Painted Gray ware culture: distribution and characteristic features

Painted Gray Ware pottery Colour, Fabric, core, thickness, firing, painting (rim bands, dots and dashes, vertical, oblique and criss-cross lines, concentric circles and simicircles, a chain of short spirals, sigmas, svastikas, etc.), shapes. Ahichchhatra -1946, Ancient India, No. 1, Painted Grey Ware Hastinapura - 1955, Excavation at Hastinapura and other explorations in the Upper Ganga and Sutlej Basin. Ancient India, No. 10-11. Determination of period at Hastinapur Provisional Conclusions The excavation at Hastinapura and explorations at other sites yielding the Painted Grey, Harappan, N.B.P. and Ochre-coloured wares have brought to light the following facts: 1. That the PGW was later than the Ochre-Coloured Ware. The latter seems to have been associated with the well-know Copper Hoards of the Gangetic basin. 2. That the Painted Grey Ware was later than the Harappa Ware. 3. That the Painted Grey Ware well-preceded the NBPW. Though there may have been a subsequent overlap between the two. At Hastinapura there was no overlap, but since there was a break of occupation between Periods II and III it is difficult to say what the position was during the interval. The point, therefore, needs verification from other comparable sites. 4. That a heavy flood in the Ganga washed away a considerable portion to the PGW settlement (Period II) at Hastinapura, which incident also resulted in the desertion of the site for some time to come. 5. That the pre-N.B.P. levels at Kausambi, which contained grey ware with atleast one painted specimen, are assignable to a date prior to Period III of Hastinapura. 6. That the PGW occurs at a large numger of sites in the Upper Ganga basin, e.g. Hastinapura, Ahichchhatra, Kampil, Mathura, Baghpat, Barnawa, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Tilpat, Indraprastha, etc. 7. That the people who occupied the Ghaggar valley in the wake of the Harappans used the Painted Grey Ware. 8. That on the basis of 2 and 3 above, the Painted Grey Ware may be placed somewhere within the limits of 600 B.C. on the on e hand and 1500 B.C. The corresponding strata (Period II) at Hastinapura may, however, be dated approximately from circa 1100 B.C. to cira 800 B.C.

Atranjikhera (Ganga-Yamuna Doab reagion) Black-and-Red ware- absence of PGW, absence of iron PGW- Continuation of Black and Red ware in PGW, Iron introduced NBPW- there is considerable thickness in which PGW is present. Sub-phases of PGW and frequency of different wares I II III IV B and R ware 5.3% 1.1% 0.9% 0.1% Bl slipped ware 15.6% 1.1% 2.0% 0.8% PGW 3.4% 9.7% 6.0% 1.4% Plain GW 10.8% 31.8% 30.10% 28.4% Red ware 64.9% 56.3% 61.0% 69.3% Carbon-14 dates: 1025 BC, 540 BC, 150 BCE. Number of other samples yielded dates between 6th and 5th century BC. Noh (Rajasthan) OCP Black-and-red ware PGW- Paintings in almost all designs, other wares associated with PGW are Black-and-red ware, (unpainted), Grey ware with black polish, Grey ware with red slip-painted and unpainted. Unpainted grey ware sherds are not fine. They are thicker in section and inferior in treatment. NBPW- Grey ware found in this level are thicker in section than those found with PGW. Though fabric differs shapes are same. The finding of PGW at Noh was interpreted as extension of the culture that flourished in upper Gangetic valley (S.P. Srivastava:1994). Middle level of the culture yielded date of 805 and 900 BCE

 At Bhagwanpura, however, PGW overlap with another preiron culture derivable from an amalgam of a pre-Harappa and the Harappa. No iron is reported from the PGW levels at Ropar, Chak 86, Sardargarh both in district Ganganagar.

The important sites of the PGW culture Hastinapur, Ahichchhatra, Alamgirpur, Allahpur, Atranjikhera, Jakhera, Mathura, Noh, Jodhpura, Roper, Bhagwanpura, etc.
Distribution Ropar in Punjab in the north, Gilund and Ujjain in the south, Bahawalpur State (in Pakistan) and Thar Desert of Bikaner in the vedic Saraswati-Drishadwati basin in the west, and Kausambi on the River Yamuna near Allahabad in the east.

 The beginning of iron age and absence of stone tools. The iron objects at this stage usually fall in the category of hunting tools like arrowheads, spearheads, points, knife-blades, and axes; apart from above artifacts pins, nails, rods, a pair of tongs from the smithy (from Atranjikhera), sickle and rarely ploughshare (Jakhera). The site of Noh (district Bharatpur, Rajasthan), Atranjikhera and Jakhera (both in district Etah, UP) situated close to the mineral rich Agra-Gwalior belt have yielded iron working evidence complete with furnace remains, slag, ash, charcoal and related tools. The copper objects found along with iron, especially at the sites in western UP, (Hastinapur and Atranjikhera) and north-east Rajasthan (Noh and Jodhpura) yielded delicate objects in copper (Hastinapur- nail pares, an antimony rod, a borer and a small arrowhead). Structural evidence Generally, wattle and daub circular structures, or mud brick houses were in vogue during this period (Hastinapura). The site of Jakhera, as an exception, has yielded a couple of large sized baked bricks along with an evidence of a 5 m wide and 0.8 m high protective rampart, a water channel and rammed road. The thirteen room mud structure was unearthed at the site of Bhagwanpura. Settlement size Makhan Lal- Kanpur district (1984) 2 hectares or less- 40 sites 2-2.99 hectares- 2 sites 3-3.99 hectares- 3 sites

G. Erdosy (1985)- Kausambi region less than 1 hectares- 1 site 1-1.99 hectares- 9 sites 2-2.99 hectares- 5 sites

 Agricultural produce Rice, barley, wheat Domesticated animals -Horse, cattle, buffalo, pig and sheep. -The occurrence of cut and charred bones of animals indicate the inclusion of meat in the dietary (Hastinapura). Other antiquities -Bone points (styli) and T.C. discs are the most common finding of this peirod. -Among beads ghata-shaped beads of T.C. are common. -Painted plano-convex gamesman from Noh. -Oblong dice in bone, bearing on its four faces markings 1,2,3 and 4. -The terracotta toys including the bull and the horse -Beads of agate, carnelian, jasper, etc. -Reel shaped ear studs of jasper and agate. -Most notable is finding of glass bangles. There are stages of the spread of the culture. -The earliest along the Sarasvati and parts of Punjab and Haryana, in which iron perhaps had not yet come into use. -The second the stage of Western UP, when sites like Hastinapura, Mathura, Ahichchhatra, etc. were occupied. -And the third in which the degerated PGW, overlapped by the NBPW, trickled east ward up to north-west Bihar (Vaisali) and south ward in to Madhya pradesh (Ujjain).

here it may be worth while to recall some relevant information from ancient Indian literatures:(a) That Hastinapura, Ahichchhatra and Kampil were respectively the capitals of the Pauravas, and North and south Panchalas, who formed a part of the early Aryan stock in India. (b) That in the regime of Nichakshu, the fifth ruler after the Mahabharata battle, there occurred a flood in the Ganga which washed away Hastinapura and capital was shifted to Kausambi. (c) That Mathura, Indraprastha, Ahichchhatra, Kampil, Baghapat, Barnawa, Tilpat, Kurukshetra, etc., were in one way or other connected with the Mahabharata story. (d) That the combined stream of the Ghaggar and Sarsuti is identifiable with the Sarasvati and the Sutlej with the sutudru, on the banks of which the early Aryans used to live.

One may also recall here the inscriptional evidence from Boghaz Keui (Boghazkoy), which shows that the Aryan-speaking people had made their appearance in Western Asia by the fourteenth century B.C. Moving eastwards, they are likely to have reached the Ghaggar and Sutlej Valleys during the following couple of centuries.

Now, when the archaeological data are viewed against the background of literature, some obvious questions begin to pose themselves. Is it a mere chance! (i) that a large number of sites associated with the Mahabharata story contain the same ceramic industry, viz. the painted Grey Ware, in their lower levels? (ii) that the date of the Mahabharata battle falls within Period II at Hastinapura?

(iii) that the people who appeared in the Ghaggar-Sutlej valleys in a post-Harappan context give a period which synchronizes with the arrival of the Aryan-speaking people in that area, as per literary and inscriptional evidence cited above used the Painted Grey Ware?
Further, may not the archaeological evidence, nos. 4 and 5 above, be taken to indicate that the Puranic tradition regarding the washing away of Hastinapura and the subsequent shifting of the capital to Kausambi may have some historical basis? If it is believed that all these coincidences are nothing more than mere chances, the questions wind themselves up. Otherwise, a conclusion that would appear to force itself on us is: that the sites of Hastinapura, Mathura, Kurukshetra, Barnawa, etc., are identifiable with those of the same name mentioned in the Mahabharata. If that be so, the Painted Grey Ware would be associable with the early settlers on these sites, viz. the Pauravas, Panchalas, etc., who formed a part of the early Aryan stock in India. Such an association may also explain the synchronism between the appearance of the Painted Grey Ware in the Ghaggar-Sutlej valleys and the probable date of the arrival of the Aryan in that area. May it, however, be emphasized that the evidnce is entirely circumstantial and until and unless positive ethnographic and epigraphic proofs are obtained to substantiate the conclusions they cannot but be considered provisional?

Gandhara Grave Culture of Swat Valley

The proposition does not imply that the graves are special to Gandhara. The term Gandhara has so far been applied in archaeology to a particular school of art and the associated Buddhist culture that developed in this region. The history of the region goes back to 6th century BCE when Achaemenian Iranians incorporated this region into their empire. Earlier than this our historical notion has been vague and mythological. Gandhara grave culture for the first time provides information for the earlier development of the region. This provided two cultural sequences 1. Bronze Age and 2. Iron Age. Since the authors of the culture are not known, the culture has been named firstly by characteristic feature of graves and secondly for the region in which it has been discovered for the first time. As Dani clarify, it has been called culture because the material culture recovered from excavation confine to the hilly track of Gandhara. Gandhara grave culture thus presents a pattern of living in the hill zone of Gandhara, as evidenced in the graves, and shows how the peoples, who were equjipped with poor bronze and iron tools and weapons, adapted themselves to the natural resources.

Dani has identified it as different from two cultures which flourished during Bronze Age in Pakistan. 1. Indus valley civilization which flourished in the furtile plain of Indius and 2. Baluchi village cultures which developed along the route connecting Indus valley culture with the Mesopotemia. The peoples of Gandhara grave culture show strong link with the northern Iran and Central Asia. They used two wares, 1. Plain Grey ware, which was more common; and 2. Plain red ware. The tradition of painting which is the main characteristic of the Indus civilisation was absent. Dani categorically hypothesized that it is not improper to seek the origin of the painted grey ware, known from East Punjab and the Upper Ganges Valley in India, to the developments of this grey ware in the intervening plains between the Indus and East Punjab.

The important excavated sites: Aligram, Bir-kot-ghundai, Ghaligai, Kalako-deray, Loebanr III (Swat Valley), Balambat and Timargarha 3 (Dir Valley) The burials are divided into three types1. Inflexed burial, 2. Urn burial after cremation, and 3. Fractional and multiple burials. These has been called as three different rituals. The habitation appears extending from foot hills to the brink of the river. Terraced cultivation was probably in practice and higher slopes were used for grazing the cattle. The report of food grains and animal bones is absent. But it is observed that horse played a significant role in the life of the people.

The house architecture was simple, at Balambat the rubble stone masonry was used without any mortar, and plaster of mud applied from inside. But the presence of circular and rectangular storage rooms with a connecting platform, suggests extra store of corns.
For the graves at Thana long slabs of schist stones were cut out from the living rock to serve as floor for the dead bodies. At Timargarha large slabs of stones were used to make the box-like graves. These stone blocks were properly chiselled, and the inner face, which lined the graves, were duly pecked with sharp tools in order to give a flat surface.

Material culture from Timargarha Pins- available from graves of Pd. I, II, and III. Total 16 are of copper and 1 of ivory. These are characterized by variety of shapes of their tops, including globular, surmounted by flat top, convex top, conoid top, conical top, loop head, pyramidal top. Pendants- one crescent shaped and the other of bone, is rhomboidal, both came from pd III graves. Finger rings- four in copper, two of gold, one of silver, all made of thin coiled wire, from Pd III.

Needle- it is of eye-type made by bending the stem end.

Apart from these, two antimony rods of copper, two of ivory, and several beads of semi-precious stones, all come from graves of pd. II and III. Copper arrow-heads, harpoon and knife-blade.

Terracotta objects (Pd III): Ram-head, Cat, Horns, Humped bull, Human figurine.
Beads (Pd III): a) Barrel-bicone-circular with wide axial hole. b) Whorl beads short-cylinder-circular with a wide axial hole. Ivory objects (pd III): Awl and antimony rods. Glass objects (period III upper levels): four fragments of blue coloured glass bangles. Stone Objects (Pd III): finished ring stone and one polished axe having pointed butt end.

Iron objects All of these came from pd. III graves of Timargarha. 1. Spear-head: Leaf shaped, no mid rib. 2. Nail: With thick circular top. 3. Spoon: The handles terminate in two rings, one on each side. 4. Check-bar horses harness: Straight bar (rectangular in section) with three elliptical holes made at equal distance from each other. From Pd. III of Balambat Only four objects: 1. One blade of a knife. 2. Three fragments of nail. 3. Finger ring of rounded wire.

Several such figurines are found at the site which has been identified for ritual purpose.

The urns of this form used for burial purpose also represent the possible totemic idea attached after it.

The drinking vessels are usually in grey ware and are very dominant in number probably due to popularity of some special drink among people.

Bowl-on-stand are consistently found in the graves probably due to its relation to some ritual

ChronologyNeolithic 1st half of the 2nd millennium B.C. and possibly earlier. Period I 16th to 13th century BCE. Period II 12th to 10th century BCE. Period III 9th to the middle of 6th century BCE. Iron bearing level. Period IV from the middle of the 6th to the 3rd quarter of the 4th century BCE the historical age of the Achaemenians. The periods of Dani and Stacul could be equated as follows: Dani Stacul Period III Period III and II Period II and I Period I

 Associated pottery Mathura- Period I- PGW Pd. I A- red ware, some sherds of the black slipped ware, and a few fragments of an inferior variety of the blackand-red ware, besides some plain grey ware. Antiquities- terracotta discs of plain and decorated variety; ghata-shaped beads; fragment of a conch; a bone arrowhead; a terracotta amulate; and two broken styli. Pd. I B- not show any major change except for the appearance of a few sherds of the NBPW and some new designs on the PGW sherds. Other important finds- ear stud of transluscent greenish glass; terracotta gamesmen; bone arrowheads; figurine of a terracotta bird; an unperforated gadrooned bead; ghata-shaped beads; and a terracotta disc. Noh- other finding Beads, terracotta discs with scalloped or angular designs at the rim, bone styli, one with a socket cover, iron spearheads and an arrowheads with leaf shaped point socketed tang and an axe and copper objects from the other antiquities. Charred rice an important discovery in this period. Ropar- Period II (PGW) Other associated wares in these levels are plain grey ware, black-slipped ware and dusty red ware. Housing evidence- confined traces of mud walls. Burnt clay lumps with reed impressions indicate that the houses were generally made of daubed wattle. Antiquities- copper was the chief metal in use. Iron was also introduced. Lumps of iron slag, broken pieces of indeterminate objects and a fragmentary arrowhead provide the evidence of the beginnings of ironsmithy. Bangles of T.C. and glass and T.C. beads, glass, bone, and semiprecious stones were used for ornaments. Bone points (styli). Hastinapura- unidentified iron objects are available. Same at Ropar. Bhagwanpura- PGW along with late Harappan, no iron objects are available.