Iron Age India
by Iron Age India, the Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent.
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,[2][3] which 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 BC” and “by about the early decade of thirteenth century BC iron smelting was definitely known in India on a bigger scale”.[4]
Historical states of the Iron Age:
| Vedic Civilization | • 2000–500 BCE |
| -Black and Red ware culture | • 1300–1000 BCE |
| -Painted Grey Ware culture | • 1200–600 BCE |
| -Northern Black Polished Ware | • 700–200 BCE |
| Maha Janapadas | • 700–300 BCE |
| Magadha Empire | • 684–424 BCE |
| Nanda Empire | • 424-321 BCE |
| Chera Kingdom | • c. 300 BCE–1102 CE |
| Chola Empire | • c. 300 BCE–1279 CE |
| Pandya Kingdom | • c. 300 BCE–1345 CE |
| Maurya Empire | • 321–184 BCE |
| Pallava Empire | • 250 BCE–800 CE |
| Sunga Empire | • 185–73 BCE |
| Kanva Empire | • 75–26 BCE |
| Maha-Megha-Vahana Empire | • 250s BCE–400s CE |
| Kuninda Kingdom | • 200s BCE–300s CE |
| Indo-Scythian Kingdom | • 200 BC–400 CE |
| Satavahana Empire | • 230 BCE–220 CE |
| Indo-Greek Kingdom | • 180 BCE–10 CE |
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 BC). The development of early Buddhism takes place in the Magadha period (5th to 4th centuries BC).
The North Indian Iron Age can be taken to end with the rise of the Maurya Empire and the appearance of literacy (the edicts of Ashoka, r. 272-232 BC) indicating the gradual onset of historicity. South India simultaneously enters historicity with the Sangam period, beginning in the 3rd century BC.
From the 2nd century BC, the cultural landscape of Northern India is transformed with lasting effect with the intrusion of the Indo-Scythians and Indo-Greeks, and the states succeeding this period, up to the medieval Muslim conquests are conventionally grouped as Middle kingdoms of India or Classical India.
[edit] See also
- Middle kingdoms of India or Classical 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 World 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
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