• header Image

Proto-historic Culture and Vedic Age

Home/ Proto-historic Culture and Vedic Age
Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Foundation Core HRM2AM113 4

Course Coordinator:      Sailendra Kumar Swain

Email of Course Coordinator:    sswain@aud.ac.in

Pre-requisites:  None

Brief Description of the Course:

The journey of India as the cradle of an ancient civilization continues uninterrupted with twists and turns in its long history. From prehistoric antecedents upto the protohistoric cultures culminating in the Indus Vally civilization, and then followed by Vedic Age, the civilizational foundation of India is deeply rooted. This is proved by the fact that Indus Valley Civilization was one of the advanced civilizations in the old world and contemporary to the other riverine civilizations like Ancient Egypt along the Nile, Mesopotamia along the Tigris and the Euphrates and China along the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Indus urbanism was one of the most advanced one in the contemporary world with its monumental public buildings, wide streets, covered drainage, inland and overseas trade and commerce and water management systems. Similarly, the corpus of Vedic literature is the earliest literary tradition of India and comprises of the four Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. Vedic literature is so rich that even modern universities are teaching Vedic geometry, astrology, astronomy and mathematics along with religion, philosophy and metaphysics. Archaeological explorations and excavations have brought to light many sites and artifacts unearthing the vast vestige of the Indus Civilization and replication of Vedic Culture in its rich ceramic traditions.

Aim of the Course:

The aim of the course is to introduce to the students about the concept of protohistoric cultures vi-a-vis archaeological explorations, excavations and analysis of archaeological data. Similarly, the students will be made familiar with the vast Vedic literature in terms of its age, geography, polity, economy, religion, philosophy, metaphysics etc. The course intends to set the chronology from Indus to Vedic cultures in right perspective and most importantly try to explain the relationship between Indus and Vedic ages. The course also intends to teach students the specific ceramic traditions of Indus and Vedic ages. The students will be introduced to the yet undeciphered Indus writing systems and the unresolved scholarly debates over Indo-Aryans.

Course Outcomes:

  • At the end of the Semester, the students will be able to
  • Clearly understand the concept of protohistory and its attributes
  • Have a sound knowledge about pre-Indus protohistoric cultures
  • Identify Indus and Vedic archaeological sites and artifacts
  • Develop critical thinking so as to analyze archaeological and literary data both independently and in relation to each other  

Module 1

Pre-Harappan and Harappan Cultures This module will deal with the beginning of use metal and Pre-Harappan Bronze Age Culture; Harappan civilization, its origin, spread and date, Mature phase of Harappan civilization: architecture, economy, technology, art, religion writing and social systems

Module 2

Decline of Harappan Culture and Emergence of Regional Cultures

This module will deal with the decline of Harappan civilization; Characteristic feature of the late Harappan cultures, Emergence Regional cultures Central India and Deccan - Malwa, Jorwe, Kaytha, OCP and Copper Hoards

Module 3

Indo-Aryans and Early Vedic Culture

This module will deal with Indo-European/Indo-Aryan languages; The Aryan Hypothesis and the Archaeology; Early Vedic Aryans Vedic geography and the archaeological settlements;  Material culture of Early Vedic people and the archaeology

Module 4

Iron Age and Contemporary Ceramic Cultures

This module will deal with the beginning of the use of iron; Painted Grey Ware culture;  Black and  Red Ware cultures; Cultural sequence in  Ganga plain; Archaeological Cultures of North-Eastern India

Module 5

Later Vedic Age and Emergence of Complex Society

This module will deal with Later Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upnishads;  Geography and people of Later Vedic age and archeological cultures;  Technology, economy and agriculture: archaeology and literature, Emergence of complexity in Society: archaeology and literature

Reading List:

  • Agrawal, D. P. The Copper Bronze Age in India, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1971.
  • Agrawal, D. P. The Archaeology of India, Aakar Books, New Delhi, 1984.
  • Agrawal, D. P. & Kusumgar, S.  Prehistoric Chronology and Radiocarbon Dating in India, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1974.
  • Agrawal, D. P. & D. K.    Chakrabarti (ed.)  Essays in Indian  Protohistory, B.R. Publishing, New Delhi, 1979 
  • Allchin, Bridget & Raymond, The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan, Cambridge   University Press, London, 1983
  • Allchin, Bridget & Raymond:The Birth of Indian Civilization, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1968.                          
  • Asthana, Shashi,  Pre-Harappan cultures of India and its  Borderlands, Books & Books, New Delhi, 1985.
  • Banerjee N.R. The Iron Age in India, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1965.
  • Fairservis, Walter A. The Roots of Ancient India, Macmillan, New York, 1971.
  • Gordon, D. H. The Prehistoric Background of Indian Culture, Munshiram Manoharlal  New Delhi, 1997
  • Lal, B. B. Protohistoric Investigation,  Ancient India, No. 9, 1952, PP. 116-169.
  • Lal, B. B. The Earliest Civilization of South Asia,  Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 1997
  • Lal, B. B. India 1947-1997: New Light on the Indus Civilization, Aryan Book International,New Delhi, 1998Lal, B. B. The Saraswati Flows on : The continuity of Indian Culture, Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2002
  • Tapar, B.K. Recent Archaeological discoveries in India,  UNESCO, 1985.
  • Sankalia, H. D. Prehistory and protohistory of India and Pakistan, Poona, Deccan College, 1974.
  • Subbarao, B. The Personality of India,  M S University, Baroda, 1958.
  • Tripathi, V.The Painted Grey Ware: an Iron Age Culture of Northern  India, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1976.
  • Wheeler, Sir Mortimer, Early India and Pakistan, D. B. Taraporevala and Sons, Bombay 1959.
  • Wheeler, Sir Mortimer, Civilizations of the Indus Valley and Beyond, Thomas and  Hudson, London:1966.
  • Wheeler, Sir Mortimer,  The Indus Civilization, Cambridge, 1968.
  • Gupta, S. P.  Archaeology of Sovieet Central Asia and India Boarder Land, B R Publishing, New Delhi, 1979    
  • Gupta, S. P.  Indus-Saraswati Civilization-Origins, Problems & issues, Pratibha Prakashan. New Delhi, 1996
  • Dhevalikar, M. K. Indian Protohistory, Books and Books, New Delhi, 1997
  • Lal,  Makkhal,  Settlement History and Rise of Civilization in Ganga-Yamuna Doab, B.R. Publishing,  New Delhi, 1984
  • Singh, Bhagwan, Vedic Harappans, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, 1995
  • Chakrabarti, Dilip K. The External Trade of the Indus Civilization, Munshiram Manoharlal  New Delhi, 1990
  • Chauley M. K. Prehistory & Protohistory of Eastern India, Agam Kala Prakashan, New Delhi, 2008
  • Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective, Altamira Press, Lanham, 2002
  • Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, Oxford Univ. Press, New Delhi, 1998
  • Frawley, David & Rajaram, Navaratna, S. Vedic Aryans and the Origins of Civilization, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, 2014
  • Elst, Koenraad, Still No Trace of an Aryan Invasion: A Collection on Indo-European Origins, Aryan Books International, New Delhi,2018

Assessment Details with Weights:

 

S. No.

Assessments

Weightage

1.

Assignment-1 (Project Writing)

30%

2.

Assignment-2 (Project Presentation)

20%

3.

Semester End Exam

50%
Top