CHALCOLITHIC PERIOD

The end of the Neolithic period saw the use of metals of which copper was the first. Consequently, several cultures came to be based on the use of stone and copper imple­ments. Such a culture is called chalcolithic which means the stone-copper phase.
The most extensive excavations have been done at the Chalcolithic sites like Jorwe, Nevasa, Daimabad, Inamgaon, Prakash, Nasik, etc. in Maharashtra. Several Chacolithic sites have been found in Allahabad district, Chirand (near Patna) and Pandu Rajar Dhibi and Mahishadal in Bengal.

The Chalcolithic people used tiny tools and weapons of stone in which the stone-blades and bladelets occupied an important position. In certain settlements copper objects are found in good numbers, e.g., at Ahar and Gilund m Rajasthan. The characteristic pottery of the Chalcolithic phase was black-and-red. People domesticated animals and practised agriculture. They seem to have eaten beef but not
pork. Occasionally their houses were made of mud bricks, but mostly they were constructed with wattle and daub, and seem to have been thatched. However, the people in Ahar lived in stone-built houses.

The Chalcolithic people made tools, weapons and bangles of copper, manufactured beads of semi-precious stones such as carnelian, steatite, and quartz because spindle whorls have been discovered in Malwa. Discovery of cotton, flax and silk threads shows that they knew the manufacture of cloth.

Regional differences in regard to cereals, pottery, etc., appear in this phase. The dead were buried. Terracotta figurines of women suggest that the Chalcolithic people venerated the mother goddess. Probably, the bull was the symbol of a religious cult. Both the settlements and burial practices suggest existence of social inequalities.
Chronologically, there are several series of Chalcolithic settlements in India. Some are pre-Harappan, others are contemporaries of the Harappan culture and still others are post-Harappan. Pre-Harappan strata on some sites in the Harappan zone are also called early Harappan to distin­guish them from the mature urban Indus civilisation. Thus the pre-Harappan phase at Kalibangam in Rajasthan and Banwali in Haryana is distinctly Chalcolithic. So is the case with Kot Diji in Sind. The Kayatha culture in Madhya Pradesh (2000-1800 Be) is a junior contemporary of the Harappan culture. It has some pre-Harappan elements in pottery, but it also shows Harappan influence. Several post­Harappan Chalcolithic cultures in these areas are influenced by the post-urban phase of the Harappan culture.

Several other Chalcolithic cultures, though younger in age than the mature Harappan culture, are not connected with the Indus Civilisation. The Malwa culture (1700-1200
BC) found in Navadatoli, Eran and Nagda is considered to be non­Harappan. So is the case with the Jorwe culture (1400-700 BC) which cov­ers the whole of Maharashtra except parts of Vidarbha and Konkan. In the southern and eastern' parts of India, Chalcolithic settlements existed inde­pendently of the Harappan culture. In south India they are found invariably in continuation of the Neolithic settle­ments. The Chalcolithic settlement of the Vmdhyan region, Bihar and Bengal Pre-Harappan Chalcolithic cultures spread farming communities in Sind, Baluchistan, Rajasthan, etc., and cre­ated conditions for the rise of the urban civilisation.

Western India disappeared by 1200 BC or so; only the Jorwe culture continued until 700 Be. However, in several parts of the country the Chalcolithic black­and-red ware continued till the second century BC. The eclipse of the Chalcolithic habitation if! attributed to a decline in rainfall from about 1200 BC onwards. In fact, the Chalcolithic people could not continue for long with the digging stick in the black soil area which is difficult to break in the dry season. In the red soil areas, especially in eastern India, however, the chalcolithic phase was immediately followed, without any gap, by the iron phase which gradually transformed the people into full-fledged agriculturists. Similarly, at several sites in southern India Chalcolithic culture was transformed into megalithic culture using iron.

The Chalcolithic people were the first to use painted pottery. They used both Iota and thali. In South India, the Neolithic phase imperceptibly faded into the Cha1colithic phase, and so these cultures are called Neolithic-Chalcolithic. The Chalcolithic communities founded the first large villages in peninsular India and cultivated far more cereals than is known in the case of the Neolithic communities. The settlements at Kayatha and Eran in Madhya Pradesh and Inamgaon in western Maharashtra were fortified. No plough or hoe has been found at Chalcolithic sites. The rate of infant mQrtality was very high. Although most Chalcolithic cultures existing in the major part of the country were younger than the Indus Valley civilisation, they did not derive any substantial benefit from the advanced techno­lQgical knowledge of the Indus people.