Development (a): Australoid Contribution

The Austaloids, considered as the earliest people to settle in this region, had their own culture. They were first to tame elephant and knew the making of earthenware without the using the potter’s wheel, (Das:2000). The earthenware making business is primarily a ground-based activity that needs sufficient space for preparation, production, drying and firing of the products, which are obviously not convenient in the stilt type architecture. Therefore, it may be assumed that these people gradually developed ground architecture, even if they lived earlier in the stilt architecture.

Moreover, the taming of elephant by these early inhabitants of the valley naturally endowed them with significant military strength. And it may be assumed that such military power naturally helped them to exercise their ascendancy over the neighbours. Such primacy might have resulted in the gradual percolation of cultural features including housing culture.