Aryan Books

THE RISE OF CIVILIZATION IN THE GANGETIC PLAIN: The Context of Painted Grey Ware

By :- Vibha Tripathi

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Pages: xxiv+356

Format: HB

ISBN-13: 978-81-7305-425-9

Place: New Delhi

Edition: 1st

Publisher: ARYAN BOOKS INTERNATIONAL

Size: 22cm x 28cm

Product Year: 2012

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The book is about the rise of civilization in the Ganga Plains. Though there are traces of occupation starting as early as 8th millennium bce, as indicated by radiometric characterizations, but those early footprints of humankind in the region were not only unsteady and vacillating but also very sparse. An uninterrupted cultural occupation of the Plains starts much later. The foundations of a civilization that has an unbroken history for the millennia to come were laid down by a culture known in the archaeological parlance as the Painted Grey Ware (PGW) culture. Our knowledge of this phase of protohistoric culture has grown manifolds over the last few decades. The present book attempts to review the recently retrieved data to reconstruct the life of a society that coincides well with the Later Vedic period of Indian history. As a result of river course changes discernable in satellite imageries indicating drying up of the mighty River Saraswati of the Rigvedic period, the cultural foci shifted towards the Gangetic Doab. This region became the cradle of Indian civilization in the centuries to come. Thousands of PGW sites have now been located along the rivers in the Indo-Gangetic Divide. The field investigations carried out in recent past have added new dimensions to the PGW culture. We can now discern more clearly the traces of evolving socio-cultural, techno-economic and political system that took place in this region over the centuries. We may now talk with greater clarity about the spatial distribution of sites, settlement pattern, social hierarchy, and technological attainments as reflected in advancements in the field of metallurgy, glass making, ceramics and other areas of craft specialization. All this is manifest in the material remains examined in the book. But the book tries to look beyond and focuses its prism on the man behind material culture. It finds culture that reverberates with life paving the way for the rise of a vibrant civilization in the Ganga Plain that lasts till today.

Preface v List of Illustrations xiii 1. Introduction 1 Data Available for the Study of PGW 4 Approach and Salient Features 5 2. Ecological Background 8 I. Physical Features of the Pgw Zone 9 I.1 Soil and Vegetation 12 I.2 Drainage Pattern 13 I.3 Archaeological Reconnaissance 19 I.4 Literary Data 20 I.5 The Emergent Picture: Changes in Water Sources 23 II. Climatic Changes 24 II.1 Geomorphology and Palaeoclimate 27 II.2 Fluvial Landform Features as Indicators of Pleistocene Climate 28 II.3 Aeolian Landform Features as Indicators of Pre-Holocene Climate 28 3. The Pgw Yielding Sites 32 I. Excavated Sites 33 II. Minor Excavated and Explored Sites 72 III. Other Sites 85 IV. Observations 90 4. Painted Grey Ware: A Deluxe Pottery of the Age 94 I. Technique of Manufacturing 94 II. Pgw: Shapes and Designs 97 II.1 Bowls 97 III. Some Uncommon Varieties 104 III.1 PGW ? Functional Evaluation 105 IV. Pgw in Relation to Other Allied Wares 106 IV.1 NBP Ware in Relation to PGW 106 IV.2 Black and Red Ware and PGW 109 V. Genesis of PGW 116 V.1 OCP ? A Pre-PGW Culture 117 V.2 Black and Red Ware 118 VI. Chronology of PGW 131 VI.1 The Upper Limit 134 VI.2 The Lower Limit 134 VI.3 Radiocarbon Dates 135 5. The Pottery Assemblage and Material Remains 142 I. Red Ware 142 I.1 Group A ? Fine Fabric 143 I.2 Group B ? Medium to Coarse Fabric 144 I.3 Group C ? Miniature Vessels 147 II. Black Wares 154 II.1 Grey Ware 154 II.2 Black and Red Ware 161 II.3 Black Slipped Ware 170 II.4 A Review of the Problem and Summary 176 III. Material Culture of PGW 177 III.1 Terracotta Objects 177 III.2 Stone Objects 187 III.3 Bone Objects ? From Hunting Tools to Hairpins 188 III.4 Glass Objects ? An Innovation of this Period 191 III.5 Ivory, Shell and Horn Objects 191 III.6 Gold Objects 191 IV. Structural Remains 192 V. Cereals and Plant Remains 198 6. The Settlement Pattern of Painted Grey Ware Culture 202 I. PGW ? A Riverine Culture 203 I.1 Hydro-Climatic Changes and Diffusion of Culture 205 II. Regional Features 213 III. Settlement Size and Site Hierarchy 214 IV. The Geographical Models 216 IV.1 Type and Size of the Villages 217 IV.2 Territorial Evolution 221 7. Technology during the PGW Culture 224 I. Metallurgy 225 I.1 Copper ? A Popular Metal of PGW Period 225 I.2 Iron Technology 233 II. Glass Technology 245 II.1 Atranjikhera Glass 247 III. The Ceramic Technology 249 III.1 Technical Study of Pottery 250 III.2 Kiln and Firing Technique 256 III.3 Ethnographical Models of Pottery Making 259 IV. Conclusion 261 8. Life during the PGW Period: An Overview 264 I. Issues Related to Time, Space and Tribes 264 I.1 The Settlement Pattern and the Society 267 II. Structural Remains 270 III. Objects of Daily Use during PGW Period 271 III.1 Minor Antiquities 271 III.2 Objects of Daily Use 272 IV. Kitchen Articles and Food Habits 273 V. Sport and Entertainment 274 VI. Transport 275 VII. Religion 275 VII.1 Geometric Tools and Vedi 276 VII.2 Burials 276 VIII. Economy during the Pgw Period 276 VIII.1 Agriculture 276 VIII.2 Technology vis-?-vis Agriculture 278 VIII.3 Animal Husbandry 278 IX. Inter-Regional and Intra-Regional Interactions 279 X. Technological Innovations and Society 280 XI. The Emergent Picture: A Culture Moving towards Urbanism 283 Appendix 285 Area-wise List of Painted Grey Ware Sites 285 Delhi 285 Haryana 286 Jammu-Kashmir 308 Punjab 308 Madhya Pradesh 311 Rajasthan 312 Uttar Pradesh 318 Uttarakhand 334 Himachal Pradesh 335 Bibliography 337 Index 349

Vibha Tripathi, presently Professor at Banaras Hindu University, started on the fascinating journey of uncovering the human past more than thirty years ago. It is a search of the imprints of human endeavours that has gone into making India a great civilization. Many stalwarts have trodden this path before and have made it easier for others to follow. Her initiation into the field of Archaeology started as a young post-graduate student (1967) at the University of Allahabad and a Ph.D. student (1973) at the Banaras Hindu University. The sharp intellect of (Late) Professor K.K. Sinha, her Ph.D. supervisor, ignited in her an urge to delve deep into the human past. The urge has never stopped since then. She remains a student of Archaeology, teaching at Banaras Hindu University since 1977. Her intellectual quest and passion for the subject has taken her to various specialized fields like palaeo-environment, settlement system, clay art ? pottery and terracotta, metal and metallurgy and ethnography, especially the communities of metal workers. The insights gained into the process have been shared in a large number of research papers and popular articles, book chapters, reviews, and a good number of books that she has authored. She has also contributed to the policy matters through membership of several national and international bodies. Her academic pursuits have helped extend the boundaries of knowledge and opened new vistas for further enquiry.

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