Prehistoric and Ancient Sites of Rajasthan: Kalibangan to Bairath

Rajasthan has one of the longest archaeological records in India. Stone tools from the Luni and Banas valleys take the story back hundreds of thousands of years, the state has a fully excavated Harappan town on the dried bed of the Ghaggar, a copper using village culture of its own in the Mewar hills, and a Mauryan Buddhist centre with an edict of Ashoka. Rajasthan Police, RPSC, Patwari and REET papers ask a handful of fixed pairs from this chapter, the site with its district, its river and the thing it is famous for, so the best way to learn it is as a table rather than as a story.

Stone Age Rajasthan

Palaeolithic tools have been reported from the Luni river valley in Jodhpur and Barmer, from around Budha Pushkar near Ajmer and above all from Didwana in Nagaur district, where the site of Singi Talav has yielded hand axes and cleavers in a long sequence of deposits. The Mesolithic is represented best by Bagor in Bhilwara district, on the Kothari river, excavated by V. N. Misra. Bagor is counted among the largest Mesolithic sites in India, with thousands of microliths, human burials and bones that point to the early keeping of sheep and goats. Tilwara in Barmer district, on the Luni, is the other important Mesolithic site of the state.

Kalibangan, the Harappan town

Kalibangan lies in Hanumangarh district on the left bank of the dried Ghaggar, the river many identify with the Saraswati of the texts. The name means black bangles, after the pieces of terracotta bangles scattered over the mounds. The site was noticed by Amalanand Ghosh in 1952 and excavated under B. B. Lal and B. K. Thapar. Its famous finds are the pre Harappan ploughed field with furrows crossing at right angles, taken as the earliest ploughed field known anywhere, and the row of fire altars on a platform in the citadel, which suggests a ritual use. Both the citadel and the lower town were fortified, the drains were mostly of wood rather than of burnt brick, and the site has yielded a cylinder seal, camel bones and three kinds of burial. A displaced layer in the early level has been read as a sign of an earthquake.

The Ahar and Ganeshwar copper cultures

Ahar, now within Udaipur city on the Ayad river, gives its name to the Ahar or Banas Chalcolithic culture of southern Rajasthan. It was so rich in copper that it was known as Tambavati, the place of copper. Its pottery is the Black and Red Ware fired upside down, and the houses were of stone and mud brick. Gilund in Rajsamand district on the Banas and Balathal in Udaipur district belong to the same culture, Balathal being known for a massive fortified enclosure. In the Shekhawati region, Ganeshwar in Sikar district on the Kantli river has given thousands of copper objects, arrowheads, fish hooks, bangles and chisels, and is thought to have supplied copper to the Harappan cities, which is why it is called the cradle of copper. Jodhpura on the Sabi river belongs to the same Ganeshwar Jodhpura complex.

The iron age and the early historic sites

Noh in Bharatpur district has a long sequence that includes Painted Grey Ware, and Sunari in Jhunjhunu district has yielded furnaces used for smelting iron. Rairh in Tonk district is famous for a very large hoard of punch marked silver coins and for heaps of iron slag, which has earned it the nickname of the industrial town of ancient Rajasthan. Nagari in Chittorgarh district is the ancient Madhyamika mentioned by Patanjali, and nearby Ghosundi has an early Sanskrit inscription connected with the worship of Vasudeva. Nagar in Tonk district has produced large numbers of Malava coins, and Bhinmal in Jalore district, the ancient Srimal, was visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang and is associated with the astronomer Brahmagupta.

Bairath and the Mauryan period

Bairath, also called Viratnagar, in Jaipur district, is the most important Mauryan site of Rajasthan and is identified with the Matsya country of the epics. Excavations begun by Daya Ram Sahni uncovered a circular Buddhist shrine of brick and timber on Bijak ki Pahadi, one of the earliest circular Buddhist structures known in India, and a monastery around it. Two inscriptions of Ashoka come from Bairath. The Bhabru or Calcutta Bairath edict, in which Ashoka declares his faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha and recommends texts for monks to study, was removed in the nineteenth century and is kept by the Asiatic Society in Kolkata. The site has also given Mauryan polished stone fragments, punch marked coins and Indo Greek coins, proof that it stood on a trade route.