Introduction (the study of cultural life)

Culture can be defined as a set of ideas, beliefs, customs and conventions of a group of people in a given area. It is often influenced by various factors such as geographical, environmental, political and economical conditions. Mutual interaction with neighboring regions over a period of time also had its impact to a large extent on the cultural manifestations, like belief system, architecture, sculpture, dance, music or even in personal ornamentation and type of weaponry or tools used. Manifestation of culture is found both in its physical and ideological aspects. It can be grouped mainly under two categories viz., tangible and intangible. Under the former can be included all the physical manifestations of culture, popularly termed as material culture, which as said above had its beginning to meet the physical requirements of man for his day to day existence like shelter, clothing and food. The objects utilized to meet these minimal requirements are often found from archaeological excavations and as depictions in sculpture and painting. Whereas, the various artifacts like ornaments, cosmetics, tools, weapons, pottery, etc., of day to day usage found through the excavation of historical sites gives only a glimpse into the nature of the artifact like its shape, size and material used, it is only from the study of the actual depictions through the medium of sculpture and painting, which is like observing the people of the past ages and their way of life directly, their actual usage can be understood.

Culture is the result of human’s cognitive ability to think and modify the surrounding environment and natural objects to serve their needs. The same cognitive ability induced man to leave behind the earliest portrayal of their life in the form of rock-art, which if properly studied help in understanding their life style and beliefs. Again the human being is the only species on earth who can, not only appreciate the beauty of the surrounding environment be it animate or inanimate, but also have the ability to reproduce the same by means of either chiseling the naturally available raw materials such as wood and stone or moulding the clay into the desired shapes or painting them using natural pigments obtained from sources such as earth or plant. This unique capacity to think and adapt also made the humans capable of protecting themselves from various natural hazards like sunlight, rain and storm by means of building dwellings for themselves and producing clothing.

The earliest available cultural remain so far found is in the form of stone tools of the Palaeolithic age, which was indeed born out of necessity. The actual functionality of these stone tools largely remains speculative. They are found in variety of sizes and forms and are classified based on its technique of manufacture, shape and their possible utility like hand-axe, cleaver, chopper, scrappers, point, borer, etc., with many sub-varieties within. Most of them are likely to have been used in the day to day activities like hunting, digging, peeling, piercing, pounding, etc. In the Mesolithic age, there was a stark contrast in the size, raw-material of the tools used and also in their habitation and life style. These tools known as microliths are of many varieties and are often used after hafting them with a stick. The shape of some of these tools formed precursor to the metallic ones used in the subsequent period.

From the study of rock-art and few excavated remains like the ostrich egg-shell bead from Patne^[1], it is known that the taste for ornamentation and probably even for coiffure and cosmetic had its beginning in the pre-historic times itself.

A clear-cut progress in the cultural life of the people can be seen throughout the different stages of pre and proto-historic times in the form of refinement in the shape and reduction in the size of the stone-tools, kind of raw material used, expression of ideas and beliefs through rock-art, usage of clay for manufacturing pottery, bricks and other artifacts like figurines, ornaments, etc., usage of stone for erecting stone edifices and creating sculptures, invention of metals and manufacture of various implements and artifacts out of them, etc. For the first time evidence of pottery is found from the Neolithic period, which was invented to store surplus grains and other food materials, which resulted out of agriculture and domestication. Again the earliest specimens of terracotta art is also from this period and are found in the form of human and animal figurines as well as personal ornaments like beads, bangles, etc. The invention of agriculture facilitated for a settled life and this in turn paved way for the growth of many regional cultures all over the northern parts of India and Deccan. It also led to the growth of the first urban civilization of the Indian sub-continent, termed variously as Indus Valley or Harappan or Indus-Sarasvati civilization. The mature phase of this civilization, which flourished from circa 2500 B. C. to 1900 B.C. left behind some of the finest cultural specimens in the form of public and private architecture constructed both of sun-dried and burnt bricks, tiles, as well as well dressed stones; seals and sealings having various religious, faunal, floral and geometric motifs as well as inscriptions in the form of pictographs; terracotta, stone and bronze figurines; beads of semi-precious stones, terracotta and faience; terracotta bangles; molded ornaments of gold and silver; copper implements; variety of wheel-made painted pottery, cosmetic tools, etc. The earliest evidence of ornamentation, coiffure and costume as revealed through sculptural art is also found for the first time in this civilization in the form of the famous stone bust of a priest king. The priest king, with the hair combed back and held together by a head-band fashions a beard, but without a mustache and his torso is draped by an upper garment in the form of an uttariya. Interestingly this upper garment has carved tripartite designs with traces of red pigmentation in it. This may hint at the prevalence of the art of embroidery or painting the cloths with different floral designs and dying them. Cloths made of cotton are well known in the Harappan civilization as confirmed by the find of few scraps of cotton cloth found sticking to a silver vase at Mohenjodaro^[2]. Apart from this sculpture, several terracotta male and female figurines brought out during the course of excavations of several sites belonging to this civilization revealed various aspects of cultural and religious life of those times.

In Tamil Nadu, no clear demarcation between Neolithic and Chalcolithic phase could be noticed and most of the sites are seen in the districts bordering Karnataka. So, the major cultural phase, next to the Neolithic period in Tamil Nadu is the Iron Age period characterized by the Black and red ware, iron implements and erection of burials by means of large orthostatic boulders and fully dressed to semi-dressed slabs, popularly termed as Megalithic culture. It is interesting to note that the Sangam literature like, Ahananuru^[3], Purananuru^[4], Tolkappiyam^[5] etc. and post–Sangam age literature like Manimekalai^[6]? also contains many references to the burial practices akin to the Megalithic culture, which shows the continuity of some practices and beliefs into the early historical period.

As a prelude to the pioneering study of cultural life, as depicted in the sculptures of Pallava period, given below in brief is the cultural life of pre-Pallava period, with special reference to Tondaimandalam region, as corroborated by various sources like literarature, inscriptions and excavated remains.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

S. A. Sali, “The Upper Palaeolithic Culture at Patne, District Jalgaon, Maharashtra”, in Recent Advances in Indo-Pacific Prehistory, Poona, 1978, p. 144. Also, R. G. Bednarik, “About Palaeolithic Ostrich Eggshell in India, in IPPA Bulletin, no. 13, pp. 34–43.

[2]:

John Marshall, Mohenjodaro and the Indus civilization, London, 1931, vol. I, p. 33.

[3]:

Aham, nos. 109 and 157.

[4]:

Puram, nos. 3, 221, 223, 228, 232, 238, 256 and 356.

[5]:

Tolkappiyam, Porulathikaram, v. 60.

[6]:

Manimekalai, Chapter VI, Chakravalakkottam uraitta kadai, ll. 66-67.