POTTERY ANALYSIS of Kuntasl CHAPTEH IV
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CHAPTER IV POTTERY ANALYSIS OF KUNTASl CHAPTEH IV POTTBKY ANALYSIS OF KUNTASI IV-A. KUNTASI, A HARAPPAN SITE IN WESTKRN SAUKASHTKA IV-A-1. Gujarat and its regions The ancient site of Kuntasi (22" 53’ OO” N - 70“ :J2 ’ OO" H '; Taluka Maliya, Dislricl l^ajkot) lies about two kilomelres soulh- easl of the present village, on the right (north) bank of the meandering, ephemeral nala of Zinzoda. The village of Kuntasi lies just on the border of three districts, viz., Rajkot, Jamnagar and Kutch (Fig. 1). Geographically, Kuntasi is located at the north western corner of Saurashtra bordering Kutch, almost at the mouth of the Little Rann. Thus, the location of the site itself is very interesting and unique. Three regions of Gujarat^ : Gujarat is roughly divided into three divisions, namely Anarta (northern Gujarat), Lata (southern Gujarat from Mahi to Tapi rivers) and Saurashtra (Sankalia 1941: 4- 6; Shah 1968: 56-62). The recent anthropological field survey has also revealed major “ eco-cultural” zones or the folk regions perceived by the local people in Gujarat (North, South and Saurashtra) identical with the traditional divisions, adding Kutch as the fourth region (Singh 1992: 34 and Map 1). These divisions also agree well more or less with the physiographical divisions, which are also broadly divided into three distinct units, viz. the mainland or the plains of (North and South combined) Gujarat, the Saurashtra peninsular and Kutch (Deshpande 1992: 119)'. -72- The mainland or the plains of Gujarat is characleri zed by a flat tract of alluvium formed by the rivers such as Banas and Kupen X draining out into the Little Rann of Kutch, and Sabarmati, Mahi, Narmada, Tapi, etc.(all these rivers are almost perennial) into the Gulf of Khambhat. Both north and east is bordered by the Aravallis and the Sahyadris, making the plains distinct and independent from the inland regions of Central India (Spate and Learmonth 1984: 650). The plains appear to be a past tectonic depression formed during the Tertiary period and later filled with alluvium (Dikshit 1970: 16). The average annual rainfall ranges from around 600 mm in the north to 2000 mm in the south (Census of India 1966: 12). A series of relict sand dunes form the natural eminences in the northern plains, covered with a soil rich in lime which supports a thicket type of vegetation. These elevated lands seemed to have attracted the Harappans, where recently more than twenty- one sites have been found (Hegde and Sonawane 1986). There is a view that this part of land is slowly being desiccated (Sankalia and Joshi 1957: 127-8). The boundaries of the Gulf of Khambhat (between Sabarmati and Mahi rivers) are loccally known as bhal and bhalbaru, and though soils are sandy and salty and the ground water is brackish, large portions of these tracts are used for grazing and cultivating wheat (Varma 1990: 140; 1991: 282). Nearly eighteen chalcolithic (Harappan) sites have been located in this region (Momin 1974; 1976). The plains, more towards the south, are covered with the black cotton soil^. -73- The peninsular of Saurashtra has exp(;rienced a series of geological formations commencing with the Jurassic period, but the major portion of the present land is characterized by the Deccan Trap of the Eocene and Oligocene periods. The black cotton soil f derived from the Tra' or the weathered basalt is coverig the majority of the peninsular (Wadia 1943; Deshpande 1948: 208-210; Desai 1972). The central part of Saurashtra is an irregular plateau mostly lying between 75 to 300 m, bisected by peaks, one of which rises to a height of more than one thousand metres (Spate and Learmonth 1984: 646). As far as the climate is concerned, Saurashtra falls in semi-arid zone with an average rainfall ranging between 400 and 600 mm, less in southern and western coasts (Census of India 1966: 12). The Saurashtra peninsular (59,365 sq.km) is believed to have been an island in the past. A low-level strip of land (bhal) comprising the present Nal lake had once (during the Tertiary and post-Tertiary periods and perhapstill the beginning of the Pleistocene) connected the Gulf of Khambhat with the Little Rann of Kutch (Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency 1884: 78; Wadii 1943: 7; Deshpnade 1948: 210). Even today, it is observed that the excess water of the Rann empties into the Gulf of Khambhat through this channel (Dikshit 1970: 15; Pandya 1983: 62). The recent finds of marine organisms from the sediments of the “ dockyard” at l.othal (Nigam 1988) may very much support this view. It seems that the Little Rann was a shallow sea and Saurashtra remained as semi- insular as late as 17 th century (Spate and Learmonth 1984: 645)®. -74- Kulch is the most arid region in Gujarat, with an annual rainfall ranging between 300 and 400 mm only. The terrain of Kutch is almost a crescent shaped, composed mainly of sandstones with intrusive and interbedded basalts (Spate and Lcarmonth 1984: 64b). This is bounded by the Gulf of Kutch in the south and by both the Great and the Little Kanns on the other three sides, the latter being the vast expanse of tidal mudflats, sand and salt swamps. The old Indus tributaries drained into the Great Rann before the earthquake of 1819 which uplifted a fault now known as the Allah Bund and disrupted it (Oldham 1900; 1926). The geomorphological study of the area suggests that the Ranns of Kutch were originally an inlet of the Arabian Sea at least upto the Pleistocene (Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency 1884: 3; Kamanathan 1954; Gupta 1977a; Wadia 1989: 292, 374-75). Although Ihe isohyet marking the different climatic zones are very irregular because of the large interannual fluctuations in the regional circulation features, Saurashtra and Kutch specifically, have high probability of 50 '/. or more for the occurrence of an extremely arid environment (Singh et al. 1991), and very much prone to be suffered by famines (Das 1988: 189-191). There are a large number of communities classified as tribes in Gujarat (Koppar 1964; Shah 1968: 79-96), among which, Rabari (in Kutch, Barada hill and Gir forest area of southern Saurashtra and MAh^sana and Banas Kantha districts), Bharwad (practically scattered all over Gujarat, but heavy concentration in eastern Kutch and eastern Saurashtra) and Charan (Kutch, Saurashtra and -75- northern Gujarat) are known as the main Hiduistic pastoral communities (Jain 1980: 46-87). Traditionally, the animals grazed by each of these communities were camels, sheep and goats and buffaloes respectively. Cows are traditionally kept by Ahir (mainly in south-eastern Kutch). Today, however, the division of communities on the basis of their profession does not hold, and the last named especially, shifted their main occupation to ; agriculture. Muslim patoralists are also seen, specifically in -- ^ -------- Banni and Pachcham area of northern Kutch (Jain 1980: 46-87). The tA- mention of the pstoralists of Saurashtra in The Feriplus of the ----- Ery t hraean Sea suggests that this practice goes back at least to two thousand years (Varma 1991: 279). Listed among the main farming communities are: Kanbi, Mer, Sathvara, Koli, Kharak, Aboti, Sagar, Ahir and Rajput (all Hindus), and Bohra, Ghanchi, Sama, Sumara, Hengorja, Nodhe, etc. (all Muslims); though some communities such as Ahir and Rajput had taken farming as occupation only in the last two centuries or so (Jain 1980: 111). Agro-Ecological Regions : The classification of any land depend on various factors ranging from vegetation, rainfall, temperature, soil, etc. Recently, the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSSLUP) divided the whole of India into twenty broad “ agro-ecological ” regions on the basis of physiography, soil types, fifty years of climatic data, natural vegetation and also the length of growing period of plants'^ (Sehgal et al. 1992). According to this division, Gujarat falls under the -76- following four agro-eco 1 ogical regions (Fig. 7). A. Kutch and the north-western part of Saurashtra (included under Agro-ecorcgion No.2). Hot and arid ecoregion, with desert and saline soils, and Growing Period (GP) less than 90 days. Precipitation : less than 300 mm. Land utilisation type : millets and pulses. Forest type : tropical thorn forest. B. Gujarat plains coaprising Ahaedabad and the north-eastern districts (included under Agro-ecoregion No.4). Hot, semi-arid ecoregion with alluvium derived soils and GP being 90-150 days. Precipitation : 500-800 mm. Land utilisation type : millets, wheat, pulses, maize, sugarcane and cotton. Forest type : tropical, dry deciduous and thorn forest. C. Saurashtra except the north-western part, Gujarat plains coBprising south and eastern districts of Gujarat (included under Agro-ecoregion No.5). Hot, semi-arid ecoregion, with medium and deep blck soils, and GP being 90-150 days. Precipitation : 500-1000 mm. Land utilisation type : millets, wheat and pilses. Forest type : dry, deciduous and thorn forest. D. Coastal plains of Surat, Dangs and Valsad districts (included under Agro-ecoregion No.19). Hot, humid ecoregion with red lateriric and alluvium derived soils with GP being 219 or more days. Precipitation : 2000- 3200 mm. Land utilisation type : rice, tapioca, coconut and millets. Forest type : tropical moist deciduous forest. -77- Fi/;. 7 GUJAKAT AND ITS AGRO-HCOLOGICAI. KHGIOIMS (aflor SehKal el al. 1992) . International boundary — •— Slate boundary 77 a (Seh/;al el al. 1992>« IV-A-2. Kuntasi and ils surroundings As far as Saurashlra is concerned, almost entire Jamna/jar district and northern half of Rajkol district (in which Kuntasi is located) are included under the region A of NBSSLUP mentioned above. The climate of this part of Saurashtra is generally pleasant, the mean daily temperature ranges between 26.0" C and 11.6° C in the coldest month of January, and between 36.3° C and 25.1° C in the hottest month of May, though it remains humid Ihoroughout the year.