Piggott - Prehistoric India to 1000 B. C

Piggott, Stuart

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STUART PIGGOTT

Prehistoric India

A DOUBLE VOLUME

CAN B O-O K

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Roy Craven

CONTENTS

Preface 9

I The Discovery of Prehistoric India 11

II Prelude-The Indian Stone Age 22 in The Background - Early Agricultural Communities in Western Asia 42

iv Bronze Age Peasant Communities

of Western India 66

v Cities and Towns of Sind and the

Punjab 132

vi The Time of Troubles and the End

of the Cities 214

vii Conquerors from the West - The

Aryans and the Rigveda 244

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LIST OF PLATES (Between pages 128 and 129)

Plate

Harappa: Section through citadel defences 1

Harappa: Detail of section through citadel defences 2

Harappa: Corn-pounding platform 3

Harappa: Burials in Cemetery R37 4

Harappa: Inhumation burial in Cemetery R37 5

Harappa: Painted pots 6

Harappa: Painted pots 7

Harappa; Clay figurines 8

LIST OF FIGURES IN TEXT

Page

1. Map of Western Asia showing ancient sites 46

2. Bronze Age sites in Western India 71

3. Typical Quetta Ware 74

4. Amri and Nundara pottery 83

5. Nal pottery 88

6. Kulli pottery 101

7. * Animals in Landscape' motifs in Kulli

Ware 103

8. Kulli figurines and Nundara pottery 107

9. Figurines of women, Kulli Culture 108

10. Incised stone vessels, Kulli Culture 111

11. Bronze Mirror, Kulli Culture 112

12. 'Animals in Landscape' motifs on Scarlet

Ware 116

13. Bowls, Rana Ghundai II phase 122

14. Pottery, Rana Ghundai Ilia and lllb phases 123

15. Pottery, Rana Ghundai IIIc phase 124

16. Figurines of women, Zhob Cultures 127

17. Map of Harappa Culture sites 137

18. Site plans of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa 152

LIST OF FIGURES IN TEXT

19. Plan of the Citadel, etc., Harappa 160

20. Section through Citadel defences, Harappa 162

21. Lay-out of city block, Mohenjo-daro 166

22. Impressions from stamp-seals, Mohenjo-daro 183

23. Sherds with animals and humans, Harappa 193

24. Copper and bronze tools, Harappa Culture 199

25. Pottery, Shahi-tump Cemetery 217

26. Copper objects, Shahi-tump Cemetery 219

27. Axe, pins, seals etc., Jhukar Culture 224

28. Copper shaft-hole axe, Mohenjo-daro 228

29. Designs on Cemetery H pots, Harappa 234

30. Bronze Sword from Rajanpur, Punjab 236

31. Chariots, 15th to 13th centuries B.C. 275

32. The chariot of the Rigveda 280

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES

Page

Table I 65

Table II 243

PREFACE

This book renders an account of our knowledge of Indian prehistory from the earliest times to the settlement of the Aryans in the north-west in the second half of the second millennium B.C. It does not pretend to be more than a stocktaking of our incomplete evidence and interpretation, as a preliminary and incentive to further work in the field. Some form of working hypothesis is essential, however drastically it may have to be revised, and I have therefore attempted to indicate what seem to me to be the nature and succession of the various human cultures making up the pattern of the earliest India.

Much of the material presented in the book is either new and hitherto unpublished or is a synthesis made for the first time. It is therefore inevitable that a great deal of technical detail has to be included, and much of the argument addressed to the specialist in oriental archaeology. But despite this, it is hoped that a coherent story of the general course of events in prehistoric India has been presented to the nonspecialist reader.

The original work on which Chapters IV to VI are based was carried out in Indian museums (and to a very limited extent in the field) between 1942 and 1945 in the intervals of military intelligence duties. My gratitude is due to my friends on the Archaeological Survey of India who helped and encouraged me, notably the late Rao Bahadur Dikshit, formerly Director-General of the Survey, and Dr K. N. Puri. In 1944 Dr (now Professor) R. E. Mortimer Wheeler was appointed Director-General, and while we were both in India and since my return to Britain he has spared neither time nor trouble in giving me every assistance. It is a pleasant duty to record my gratitude here.

10 PREFACE

In my own university, my colleagues Mr H. J. H. Drummond and Professor Myles Dillon (now of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin) have been kind enough to read and criticize in draft Chapters II and VI respectively. In my discussion of the Aryan chariot I have been materially helped by Miss H. L. Lorimer, who most generously allowed me to read in typescript portions of her forthcoming book, Homer and the Monuments. I have been particularly fortunate in having had the opportunity of discussing the final drafts of Chapters III to VI with Dr Donald McCown of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Dr Claude Schaeffer's great work on the comparative chronology of west Asiatic sites in the period 2500 to 1100 B.C. appeared after my book had been written, but I have been able to incorporate certain revised dates bearing on the Indian problems. On the whole our conclusions, independently reached, were in relatively close agreement. The illustrations include much material published for the first time and are mainly based on original drawings by the author. Figs. 1, 3, 13-23 and 25 are by Mr L. F. Venables, and Figs. 4-10 and 12 by Miss E. M. Howard. The half-tone plates are from photographs supplied by the Archaeological Survey of India with the sanction of the Director-General.