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 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”.
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
