Harappan & Non Harappan Cultures

The Indus civilization or Harappa cultures were the first urban civilization of the Indian subcontinent. In recent times, these cultures are being commonly referred to as “Saraswati-Sindhu civilization”.

Harappa and Mohenjodaro are the two very important urban centres of this civilization, besides a number of other centres that have become known in the last eight decades.

These changes in the extreme north-west of the Indian subcontinent were by no means sudden.

The roots of this culture can be traced to about 7000 BC at Mehergarh. Mehergarh is situated 250 kms north-west of Mohenjodaro in the Kachi Plain between the Indus and the Baluchistan hills.It lies at the foot of the Bolan Pass on river Bolan, a tributary of the Indus. It is located on the historical route that connects the fertile Indus valley, via Quetta and Khandahar, to the Iranian plateau that in turn leads one to Central and West Asia. This culture is divided into ‘Pre’, ‘Early’, ‘Mature’, ‘Late’ and ‘Post’ Harappan phases corresponding to BC 5500-3500, BC 3500 to 2650, BC 2650-1800 and BC 1800 onwards.

The basis for this division is the pattern of life inferred from the available artefacts unearthed in excavations. These phases clearly exhibit a transition from pastoralism, limited cultivation, seasonal and temporary occupation of villages and later emergence of permanent village settlements to the of use of copper, wheel and plough, and surplus production which enabled the people to undertake long-distance trade.

Potteries of both of utilitarian and decorative patterns with motifs such as pepal, humped bull, cobra and horned deity have been discovered in excavations. An interesting feature that deserves notice is the standarization of pottery traditions, along with other material cultural finds belonging to the ‘mature’ phase despite the existence of regional variations. It may be postulated that the need for regional variations is as old as the Harappan cultures, yet exhibiting a uniform pattern.

We also notice the existence of a large number of villages as well as defensive walls, and granaries to store surplus produce. This phase was followed by the growth of large cities with well-laid-out town planning with uniform burnt bricks, weights, seals, and beads along with pottery. The last phase is characterized by the abandonment of the previous Harappan sites and decline of inter-regional exchange. In the crafts and pottery tradition, we notice the impact of village cultures of Punjab, Sudej, the Jamuna divide and Gujarat.

In the last eight decades, nearly eleven hundred settlements with the characteristic features of Harappa have become known. It is estimated that out of the 1,100 sites so far discovered, nearly 931 are located in the dried up Saraswati-Drishadvati Rivers, locally called Hakra in the Bahwalpur sector of Pakistan. The geographical extent of this culture covers the present-day Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Pakistan and some nearby regions.

There is a debate regarding the core area of this civilization. While the earlier scholars considered the present-day Pakistan and north-western India as its core, recent scholars surest that it spread from Rajasthan to north-western India and to Pakistan. The important centres or settlements of Harappan culture are Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Kalibangan, Lothal, Suktagendor, Banwah, Chanhudaro, Rangapur, Rojdi, Alamgirpur, and Dholavira.

N.N. Bhattacharya (1988) observes:

“Remains of Harappa cultures are scattered over an area no less than about a half million square miles and containing more than seventy centres. This area extends up to Suktagendor to the west on Makran coast near the border of Iran, Lothal on the gulf of Cambay and Bhagatrai on the Narmada to the south, the Himalayan foothills as far as Manda in Jammu to the north and Ganga-Yamuna region beyond Delhi to the east.”

In spite of the abundant structural material and innumerable artefacts unearthed in excavations at different sites, nothing conclusive can be said about the way a state was formed or what the nature of such a state could have been. Generally, it is assumed that the rise of a highly evolved urban civilization extending over a vast area is associated with the emergence of a centralized “decision-making system” called the state.

There are many surmises:

(a) Oligarchic commercial republics,

(b) A single centralized state,

(c) A theocratic state,

(d) Five independent political units, and

(e) The first major empire in southern Asia.

Until the Indus script is deciphered satisfactorily, and accepted by the majority; we can say that whatever be the form of the government, no coercive methods involving weapons were used since no defensive armour was found among the artifacts. The economy of this civilization appears to be based on plough agriculture. They knew the cultivation of wheat club, Indian dwarf barley, lentil, horse-gram, jawar, millets, rice, urad dal, ragi, sorghum-bicodor, pearl millet, dates, mustard, beans and sesamum. The people also produced cotton.

The evidence of granaries at Harappa and Mohenjodaro reveals that there was surplus production and this surplus was collected through organized labour and stored in granaries. They supplemented their farming economy by domesticating animals like sheep, goats, Indian humped bulls, buffaloes, dogs, cats, pigs and fowls.

There are opposing views, one advocating that there was no evidence of horse and the other arguing that they knew horses. Besides agriculture and cattle rearing, their economy appears to be based on a highly organized system of craft-production as known from artifacts available. By this time, the needs of the people appear to have multiplied, which led to the creation of a number of professions that can sustain urbanism in a vast area.

Naturally, this must have led to the creation of social groups engaged in specialized professions like priesthood, administration, trade, caravan leadership, farming, cattle keeping, manufacture and service-oriented groups like sweepers, washer men and labourers. There is no direct evidence to let us know whether the Indus society was divided based on rich and poor, clean and unclean professions or high and low. As there is proof of long-distance coastal trade between Mesopotamia and west Asian sites like Tell Asmar, Ur, Kish, Lagash and Susa, we can say that besides the sea route, they also knew a land route.

The land routes were two:

(a) The northern route linking north Iran, Oxus, Kabul and central reaches of Indus; and

(b) The southern route linking central and southern Iran with Kandahar, Baluchistan and the more southern regions of Indus or Makran.

One interesting aspect to be noticed is that in spite of the flourishing sea and land-route trade and commerce, the non-availability of metallic coins makes us infer that trade was carried on by barter. Seals recently discovered might have been used by them to indicate the owner or the receiver of merchandise.

They knew weaving and spinning. They used both wool and cotton. Pottery making also appears to be a widespread industry. Different kinds of pottery – plain and painted with designs were found in abundance. They made tools, weapons and implements with stone, copper and bronze.

The Harappans knew how to make bronze by mixing copper with tin. It is suggested that they imported copper from Khetri of Rajasthan and tin from Afghanistan. Among artisans, bronze smiths might have occupied better positions because of their newly acquired skill.

The Harappans wore ornaments made of gold, silver, copper, shell, beads and precious stones and undoubtedly, artisanship of jewellery reached its highest excellence. It is interesting to note that all the above metals, shells, beads and precious stones were imported from different places.

If they could import these, it implies:

(a) They were affluent, and

(b) They all loved ornaments and used affordable ornaments of their choice and liking.

The Harapppan people showed interest in the fun of children by providing them different types of toys; Chanhudaro appears to have been centre of toy manufacturing.An attempt could be made to trace the transition of society of the Harappan culture with the help of artefacts found there. In the absence of corroborative evidence of literature, with the help of artefacts and structural monuments, it can be said that the Harappan social system and Harappan social structure consisted of different social groups that evolved because of the increasing needs of the urban social set-up.

It can be argued that there existed different skilled professional groups catering to various needs of society. There is neither also any conclusive evidence to prove the existence of a warrior group nor any convincing proof of the dominance of the commercial group in the social set-up.

We can only propose that while some led an affluent and luxurious life, the rest led a simple life. Thus, it can be considered that the social set-up of the Harappan times was based on economic rather than social status. The people of the Harappan culture led a comfortable life and appear to have been beauty conscious. The Harappans were not artistic by nature and temperament. All their material creations lack any traces of ornamentation, and exhibit only utili­tarian outlook. The Harappans knew both music and dance.

There is proof to show that they created a stringed instrument, which seems like the prototype of the Veena, and the drum, the possible prototype of the Mridangam. The bronze female figure found in Mohenjo-Daro and a statue of a dancer found at Harappa suggests that dancing was also cultivated.An attempt could be made to construct the religious beliefs and faith of the Harappans based on the identification of structures, relics, figures and engravings on seals. Some of the structures have been identified as temples.

The Great bath and its adjacent structure have been identified as a sacred ritual place and the residence of a high priest or a group of priests. A figure found on a seal has been identified as proto-Siva, and based on other seals the figure surrounded by animals as Pasupati. The worship of mother goddess and the cult of fertility were also in vogue. Several seals with Pipal on them have led tree scholars to suggest that the Harappans worshipped trees. Some seals found with bull, some composite animals, and unicorn, have led to speculation that animal worship was also in vogue.

Interestingly at Lothal and Kalibangan, fire altars have been discovered in the citadel area and lower town. This evidence encouraged some to identify the authors of this civilization as Aryans. The worship at fire altars could be a regional variation and it need not be of Aryan origin, or could have been a later time practice, a possible result of contact with the Aryans.

Though the Harappans knew burial practices, we do not come across anything like the pyramids of Egypt or the Royal cemetery of the Mesopotamian city of Ur. We also come across different types of earthen pots for burial, ornaments made of shell bangles, necklaces, earrings, and in some places collec­tions of bones were found. At Lothal, we notice a pair of skeletons, which are identified as male and female found to be buried together.

These evidences make us postulate that cremation was unknown to them. Harappan people appear to have believed in life after death. We may conclude by observing that different regions of Harappan culture appear to have retained their social roots and religious customs, in spite of apparent uniformity in many respects.

Harappans knew the art of writing and had a script but it is still a mystery, in spite of the claims made by innumerable scholars that they unlocked the mystery. So far, universally acceptable decipherment of the script has not been made. A number of seals or seal amulets of rectangular or square, cylindrical and cubic shape have script on them on one side and a number of animals on the other.

While Fr. Heras and T. Burrow suggest that the language is proto-Dravidian, S.R. Rao believes it to be proto-Vedic or old Indo-Aryan. No single explanation can be offered for the decline and final collapse of the Harappan culture.

Several causes are suggested:

(1) Destruction by massive floods,

(2) The shift in the course of rivers and gradual drying up of the Ghagga-Hakra river system,

(3) Invasion by barbarians, and

(4) The growing demands of population disturbing the ecology of the region leading to the failure of area to support them anymore. The gradual decline and collapse of this flourishing first urban civilization may be due to one or more reasons offered above.

Though the Harappan culture collapsed and became a part of history, certainly this culture continued. The inhabitants of the abandoned Indus town moved to small cluster in the Punjab region along with Rig-Veda Aryans.

Exchange between the Rig-Veda Aryans and the post-Harrapans is manifested in the form of painted grey ware pottery that archaeologists refer to as the PGW culture. The surviving practices of the worship of Pasupati or Siva, the worship of the mother goddess and phallic worship, the cults of sacred places, rivers, trees and animals show the continuity of the Harappan cultural beliefs.

Further, some aspects of the domestic life like the house-plan, attention to bathing, the traditional weights and currency system, the technique of pottery-making, their legacy of engineering skill as pioneers of artificial dock with water locking arrangements also remain. The circular saw and the compass are still in use. Thus both in religious and secular spheres, we observe continuity as well as change.

Wheeler and Allchin, initially assumed that Harappan cultures declined into a ‘dark age’ with an absence of urban centres and of the same pattern of complex socio-political organization in the Indus and upper Gangetic region. Nevertheless, in recent times, Jarrige and Enault, Schaffer, Allchin, Keyonar, Mughal and others express the view based recent excavations that instead of a decline in urbanism it may be better to characterize the change as localization of socio-economic and political interaction.

Kenoyar further writes, “the complex process of change after the Harappan period begins with the late-Harappan to PGW transition (1900-800 BCE) during which the social and political order of the Indus cities was transformed but not clearly obliterated”.

Multiple factors such as changing river patterns, periodic floods perhaps disrupted the socio-economic base and led to significant change of localization of these cultures.

Non-Harappan Cultures:

The gradual movement of the PGW culture from the regions of Punjab and further west gradually moved into the Gangetic plains. They merged with several other cultures bringing about the Iron Age in North India. However, this trend is specifically contained between the lands east of the Indus in Pakistan to the eastern ends of the Gangetic plain where, cultures other than the ones that show signs of integration were encountered. By 800 BC the entire region of North India mentioned in the above geographical context show levels of higher integration manifesting in the use of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW).

Peninsular India, including western India and the Deep South has its own peculiarities in their integrative processes towards the proto-historical phase. Here we need to carefully skim through at least some of the non-Harappan cultures within northern India and their contemporaries in Peninsular India to have an understanding of the mosaic of cultures that made their respective contri­butions when some of these areas show signs of early interaction.

The usual model for social evolution in any given historical culture transits from rural to urban centres. The distinctive feature in India follows a reversal of the above-mentioned phenomena and has throughout its history oscillated between the rural and urban ends. Though the Harappan culture was the most widespread with urban and non-urban settlements, different cultural patterns also existed side by side in other parts of the subcontinent.

These patterns had contacts with the Harappan cultures and vice versa. Between the second millennium BC and the first millennium BC, agriculture-based rural cultures existed in all the major regions of the subcontinent. These are classified as Chalcolithic cultures. From the beginning of the first millennium BC, besides stone and copper, iron began to be used for manufacturing tools both by the people of the Painted Grey Ware (PGW) culture of the upper Ganga valley as well as by the builders of the Megalithic culture of peninsular India.

During this phase, life patterns were dependent on farming, hunting and food gathering along with pastoralism. A factor that deserves our notice is the quickening of historical change in the Ganga valley, which is attributed to the civilizing influence of the Aryans, who migrated to India. Nevertheless, this hypothesis has been questioned by historians in recent decades.

Modem historians argue that there was neither large-scale migration of Aryans nor displacement of local population by ruthless conquest. The historians of recent times hold that the Aryan society was essentially pastoral and not substantially agrarian. The geographical knowledge of the early Aryans was limited to the Sapthasindu valley and historians are skeptical of the knowledge of the Ganga valley of the early Aryans. A cultural profile and life pattern of this period can be recon­structed from both the archaeological and the earliest literary texts.

During this phase, several regional cultures like the Banas, the Kayatha; the Malwa and the Jorwe have become known. Nearly more than a hundred sites excavated in the Ganga-Yamuna doab brought to light a sequence of ochre coloured pottery followed by black and red ware and painted grey ware.

It is suggested that iron made its appearance in the above PGW period and the use of iron became widespread during the phase of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW). However, nearly 1570 sites of NBPW have come to be noticed; only 74 have been excavated. This culture sequence is to be noticed from Taxila and Udgaram in the north-west to Talmuk in East Bengal and Amaravathi of Andhra Pradesh in the south.

This northern black polished ware culture is distinguished by two phases:

(1) The absence of punch-marked coins and burnt-brick struc­tures, and

(2) The presence of the punch-marked coins and bumt-bricks.

Excavations at Kausambi and Hastinapur prove the emergence of well laid out cities along with large-scale building activity. At Kausambi, we come across lanes and by-lanes with brick floorings, and the use of burnt-bricks and timber in the construction of houses. Rooms are of square and rectangular shape, while roofs are covered. Interestingly, an elaborate drainage system was found at Hastinapur.

These settlements were also fortified with mud or brick walls. The forts appear to be encircled by moats. The Kausambi fortification wall had guardrooms, towers and gates at regular intervals. All these evidences well-established political authority regulated show that the society had become complex and social relations.

As the most important feature of this (NBPW) pottery is its glossy surface, it is suggested that it is a luxury item rather than a common one. Therefore, it is inferred by some that there existed some type of social divisions. Whether this division is based on economic or social criteria cannot be established beyond doubt.

Discovery of several types of tools made of stone, glass, copper and iron indicates not only their technological development but also the levels of their material culture. Buddhist Jataka tales refer to 18 guilds or Srenis.

The existence of guilds of both artisans and mercantile groups indicates that they produced goods for both consumption and trade. This is further attested by the availability of silver punch-marked coins, which indicate a system of exchange of goods through metallic currency.

Ornaments of different metals, beads, horn and clay indicate that they too like Harappans loved ornaments and we can surmise the existence of a group of skilled specialist artisans who were in the business of manufacturing ornaments. These people knew the cultivation of rice, wheat, barley, millet, beans and black gram.

The economy appears to be of subsistence level for the majority who did not produce surplus. Nevertheless, evidence of internal and external trade indicates that at least some produced surplus. Until recently, scholars used to consider the Mauryan age as the benchmark for North India’s entrance into the early historic phase. Now, it has been proved beyond doubt that the NBPW is the sign of social and economic integration amongst the various subcultures.

State formation itself is now being seen as a process which, started with smaller kingdoms or chiefdoms in North India that culminated in the Mauryan Era, which is now seen as an early North Indian experiment in establishing an imperial lineage. Based on the Arthasastra, the core of which was written during the Mauryan phase, while it was rearranged and redacted in later ages and came to its final shape during the Gupta period, it is suggested that the state had a monopoly over industries using gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin and precious stones.

In South India, we do not have any definitive information to understand material culture, settlement pattern and social organization, which is a gradual evolution from food gathering economy to food producing economy.

Early farming communities seem to make a sudden appearance. In third millennium BC, evidence suggests that this area was colonized in the favourable habitations of the river valleys of Godavari, Krishna, Thungabhadra, Penna and Kaveri. The settlements are scattered in the semi-arid, low rainfall and sandy-loamy regions that are suitable for dry farming and pastoralism.

Almost all the settlements are sedentary with semi-permanent structures of wattle and daub. They used polished stone tools made of chert, jasper, chalcedony and agate with sheen on the cutting edge. It is suggested that these tools could have been used for harvesting of crops.

They knew of hand-made as well as wheel-turned pottery. The use of pottery indicates settled village life. They were agro-pastoralists. Their daily food was supplemented by wild game.Thus, based on the available evidence, we notice three broad phases in the evolutionary pattern of the early farming communities of South India.

They are:

(a) Period 1: 2500-1800 BC

(b) Period 2: 1800-1500 BC, and

(c) Period 3: 1500 to 1050 BC.

The second and the third periods are characterized as Neolithic and Chalcolithic. The excavated ash-mound sites at Utnur, Kupgal, Kolekal, Palavoy, Piklihal, Maski and Brahmagjri belong to the first period. In the second period, we come across circular hutments of wattle and daub on wooden frames with mud floors and a kind of perforated and spotted vessels.

This suggests that these people had contacts with regions in the north. They also used copper and bronze objects in this phase. The representative sites of the second phase are Nagarjunakonda, Paiyampalli, Veerapuram, Brahmagiri and Sanganakallu. In the third period besides stone axe and blade, copper and bronze tools were also in use.

The commonly found pottery is of grey and buff ware with comparatively hard surface. In this period, we come across wheel-turned un-burnished pottery with purple paint.

The people of these times preferred low hill ranges which are close to streams. They appear to have preferred tropical black land, dry, tropical red and black sandy-loamy lands, sandy and deltaic alluvial soils. The rainfall annually was 600-1200 mm in the places of their habitation. Based on certain similarities and features, there is a view that the Neolithic people of South India had links with some points on the Indo-Iranian border.

In the time around 1100 BC three very important things were taking place in Peninsular India; Iron was being smelted in large quantities, exchange was happening between various communities scattered from the Vidarbha region to Tamil Nadu and most importantly, a new ritual culture was emerging in the form of building Megahths and other assorted burial sites.

There is a tendency amongst scholars to merge all the three above-mentioned features into one cultural complex to the point of suggesting homogeneity. Although it would be impertinent to categorize all these characteristics in calling it Megalithic culture, at least in the earlier stages of this important age, it is however, quite tempting to at least think of a probable link between iron, trade or exchange and lithical monuments for the deceased. Towards the end of the last millennium Before the Common Era (BCE), the three features define and distinguish the cultural spread of South Indian history way into the early medieval period.

Therefore, in many ways, the Megalithic phase or the South Indian Iron Age marks a watershed like in the case of NBPW to the Gangetic plains. A lack of internal chronology and other regional inconsistencies emanating from the lack of comprehensive archaeological data hampers the historian to speculate not only on the Megalithic phase but also on the Early Historic Period.

Even the basis for a date in fixing the earliest extant iron tool comes from an artifact found at Hallur, proved by Carbon 14 test. We notice the overlapping of Neolithic and Chalcolithic culture traits into the Iron Age culture sites also.

Excavations at Piklihal, Hallur and at the burial pits of Brahmagiri exhibit the evidence of the earliest phase of Iron Age in South India. Similarities between these cultures and that of Jorwe and Takawada are also noticed. The red or black ware and burnish-unpainted black and red ware characterize the succeeding phases of Iron Age settlements.

Megaliths have been found in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The most important sites are Nagpur, Maski, Nagarjunakonda and Adichallanur. Arrowheads, daggers, swords, spearheads, tridents, battle-axe, hoes, ploughshares, sickles, stirrups, ladders, tripod and lamp made of iron were found in most of the Megalithic graves.

As pointed before, the phrase Megalithic is rather inadequate in explaining the whole assortment of lithical monuments raised for the dead during the time between the 1000 BC and the 3rd century of the Common Era. Basing on information so far gleaned from archaeological excavations, these Iron Age burials could be divided into four or five distinct categories.

The largest numbers of burial sites come under Caim circles, which resemble the letter ‘C under which, single or multiple urns containing bones or ashes of the dead are recovered. The next most common category is the Cromlech or Kistavaen, which are large free-standing stones, set in rows or following a geometrical alignment.

In some regions, especially in the Deep South comprising southern parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, burial chambers of stone in which there may be two or even three tiers to accommodate the remains of the deceased are called Dolmens or Dolmeniod Cists, depending on typology.

In Kerala, rock-cut caves with underground carvings are also noticed, while the most pervading form is in form of dressed hood-stones aligned to dressed-hemispherical slabs, which are typified as ‘Megaliths’. Attempts are made to identify this culture with either Aryan or Dravidian.

The origin of this culture is traced either to central Asia, Iran or Caucasus or also to the indig­enous Neolithic and chalcolithic burial customs of the Deccan. The archaeological record of the South Indian Iron Age is still to be interpreted and interconnected to arrive at any meaningful chronology.