Short essay on the cultural stages in India

1. Paleolithic Period. The first people to control the peninsular part of India probably belonged to Paleolithic period.

Paleolithic period is taken to include fossils and instruments of that age in India; it is discovered from the fossils of those people who made instruments of stome, that they lived at the end of glacial period or in the beginning of the Interglacial period. Their big instruments of flakes are found in north India, Rawalpindi and in the valley of the Narmada, etc.

2. Neolithic Period

The cultural traits of the Neolithic period in India are found in the valley of the river Sone which is a tributary of the Ganga. It can be classified into three parts – (1) Beginning, (2) Middle, and (3) End.

It belongs approximately to the second Interglacial period. Evolution of stone instruments had begun before the end of the Sone period. Types of industries are found in the last Sone period, (a) Construction of instruments from round stone, and (b) Method of making core tools without removing the flakes.

Madras industry is a contemporary of the Sone industry. Its instruments have the shape of a pear or an egg. They have sharp edges on both the sides. These are called hand-axes. Many small and beautiful instruments were the products of this industry. In this industry, stone hammers were used for rough work and the horn or wooden points were used for making small and beautiful things.

Microlithic industry has been widely spreading in India. The traces of the industry are found in Mahadev hills of Central Province, south­east coast of Hyderabad and Mysore, Central India, Gujarat and in some places upto Sindh and Punjab.

3. Muski Culture

Many cultural stages are found at a place called Muski in Raichur District of Hyderabad. According to Yazdani the tomb pots, polished stones and flakes found at the place belong to a period of about 1000 years before Christ or still earlier.

The period of bead forms, decorated utensils and the clay models, found here, seems to be somewhere between 500 to 700 B. C. There are certain things which belong to the period even between 300 to 500 B. C. Gold articles are also found here.

4. Kashmir Culture

Some traces of Neolithic culture period have been found at a place called Beijaham lying between Srinagar and Gunderbal. The period of the places of black pots and the samples of the engraving found here appear to belong to the second or the fifth century before Christ. The period of polished axes, bone nee ales and pots is the period of Neolithic culture of the fifth millennium B. €

5. Rohri Culture

Various marks of hard industry have been found atRohri, Sakkharand Karachi in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Some long and thin flakes, found here can be compared with the flakes of the Harappa culture of25, 000-15,000 B. C. The double-sided hand axe, found here, seems to belong to an earlier period.

6. Mysore Culture

According to Wheeler, the marks of the Stone Age and Iron culture are found in the culture of Brahmagiri, a place in Mysore. Besides stone axes, some other articles and slightly coloured handmade pots belonging to Micorlithic industry are found here and there. This period is calculated to be the beginning of first millennium B. C. Cart­wheels, utensils and the use of iron in the building of tombs are the marks of Iron Age.

The cultural marks found in Andhra, appear to belong to a period from first to the third century B. C. The cultural marks of the Bronze Age are found in Baluchistan, Makran, Kharram Jhalwan and Sindh.

7. Buflware Culture

There are three classes of Buff-ware culture in India on the basis of pot paintings. They are given as follows:

(i) Quetta Culture

All the pots of this place are black. There are well measured designs on them. Among these, there are beakers, cups and saucers.

(ii) Amrinal Culture

It has been found at a place called Amri in Sindh and Nal in south Bilochistan. Small towns with houses made of stone or clay bricks and printed pots like those of Kulli culture are found here. Black paintings on red pots and a lance or a saw painting on the instruments are like those of Harappa culture.

(iii) Kulli Culture

Because of their system of funeral rites and clay idols of women and animals, Kulli culture is separated from Amrinal culture. Remains of very beautiful art are found here. Use of stone in building construction; glass, breaker, dishes and other pots of like shapes; pots as tomb articles; clay idols, things made of brass and bronze and even the models of fish and birds, besides those of cows and bullocks, are certain specialities of this tulture. It appears to be a contemporary of Harrappa culture.

8. Jhob Valley Culture

Jhob culture is found on North-west Mountains and in Bolan and Quetta passes. Black designs on permanent red back-grounds in the art of pottery are found here. Small glasses and bottles generally have solid thick bottoms.

Even the paintings of women along with those of deer, bullocks and fish, etc., have also been found. Their women models have ornaments on their hands and feet and round their necks. The period of this culture seems to be upto the fourth millennium B. C.

9. Indus Valley Culture

About 250 or 270 years before Christ is said to be the period of this culture. Its distinctive marks are mainly found from the excavations of Mohanjodaro and Harappa. Harappa is in the district of Montgomari and Mohanjodaro is situated at a distance of about 25 miles from Larkana in Sindh. Things found in both these places are very similar.

(i) Its City Organisation

Baked bricks have been used in city buildings. These bricks have been made with the help of frames. Their length and thickness is generally double and half of their breadth respectively. Clay mortar is used to keep them together.

Besides the doors, there are windows also in the houses. The remains of the staircases, made of baked bricks, show that some houses had more than one storey. Kitchens are also found at certain places. There are raised platforms in them for fuel. Bathrooms and small wells are found in most of the houses.

These bath-rooms are generally on the road side so that water may easily get out. There was a proper system of drainage in the city. On every thorough fare, there were drains to let out water and places for rubbish. Some public buildings are also found in cities. There is a huge bath-room, 180 ft. broad and 180 ft. long.

There is a square courtyard in the middle with big verandahs all around it. In the centre of the courtyard, there is a water-tank, 39 ft. long, 23 ft. broad and 8 ft. deep. There is a well near it for filling it with water.

Houses are arranged in proper order and the whole construction of the city has been well planned. From these things, which are seen here, it has been assumed that there was a good police arrangement in the city and the city was divided into wards. There are indications that there was once a strong and well organised government in the city.

(ii) Organisation and Art

From a granary and other things found in Harappa, it can be inferred that the people of the place were farmers. Besides farming, there are sings to show that they made pots, models, ornaments and arms and weapons: that cloth was woven and that people carried on foreign trade.

They were very skilful in the art of pottery, used potter’s wheel in making pots and were good painters. Among the models of brass, bronze and stone, there isamodelofa dancing girl standing on one leg and it is worth mentioning. The painting of a bull is a sample of superior art. Picture script with paintings of birds and beasts on the coins has been found here. Utensils found here are all made of bronze and brass except three plain silver pots. Besides these, axes, of flakes, two brass swords, one bronze saw, a flake lance, dagger and anvil and many other instruments and weapons are also found here.

(iii) Dress and Ornaments

It is clear from the models and other things found here that the people were fond of ornaments. The chief among these ornaments are necklace, ring, bangles, ear rigs, belt and other ornaments made of gold and silver, elephant tusks, precious stones, sulemani stones and even of brass and hard clay are found here.

No definite opinion can be given about their dress on the basis of the models found here. There is one representation of a figure covered with a long sheet of cloth from under the right shoulder to the upper side of the left shoulder; the other is naked except some ornaments and some sort of head covering. From the signs of cloth industry it can be taken for granted that they did put on clothes of one kind or the other.

(iv) Funeral Rites

It appears that there were three methods of disposing the dead – (1) burying the dead body, (2) first leaving the dead body to be eaten by beasts and birds and next burying the remaining portion under the ground, and (3) burning the dead body and then burying the ashes under the ground. A cemetery has been found in Harappa. Ashes mixed with coal pieces in pots are also found from which it can be inferred that the system of burning the dead was more prevalent.

(v) Religion

It is clear from the coins found here that they worshiped gods and godesses. One stone model also appears to be of some god. According to Marcel, the figure painted on a seal is the figure of loard Shiva with three faces and horns. Many coins indicate that they worshipped trees. Coins are also indications of their worship of animals.

One coin bearing the likeness of a strong bull with only one horn is important among many other coins bearing pictures of tigers, buffalos, snakes and crocodiles. Mackey has regarded them as trade marks and not as marks of religion.

From the description of these various stages of Indian culture it is clear that Indian culture is very ancient. The Indus valley culture, specially found in Harappa and Mohanjodaro, has proved beyond doubt that the people in India had reached a very high standard of culture about a thousand years before the evolution of a comprehensive human culture in the West took place. New discoveries in future may prove the Indian culture to be all the more dignified.