In the northern fringe of Maharashtra the Tapti valley forms the Khandesh plain, while further east there are the plains of the Wardha and Wainganga rivers, roughly constituting Berar or the ancient Vidarbha region. Leaving aside the Konkan coast and the Western Ghats which separate this coast from the interior, the rest of Maharashtra is drained by the Godavari, Bhima and their tributaries. The distribution and depth of black soil determine the richness of agricultural areas of this semi-arid plateau which receives 330–570 cm of average annual rainfall. The routes from Malwa, having crossed the Tapti, move straight to the Konkan coast via Nasik on the one hand and the interior of the plateau on the other. The latter also goes to Andhra or to the Krishna-Godavari delta through Paithan or ancient Pratisthana. These two major lines of movement link up with many lesser but significant historical routes.
The distinctive chalcolithic culture of Maharashtra is known as the Nasik–Jorwe or simply Jorwe culture, named after the type site excavated in the 1950s. Since then a large number of sites have been excavated and suitably published, but in recent years their usefulness has to some extent been marginalized by the scale of work at Daimabad in the Godavari system and Inamgaon in the Bhima system. As in Malwa, different cultural names have been given to the different segments of the protohistoric archaeological sequence on the basis of their diagnostic pottery. Daimabad on the bank of the Pravara river shows the entire sequence.
It begins with the Savalda culture which, according to the excavator, may go back to the mid-third millennium BC and is characterized by ‘Savalda ware’, a microlithic blade industry, two copper bangles, four beads (conch shell, carnelian, steatite and terracotta), ring stones, saddle querns, a phallus made of agate, bone tools, cultivation of wheat, barley, lentil, pea and black gram/green gram, and a number of houses, one of which has been identified as a priest’s house. The brown, blackish and chocolate-coloured ‘Savalda ware’, first found at Savalda in the Tapti valley, is made on a slow wheel and is of medium to coarse fabric with a thick and crackled slip. The painted designs include tools, weapons and geometric motifs. The shapes are high-necked jar, dish, dish-on-stand, basin, bowl, ring-stand, beaker, vase, knobbed lid, etc. The mud-walled houses were open on one side, and the so-called priest’s house has been thus identified on the basis of its large size, considerable space between it and its neighbours and the presence of an agate phallus in a hearth inside. This picture of the Savalda culture contrasts with the picture of a semi-nomadic community derived from the 50 cm thick occupational deposit of a 20 ha site called Kaothe. Here the distinctive house-type is a sloping roof resting on a bunch of sticks tied at the top and coming down over a circular/oval pit floor. There were also many bone tools, domesticated cattle, buffalo, sheep/goat, dog, a variety of millets (Pennisetum typhoides), gram and moong pulses, and beads of shell, opal, carnelian and terracotta.
In Period II or the late Harappan period the size of the site increased to c. 20 ha. The main pottery type was a fine wheelmade sturdy red ware of which the main shapes were dish-on-stand, bowl-on-stand, dish and vase. The designs painted in black were geometrical and linear. In addition, there were burnished grey ware, a thick coarse handmade ware and a few sherds of ribbed bichrome and deep red wares. The houses of this period (the largest one 6.3 × 6 m) lay on either side of a 30 to 50 cm wide wall made of black clay, which has been traced for a length of 33 m. There were two button-shaped seals with Indus signs and four inscribed potsherds. An extended burial in a mud-brick-lined grave, where the skeleton bore signs of being originally covered by reeds of fibrous plants and the mud-bricks were in the classic Indus ratio of 4:2:1, was also found. Copper slag is present and thus copper was smelted at the site during this period. Among other items one may mention a microlithic blade industry, a wide range of stone and terracotta beads, shell bangles, gold beads, a terracotta measuring scale (not yet closely studied), a miscellaneous stone industry comprising saddle querns, mullers, etc. and a purposefully shaped semi-circular piece of red ware which shows on one side the incised figure of a tiger jumping on the back of a buffalo. Horse gram was the only new addition to the range of food-grains of the earlier period.
Fig. 30 Savalda houses, Daimabad (Sali, 1986)
An outstanding find of this period at Daimabad is a hoard of four heavy solid-cast copper objects (weighing 60 kg in all) showing a man driving a chariot (total length 45 cm, width 16 cm), a buffalo (overall height 31 cm, length 25 cm) on a four-legged platform attached to four solid wheels, an elephant (overall height 25 cm, the platform 27 cm long) on a similar platform but with its axles and wheels missing, and finally, a rhino (25 cm long, 19 cm high) shown standing on the axles of four solid wheels (the distance between the two sets of wheels is 13 cm). Although the hoard was found outside excavations, the spot was later correlated to the archaeological stratigraphy and there is no valid reason to doubt its ascription to the late Harappan context. What is further interesting is that the head of the man driving the chariot closely resembles the head of a male figure found at a site near Jaipur. We suspect that the objects came to the Deccan from the metallurgical complex of the north-eastern Aravallis.
Period III at Daimabad is a somewhat vague entity defined as Daimabad culture. The diagnostic pottery seems to be a black-on-buff/cream ware, and among the other types are black-painted red, black and grey corrugated ware with or without paintings, black ware, burnished grey and thick coarse wares. Both microlithic blades and bone tools occur, and there is a rich bead industry. Hyacinth bean is a new addition. A worked piece of an elephant tusk is interesting, and so is the occurrence of three burials, each belonging to a distinct type: a pit burial, a symbolic burial and a post-cremation pot burial. There is a small part of a copper-smelting furnace, and perhaps more interestingly, there is a part of a presumably male figure in applique on the inside wall of a vase.
Daimabad Period IV is ‘Malwa culture’, with the distinctive Malwa ware, a few sherds of black-and-red ware, burnished grey and thick coarse wares. There is an extensive structural evidence belonging to this phase. A number of them have been identified as religious structures mainly on the basis of the occurrence of fire-altars in them. A house has been described as a coppersmith’s workshop because it showed two hearths, one of them with a copper razor. The house structures were mud-walled (8 to 30 cm thick walls) and generally spacious and rectangular with semi-circular or rectangular mud-steps at the entrance, single or double flap doors, mud-plastered floors, hearths and the use of wooden posts in walls. The sixteen excavated burials were either urn or pit burials, with the twigs of a fibrous plant spread at the bottom of the pit. Copper objects, a microlithic blade industry, a rich bead industry and miscellaneous terracotta and bone objects complete the general cultural picture of this period. The earlier crops continued to be cultivated: barley, three kinds of wheat, ragi, lentil, a number of pulses, ber/zizyphus and a number of general plants, one of which—sugandha bela (Pavonia odorata)—could have been used in the perfumery. There were acacia and axlewood trees, along with the Indian laburnum tree (Cassia fistula) and the Indian rosewood tree (Dalbergia latifolia). A human figure is shown in applique on a piece of pottery. Its interpretation as Siva is difficult to accept just as it is difficult to accept the identification of an oval shaped stone with some designs as ekamukhalinga or one-faced representation of Siva. Out of a total of 377 beads, 283 came from a single burial. The use of paste or faience as bead material occurs for the first time during this period.
Fig. 31 Daimabad ‘Malwa’ houses (Sali, 1986)
Period V at Daimabad is Jorwe culture, the most visible chalcolithic phase of Maharashtra (200-odd sites, according to a calculation) characterized by a black-painted red ware with a carinated bowl and a jar with tubular spout as its typical forms. The structural evidence becomes more elaborate in comparison with the Malwa cultural period and the settlement size now goes up to 30 ha, but the basic nature of the evidence does not differ, and many excavated houses are identified with different crafts: butcher’s hut, lime-maker’s house, potter’s house, bead-maker’s house, merchant’s house, etc. One structure has been called an ‘apsidal temple;’ almost in the centre of its inner side was a fire-pit containing ash, 30 subangular pieces of stone with signs of burning and a cattle bone. A bastioned 1.3 to 2.4 m wide mud-fortification wall has been traced for 35 m. There are 48 burials, among which are 3 extended burials in a pit, 1 extended burial in urns and 44 urn burials. New types of millets—kodon millet, foxtail millet and jowar—appear in the crop list which otherwise continues as before. Copper objects, beads, terracotta objects, miscellaneous stone objects and microlithic blades continue to occur. An interesting find is a terracotta cylinder seal showing a horse-driven cart or chariot. The terracotta objects include some human representations as well, one of which has been identified—perhaps doubtfully—as a male sage with his consorts.
The skeletons unearthed at Daimabad belong, with one exception from the late Harappan context, to infants and minors. The most interesting feature perhaps is the presence of dental caries, gross enamel hypoplasia, tartar accumulations and calculus deposits in the teeth and that of a single case of ossified superosteal haemorrhage which represents a form of infantile scurvy.
Although Daimabad offers the complete protohistoric sequence of Maharashtra excluding Vidarbha, it is the epic scale of excavations and reporting from Inamgaon on the bank of the Ghor river which has provided the most impressive detailed picture of the Jorwe cultural phase. The nature of distribution of Jorwe settlements seems to be clear: mostly 1 to 3 ha in extent, some being up to only 1 ha in extent and hypothetically related to a larger settlement in the vicinity by way of the presence of agriculturists from the main settlement for a part of the year at the small sites. The thatched wattle-and-daub houses of this phase at Inamgaon, which vary between 5 × 3 m and 7 × 5 m (the larger ones divided by partition walls), are best described in the words of Dhavalikar:
Fig. 32 Daimabad ‘Jorwe’ houses (Sali, 1986)
Fig. 33 House with pottery kiln, Inamgaon (Dhavalikar et al. 1988)
Inside the house would be a small oval fire pit, sometimes with high clay walls to serve as a protection from wind, whereas outside in the courtyard invariably we come across a large oval fire pit (1 by 0.5 m) which was probably used for roasting hunted animals. Almost every fire pit has a flat stone in the centre at the bottom, which was daubed with mud to serve as a support for the cooking vessel. Very often inside, but rarely outside also, there was a pit silo, 1 to 2 m in dia. and equally deep, and lined with lime for storing grain. In addition there was a round mud platform, with 1.5 m dia. and 10 cm high, which served to support a storage bin. The house floor was made of rammed clay with silt and fine sand spread in layers alternately and even the courtyard was well made. The domesticated animals, sheep/goat and cattle, were tethered in the courtyard as indicated by the nitrogen content of the soil.
In the late Jorwe phase, which Dhavalikar believes to be an arid phase, there were clusters of circular houses with a common courtyard. In the early Jorwe phase there was an irrigation channel (118 m long, 3.5 m deep and 4 m wide) with a mud embankment (2.4 m wide and 240 m long) to the west of the settlement. Dhavalikar’s idea that the site came to be occupied by semi-nomadic pastoral groups towards the end of its occupation may not be quite based on reality, but the fact that things were changing at the site is shown by the increased dependence on black buck for food during this stage. The evidence from Walki suggests that bone ploughshares and seed drills were used in agriculture. The Inamgaon reports highlight many features of the site: pottery kilns, gold ornaments, copper slag and crucibles, lime kilns, terracotta figurines with distinct religious connotations (cf. clay box with female figurines), terracotta lamps, etc. The theoretical analysis of skeletal remains of many extended burials for adults and urn burials for children does not seem to have been published yet, although references have been made to various aspects of their tooth decay. An interesting feature of the Inamgaon reports is the way in which the political stage of ‘chiefdom’ has been inferred in the context of Jorwe cultural phase mainly because of a two-tiered settlement hierarchy and the existence in a five-roomed structure of a four-legged anthropomorphic clay jar containing the skeleton of an adult male whose body was originally placed in a sitting posture with the feet intact. The Inamgaon report is a gold mine of information of various sorts (cf. consumption of dog meat) which could only be fleetingly considered in the present context. What may be of some interest is the occurrence of a Ganeshwar-type copper arrowhead in the late Jorwe phase and that of a single spiralled copper pin in the early Jorwe phase at Inamgaon. The calibrated range of the late Jorwe at the site is the second half of the second millennium BC. The evidence from Nevasa and Chandoli indicates that both tin and lead alloying were practised in the Maharashtra chalcolithic which also knew the use of flax (cf. Chandoli).
The development in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra is somewhat clouded by the large number of excavations of cairn-burial sites such as Junapani–Mahurjhari, Takalghat–Khapa where megalithic black-and-red pottery, iron and copper objects, decorative pieces and horse burials date from c. 700/800 BC. Takalghat is a habitation site of this context, and here we notice a few pieces of black-painted red pottery as well. In fact, these pottery pieces may link such sites to the sequence established at places like Tuljapur Garhi, Bhawar, etc. The Tuljapur Garhi sequence in Amaravati district is straightforward: the Malwa level is succeeded by the Jorwe level. What is interesting about the Jorwe level of this region is the occurrence of black-and-red ware and etched carnelian beads which also occur in the megalithic levels of Mahurjhari, etc. Period I at Bhawar in Bhandara district bears painted black-on-red pottery, bone points and a worked antler possibly used as an agricultural element. Period II is iron-bearing but, as at Nagda, continues the ceramic tradition of Period I. The excavator dates Period III as Mauryan, but on the basis of the ceramic continuity from the two earlier levels and the presence of pottery types like dish-on-stand and micaceous red ware (this type is also found in the megalithic level), it may be put around c. 700/800 BC. On the whole, it would be correct to claim that village occupation in Vidarbha began in the Malwa culture phase, that it was not free from the Jorwe influence and that eventually the sequence developed into a full-fledged iron-using culture whose burial system included the construction of pit circles and menhirs.
Fig. 34 Religious terracottas from Inamgaon (Dhavalikar et al., 1988)
Fig. 35 ‘Jorwe’ pottery
Fig. 36 ‘Jorwe’ pottery