ANTECEDENTS

Prehistoric Beginnings

The interest of archaeology of India is rooted in the activity of the late nineteenth century
focusing on the historic remains.
The excavation of the Indus cities in the 1920s and the 1930s led to the reorientation in
the Indian archaeology.
The history identity of human settlements in India goes back to prehistoric times when
there are gradual spread from the sporadic settlements of the old stone age to the more
densely distributed habitations of later stone ages, followed by the even later societies of
a more complex kind.
Early settlers are linked with the evolution of early history of Homo sapiens and their
dispersal from Africa.
Earlier geological conditions assume that the Indian subcontinent was linked to east
Africa in remote areas.
The contours of societies in India can be traced through the recognized patterns of the
settlements and cultures that have been handled as the Paleolithic, Mesolithic Neolithic,
and Chalcolithic and iron ages.
Brief survey what has come to be called pre-history & proto-history provides the
antecedents to the earliest history.
Archeological data is in the tangible form. Most commonly used techniques in order to
bird the age is Known as radio carbon dating.
Terms such as culture and civilization when used in an archaeological content have
somewhat different meaning from their general use.
Culture refers-to the pattern of life of a society, 50 there are multiple kind of cultures.
Such patterns would include the use made of the habitual environment, social relations,
language and ritual.
Typologies made on basis of the tools used by human groups.
Civilization implies a pattern that is thought of as more complex and sophisticated,
incorporating urban living all that it cannot is, a conscious aesthetic awareness,
sophisticated religious beliefs and the use of text.
 PALAEOLITHIC AND MESOLITHIC

Evidence of hunter-gatherers from Paleolithic comes from various parts of the

subcontinent.
Initial Studies comes from North West terraces of the Soan River and the Potwar plateau.
Some of the sites can be seen in MP as al Bhimbetka but also found in other parts of
India, or in caves such as Sanghao (north-west Pakistan) or in Kurnool (AP).
Sites are generally located near water resources and where plants are readily available.
Fossil remains are another source of information.
Characteristics tools: stone tools, flaked-off large pebbles.
Few paintings talk about hunting and fertility ie (paintings in MP)
Technique of making tools is by flaking off pieces by striking the larger stone. Small
microliths were used in greater variety of ways.
Change of tools from stone to quartz cherr mgate (easier tools) sites excavated shows
that the Mesolithic activities took place from heavy monsoon forest and remained on the
drier uplands. Ranging b/w the tenth & the fifth millennia, this period witnessed
variations of wet and dry climate.
Mesolithic remains have been found in Langhnaj (Gujarat), Adamgarh (MP), sarai nahar
rai (Rajasthan)& Mahadaha (UP).
Presence- of crude handmade pottery identified as storage bin.
Presence of burials within the habitation area
Including grave goods such as microliths, shells and ivory pendant.
Initially cultivators had to move to place to place more than intensive agriculture made
them sedentary. There may all have beer confrontation b/w hunters and gatherer

NEOLITHIC

The change to a Neolithic pattern, were the beginning of agriculture and domestication of
animals.
Gordon Childe argued that the practice of agriculture was not a sudden radical change but
certain activities of earlier age had anticipated these developments.
Production of food may perhaps have been required by and resulted in a growing
population. Together with this came the possibility of storing food.
Habitats might have made urbanization possible, after a considerable Experience of
cultivation and sedentary occupations.
Neolithic sites occur in the diverse parts of The subcontinent : in galighai in swat valley,
Sarai khola further in the south , loess plateau of the Kashmir valley that allowed pit
dwellings; in chirand in Bihar and in sites in the Belan valley of (UP), such Chopani an
Mando d Koldihva; eastwards to pandu Rajar Dibhi, and further to Daojali Hading and
 Sarutaru To and in cluster of Godavari and Krishna valley in the peninsula at Uttur
Piklihal, Maski,Tekkalakota I Brahmagiri, Hallur, Paiyampalli and T. Narsipur .
Initially the cultivators might have to move place to place until. Unless intensive
agriculture was estd.
The transition of agriculture was made by women, who stayed in home while men hunted
is plausible.
Gave women an opportunity to sow & plough which was earlier ploughed by men.
The extension of cultivation required a sedentary society, and with technological
advances it was possible to make surplus food.
Thus the surplus food had the potential of being used, as it was in later times, for a
variety of exchanges.
Technologically there was a substantial improvement in tools, which were polished.
Gradually at some sites grass huts gave way to wattle and- daub huts (constructed from
branches of trees and foliage plastered with mud, and these in turn to mud brick
structures, small granaries and water storage.
Hand turned pottery gave way to wheel thrown pottery and the production of few
ornaments.
Wheat, barley, rice and millet began to be cultivated in different areas and at different
times.
Gradually domestication of sheep, goats and cattle was established.
Pastoral and agriculture were interdependent at this stage. Although changes carried
through potential of bifurcation.
Larger animals were used additionally for traction and for transport.
Increase in use of pottery leads to storage of food which encouraged cooking.
Grave goods were buried with bodies, pots sometimes included as items of ritual value.
Large urns were used also used as coffins for the burial of infants whose mortality is
noticeable in the earlier culture.
Chiefdoms: Cultivation carried out by family and clan labour.
Younger members were expected to labour for elders.
Neolithic sites are scattered in various places
Mehrgarh near Baluchistan dated upon 7000BC . the cultivation of wheat and barley ,
herding of cattle , sheep and goat, habitation in mud- brick with hearths , a possible
granary, Pit burials, scattered figurines, aspects of the culture that was estd in the 6
millennium by the 4 th millennium wheel thrown pottery introduced.
Some other places are kot Diji, Hakra plain etc.
Some places in Gujarat such as ganweriwala in bhawalapur yet remains to be excavated.
 THE FIRST URBANIZATION- THE CITIES OF THE INDUS VALLEY
CIVILIZATION

The earliest excavations of the Indus valley civilization were at Harappa (Punjab) and
mohen-jo-daro(sind) and these remain the most important urban complexes , larger than
the other towns
Of Latter, small or large has been excavated partially as kot Diji(sind),
Kalibangan(rajasthan), Rupar(Punjab), Rakhigarhi, banwali, mitathal and other parts of
lothal and dholavira &Surkotada(Gujarat)
Ganweriwala( Bahawalpur) awaits excavation.
The time period of the civilization has in the past been divided into pre- harappan(
starting 4th millennium to 2600 BC), the mature harappan ( from 2600- 1900 BC) and the
late harappan (to 1750 BC)
Mehrgarh, Pirak and Nowshehra as well as the settlement at Harappa show an impressive
continuity from the pre- urban to mature urban and finally the decling phase of the
civilization.
The Indus valley ancient riverine civilization extends north shortughai in the pamirs and
southwards in omans in the Arabian peninsula. It incorporated the north western doab ,
although the actual area of control is likely to have been more limited . Southwards there
was much activity in present Gujarat and some settlements go further till northern
Maharashtra .
Trade and commerce: they were doubtless in search of valuables.
Lapiz lazuli from the pamirs and the chagi hills of the eastern Iran was much valued in
the trade with Mesopotamia .
Copper deposits in oman were perhaps what attracted the harappans .
Trade with Mesopotamia is evident from the few harappan seal , beads and weights at the
Mesopotamia sites and some which are thought to be harappan sites.
Coastal shipping from western India along the gulf to the tigris- Euphrates delta has been
continuously involved in the exchange between the India and the gulf. Contacts with
Afghanistan and Iran were maintained through the passes in the north west mountains
and particularly the bolan valley.
Cities were maintained from the surplus food produced in the countryside, together with
other resources gathered or mined in various regions.
Used to trade in systematic manner closer to home copper would be mined in rajasthan
and Baluchistan , semi precious stone must be available in large quantities from western
india , lapis from chagai hills or the pamirs and were crafted into beads.
Timber such as teak was available in Gujarat
Shell and chank came from the coast used for making ornaments .
Harappan pottery is distinctive , with designs in black , of plants , and birds and abstract
forms frequently painted on a red surface.
 The cities were centres for the production of crafted items that were traded both overland
and across the seas.
Bead making was an extensive industry , using copper , gold, shell and semi precious
stone.
Bronze and stone tools were largely functional but some useful for some exchange.
Graded weights made of chert occur in harappan sites, as well as rods for measurement.
Lothal has an evidence of a structure that has been described as a dockyard, although this
description remains controversial. Though it is thought to be warehouse which is
probably a hub of exchange where finished products of the craft workshops were
gathered.
Cities demonstrate sophisticated sense of civic planning and organization.
In most cases the city was divided into smaller citadel area, to the west there were
essential institutions of civic life were located, possibly together with some places used
for public rituals and the larger residential area to the east.
Harappan cities is one of a concern with maintained urban order and an efficient
economic system managing land, labour and water.
Huge man made brick platforms formed the foundation for the buildings of the citadel,
possibly to make and secure against floods and other damage.
Most cities were on the bank of rivers which facilitated the transportation of goods.
City- planning roughly followed a grid pattern with roads oriented to the cardinal
direction.
House plans had a courtyard as the focus with the rooms opening on to it.
Most houses had individual wells, bathing places and drains.
Drains are one of the imp structures constructed of kiln fired brick, whereas the house
were of mud brick.
Elaborate arrangements were made less of food storage and more of water storage. Large
water reservoirs were built within the fortified part of the city.
Near the city there was clearing of the forest so that there was place for cultivation.
Wheat and barley were the staple crops although rice and cotton were also grown where
possible.
There were water conduits , some were underground in certain areas and small scale
canals leading off to rivers directed to water to where it was needed.
The monuments of the citadel areas has been variously interpreted as granaries,
warehouses , collegiate buildings and possibly a ritual centers bat mohenjodaro ,
including tank and its surroundings.
Describing the governing authority that it consisted of a single imperial system with twin
capital cities in mohenjodaro and Harappa.
Recent idea that emerged was that the Indus were city states and were prototype for the
autonomous cities of the historical times.
 The structures of mohen-jodaro point to complex system. Possibly a more centralized
administration was adopted and adapted in various regions interacting with city centres.
The availability of weapons were very limited this shows that there no disturbed strata, or
any physical destruction rising.
The usual supporting evidence for an organized administration is the form of designation
, codes and accounting is unavailable unless some of the pictograms are not deciphered.
The seals may be token of identity
Seals: they are small, flat , square or rectangular often made of steatite , with a pictorial
motif which depicts human and animal or composite figures and an inscription which
remains undeciphered.
The possible language that have been considered include Poto- Dravidian, Indo-
Sumerian , Elamo- Dravidian , Indo- Aryan and Austro-asiatic.
Seals impression on clay depict that among other uses seals were used to stamp
packages.
Scripts were written in copper amulets
Most of the scene depicted on the seals were of mythical unicorn, apart from that bull and
elephant was most frequently used tiger occurred less frequently. Depiction of horse was
absent.
The horse was unimportant ritually , functionally to the Indus vally civilization.
Absence of religious buildings.
Difficult to identify if present.
Female figurines from the westerly sites have been viewed as icon of worship with a
prevalence of a goddess cult.
Some oval structures containing ash have been interpreted as fire altars but they could be
equally well be hearths .
A shamanistic religion has also been suggested, but the urban character of the civilization
is unlikely to have been conducive to shamanism.
Few motifs continue from harappan times into later history such as the papal- as a leaf
decoration on pottery and as a tree on seals which was revered by later religion sects.
Much speculation focuses on whether a seated figure on a seal represents a proto- shiva .
the identification the figure is uncertain.
The figure could equally well be identified as depicting a yogic position , as indeed
female figure in trees on some seals could be linked to the evolving of the idea of apsaras
, celestial maidens associated with trees.
Sculptures in stone and bronze have been found , but in sporadic locations.
A small bronze figurine, probably not a ritual object has the pleasing stance of a young
and spirited woman.
Terracotta forms range from childrens toys to larger representation of animals.
Striking contrast is the simplicity of the burials compared to tombs of ruler further west.
 Grave goods are mainly the pottery of daily use with a scatter of other small items.
Post harappan burials of the late second millennium BC in what has been called the
Cemetery H culture, largely confined to Harappa and the Punjab plains, were
accompanied by pottery that was different from harappan.
Ritual of burial still continued even if the culture of the later people were different.
The decline of the cities was once ascribed to invading Aryans.
However there is little archeological evidence for the type of massive invasion that would
have led to the collapse of a well established political and economic system, resulting in
a displacement of culture, although the denial of an invasion does not preclude the
possibility of migrants bringing the Indo language in India.
The argument supporting the invasion of Aryans comes from the Vedic corpus, using the
language indo- Aryan that had the affinities with central Asian- European, particularly
with old Iranian.
Due to language there was thought to be a conquest between local population and the
indo Aryan speakers, the evidence drawn from the hostility of the Arya towards the das in
the Rig veda.
However there is an alternative explanation to this for the introduction of the indo Aryans
into india and its gradual spread across in northern India .these explanation has more to
do with historical context of urban decline , the coexistence of different cultures or
languages and the filtering of the indo Aryans speakers into north India through small
scale migration .
The skeletons in habitation areas at Mohen-jo-daro was earlier interpreted as
demonstrating the massacre of citizens , which endorsed the theory of invasion.
But analysis of the skeletons of the revealed that most of these people died of diseases
such as severe anemia , indicating a different set of reason for urban decline.
Violent deaths in a limited area do not necessarily mean widespread invasion and could
be evidence of local disturbances.
Diseases or severe environmental changes as factors in weakening a population have not
been sufficiently examined in the context of early Indian history.
Other explanations generally advanced are that the cities declined largely because of
environmental changes such as the long duration of the severe flooding of the Indus in
the vicinity of mohen-jo-daro , and climate change leading to greater desiccation,
deforestation and more generalized de-urbanization with the dying out of trade
requirements and a consequent political collapse.
The decline of the cities did not mean that the harappan pattern of culture disappeared .
although many urban functions would have been ceased , people in rural areas would
have continued their activities with marginal changes.
Some archaeological cultures were contiguous in time and space there were overlaps
between the late harappan and subsequent cultures.
NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC OTHER THAN IN THE NORTH WEST

There were however large number of hunter and gatherers, pastoralist and farmers
whose lives were either untouched or only marginally affected by the north western
india.
Chalcolithic societies of the second first millennium BC emerged in many parts of the
subcontinent.
The sites of burzahom and gufkral (Kashmir), dating to third second millennium BC ,
feature pit dwellings cut into the loss soil of the plateau.
Burials within the hut sometimes with an animal such as a dog occur both at these sites
and elsewhere in india.
Burzahom has a large number of upright stones or menhirs.
Settlements in the ganges plains there is a different sequence of cultures in the western
plain and the eastern parts of the plain.
The earliest culture In the western plain is that of the Ochre colour pottery (OCP) also
found in western watershed, and this has been excavated at sites such as Atranjikhera,
Lal quila and hulas.
At some site in Haryana and Punjab there is an overlap between late harappan pottery
and that of the subsequent painted gray ware (PGW). This would suggest the
introduction of PGW somewhat earlier than the first millennium.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of this evidence is that it reveals a minimal
continuity from harappan ideas in this area , although the cultures of the western ganges
plain show little similarity with harappan artefacts.
Further connection eastwards copper objects with an efficient technical proficiency .
found in chotanagpur areas dating to 2 millennium.
The PGW culture of which some sites were located in the hakra plain in a post harappan
contex was predominant in the western Ganges plain in the first millennium BC,
spreading from Indo Gangetic watershed to the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna.
As agriculture communities they cultivated wheat and barley, although some rice was
found and the domestication of cattle attested. The cattle provided food other than milk
products is evident from proximity of cattle bones near domestic hearths, bearing marks
f having been cut that indicate their flesh was eastern. Important settlements of the PGW
include Ropar (Punjab), bhagwanpura (Haryana) and Atranjikhera, hastinapur,
ahicchatra and jakhera (UP).
Domestication of plants and animals is evident at koldivha and chopani mando.
Settlements in the Ganges plain go back to about the third second millennium BC, some
having begun as the Neolithic sites such as chirand at the confluence of Ganges and the
sarayu which remain an important site till the Christian era.
Huts of wattle and daub contained functional artefacts, including polished stone axes
and microliths.
 Chirand explain useful information on the evolution of cultures in the Ganges plain.
The northern black polished Ware, characteristics of the urban centers of the Ganges
plain which was also the era of its provenance, is thought to have developed from high
temperature firing techniques used in smelting iron.
Further in Bengal chalcolithic sites seem to have been concentrated in the valleys , some
settlements such as pandu rajar dihbi, mahisdal and mangalkot, began as Neolithic sites
but gradually began to use metals.
Further to the east assam Neolithic sites include Neolithic sites such as daojali hading
and others in garo hills and cachar area.
Neolithic settlement have also bben found in Orissa at kuchai and golbai sasan .
A wide distribution in guj, rajas, the fringes of doab and the middle ganges valley ,
extending to the parts of Bengal , is recorded for pottery technique that resulted in
double colours of black and red which has been labeled in Black and Red Ware .
Beads of Lapiz lazuli occur at sites of the malwa culture in Madhya Pradesh, again
hinting links with late harappan.
Curious and impressive find of four bronze objects , thought to be reminikent of the late
harappan style , has surfaced at Daimabad in Maharashtra.( a rider driving yoke of an
oxen , a rhinoceros, buffalo, elephant each on wheels are unusual cultures of chalcolithic
age.
People of Inamgaon (Maharashtra) practiced both farming and livestock breeding with
barkey and millet common crop.
Female terracotta figurines were found , some curiously headless but with prominent
breast , emphasizing ritual and symbolic aspect placed in clay containers .
Burial often in a pit in the floor of the hut accompanied by some garve goods. Children
were buried in urns.
South region river valley of Krishna, Godavari, Tungabhadra, pennar and kaveri comes
under the 3rd millennium some areas of AP as well , hallur, kupgal, maski (Karnataka).
Budihal (AP) cattle keeping village , sheep and goat were also bred , with later addition
of buffaloes . Millets were widely cultivated rice was grown later, cultures were non-
metal users, mostly stone artefacts.
Towards the end of the second millennium we have limited evidence of copper and
bronze artefacts . This is developed in the further Paiyampalli (TNadu) , an earlier
Neolithic site.
Settlements occur in river valley, although semi-arid areas may have been preferred for
livestock breeding. Since stock breeding and agriculture was interdependent.
Authority: he organization of village, subsequently a hierarchy of villages within a
cluster, required some form of authority and regulation of control. This could have
evolved from social stratification, with families coalescing into clans which maintained
hierarchy.
The political and social structure would have been far more complex than that of bands.
 Chiefdoms would presuppose not just surplus food but the control of few families is
over what was produced, demarcating the chief of the clan.
Burials within the huts is in some ways strange although it occurs in many regions.

MEGALITHIC BURIALS

The style of burial changed in the first millennium.

Burials moved out of the habitation huts to be located in specially demarcated
sanctuaries.
Most commonly used in peninsula providing it with distinctive cultural phase.
Adopted as a part chalcolithic activity.
Forms of megalithic burials are diverse and range from the single standing stone to rock
out chambers.
Mega + lithos= large stones
The dolmen consisted of large stones placed in formation.
Pits what is often referred as cist burial. This was frequently demarcated with stones
enclosing a pit within which was constructed a cist, a rectangular lox made of stone slabs
to contain bones and grave goods.
Sometimes there is a circular hole in one of the slabs known as the porthole.
Grave furnishings were primarily black and red pottery and impressive iron artefacts,
such as hoes, sickles, small weapons and horse trappings. Thought would useful in the
after-life.