The Penguin History of Early India

by Romila Thapar

  The history and identity of human settlements in India goes back to prehistoric times, when there was a 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. The question of the identity of the earliest settlers is linked to the evolution and early history of homo sapiens and their dispersal from Africa. The earlier geological conditions assume that the Indian subcontinent was linked to east Africa in remote times.

  The contours of societies in India evidenced by archaeology broadly conform to those recorded for adjoining parts of the world, although of course there are differences that derive from specific environmental contexts. The tracks can be traced through the recognized patterns of the settlements and cultures that have been labelled as the palaeolithic, mesolithic, neolithic, chalcolithic and iron ages. Not all societies evolved from one to the next in a series, nor were they uniform in time throughout the subcontinent. Nevertheless, a brief survey of what has come to be called prehistory and protohistory provides the antecedents to the earliest history.

  Archaeological data is in the form of tangible, material remains. This becomes the basis for calculating chronology. Methods of dating have undergone impressive improvements in the last half-century and are among the many areas of archaeology in which modern scientific techniques have made enormous contributions. For many very early periods there are methods such as spectrometric dating, or measuring potassium or radioactive decay, for arriving at an early date. For periods of the last 10,000 years, the three most commonly used techniques are radio-carbon dating (Carbon-14), based on measuring the loss of carbon in organic material; dendro-chronology, which refers to the number of tree rings in wood; and thermoluminescence (TL), which can be applied to artefacts of particular materials that have been put through fire, such as pottery. Given the range of techniques, it is possible to calibrate chronology, as was done a couple of decades ago for Carbon-14. Dates for archaeological data therefore tend to be reasonably secure and can also help in ascertaining historical chronology, provided archaeological evidence is available.

  Terms such as culture and civilization, when used in an archaeological context, have a somewhat different meaning from their general use. Culture refers to the pattern of life of a society, so there are multiple kinds of cultures. Such patterns would include the use made of the habitual environment, social relations, language and ritual. Typologies of cultures were earlier made on the basis of the tools used by human groups. These were largely of stone, changing from the older and larger tools of the palaeolithic to the smaller ones of the mesolithic, and the polished ones of the neolithic, to the use of both stone and metal in the chalcolithic. Tool typologies are sometimes added to or substituted by types of pottery (when it comes into use), characteristic of certain kinds of settlements. The pottery label is used to identify the people who made it. Labels such as hunter-gatherers, cattle-keepers and early fanning communities are also used, since they are more descriptive. Similarities in cultures do not necessarily indicate that they evolved from the same people. Patterns of life and the artefacts that go with them can take similar forms, even if those who make them are unconnected. But where there are connections, similarities have to be differentiated from imitations.

  Civilization implies a pattern that is thought of as more complex and sophisticated, incorporating urban living and all that it connotes, a conscious aesthetic awareness, sophisticated religious beliefs and the use of texts. City societies are stratified and the wider context is the state, with its unequal social divisions. Ruling groups need not be based on kin connections. A civilization can cover a wide area, recognized by the similarity of artefacts, and its extent often arises from the interdependence of peoples who are affected by its systems in various ways.

  Palaeolithic and Mesolithic

  Evidence for hunter-gatherers of the palaeolithic comes from various parts of the subcontinent. The initial studies focused on the north-west, in terraces of the Soan River and in the Potwar Plateau. Since then sites have been found scattered across the subcontinent. Habitations tended to be in rock shelters, frequently located in Madhya Pradesh as at Bhimbetka but also found in other parts of India, or in caves such as at Sanghao (north-west Pakistan), or in Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), or even sometimes as camps in the open, although there is less evidence for the latter type of settlement than for rock shelters. Shelters in the open were sometimes made of foliage and would therefore not survive, but stone tools and signs of settlement provide clues to such shelters. Sites are generally located near water sources and where plants are readily available. Fossil remains are another source of information and fossil animals include some that were eventually domesticated, such as cattle, sheep, goats and others that remained in the wild, including the cat family and deer. In the earliest stage food was obtained by hunting animals and gathering edible plants and tubers. Settlements tended to be close to scrub jungles and watering places as, for instance, at Hungsi. The hunting of large animals would have required the combined effort of a group of people, whereas smaller animals could be more easily ensnared or hunted by individuals.

  The sites date from before 30,000 to about 10,000 BC. Stone tools, hand-sized and flaked-off large pebbles, are among the more obvious characteristics of palaeolithic sites. Large pebbles are often found in river terraces, such as those of the Soan Valley or the upper reaches of rivers as in the Siwalik Hills of the north. A skull found in the Narmada Valley is likely to yield interesting evidence. Various techniques of analysing plant and animal remains help in the reconstruction of environment and climate. Variations in climate were an additional challenge to the small bands of hunter-gatherers. Their way of life moved gradually towards attempts to domesticate animals and plants and make some crude pots. Evidence of their perceptions of the world around them is rare. We know little about how they communicated and next to nothing about the languages they spoke, nor much about what constituted their concerns beyond the obvious. A few paintings on rock at Bhimbetka, discovered alongside other later paintings, are thought to be of this period and reflect a concern with success in hunting and with fertility. At Baghor I (Madhya Pradesh) a natural stone, shaped like a triangle, has been interpreted as a symbol of female fertility. Parallel to it, is the worship of a similar stone as a goddess in neighbouring villages today.

  Improved technologies of obtaining food would have enabled some hunter-gatherers to settle. Sites of the mesolithic – the middle stone age that succeeded the palaeolithic – show the use of a different type of stone tool. These are tiny stone artefacts, often not more than five centimetres in size and therefore called microliths, consisting of flakes, blades, burins, points, scrapers, crescents and various geometrical forms. The technique of making these was also through flaking off pieces by striking the larger stone at an appropriate angle. The small microlith was used in a greater variety of ways than the bigger stone artefacts because it could be hafted to many more functional tools, for instance to make knives and sickles. An increase in small arrowheads points to the use of the bow and arrow. This meant that the close stalking of animals was becoming less frequent than shooting an arrow from a distance. This also reduced the fear of animals attacking the stalker. In order to make the small tools it was necessary to change from using pebble-stones to a different kind of stone, such as quartz, chert, agate, chalcedony and suchlike, which are easier to flake as small tools. This change indicates a greater confidence in relation to the environment and in controlling technology, but also points to a shift in habitat closer to the new raw material. River pebbles were now less in demand and the new kind of rock was more easily available in hills and forests. That the transition was extremely gradual is evident from the many centuries between the earlier and later patterns. The new technology introduced a change in living patterns, and hunting and gathering were initially supplemented by the use of wild grains and then by domesticated animals, horticult
ure and primitive cultivation. A tendency to settle for longer periods in an area can be surmised. Hunting and gathering continued to a lesser degree into later times, but dependence solely on these activities for food began to gradually decrease.

  If the sites excavated so far are an indication, mesolithic activities took place away from heavy monsoon forests and remained on the drier uplands. Ranging between the tenth and the fifth millennia, this period again witnessed variations of wet and dry climate. Many settlements were in or near rock shelters, as in Madhya Pradesh, but, judging by pestholes – in one case indicating circular huts – and habitation areas, some were more daring in venturing beyond the caves and shelters. Mesolithic remains have also been found in Langhnaj (Gujarat), Adamgarh (Madhya Pradesh), Rajasthan, Sarai Nahar Rai and Mahadaha (Uttar Pradesh), and in Bihar. Primitive querns and rubbing-stones at some sites suggest a more varied preparation of wild grains and plants as food. This is reinforced by the presence at one site of what seem to be potsherds of crude handmade pottery, together with an object identified as a storage bin. Animal bones in the habitation area become more frequent and include deer, boar and the now extinct ostrich, and some are bones of what were to become domesticated animals, such as bovines, sheep and goats.

  Burials are occasionally within the habitation area and grave goods -such as microliths, shells and an ivory pendant – are placed in the grave. Some ideas of an after-life seem evident from the grave goods. The location may have developed from attachment to the person, but could have been due to more functional considerations, such as protecting the grave from animal predators. Very occasionally there are double burials, but not invariably of male and female. The skeletons suggest they were people who died between the ages of fifteen and forty, the average life expectancy being halfway. This would be usual for those times, but by our standards life expectancy was short. Some skeletons show evidence of osteo-arthritis.

  Such early societies would have been organized as bands of people, with possibly some demarcation of families. Constant migration in search of food limited the numbers in a family, since children, tiring easily from walking long distances, could be an impediment to movement. Given that the population sizes were small, a disease could wipe out an entire settlement.

  Rock shelters and caves in Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere that were habitation sites with paintings and engravings on the rock surface, continue to be found after careful exploration. Some are of the mesolithic period, but at other more extensive sites such as Bhimbetka the practice of painting continued into historical times. The latter can be dated from scenes depicting horses and elephants in processions and in battle. The themes of the earlier art focused on the life of hunters and gatherers. The hunting of animals, particularly varieties of deer, was a major enterprise. Both man and animal are represented in an abstract style, while the bodies of the animals often have cross-hatching and other designs. Presumably this was part of the ritual of the hunt, where the depiction of a successful chase became a talisman to ensure such a hunt, the assumption being that the representation would actually materialize. Such representation is the expression of cognition in which sympathetic magic is thought to be unfailing. Figures of men and women symbolizing fertility are also frequent. It would be interesting to speculate whether these communities scattered across the hills of central India shared cults and rituals.

  The geographical extent of prehistoric rock art is impressive. Rock engravings, believed to be associated with the later stage of the neolithic, occur in the Edakal cave in the Western Ghats in Kerala and depict human activity in an unusual style of engraving. Recently, in the exploration of the Gilgit and Baltistan area in the far north, engravings of male figures and depictions of masks have been found, but the largest in number are of ibexes and others with highly stylized horns. It has been suggested that some of these engravings might link the upper Indus to central Asia, going back to the third millennium BC.

  Neolithic

  The change to a neolithic pattern, where the beginnings of agriculture and the domestication of animals becomes crucial, introduced what Gordon Childe once argued was a revolution through the practice of agriculture. This was not a sudden, radical change, and some activities of the earlier age had anticipated these developments. It may have been accelerated in areas experiencing a change in the environment as also by the ingenuity of men and women attempting improvements in their way of life. But its ultimate effect, inasmuch as it changed the processes of obtaining food and establishing new types of links between humans, animals and land, was revolutionary. A larger, and up to a point predictable, production of food may perhaps have been required by and resulted in a growing population. Together with this came the possibility of storing food – at least for a short time – which would have further encouraged the making of pots for storage. A higher density of population in places where agriculture was practised might also have brought about a more sedentary population. It is thought that gradually those practising settled agriculture may, on occasion, have overwhelmed hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators. Habitats might have tended to encourage a concentration of people. This would eventually have made urbanization possible, but after a considerable experience of cultivation and sedentary occupations.

  Neolithic sites occur in diverse parts of the subcontinent: in Galighai in the Swat Valley, Sarai Khola further to the south, and in the loess plateau of the Kashmir Valley that allowed pit dwellings; in Chirand in Bihar and in sites in the Belan Valley of Uttar Pradesh, such as Chopani Mando and Koldihva; eastwards to Pandu Rajar Dhibi, and further to Daojali Hading and Sarutaru; and in a cluster of sites spreading out from the Raichur doab and the Godavari and Krishna Valleys in the peninsula at Utnur, Piklihal, Maski, Tekkalakota, Brahmagiri, Hallur, Paiyampalli and T. Narsipur. Some of these sites were active into the historical period when a few had elements of urbanism.

  Initially the cultivators are likely to have moved from place to place before more intensive agriculture made them sedentary. There may well have been confrontation between hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators, some of the latter having only recently been hunter-gatherers themselves, although now wishing to subordinate other activities to agriculture. Ultimately, the dominance of the latter was established and the dependence on hunting and gathering would have declined. The suggestion that the transition to agriculture was made by women, who stayed home while the men hunted, is plausible. This gave women the opportunity to sow and then to tend what they had sown. But the more extensive change came with plough agriculture which was handled by men. Agriculture provided some predictability to the supply of food. The extension of cultivation required a sedentary society, and with technological advances it was possible to produce more food than the minimum required by the the band of people. This surplus food had the potential of being used, as it was in later times, for a variety of exchanges -some for other items or some even for obtaining labour. This use of the extra food gradually introduced stratification into a society where some controlled the food and used it for exchange, while others were left to produce the extra food.

  Technologically there was a substantial improvement in tools, which were now polished. The removal of rough edges increased their functional effectiveness, as in the case of polished stone axes. The technological improvement of the polished axes as compared to the earlier ones is quite striking. 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 later gave way to wheel-thrown pottery, and the production of a few ornaments. Sites such as Mehrgarh, because of the extensive horizontal excavations, show a well-demarcated transition from early agriculture to the preliminaries of urbanization. The spread of agriculture has been explained as moving from west Asia to north-west India, but the evidence from sites in the latter area suggests that the transition to agriculture may have occurred more locally.
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  Wheat, barley, rice and millet began to be cultivated in different areas and at different times. The provenance of rice cultivation appears to have been in eastern India. Gradually, the domestication of sheep, goats and cattle was established. This provided dairy produce and some meat when required, reducing the dependence on hunting. Pastoralism and agriculture were interdependent at this stage, although the changes carried the potential of a bifurcation. The cultivation of crops permitted some predictability and control over obtaining food, but required permanent settlement to make a qualitative change. The domestication of animals provided food more readily. Larger animals were used additionally for traction and for transportation. The increasing use of pottery allowed for storage of food, which encouraged cooking, and the range in the size of the pots enabled their use in other ways. Where grave goods were buried with bodies, pots were sometimes included as items of ritual value. Large urns were also used as coffins for the burial of infants whose mortality is noticeable in these earlier cultures.

  The increasing emphasis on farming in neolithic cultures draws attention to parallels observed by anthropologists studying similar societies. Farming anticipates the potentiality for chiefdoms where initially cultivation is carried out by family and clan labour. In many early societies the family as a unit, or as a constituent part of a clan, herded animals and cultivated crops. Younger members were expected to labour for the elders. This was labour performed because of a kinship link and is prior to the induction of non-kin labour, which marks a significant social departure but which probably becomes a resource in the more developed farming associated with later, socially stratified cultures. When societies became more complex and the system changed, non-kin labour was added or replaced kin-based labour. This was the labour of those who were not kinsmen but were willing to labour for recompense, or, possibly, if they were captives they could be forced to labour for those who had captured them. The use of non-kin labour also ushers in the possibility of an increase in produce and this would have raised the question of how the increase was to be distributed. Controlling and organizing labour in such situations, whether kin-based or not, would become a major source of authority and one of the functions of the chief.