I l6 The Aryar6: MAth and kchaeotogp

invention. The earliest occurrence in West Asia of a spoked wheel isliom Hissar (Iran), datable to about 2300 m, and the same is the cas€with the north Caucasus region (Anthony lg88: 443). Bur i ts

"ccurrence in Harappan script and terracolta models suggest thalthe Harappans have a better claim.

Horse domestication may have taken place in the pontic{aspianregion lrom whfre il is said ro have dillused ro other regions. bua thesystematic tmining for horsemanship w?l perfecred by the Indo-Arrans.Kikkuli. t}|e Mihnni expert in horse breeding and Lraining. who usesin his horsemanship manual Sanskrit terms, which corroborate thiscontention. The Mitanni manual contains Sanskrit numerals-diir,(l), tcra (3), panza (5), satta (7t, nav (9) and expressions like aila-uarTanna, rarsanM$ala meaning one round of the stadium and so on.S.S. Misra (1992) has convincingly shown that the terms used are IndGArtan (Sanskrio and not Indclranian.

The earliest wheeled vehicles appear in Eastern Europe and WestAsia about 3000 Bc but the dispersal of the IE speaking people srarredduring 1800-1500 Bc and hence the diffusion of horse, chariottechnology and spoked wheel must have begun, according to Anthony(1995: 5581 from abour 2000 s.. Againsr r})is pre\.alenr opinion. rheevidence from Harappan sites is quite eloquent. Anthony states (1995:561 ) :

Abour 2000 Bc a Ds and renafkable d€haeoiosical culture appears ea.,t ofUral , This new sroup. rhe Sinh\hra Perro\ka (Sp) cutrura, esrabt,shedcompact, heavily fo ified se(lements in the norrhern stepDes east of theUrals, ensaged in bronze metallurgv on an unprecedenied scalej rajsedherds of cattle, sheep and hors€s; pmcris€d complex mortuary rituals tharparallel in many specific details rhe Ary?n rituals described in the Ry. . .vehicles in sraves had ,poked wheels buried wirh two horses.

It should be noted that these are supposed to be the oldest chariotsin the world for which the only early AMS dare is 2000 Bc but all orherdates (uncalib.) are quite late: 3580 + 50 sc (AA 9874a), 352b + b0(AA 9875b); 3700 + 60 (AA 9875a); and 3740 + (AA 9874b). Thevrhus range between 1700-1500 Ec. ln (onrrasr, the Daimabad sDecimenis dated to 2200-2000 Bc.

llcliEion'l'ltc /iy bcing a rilual rcxl, is frrll ol irrlirrmation about the religioush. l i . I i ih. l nrr-r i .^ .

" l rh- A-"-" Al t ' l^ , , -L i ) t - t , r : l - 1-

Archaeologt alTraces olthe Arym t17

Fis.3.11. Harappan seal showins unicorn (afrer Possehl2002)

complele \unlval in rhe ar, haeological record. rhcre is some evidencr:in thc artefactual remains from excavations of Late Harappansetdements which corroborates the literarv data. Some of the Dracticesin tacr go ba.k in r ime ro rhe Marure Harappan phase and aince theLate Harappans werc theiir successors, it can safely be presumed thatthey continued to survive. The imporhnce offire in Harappan religionis evident liom the depiction of fire receptacle in front of the unicornand bull which is depicted on dreir seals (fig. 3.ll).

The most important aspect of the Aryan religion is hre-worship.There werc no fire temples or public buildings for fire,worship, buteach individual had in his house the gAfiapaEa tue-altar which wascircular or oval on plan \shereas Lhe Ahaltanrya was sq)arish(Kashikar1977). Besides, semi-circular fire-altars were also constrxcted (vanBuitenen 1968: fig. 2). The excellent illustntion of a fire-a.ltar is rharfrom a house complex at Bha${anpura, a Lare Harappan sire (fig.3.12). To the same house complex belong what have been describedas "()vnl stnr(lrrrcs" (Sut)-pern)d IB, l ' l rrN( l l) (J(,shi l{)93i 4l-4:}, f is.7) . Six such ( ,v i t l s t r r ( tur ' ( .s wcr 'c cn(()urtc lc(1. ' lhcy arc w<: l l hrr i l t ,

l l8 The AnJd.B: Mllth a^.1A.ctmeologA

Fig 3- I ?. !'ire altar' BhagwanPura

with their lergth valving from 1.80 m to 2.30 m, aid the depth from

50 cm to 85 cm; their sides, about 10 cm thick, were bumt hard by

constant firing. One ofthem had a domical cover' They only contained

clods of bumt ea.rth and animal bones. According toJ P Joshi (1993:

43), there is no cvidence to iclendry them as fumaces or Pottery kilns

but their use may ha\€ bcen ritualistic This is Plausible because six

large furnaces or Potter'!' kilns in a small village settlement are hard to

explain. Secondly, they are in close proximitv to the large house

corlplcx wirh which lhe) can be associaled They may have been

r,rrrr i r r r r r lwir l r l i r . w,n\hi l ' Srr(hxr) i )v i r ls t r r r i t r r r t i r ls()o( l r r rstr tNrsir f

Archaeobgin) fraces oJue Arga[s I l1)

Fig.3.13. Sacrificial pitin the citadel, Kalibansan

(Dist. Gurdaspur, Punjab) in tbe Late Harappan phase (idetn, l{)1):i:pl. LXXVII). E (cellent examples of sacrificial fire-altars (fig. 3.lil) olthe Mature phase occur at Kalibangan (fig. 3.14) and Lothal ar (lig.3.15); and the one at Amri may be even pre-Harappan (I-al l9()7r l)1.X-XXIII-A). A ditGrent type offire-pit occurred at Pirak in Bahrdrislilrwhich was in all probabilities used as a tire-altar. Itwas builr orr a s(lu:rr islrlnud brick platform and had a srnall ca\ity in the centre haviD'{ lir'(dogs. Simi lar f i re-al tars were also encountered in the f i )ur l l r t l r i r ( lmillennium levels at Mehrgarh *hich had raised edges. (Jrrrigl ll)tlltl34 9)

Banaua\The anc;ent si te at Banaval i (Dist . t l issar, I Inryrr l r) , l (x l l (al i ! ' thr.Sarasvat i val ley, was oc. l lp ied drrr i l l i { i r l l rh, . t l ' rcc t ) l ' : ' r ( , \ i ' l t l ' i .I la lappan civ i l iz i r l iorr I . l r r lv , N' l r r t r r lc i r r ( l l . i r l ( - xr( l thr . (xrrurt i r ) lhrs I i l l

" is l ' ( r l i | | t r . r .st inra cvi . l ( | | .c . N' l ; rD1 ol t l r r , ho $ \ I ' rx l l i ' r . : ' l l i " \ ,

r22

Fis. 3.1 7. Lk,hi probabty a ponable fn e-altar

decorated with zigzag lines in the upper and the lower parts. Fragmentsof similar objects have also occuffed at Bara and HuLx in the LateHarappan context.

PotteryThere is nothing particular about common pottery forms, but oneinteresting vessel is the Mahavira. It was a double pot which, it isbelicved, was produced by the inverted firing technique and wastherefore a black-and-red ware pot (van Buitenen 1968: 9-15). TheBlack-and-Red Ware has a high antiquity in India going back to thepre-Harappan times at Gr{arat sitcs but not in the Late Ha.rappan inthe Sapta-Sindhu region. Two specirnens lvhich can be identilied asthe Mahalim are knoNn; both in red warc; one from Amri which maybe pre-Harappan, and the other from Jorwe (Maharashtra) ofchalcolithic date (1200 Bc) (Sankalia and Deo 1955: pl. xxX\L3).The Mahevira pot was used in the agnicqana rite which is said to be ofnon-\'edic origir (Converse 197a). It should be noted that B. Allchinarrd F.R. Al lchin t(x) havc discer"e( l Vf l l ic t rai ls in thc HaraPPa"

lx, t lcry.

'IheAry1a's: M.qth and Arctwologa

i "4

II

ArchaeolosicalTruces oJthe Arsds l2t\

The iconographr ofthe paint ings on the cemctel ' H Potto) ' 'wr '" ' r r I ' rVaIs as hdi;dns a "Rgvedic pauen oI beliefl" $Ic e nllirrr(l rr' rrarrl

Thus the Ccmetery H and dre related Bara 'ullure

mal alsr) ri l)rr'{ rrr ''culture{ontrct situadon, with perhaps m lndo dl-an aisto(fr'} rl'''r'rr'ri'rrtl

and intera(firg eith a lo(al PopulatioD. (1982: 304)

SomaSom.r was the favourite rlrink of Vcdic Aryans The idcntilici'l i( )r I .l

the roma plant ith ephedra has been proposed' It is argu(rd llrrl il

was in all iikelihood thc plant thejuice of l'hich tlas roma Rerrr:rirrs "lthis plant in sorne of the pottery vessels from Gonur were chenri( irlll

exarnined and erc identified as ephedra but N)'berg ( 191)5) < otrltl

not {ind it in his analysis. Aurel Stein is said to hale fo[nd cPhc(trir irl

the coursc of his exploratrons in Central Asia ivhich is 2000 veat s i 'ltFour differert species of the plant (Eqhedra (tJnathJ/t) occu' ()ll llr('

hiliy slopes of north lndia, Afghanistan, han, Hindukush, (lhilral rrrrrI

Baluchiitan (Kochhar 1999: 109) It is Presentty brought br lhc I'i"si\

of India from lran lbr their rituals (Bailey 19?2) MuiauunL a l<;trl t'l

t ' is . : t l i { .Al t l r , r l , t ,x ' rsf l l t ' r , l , i r lntsh'wir ' ,at lxro, f / l ' r l )x 'ntr ' r ' (e ' r ' r r r (n 'Y