Vedic Period:

Que. There are no literary sources for the Harappan culture and no archaeological evidence for the Vedic period. Explain the phenomenon. [UPSC CSE-2019]

Approach:

(1) Explain briefly the Harappan Civilization and Vedic period.

(2) Mention the Literary evidence of Harappan culture.

(3) Mention the Archaeological sources of Vedic period.

(4) Conclude on balanced footing.

Introduction: 

The Indus Valley Civilisation emerged in north western regions of the Indian subcontinent and lasted from about 2500 BCE to 1700 BCE. This is also called Harappan Civilization after the first city to be excavated, Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan). The Vedic Civilization is said to have started after a gap of a few centuries from around 1500 BCE and lasted till 600 BCE. The name of this age and period were composed after Vedas. The Vedas give information about this era. The Vedic Age started from the time of the Aryans or Indo-Aryans.

Literary & Archaeological Sources for Harappan Culture:

Literary evidences of Harappan culture: Even if Harappan script is not deciphered, they do give many information about Harappan culture

(1) Writing on Seals: Writing appears very frequently on the seals. Some of these were impressed onto small moist clay tablets known as sealings, probably by merchants to authenticate their bales of merchandise.

(2) Some of the seals may have had other functions: They may have been tokens used in the buying and selling of goods. They may also have been worn as amulets or used as identification markers (like modern identity cards) by well-to-do people like landowners, merchants, priests, artisans, and rulers. Those no longer in use must have been intentionally broken so that they could not be misused by anybody.

(3) Civic use of Writing: The Dholavira ‘signboard’ may or may not indicate a high level of urban literacy, but it does indicate a civic use of writing.

(4) Cultural Integration: The evidence of a common script all over the vast Harappan culture zone shows a high level of cultural integration.

(5) Religious or Ritualistic significance: Some of the writing inscribed or painted on personal possessions such as bangles, tools, beads, and bone rods may have had some sort of religious or ritualistic significance. Tablets with narrative scenes may have had a religious or ritualistic function.

(6) Writing on Inscriptions: Items like copper and bronze tools, stoneware bangles, bone pins, and gold jewellery were sometimes inscribed. A copper vessel found at Mohenjo-Daro contained a large number of gold objects. These included four ornaments with tiny inscriptions, all apparently written by the same hand, probably giving the name of the owner.

(7) Craft production and economic transactions: The evidence of writing on pottery suggests a wider use in craft production and economic transactions. Even if the potters who made the marks on their pots were themselves illiterate, they must have been able to recognize the symbols. Pointed goblets sometimes have seal impressions, which may have indicated the name or status of the person for whom the pot was made.

(8) Rectangular copper tablets with writing and animal motifs: Rectangular copper tablets with writing and animal motifs were found at Mohenjo-Daro, while a few tablets with raised writing were found at Harappa. The limited number of places where they occur suggests a restricted use.

(9) Writing confined to city life: The virtual disappearance of the script by c. 1700 BCE suggests both a close connection of writing with city life and the lack of sufficient downward percolation of writing.

Archaeological sources of Vedic period: 

Archaeological cultures identified with phases of Vedic culture include the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture, the Gandhara grave culture, the black and red ware culture and the Painted Grey Ware culture.

(1) Pottery and Artifacts: Archaeological findings of pottery, tools, ornaments, and metal objects provide insights into the material culture of the Vedic period. These artifacts can offer clues about daily life, trade, crafts, and technological advancements.

(i) The Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (OCP): The Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (OCP) S is a Bronze Age culture of the Indo-Gangetic Plain “generally dated 2000-1500 BСЕ,” extending from eastern Punjab to north-eastern Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh. Artefacts of this culture show similarities with both the Late Harappan culture and the Vedic culture. Archaeologist Akinori Uesugi considers it as an archaeological continuity of the previous Harappan Bara style, while according to Parpola, the find of carts in this culture may reflect an Indo-Iranian migration into the Indian subcontinent, in contact with Late Harappans. The OCP marked the last stage of the North Indian Bronze Age and was succeeded by the Iron Age black and red ware culture and the Painted Grey Ware culture.

(ii) The Painted Grey ware: The Painted grey ware has a very extensive distribution, stretching from Himalayan foothills to the Malwa plateau in central India, and from the Bahawalpur region of Pakistan to Kaushambi near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. The important evidence for the PGW material culture is available from excavated sites such as Hastinapur, Alamgirpur, Ahichchtra, Allahpur, Mathura, Kampil etc. The structural remains at the sites consist of wattle and daub and mud huts, baked and unbaked bricks, artefacts of stone, bone and terracotta. A fire altar has also been found at Jakhera.

(2) The Gandhara grave culture: The Gandhara grave culture, also called Swat culture, or Swat Protohistoric Graveyards Complex, emerged c. 1400 BCE and lasted until 800 BCE, and there are no burials with these features after 800 BCE, as new fieldwork reveals. It is found basically in the Middle Swat River course, even though earlier research considered it to be expanded to the Valleys of Dir, Kunar, Chitral, and Peshawar. It has been regarded as a token of the Indo-Aryan migrations, but has also been explained by local cultural continuity. Backwards projections, based on ancient DNA analyses, suggest ancestors of Swat culture people mixed with a population coming from the Inner Asia Mountain Corridor, which carried Steppe ancestry, sometime between 1900 and 1500 ВСЕ.

(3) Iron objects: The iron objects have also been found and evidence of cultivation of rice, wheat and barley is also available. Bones of cattle, sheep and pigs have been discovered. Horse bones have been found at Hastinapur.

(4) Rituals and Sacrificial Pits: Some archaeological sites have revealed sacrificial pits and fire altars that align with descriptions of rituals and sacrifices found in Vedic texts.

Conclusion:

So, based on the above-mentioned archaeological evidence of Vedic culture and literary information by Harappan script, it would be incorrect to say that “there are no archaeological sources for the Vedic period and no literary sources for the Harappan culture.”