which are different from the later Chalcolithic Black and Red Ware of this region. In south India, the white painted Black and Red Ware is found associated with burials of Neolithic-Chalcolithic phase at Tekkalakota in . Only a few shapes of bowls and dishes in this ware are available during this phase.

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Black and Red Ware is also available in most of the non-Harappan Chalcolithic sites reported from western and central India, south India and from north in the Ganga Valley. This ware is a standard feature of the Ahar Culture (Ca. 2000 – 1600 BCE) in the Banas and Chambal Valley in south-east Rajasthan and Central India. The important shapes, both in the plain as well as in the white painted Black and Red Ware of this culture, are a variety of bowls, bowls-on-stand, shallow dishes, and globular pots. The vessels are decorated on both the surfaces with motifs like spirals, dots, wavy lines, circles, hatched diamonds, and loops in white pigment. The Ahar Black and Red Ware tradition continues in the succeeding culture (Ca. 1600 – 1200 BCE) in central India. The Black and Red Ware in this period imitate most of the shapes from the Malwa ware.

In Maharashtra too, the Black and Red Ware of Ahar affinity accompanied the Malwa ware, though in limited shape and quantity, at sites like Prakash, Daimabad and Bahal. The Black and Red Ware continues to occur in the succeeding culture of this region. In the late phase (Ca. 1000- 700 BCE) of the a plain Black and Red Ware of coarse fabric makes its appearance, perhaps due to the influence of the late- Neolithic and Megalithic culture of south India. Around this time, in south India, the Black and Red Ware appears in the overlap phase of the Neolithic-Chalcolithic and the Megalithic culture in most of the sites.

The other Chalcolithic sites with plain and painted Black and Red Ware tradition are located in the Ganga valley. In the upper Ganga region plain variety of this ware has been found in a separate horizon at Atranjikhera in Uttar Pradesh and Jodhpura in Rajasthan. At these sites, it succeeds the other coloured pottery and precedes the Painted Grey Ware. The Black and Red Ware of Atranjikhera shows some affinity with that of Ahar. In middle Ganga Valley this pottery has been reported from the sites of Kaushambi, Rajghat, Prahaladpur, Sohgaura, , Dhuriapar, Narhan, Khairadih, Takiapar, Sarai Mohana, Waina, Lahuradeva, Akhta, Sravasti, and Agiabir. At Kaushambi it has been found in association with Painted Grey Ware in Pd. II.

Both plain and painted variety of this ware has been found from sites like Chirand and Sonepur in and Pandurjar-Dhibi, Mashisdal, Nanoor, Bharatpur, etc. In this region many shapes like channel-spouted bowl, tulip-shaped vase, dish-on-stand basin, high necked lota with corrugated shoulder, etc. are available. Chirand in district Saran of Bihar is the most important site in eastern India for the study of Black and Red Ware. For the first time the ceramic was found to occur in a Neolithic context.

The excavations at Sonpur/Sonitpur revealed three cultural periods viz. Coarse Black and Red Ware (Period IA), Black and Red Ware, Northern Black Polished Ware and post-Northern Black Polished Ware assigned to periods IB, II and III respectively. The presence of Black and Red Ware has seen till the second period. The prominent types of this pottery are dish, bowl, vase and basins both lipped and unlipped, shallow lids. Some bowls with everted lids are also found. Black and Red Ware of plain as well as

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painted variety has been reported from excavations at Senuwar. The painting is done in white pigment. The motifs included groups of parallel slanting lines on the inner surface, small vertical wavy lines in arrow at rim on the inner surface, short oblique strokes near the base, and group of short parallel slanting lines. The shapes are limited to vases and bowls. But no complete shape is recovered, however it appears that the vase is roughened from base to shoulder while in case of bowls the roughening is done up to the rim.

Maner, , Chandadih, Jhimjimia-Kalisthan, Oriup, Champa, etc. are other important sites in Bihar where Black and Red Ware is reported as a main ceramic industry or as associated ware and long necked jar, vase, bowl, dish and basin were the principle types which have been found in this region. Among the excavated Black and Red Ware sites in West the important ones are Bharatpur, Pandurajar Dhibi, Mongalkot, Baneswardanga, Tamralipta, Dihar and Pakhanna. Excavation at Bharatpur situated in the left bank of Damodar has yielded a great store of data, providing the evidence of probably the earliest known village farming by the people of Bengal (Ray 1991: 109-133). Three C14 dates are available from the site for the Black and Red Ware or Chalcolithic phase. The earliest of them comes from the mid-level of the Chalcolithic phase and accounts for 1430 BCE. Two other dates from Bharatpur are 1180 BCE and 900 BCE respectively (Chattopadhyay et al. 2005-2006: 68-93). The Chalcolithic level at Chirand has been dated by radiocarbon to Ca. 1950 BCE., while the time bracket for the sites in West Bengal is between Ca. 1400 BC and 800 BCE, the earliest date being 1410+/-140 BC from Bharatpur. A plain variety of Black and Red Ware has also been reported from the Chalcolithic levels at Golabai Sasan in Orissa.

In the Iron Age context in India this ware is available in most of the cultures dated from Ca. 1000 BCE to the early centuries of the Christian era. In northern India, it is found in a separate horizon succeeding the Ochre Coloured Pottery at Noh in Rajasthan. At other sites, it is associated with the Painted Grey Ware, Black Slipped Ware, and Northern Black Ware cultures in succession. In these different cultures this ware follows the shapes and fabric of the respective associated wares. During this period in Peninsular India, it is a characteristic pottery of the megalithic burials with a few type-fossils such as tulip-shaped vase, funnel-shaped lid, elongated vase with carinated shoulder and bowl with carinated body and pointed base.

Technological Personality of Black and Red Ware The most enigmatic feature of Black and Red Ware is the technique of manufacturing of this ware. It was presumed that the coloration of the pottery was simply the result of keeping the pots upside down in the kiln. This was the technique of manufacturing the pottery in Egypt (Coles 1973: 152). Gordon Childe also supported the same technique. In Indian context too, it was supposed that the typical colouration of the pottery was due to the inverted firing technique. But Lucas was of the opinion that the peculiar colouration of the pottery was not achieved because of inverted firing but was achieved due to double firing technique by covering the portion of pot which is to be

400 Kumar 2019: 397-404 turned black with some organic matter like dung, husk, etc. According to him there are only two ways in which such pottery could have been made namely: by the simultaneous production of the red of the body and the black of the interior and the rim, and by producing the ware wholly first and then blackening the interior and the rim.

In Indian context archaeologists generally believe that inverted firing technique must have been employed for manufacturing BRW. In this technique, the pots are placed in an inverted position in the kiln subjecting the exterior to oxidizing conditions and the interior to reducing conditions. Saw dust or some organic matter might have been filled in the pot while firing under reducing conditions. As a result, the interior turns black and the exterior dull red to buff in colour. However, Sankalia and Deo (1969: 28) do not rule out the possibility of double firing technique involved in the preparation of the Black and Red Ware. According to Majumdar (1969: 93) the megalithic Black and Red Ware was more likely to have been produced by double firing technique when the pot is fired black first and re-firing it with special arrangements when a portion becomes red. Regarding the Chalcolithic Black and Red Ware from Navadatoli he is of the opinion that ware is most probably a result of single firing under simultaneous reduction/oxidation conditions.

Hence, we find that the technological personality of this ware is poignantly diverse for divergent views have been expounded in respect of its technological make-up, for example, inverted, single, and / or double firing technique of manufacture. Most probably the technique might have come to India form Egypt in the fourth millennium which is the date of the ware at Somnath.

Origin and Authorship of Black and Red Ware Culture Between 1955-1962, some important Chalcolithic sites excavated in western India, such as Rangpur (Rao 1962-63), Lothal (Rao 1979), Somnath (1955-57), Amra and Lakhabaval (IAR. 1955- 56) in Gujarat, Ahar (IAR 1954-55, 1955-56, Sankalia et al. 1969) in south- east Rajasthan and Maheshwar-Navdatoli (Sankalia et al. 1952-53) in Central India confirmed that certain kind of Black-and-Red Ware also had a strong presence in the Chalcolithic. The underlying theme in the various theories put forward to explain the wide occurrence of this pottery, was to regard the Black-and-Red Ware as a single ceramic ‘culture’ and a distinct people, and the issues addressed revolved around a search for its authors and origins, both in ancient communities and in archaeological entities. Different scholars have considered the Black-and-Red Ware to be the defining cultural equipment of ethnic groups whose existence is known through traditional literature and linguistics but who have eluded identification in tangible material terms. Sankalia (1963), Dikshit (1969), Srivastava (1969), Agrawal (1966) and B. P. Sinha (1961) ascribed the authorship of the Black and Red Ware to the Aryans while Subbarao (1962) and Soundararajan (1962) argued for the Dravidians. Thapar (1975-76), by examining ancient lineage accounts traced the development of Black and Red Ware by connecting them with the Yadavas while Champakalakshmi (1975-76) believed that it

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represented the Bhils. The spread of the Black and Red Ware across the land is then ascribed to the movement of these communities and its changing forms and decorations to acculturation and contact.

According to B. P. Sinha the Vedic Aryans were the authors of the ceramic because one branch of the Aryans entered India by sea route to Gujarat and thence reached Bihar through the Sadanira River (modern Gandak). The association of the Black and Red Ware with Yadavas is more plausible because its earliest occurrence is in western India (Gujarat) from where the Yadavas are supposed to have come. D. P. Agarwal (1971) also ascribes the authorship of Black and Red Ware to Aryans. Attempts have also been made to trace the origin of the Black and Red Ware in archaeological cultures through the primacy of its occurrence at various sites. The Black and Red Ware in later cultures in north, east, central and south India is conceived to have come from a single source, either from Ahar or from Gujarat (Harappans) and several routes are cited for the movement (Agrawal 1967-68; Dikshit 1969; Dhavalikar 1970-71; Thapar 1975-76; Singh 1982). Basing his views on a series of radiocarbon dates and the two waves of Aryan immigration into India, he identifies the authors of the Ahar culture as early Aryans. According to him the Black and Red Ware from Rajasthan (the Benas Valley) reached Bihar via central India and Bengal. But since West Bengal was thickly forested, they turned towards the west to Bihar and entered Uttar Pradesh. But this theory is not valid as the new dates of Black and Red Ware establish the precedence of the Black and Red Ware in Bihar much earlier than in Bengal. Similarly, S. P. Gupta suggested that there were two probable routes of Black and Red Ware people from southern Rajasthan- through Chambal and Yamuna the ware reached Kaushambi and Prahaladpur and then took a backward turn towards the central and upper doab end, and from Ahar to Eran and then along the Vondhyar hill the Black and Red Ware people entered the eastern part of the country.

But K. M. Srivastava was of the opinion that there was no diffusion of culture as is generally believed by some archaeologists, but the techniques were simply acquired or learnt by one culture from the other through mutual contact (IAR 1970-71:378). In his own words, “My detailed study has led me to believe that the BRW found in different parts of country have very little in common but for the similarity in the technique of manufacturing. The regional, rather than local adaptations, by the various cultures in which they occur can be very clearly observed if the types and their fabric are compared closely. There was no diffusion of culture as is generally, behaved by some archaeologists, but the technique was simply acquired or learnt by one culture from the other through mutual contact”. It would thus be clear that the opinion regarding the authorship of the Black and Red Ware is sharply divided and no general agreement is in sight.

Discussion So far as the general economic level and social situation of this culture is concerned, basically the culture was characterized by rudimentary village formation on the basis

402 Kumar 2019: 397-404 of agriculture and domestication of animals. Knowledge of metallurgy of course gave an impetus to the further development to this culture. It can be said that Neolithic occupation characterized by incipient form of agriculture provided a suitable backdrop for the growth and development of the Black and Red Ware culture. A number of sites in Bihar, Orissa and Bengal show an antecedent cultural phase of the Black and Red Ware culture. At Kuchai in Mayurbhanj district, Orissa the Period I reveals microliths comprising of blades, pointed flakes, crescent, prismatic core, whereas in the upper level (Kuchai II), which immediately follows the earlier stratum, ground adzes, faceted hoes, chisels, pounder, mace heads, grinding stones brown handmade pottery with rice husk in the core are reported (Ray 1991: 126). Thus, the site shows a transition from hunting to producing stage. Chirand, in the middle of the Ganga valley, may also provide an interesting clue. The immediate sequel from the Neolithic and thence to the Black and Red Ware is explicit from this site. Period I is yielding implements like celt, bone tools, pestles, querns, blade tools and handmade pottery. Evidence of rice and other domesticated plants are reported from the site. The assemblages are associated with the evidence of copper. Period II gives the evidence of Chalcolithic culture (Verma 1970-71: 19-23). Dugni in Sanjay Valley is also important in the aspect of presence of Neolithic-Chalcolithic horizon. An archaeological investigation in this area has revealed materials like both handmade and wheel made pottery. Toolkits include ring stone, saddle querns and iron objects like sickle. Carbonised rice is also reported in the assemblage (Ray 1991: 12-128). In a nutshell it can be said that in spite of the wide range in space and time, the Black and Red Ware does not seem to represent a cultural, typological, and technological personality of its own as can aptly be stated in the case of Indus, Malwa and Jorwe wares.

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