UGC Major Research Project TERRACOTTAS ART OF ANCIENT GUJARAT (2105-2018) Principal Investigator ShushmitaSen DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANCIENT HISTORY FACULT OF ARTS THE M.S. UNIVERSITY OF BARODA, BARODA 2018 Preface Creativity is an art which integrate mental and physical being. From the ancient time the best medium for man to create something was the clay and mud. The satisfaction of creating with your own hand is an articulation of the human being with combination of mind and his limbs. It gives immense contentment to glance at your own creation and feel happy. One of the very arts of ancient India which is continuing till the modern days is the art of making articles out of clay into beautiful terracotta objects. This works begins with a brief introduction of the area of approach and discussion of the problems. Chapter I deal with a brief introduction discussing the problems and how to approach them. The work proceeds to understand all the excavated terracotta material from the sites of Gujarat from Chalcolithic as well as Early Historic, understanding, analyzing them and looking into the continuity of the objects. Later on an ethno archaeology research was carried out to understand the method and technique of the terracotta toys were being made. Ingenious work is an art and it is impossible without cooperation of so many persons. Naturally to accomplish this dissertation so many persons provided direct or indirect contribution to give it a final shape. On the onset I would like to thank University Grant Commission, New Delhi, for funding this research project in the form of Major Research Project and all the staff for their promptness of any quarries requested to them. I am also very thankful to my University office staffs, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda office and their staffs of various departments who have helped me in every walk of administrative works. I am indebted and thankful to Sri Y.S. Rawat, former Director, State Archaeology Survey, for sharing his valuable time and extending his help to study terracotta material from the Vadnagar Excavation 2008-2012. My sincere regards to Sri JitendraNath, Director of excavation, Archaeology Survey of India, New Delhi who was always ready to help me and gave permission to see the materials of any excavated sites of Gujarat. I am also thankful to Sri AbhijitAmbedkar, Archaeology Survey of India, Vadodara, for showing me the excavated material from Vadnagar 2017-2018. My thanks are also due to JeevanKharakwal, Institute of Rajasthan Studies, Rajasthan Vidyapeeth,Udaipur. I am very thankful to the Head, Prof AjithParasad Department of Archaeology, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda where I could avail any infrastructure I needed and of course the staff members who were an immense help to me. I thank each one of them. My deepest thanks go to the Dean, Prof K. Krishnan, Faculty of Arts, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda for his constant help and encouragement. I am very grateful to Prof KalpanaGavli and Prof. Sanjay Karandikar, Faculty of Arts, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda for their anytime help and constant inspiration and friendly suggestions. I would like to thank ShriPathak, Librarian, Department of Archaeologyand Ancient History, and Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda for helping me with the books. I record my appreciation for the valuable help from my former students Grace, Tintu, Siddha and some of my undergraduate students specially Rucha, Anvika, Ashka, Neha A, and Rasagnya M for their help wherever needed. In my endeavormy heartfelt gratitude goes to my family who took care and attention especially by my better half Ashok and sonDhritimanwho always remained a source of motivation to me. CONTENTS PAGE NO.S CHAPTER I : Introduction 1 CHAPTER II : Sites of – Harappan Period 8 CHAPTER III : Analysis and Discussion 101 CHAPTER IV Sites of Historic Period 109 CHAPTER V Analysis and Discussion 149 CHAPTER VI Ethno- Archaeological Study 153 CHAPTER VII : Discussion and Observation 180 REFERENCES 188 PHOTOGRAPHS List of Plates 195 CHAPTER – I INTRODUCTION Introduction: "It has been suggested by anthropologists who deal with the interpretation of cultures, that artifacts reflect norms and conventions of a society". The formation of ideas of different aspects of human society and its contribution can be understood by us from the various forms of art and craft available to us in the archaeological record like rock paintings, ceramic traditions, terracotta figurines and other artefacts Therefore, artefacts are an important source material for revealing cultural traits of tradition and culture defining its place in the society. Terracotta is a very popular medium of artistic expression of people from very early times Apart from revealing the artistic traditions; the technical skills are also visible in the making of terracotta. Clay has been one of the most popular media of the art expression on the earth since a long time because of its elastic characters, which makes it easy to model and mould as well as it is must be one of the most inexpensive media available free of cost in desired quantities to every craftsman universally. The clay is the base of terracotta objects and makes the terracotta objects most satisfactory, wide-spread. It shows the man‘s imagination resulting in the creation of art and useful household articles. The study of Terracotta art in Gujarat from excavated sites will be a unique endeavor. Gujarat witnessed almost all cultures from hunter gatherer stage to major dynasties. The geographical situation of the state is such that from the early times it was a meeting place of several cultural units who exchanged thoughts and material across the Indian sub-continent. Gujarat acted as a connecting point between the east and the west. While the connectivity is accessible through the land and the sea route, the cross culture exchanges took a different turn and are reflected in artifacts. The type of presentation of terracotta has continuity from earlier traditions and manifest differently from time to time and place to place. 1 Terracotta art served as an important medium of expression for different cultures for ages, reflecting its contemporary social order. Therefore its study becomes important not only from the point of view of art, but also from the point of understanding the socio-religious cultural habitat and daily life of the people and also from the point of view of technology. With this, the aim is to highlight the contributions to archaeological inquiries that can be obtained from the study of a limited assemblage, followed by carefulness for detail study. While discussing the significance of the results, the work further strives to reflect upon the objects as that what they constitute by themselves. Different terracotta objects reflect the thought process of the ancient people, and in turn will help us to understand the religion and society. Thus besides bringing out the aesthetic art, this study will also bring the inner thought of the people of the bygone era. The object excavated by various department of Archaeology needs to be methodological studied. For this purpose the terracotta objects displayed in various museums by the State Archaeology, collection in the Archaeological Survey of India Baroda Circle and the M.S. University needs to be thoroughly analyzed. With the emergence of Chalcolithic culture in Gujarat, there dawned a new culture epoch which exhibited a considerable advance in the art of baked clay objects. These objects developed in new forms in later period and some of them retained their old self. A rich repertoire of terracotta objects is found from the excavations of every site of Harappan civilizations and Early Historic sites of Gujarat. It is an articulation of different cultural aspects reflecting the socio-economic, cultural and artistic traditions of urban and rural society. Interdisciplinary reach of the current research is limited to ethnographic surveys and experimental replication studies. The ethno archaeological studies will help to understand the technical and other aspects. The terracotta of other excavated sites of the Archaeological Survey Circle office, Baroda and displayed in different museums will be to be taken into consideration and studied there itself. Archaeological evidence of terracotta art exhibits a wide variety of craft in India associated with almost all periods, like the children‘s toys, household decoration and religious objects used in worship and rituals. In all the regions particularly clay has been used to create different art forms, which indicates certain stylistic variations. 2 With the emergence of Chalcolithic culture in Gujarat, there dawned a new culture epoch which exhibited a considerable advance in the art of baked clay objects. These objects developed in new forms in later period and some of them retained their old self. A rich repertoire of terracotta objects is found from the excavations of every site of Harappan civilizations and Early Historic sites of Gujarat. It is an articulation of different cultural aspects reflecting the socio-economic, cultural and artistic traditions of urban and rural society. One of the important cultural phases of Gujarat is the Early Historic period. The excavations carried out of the early historic settlement except for a few were more than two decades ago. Hence in terms of the questions they sought to answer, the manner of reporting and the recording and analysis of the artifacts presents several limitations. A large number of terracotta objects have been recovered from these excavations but a systematic account of the material evidences is yet to be attempted. New archaeological concerns have also led to new questions being asked and more exact methods are being adopted for the recovery, recording and analysis of the data. Thus in view of the inadequacy of the earlier studies, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive re-look at the early historic material with a new and wider perspective.