State Formation and Urbanization

From the Mahajanapadas to Nandas

(BC 600 to BC 321)

mahajanapadas

The post-Vedic period has a unique place in the history of ancient India, characterised as it was by intensification of social stratification, growth of a large number of urban centre’s and the emergence of many states. Each of these was the result of long drawn complex processes with bearings on each other. Further, all these changes did not take place in isolation, rather they were inextricately inter-related. The new emergent system needed some ideological support, which was provided by the new heterodox systems, two of which, namely Jainism and Buddhism, became quite prominent. The orthodox Brahmanism saw many changes creeping in so as to accommodate the emerging patterns.

Gautam-Buddha

          In other to appreciate the problem of state formation and the growth of urbanism it seems necessary to look into the conditions prevailing during the later-vedic phase. Having done this in the previous Vedic age we may now set ourselves to look for the factor contributing to the emergence of a state system i.e. transformation of raja as a chief to raja as the king in the Janapadas. 

Jainism

Economic Background

We know for sure that after AD 800 iron come to be used widely in almost all the areas in India. But till AD 600 it was only used for making weapons. Only after this date iron came to be used in making agricultural and other tools. This period also witnessed a great increase in the number of settlement in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab region. While iron weapons provided the warrior class a more potent tool to consolidate their position in the socio-political field, its use in agriculture resulted in the great expansion of agrarian landscape. Now with the help of iron axes, thick rain-forest of the Doab belt could be easily cleared and settled. The use of iron ploughshare facilitated agricultural operations in a big way. With the help of iron ploughshare the soil could be turned from a relatively deeper levels resulting in increased productivity and saving of precious time in tilling the land. This means that more land could be tilled in the same amount of time. This, combine with wet rice cultivation and the technique of paddy transplantation, increased the productivity. The yield per acre in case of wet rice cultivation is substantially higher than in other forms of agriculture. The increased food production could now sustain the increasing population in the middle Ganga plain. The increase in population is evidenced by the increase in the number of settlements. The PGW culture sites, generally associated with the prolific use of iron, are found in greater numbers (700) in the Doab area as compared with the more westerly (Haryana and Punjab) region. And it is generally believed that a substantial increase in population is a prerequisite for the emergence of cities anywhere. The whole process was apparent in the Ganga Valley. Several studies have shown that the number and size of settlements continuously increased during the first millennium BC.

ploughshare

          However, archaeologists and historians differ on the question of the prime mover which precipitated the change. The story of Videgha Mathava and his priest Gotama Rahugana contained in the Shatapatha Brahmana suggest an eastward movement of peoples from the Sarasvati Valley, establishing settlements, cleaning forests, and cultivating freshly cleared land.

          Archaeologically speaking, with the sixth century BC begins Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) phase distinguished by iron object for purposes of both war and production, and punch-marked coins and commodity exchange. The geographical area in which all these development took place covers the middle Gangetic plain in west and Malwa in the South-west. Nearly 450 NBPW sites found in the middle Gangetic plain were basically rural settlements in the age of Buddha. Large scale agricultural settlements and the formation of a good many villages are mentioned in Pali texts. The Pali texts generally assigned to the period 500-300 BC are: Nikayas, Suttanipata and portions of Vinay Pitaka. These texts should be considered in conjunction with the Ashtadhyayi of Panini which is placed between 500 BC and 400 BC. Further many Grihyasutras and Dharmasutras, particularly those of Apastamba, are considered contemporary with Panini. The Shrautsutras also belong to pre-Mauryan times. The early Pali texts refer to the use of iron for purposes of cultivation. Ayanagala (iron ploughshare), Phala (share), Ayokuta (hammer), Ayoghana (hammer), etc. are mentioned in early Pali texts. Ayoghana and ayovikara kushi (iron ploughshare) also appear in Panini’s Ashtadhyayi. Sugarcane, mustard, paddy seedlings – all need deep and continuous ploughings which could be done with the use of iron implements only. Moreover such implements have been excavated at Atranjikhera, Ropar, Jakhera, Kaushambi, Sonpur (Gaya), Raghuasoi (Vaishali), Rajghat (Varanasi) etc. However the number of iron tools and implements is not very large which is due to two factors. Firstly, the moist nature of soil and Secondly, lack of excavations of the rural settlements.

          By 500 BC the people of middle Gangetic plain had come to utilize the rich iron mines of Singhbhum. The term such as bhastra (Panini) and bhasta (Pali texts) suggest that bellows made of lether were in use in the age of the Buddha. The use of Punchmarked silver coins, as early as 500 BC, and the construction of large-scale wooden structures also demonstrate the use of iron tools such as Kuthari (chisels), Vasi (adzes) and aragga (Saw).

On the whole, the agricultural operations had become quite elaborate. Fields were divided according to their productivity. Irrigation was widely practiced and the practice of keeping the land fallow was known. People came to have an agricultural calendar based on six seasons and 27nakshartas. Some new plants and fruit trees were utilized such as mango,Shala, Jambu, Madhuka and Palasha. Supplemented by various types of handicrafts, mentioned in Panini and early Pali texts, all these developments added to a demographic revelution in the middle Gangetic basin. Consequently, a large number of settlements sprung up there.   

          The conjunction of literary and archeological material indicated the advent of cities in the middle Gangetic plain around the sixth century BC. This is  also a period which witnessed the beginning of the written tradition in India. The people in towns of this period lived in wooden houses, defenses or fortifications etc. Apart from wooden structures, people in the towns of the age of the Buddha in the middle Gangetic plain lived in mud houses. A large clay embankment of around 500 BC has been unearthed at Rajghat. Vaisali has a mud stupa. The early NBPW phase does not show any evidence of brick – fire-baked or sun-dried. However, in subsequent phase baked-bricks were used for housing in some large settlements. Cities of this period were never planned, which was the hallmark of Indus urbanism. Contrary to this, the literary sources always talk about planned layouts of the cities. This feature came into vogue only around second century BC.

          Another feature that appeared around 500 BC is the use of coins, which is not attested to in any phase of Harappan urbanism. These early coins were made of silver and copper and are known as punch-marked coins. The coin of the highest value was satamana of silver followed by karsapana. The copper masas and kakini were coins of smaller denominations. The punching devices of these early coins bear no inscriptions. Instead, they have various forms of figures, symbols etc. These symbols appears on only one side, the other side remains blank.

VEDIC AGE

Political Organization

Monarchial form, tribe was known as Jan and its King as Rajan. He was the leader in battle and protector of tribe. His office was not hereditary and was selected among the clan’s men. The Rajan was not an absolute monarchy, for the government of the tribe was in part the responsibility of the tribal councils like Sabha, Samiti, Gana and Vidhata. Even women attended sabha and Vidhata.

Many clans (Vish) formed a tribe. The basic social unit was the Kula or the family and Kulpa was the head of the family.

The king was assisted by a number of officers of which purohita wasthe most important. Next important functionary was the Senani (leader of the army), although there was no regular or standing army.

The Aryans succeeded everywhere because they possessed chariots driven by horses.

There was no regular revenue system and the kingdom was maintained by the voluntary tribute (Bali) of his subjects and the booty won in battle.

Villages were headed by Gramini who used to represent village in sabha and samiti. Later, Gramini was handed over the charge of Vrajapati also (an officer who enjoyed authority over the pasture ground).

Social Life:

When the Aryans entered India there was already a class division in their tribal structure.

As they settled among the dark aboriginals, the Aryans seem to have laid greater stress than before on purity of blood, and class divisions hardened, to exclude those dasas who had found a place in the Aryan society, and those Aryans who had intermarried whit the dasas and adopted their ways.

Gradually, the tribal society got divided into three groups Warriors, Priests and Commoners. Later, the fourth dasas or shudra was also added.

The term Varna was used for color, the Aryans being fair, the dasas dark.

Family was the basic unit of society. The family was patriarchal in nature. But women enjoyed equal power with men. Marriage was usually monogamous and indissoluble, but there are few instances of polyandry, levirate and widow=marriage. There are no examples of child-marriage. The marriageable age seems to have been 16 to 17.

Aryans were fond of Soma, Sura, Food and Dresses. Soma was drunk at sacrifices and its use was sanctified by religion.

The Aryans love music, and played the flute, lute and harp. There are references to singing and dancing, and to dancing girls. People also delighted in gambling. They enjoyed chariot racing. Both men and women wore ornaments.   

  

The Vedic Literature

The word Veda comes from the root vid, i.e. to known, signifying knowledge. The Sanskrit root vid also appears in the Latin Videre ‘to see’. The Vedas are said to been passed on from one generation to the next through verbal transmission and are, therefore, also known as Shruti (to hear) or ‘Revelation’.

          Categories:

The Term ‘Vedic Literature’ means the four Vedas in their Samhitas and the allied literature based on or derived from the Vedas. We classify the Vedic literature into the following categories:

1.      The four Vedas, i.e. the Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva and their Samhitas:

2.    The Brahmanas attached to each Samhita:

3.    The Aranyakas: and

4.    The Upanishads

The Vedas

 

Rig-veda

The Rigveda

 Of the four Vedas (the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvada), the Rig veda is the oldest religious  text in the world, and, therefore, is also known as ‘the first testament of mankind’. It must have been composed around 1700 BC. The first three Vedas are collectively known as Trayi or ‘Trio’. Initially, the Vedas were learnt by heart and then passed on from the teachers to the disciples until they were properly edited, written down and commented in South India during the second half of the fourteenth 14^th century AD. The last hymns were probably composed between 1500 and 1200 BC. The Rigveda is neither a historical nor a heroic poem but is mainly a collection of hymns by a number of priestly families. These were recited at the time of sacrificial rites and other rituals with utmost devotion. The Rigveda contains 1017 (1028, including 11 hymns of the Valakhilya recession) hymns (sukta) and is divided into ten mandals. The first and the tenth mandalas are said to have been added later as their language differs slightly from the other eight mandals. The tenth mandala contains the famous Purushasukta which explains that the four Varnas (Brahmana, Kshartiya, Vaishya and Shudra) were born from the mouth, arms, thighs and feet of the Primeval Being Bramha (Purusa).  Second to seventh mandal are earliest and are also called as family books. They are attributed to Gristsamada, Visvamitra, Vasudeva. Ambast. Bhardwaj, Vashishtha. Kanva and Angiras. The tenth mandal is dedicated exclusively to Soma. The famous Gyatri mantra comes from the third mandal.

 

Gyatri-mantra

Mandalas – 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

Deities – Agni, Indra, Soma, Usha, Maruts, Ashvins, Rbhus, Pushan. Rudra, Mitra, Varuna, Aryaman, Apam Napat.

Demons- Susna, Dasas, Danu, Danavas.

River – Sapta Sindhu, Nadistuti, Sarasvati, Sindhu Saryu, Rasa.

Rishi – Vishvamitra, Vamadeva, Atri, Angiras, Bharadvaja, Vasishta,

    Dirghatamas

The Samaveda

 

Sama-veda

The Samaveda derived from the root Saman, i.e. ‘melody’, is a ‘collection of melodies’. It has 1603 verses (Aundh edition) but except 99 all the rest of the hymns have been borrowed from the Rigveda. A lesser number of verses are found in certain other editions. In them we have 1549 verses and of these only 78 are not found in the Rigveda. These were meant to be sung at the time of Soma sacrifice by the Udgatri Priests.

The Yajurveda

Yajur-veda

The Yajurveda is a ritual Veda. It prescribes the rituals for performing different sacrifies. It was the manual of the Adhvaryus who prepared the ground and the altar, offered the sacrificial victims and poured out the libations. Two distinct forms of this Veda have come down to us. In the oldest, the instructions about rituals are mingled with the verses from the Rigveda. The chief recension of this is that taught by a school of teachers called the Taittiryans. At a later date other scholar called the Vajasaneyins separated the explanatory matter from the verse to be recited and hence were called ‘white’ (Shukta) Yajurveda, the other being called the ‘black’(Krishna) Yajurveda. Yajurveda contains the oldest prose literature of the Indo-Europeans.

The Atharva veda

 

Atharva-veda

The Atharva Veda is entirely different from the other three Vedas and is chronologically the last of the foru. It is important and interesting as it describes the popular beliefs and superstitions of the humble flok. For a very long time it was not included in the category of the Vedas. The Satapatha-Brahmana used the term trayi-vidya for the Rig.Sama and Yajur Vedas. The Atharva veda is found in two recensions, the Saunakiya and Paippalada. It is now considered as one of the four Vedas. It is divided into 20 Kandas (books) and has 711 hymns – most of which tells how to ward off the evil spirits.

Suktas

suktas

The hymns of the Vedas are also called Suktas: a term derived from su-uktas, i.e. ‘that which is well or properly recited’. This term is used for a vedic hymn as a whole as distinguished from a richa or single verse.

VEDIC AGE

VEDIC-AGE

Vedic-age

In India, the founder or creators of the Vedic culture – which was diametrically opposed to the Harappan civilization – were Aryans, probably an immigrant people, whose first arrival in India is dated between 2000 and 1500 BC. After settling in India the Aryans composed a series of religious hymns, which were eventually compiled into a text known as Rigveda. Our knowledge of the Aryans in India during this earliest period is based primarily on this work. The great German scholar Max Muller who initially believed that Aryans belonged to a race, later detracted and declared emphatically that the term “Aryans, in scientific language, is utterly inapplicable to race. It means language and nothing but language…..” In 1786, Sir William Jones, in his famous address to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, tried to prove a definite relation between the Vedic Sanskrit and some of the principle languages of Europe and Asia such as Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, Lithuanian, German, Persian etc. The scholars have given a common name ‘Indo-European’ to this group of languages and the people speaking them were known as the Indo-Europeans or Indo-Aryans. On this basis it has been surmised that the people who spoke the common language and shared the common home, dispersed or emigrated to various parts of the world, including India.

Indus valley civilisation

 Indus valley Civilization

Indus valley Civilization

(2500-15000 BC)
From the beginning of the 4^th millennium BC the individuality of the early village cultures began to be replaced by a more homogenous style of existence. By the middle of the 3^rd millennium, a uniform culture had developed at settlements spread across nearly b500,000 square miles, including parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Baluchistan, Sindh and the Makran coast. It was a highly developed civilization and derived its name from the main river of that region – Indus. The cities were far more advanced than their counterparts in pre historic Egypt, Mesopotamia or anywhere else in Western Asia.

Important Discoveries

Year            Site                           Discovered by
1921            Harappa                  Dayaram Sahni
1922           Mohenjodaro         R.D. Banerjee
1927            Sutkagendor          R.L Staine
1931            Chanhudaro           N.G.Majumdar
1953            Rangpur                  M. Vats
1953            Kalibangan             A. Ghosh
1955-56     Ropar                       Y.D. Sharma
1957            Lothal                      S.R. Rao
1972-75      Surkotada               I. Joshi
1973-74      Banwali                   R. S. Bisht
      
       After the partition of India most of the well known Harappa sites – Mohenjodaro, Harappa, went to Pakistan, leaving only two outposts, Kotla Nihang Khan near Ropar on the Sutlej in Punjab, and Rangpur on the Bhadar in Kathiawar Gujarat, within the territory of India. However, the excavations prior to 1947 had not achieved a satisfactory picture of the development of the cities, and in the absence of radiocarbon dating no absolute chronology was obtained. It was only after partition that planned surveys were undertaken in India to locate more sites. A. Ghosh undertook the exploration of the valleys of the dried up Saraswati (Ghaggar) and its tributary, the Drishadvati (Chautang) in Ganganagar, North Rajasthan and discovered about 25 Harappan sites. A number of sites have been reported indicating contacts with the Harappan culture in Afghanistan and the contiguous regions of Soviet Central Asia. Nausharo was excavated by Jarrige in 1993 and reached at some important conclusions regarding transition from early period to mature phase. Thus many of the earlier views have been altered because of recent studies based on sophisticated research tools and methods of investigation.
 

Harappan-seal

Extent

The explorations, excavations and researches have shown that the Harappan civilization was not confined to the Indus valley along as postulated by Marshall. Although the Central zone of these civilization lie in Sind and Punjab, mainly in the Indus valley, it spread southward and eastward from here covering Punjab, Haryana, Sind, Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh and Northern Maharashtra. In Precise terms the civilization extended from Suktagendor, on the seaboard of South Baluchistan (Makran Coast) in west to Alamgirpur, in the upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab in western U.P., in the east, and from Manda in Jammu in North to Bhagatrav in Narmada estuary (Kim estuary, Gujarat) in the south. The entire area of the Harappan civilization is triangular in form and accounts for about 1,299,600 sq km and as such was the largest amongst the ancient civilizations. The actual distance from northern site to the southern is over 1,100 km and form west to east over 15,50 km.

Nomenclature

There are two names that have been applied to ancient India’s first phase of conurbation Harappan civilization or Indus civilisation. The first of these is drived from and academic tradition which uses a type specimen, or site, as the basis for nomenclature in archaeology. Since the mounds adjacent to the modern village of Harappa were the first locality where the remains of this civilization were first identified, the name Harappan fits such a system perfectly. The second name Indus civilization is used interchangeably. Firstly because it refers to precisely the same cultural, chronological and geographic entity and secondly because it started from the river valley of the Indus river and the largest concentration of settlement sites are located along the course of this river. Sir John Marshall was the first scholar to use this term. The term Harappan civilization, conjures up a notion that the civilization began at a site which best represents the  ancient urban system of South Asia.
          The Indus civilization belongs to the protohistoric period since it represents a phase in which people had developed a scrip has not been deciphered as yet despite repeated attempts. So it in agreed that the Indus civilization belonged to Bronze Age, generally associated with city formation.

Origin and Evolution:

Harappa

The discovery of India’s first and earliest civilisation posed a historical puzzle as it seemed to have suddenly appeared on the stage of history, full grown and fully equipped. The Harappan civilisation till recently showed no definite signs of birth and growth. The puzzle could largely be solved after the extensive excavation work conducted at Mehrgarh near the Bolan Pass between 1973 and 1980 by two French archaeologists Richard H. Meadow and Jean Francoise Jarrige.

According to them, Mehrgarh gives us an archaeological record with a sequence of occupations. Archaeological research over the past decades has established a continuous sequence of strata, showing the gradual development to the high standard of the full-fledged Indus civilisation.

These strata have been named pre-Harappan, early Harappan, mature Harappan and late Harappan phases or stages. By reviewing the main ele­ments of the rural cultures of the Indian sub-continent the origin of the Indus civilisation can be traced. Any Pre-Harappan culture claiming ancestry to the Indus civilisation must satisfy two conditions. The first condition is that it must not only precede but also overlap the Indus culture.

The second is that the essential elements of the Indus culture must have been anticipated by the Proto-Harappan (Indus) culture in its material aspects, viz, the rudiments of town planning, provision of minimum sanitary facilities, knowledge of pictographic writing, the introduction of trade mechanisms, the knowledge of metallurgy and the prevalence of ceramic traditions.

The different stages of the indigenous evolution of the Indus can be documented by an analysis of four sites which reflect the sequence of the four important stages or phases in the pre-history and proto-history of the Indus valley region.

The sequence begins with the transition of nomadic herdsmen to settled agricultural communities as per the evidence found at the first site i.e. Mehrgarh near the Bolan Pass. It continues with the growth of large villages and the rise of towns in the second stage exemplified at Amri. The Amri people did not possess any knowledge of town-planning or of writing. The third stage in the sequence leads to the emergence of the great cities as in Kalibangan and finally ends with their decline, which is the fourth stage and exemplified by Lothal. Amri, Kot-Dijian and Kalibangan cultures are stratigraphically found to be pre-Harappan.

The pre-Harappan culture of Kalibangan in Rajasthan is termed as Sothi culture by Amalananda Ghosh, its excavator. The Harappan were owed certain elements such as the fish scale and pipal leaf to the Sothi ware.

The four Baluchi cultures, viz, Zhob, Quetta, Nal and Kulli, undoubtedly pre-Harappan, also have some minor common features with the Indus civilisation, and cannot be considered as full-fledged proto-Harappan cultures.

The culture of Northern Baluchistan is termed as ‘Zhob’ culture after the sites in the Zhob valley, the chief among them being Rana Ghundai. This culture is characterised by black and red ware and terracotta female figurines. Nal culture is characterised by the use of white-clipped ware with attractive polychrome paintings and the observance of fractional burial.

The characteristic pottery of the Quetta culture is the buff-ware, painted in black pigment and decorated with geometrical designs. Apart from the painted motifs such as the pipal leaf and sacred brazier, some pottery shapes are common to the Harappan and Kulli cultures. All these pre-Harappan habitations preceding the phase of the Harappan civilization shows evidences of people living in houses of stone and mud-brick.

Similarities were found in the cultural traditions of the diverse agricultural communities living in the Indus region in the ‘early Indus period’. During the urban phase these little traditions were fused into one great tradition.

How­ever, even in the ‘early Indus period’, use of similar kinds of pottery terracotta mother goddess, repre­sentation of the horned deity in many sites show the way to the emergence of a homogenous tradition in the entire area.

The people of Baluchistan had already established trading relations with the towns of the Persian Gulf and Central Asia. Kulli, situated on the southern foothills of the Baluchi mountains near the Makran coast, occupies an important position on the trade route between the Persian Gulf and the Indus Valley.

Thus, the available evidence suggests that the Harappan culture had its origin in the Indus valley. And even within the Indus valley, several cultures seem to have contributed to evolve the urban civilisation. There is no evidence to suggest that the Indus people borrowed anything substantial from the Sumerians. It is thus difficult to accept Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s assumption that “the idea of civilization came to the Indus valley from Mesopotamia”.

Sources of Materials

Materials                                Source
Gold                                        Afghanistan, Persia Karnataka
Silver                                                Afghanistan, Iran
Copper                                    Baluchistan & Khetri (Rajasthan)
Tin                                          Afghanistan, Central Asia
Agates                                     Western India
Chalcedony                             Saurashtra
Lead                                        Rajasthan South India, Afghanistan
Lapis – Lazuli                         Badakashan (N. Afghanistan)
Turquoise                               Central Asia, Iran
Amethyst                                Maharashtra
Jade                                        Central Asia
Carnelian                                Saurashtra

Script and Language 

pictograph

Harappan script is regarded as Pictographic since its signs represent birds, fish and a variety of human forms. The script was boustrophedon. Written from right to left in one line and then from left to right in the next line. The number of signs of the Harappan script is known to be between 400 and 600. The language of the Harappans is still unknown and must remain so until the Harappan script is deciphered.

Pottery

pottery

Harappan Pottery is bright or dark red and is uniformly sturdy and well baked. It is chiefly well made, and consists of both plain and painted ware, the plain variety being more common.
Harappan people used different types of pottery such as glaze, polychrome, incised, perforated and knobbed. The glazed Harappan pottery is the earliest example of its kind in the ancient world. On the whole, Harappan pottery was highly utilitarian and character, though the painted remarkable artistic touch.
Seals
They are the greatest artistic creations of the Indus people. Most commonly made of steatite (soft stone).

Ø The technique of cutting and polishing these seals with white luster was a unique invention of the Harappans.

Ø The majority of the seals have an animal engraved on them with a short inscription. Unicorn is the animal most frequently represented on the seals.

Burial Practices

Three forms of burials are found at Mohenjodaro, viz. complete burials. Tractional Burials (burial of some bones after the exposure of the body to wild beasts birds) and Post – cremation burials. But the general practice was extended inhumation, the body lying on us bak, with the head generally to the north.

Religion

pasupati shiva

The chief male deity was the Pashupati Mahadeva (Proto-Siva), represented in seals as sitting in a yogic posture on a low throne and having three faces and two horns. He is surrounded by four animals (elephant, tiger, rhino and buffalo), each facing a different direction, and two deer appear at his feet. The chief female deity was the Mother Goddess, who has been depicted in various forms. There is sufficient evidence for the prevalence of Phallic Worship. Numerous stone symbols of female sex organs (yoni worship), besides those of the phallus, have been discovered.
The worship of fire is proved by the discovery of fire altars at Lothal, Kalibangan and Harappa.
Indus people also worshipped Gods in the form of trees (papal, etc)and animals (unicorn etc), Further they believed in ghosts and evil forces and used amulets as protection against them

Decline

After 2000 BC, the Indus cultures slowly declined and gradually fade out. Some ascribe this to the decreasing fertility of the soil till account of the increasing salinity, caused by the expansion of the neighboring desert. Other attribute it to some kind of depression in the land, which caused Hoods. Still other point out that the Aryans destroyed it. According to some scholars, decline to trade, particularly oceanic trade with the Sumerians, must have contributed partly in the decline. Even though there are various theories for the downfall of this civilization, the most accepted version is that of ecological destruction.

Major Sites

Harappa                                 The great Granary
Mohenjodaro                          The Great Bath
Kalibangan                             Ploughed, Fire alter
Chanhudrao                            Ink pot, Shell- ornament
Banwali                                   Clay Bangles, Statue of mother Goddess
Surkotada                               Fortified town, remains of Horse.
KotDiji                                    Wheel, Streets, Toys
Ropar                                      Rectangular mud brick
Dholavira                                Hemmed in the Citadel
Lothal                                     Dockyard, rice husk.

Ancient India

AncientIndia

ThePrehistoric Period

Pre-historic

The prehistoric period in the history of mankind can roughly dated from 2000000 BC to about 3500-2500 BC, when the forst civilizations began to take shape.

          The history of India is no exception . The First modern human beings or the Homo sapiens set foot on the Indian subcontinent anywhere between 200000 BC and 40000 BC and they soon spread throughout a peninsular India. They continuously flooded the Indiansubcontinent in waves after waves of migration from what is present day Iran. These primitive people moved in groups of few ‘families’ and lived mainly on hunting and gathering.

StoneAge

stone-age

The age when the prehistoric man began to use stones for utilitarian purpose is termed as the stone age. The stone age is divided into three broad divisions-  Paleolithic Age or the Old Stone Age (500,000-8000 BC), Mesolithic Age or the Middle Stone Age (8000 BC-6000 BC), and the Neolithic Age or the New Stone Age (6000BC-1000BC) on the basis of the specialization of the stone tools, which were made during that time.

ThePaleolithic Age in India ( 500,000BC- 8000 BC)

Paleolithic Age

The human beings  living in the Paleolithic Age were essentially food gathers and depended on nature for food. The art of hunting and stalking wild animals individually and later in groups led to these people making stone weapons and tools. First crudely carved out stones were used in hunting, but as the size of the group began to increase and there was need for more food, these people began to make “specialized tools” by flaking stones, which were pointed on one end. These kind of tools were generally used to kill small animals and for tearing flesh from the carcass of the hunted animals. The basic technique of making these crude tools was by taking a stone and flaking its sides with a heavier stone. These tools were characteristic of the Paleolithic Age and were very rough. By this time, human beings had come to make and use fire. They mainly used hand axes, cleavers, chopper, blades, scrapers and burin. Their tools were made of hard rock called ‘quartzite’. Hence Paleolithic men are also called ‘Quartzite Men’.

MesolithicAge (8,000-6,000 BC)

mesolithic-age

In the Mesolithic Age, the stone tools began to be made more pointed and sharp. To ensure a life that had abundance of food and clothing, the stone tools began to appear in increasingly specialized way. The simple handheld stone tools were now attached to thick branches from trees with rope made from animal skin and sinew. These tools are known as hand axes, which could be flung at fast-moving animals from a distance. Apart from hand axes, they also produced crude stone-tipped wooden spears, borers, and burins. This period also saw the domestication of animals and graving of wild varieties of crops. Because of farming, small settlements began to take shape. Archaeological excavations have unearthed Mesolithic sites in the ChottaNagpur area of central India and the areas south of the Krishna River. The famous Bhimbetka caves near Bhopal belong to the Mesolithic Age and are famous for their cave paintings. The prehistoric artist used natural white and red pigments in depicting the various items, which were close to his heart and sustenance. The characteristic tools of the Mesolithic Age are known as Microlith.

NeolithicAge (6,000-1,000BC)

neolithic age

The Neolithic Age (6,000 – 1,000 BC) or the New Stone Age was the last phase of the Stone Age and is characterized by very finely flaked, small stone tools, also known as blades and burins. The Neolithic Age also saw the domestication of Cattle, Horses, and other animals. Which were used for dairy and meat products. An important invention of this time was the making of the wheel. The Neolithic Age quickly gave way to a number of small “cultures” that were highly technical. These people used copper and bronze to make a range of utilitarian tools. Neolithic men cultivated land and grew fruits and corn like ragi and horse gram. They lived in cave and decorated their walls with hunting and dancing scenes. They also knew the art of making boats. They could also weave cotton and wool to make cloth. In the later phase of Neolithic Phase people led a more settled life and lived in circular and rectangular houses made of mud and reed. Important sites of this age are Burzahom and Gufkral in J&K.

ChalcolithicPhase

chalcolithic-period

Towards the end of the Neolithic period, metals like bronze and copper began to be used. This was the Chalcolithic phase (18, 00-1,000 BC). Chalcolithic cultures extended from the Chotanagpur plateau to the upper Gangetic basin. Some of the sites of this era are Brahmgiri (near Mysore) and Navada Toli on the Narmada.