Part 1 - Introduction

Our study on human settlements in the context of geographical and socio- economic setting of early historic Gaṅgā plains, tries to understand the origin and long nodal centres in the long term development of administration, culture and religion in this zone. We are trying to understand this process in relation to Rājagṛha and Vārāṇasī, two very important nodal centres of their respective very important mahājanapadas Magadha and Kāśī. In the next level, we aim to understand their demographic, cultural and political development in relation to their satellites which developed in certain time in the context of early historic Gaṅgā plains, within the time frame of 600 BCE to 300 CE. The satellites grew up within the cultural orbit of the above mentioned nodal centres are Nālandā and Sārnāth. Both of them emerged as important religious and pilgrimage sites, through time. Nālandā, especially came to appear as a principal Buddhist seat of learning as indicated in the structural remains and epigraphic and literary records. Later it evolved as a university site cum administrative and multi- functional centre. We try to understand the complex processes of growth, development and changed identity and inter settlement relation in case of our chosen sites. The whole phenomenon emerged within the geo- cultural ambit of the middle Gaṅgā plains. Thus the temporal and geographic horizon is circumscribed within the limits of middle Gaṅgā plains of early phase dated to 6^th century BCE to the 3^rd century CE.

However, the beginning of the material life started much earlier in the prehistoric Neolithic–Chalcolithic period. Agriculture certainly played a key role in the prehistoric economy as suggested by rich botanical evidences of variety of wild and domesticated crops of the Neolithic- Chalcolithic times. This was further supplemented by better agricultural knowledge and technological breakthroughs and by the iron-NBPW times of around 700- 200 BCE. Even paddy transplantation started in this phase meant for quick ripening and increased production of rice.This was associated with a growing art and crafts industry. R. S. Sharma’s study of the sites Chirand, Khairadih, Maner, Narhan, Sonepur and Taradih shows proliferation of arts and crafts, from Neolithic–Chalcolithic and iron- NBPW times. The total number of iron objects varied from 22 to 352 within this span of time. There was a similar drastic increase in the number of copper, bone, semiprecious stone, ivory, glass objects in this same period. Most importantly, Iron Age was accompanied by the appearance of metal coins, recovered in small numbers from these sites. It revolutionized mode of exchange, encouraged commodity production and long- distance trade.^[1] Around 500 BCE we see Buddhist and Brahmanical texts discussing on the two chief attributes of the state namely regular taxes and a standing army. The principal duty of the kings was to uphold social order. So a complex blend of events and networks preceded the growth of territorial states. Putting it simplistically, a territorial state stood for a concentration of population, capable of resource mobilization, economic production and exchange on local and outside requirements, presence of a ruling agency with the power and authority to supervise and redistribution of resource, manage the income and taxation of the state and providing an administrative framework. For all these an urban centre, as the repository of power and a seat of administration was required. A capital city could function in this way. This forms the starting point of our study as we are much concerned about how urban centres are posited within the framework of territorial states and how on the ground of their functionality they could act as nodal points for an extensive area. The middle Gaṅgā plains with a concentration of such territorial states and urban centes form the heartland of this whole process.

Thanks to the hard work of archaeologists, that has provided us with the rich data on continuous human habitation and the whole cultural process from the time of the early farming communities to iron using ones which had supported the rise of the territorial states. In this connection we may recall the effort of the archaeologists of the Archaeological Survey of India, right from the identification and other preliminary works to the latest explorations in the area concerned. Archaeological explorations by the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University and works by Vibha Tripathi, Prabhakar Upadhyay, Vidula Jayaswal, Ravindra Nath Singh proved to be very useful for our purpose and they have equipped us with copious archaeological details, particularly on our select area of Vārāṇasī. Much horizontal excavations have been conducted in this zone that could throw light on various themes of cultural growth in this area in various phases. Scholars from the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, University of Allahabad, was the first to be licensed to carry out excavations, and rich botanical remains were brought out from individual sites of Mesolithic- Neolithic Vindhyas. Scholars like Jagannath Pal, Umesh Chandra Chattopadhyay brought out several scholarly papers for the early socioeconomic activities of the early farming communities in the trans Vindhya zone. Mention may be made of individual archaeologists like Dilip K. Chakrabarti whose thrust was on the urban growth and manifestations, various forces linked to it. Many other scholars and archaeologists working on the broad and specific themes of cultural process enriched our vision of an organic growth towards state formation and urbanization.

A review of the older views and opinions may help us to reach an understanding about the different facets of the settlement dynamics. For our purpose studies may be divided into two sections. First is the general work and views on settlement patterns and urbanization across the world and on the early historic urbanisation and its facets. In the second layer we have archaeological reports and several studies dealing with our two specific zones.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

R. S. Sharma, Material Background of the Genesis of State and Society in Bhiravi Prasad Sahu ed. Iron and Social Change in Early India, Oxford, 2006, pp.157- 61.