Iron Age India

The Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent succeeds the Late Harappan (Cemetery H) culture, also known as the last phase of the Indus Valley Tradition. The main Iron Age archaeological cultures of India are the Painted Grey Ware culture (1100 to 350 BCE) and the Northern Black Polished Ware (700 to 200 BCE).

The earliest Iron Age sites in South India are Hallur, Karnataka and Adichanallur, Tamil Nadu^[1] at around 1000 BC. Technical studies on materials dated c. 1000 BCE at Komaranhalli (Karnataka) showed that the smiths of this site could deal with large artifacts, implying that they had already been experimenting for centuries (Agrawal et al. 1985: 228-29). Sahi (1979: 366) drew attention to the presence of iron in Chalcolithic deposits at Ahar, and suggested that “the date of the beginning of iron smelting in India may well be placed as early as the sixteenth century BCE” and “by about the early decade of thirteenth century BCE iron smelting was definitely known in India on a bigger scale”. ^[2]

Historical kingdoms of the Iron Age:

Most of the Vedic period (excepting the earliest phase of the core of the Rigveda) falls within the early part of the Indian Iron Age (12th to 6th centuries BCE). The development of early Buddhism takes place in the Magadha period (5th to 4th centuries BCE).

The North Indian Iron age can be taken to end with the rise of the Maurya Dynasty and the appearence of literacy (the edicts of Ashoka, r. 272-232 BCE) indicating the gradual onset of historicity. South India simultaneously enters historicity with the Sangam period, beginning in the 3rd century BCE. From the 2nd century BCE, the cultural landscape of Northern India is transformed with lasting effect with the intrusion of the Indo-Scythians and Indo-Greeks, and the kingdoms succeeding this period, up to the medieval Muslim conquests are conventionally grouped as Middle kingdoms of India.

See also

• Middle kingdoms of India
• History of Buddhism in India
• Epic India
• Mahajanapadas
• Maurya Empire
• Iron Age China

References

• Kenoyer, J.M. 1998 Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Oxford University Press and American Institute of Pakistan Studies, Karachi.
• Kenoyer, J. M. 1991a The Indus Valley Tradition of Pakistan and Western India. In Journal of World Prehistory 5(4): 331-385.
• Kenoyer, J. M. 1995a Interaction Systems, Specialized Crafts and Culture Change: The Indus Valley Tradition and the Indo-Gangetic Tradition in South Asia. In The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity, edited by G. Erdosy, pp. 213-257. Berlin, W. DeGruyter.
• Shaffer, J. G. 1992 The Indus Valley, Baluchistan and Helmand Traditions: Neolithic Through Bronze Age. In Chronologies in Old Worlsfgagd Archaeology (3rd Edition), edited by R. Ehrich, pp. 441-464. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
• Chakrabarti, D.K.
  • 1974. Beginning of Iron in India: Problem Reconsidered, in A.K. Ghosh (ed.), Perspectives in Palaeoanthropology: 345-356. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay.
  • 1976. The Beginning of Iron in India. Antiquity 4: 114-124.
  • 1992. The Early Use of Iron in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  • 1999. India An Archaeological History. Delhi: Oxford University Press

Notes

iron age is the age of real development that took place during the past stages of indus valley civilization

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