Pygmaei gigantum humeris (acknowledging that even pygmies can see a little far because they are standing on the shoulders of giants) is an attitude of mind which presupposes true humility and genuine feelings of respect and gratitude towards one’s elders and predecessors. Sadly, these attitudes are on the wane in the academe; instead, one notices increasing levels of self-effervescence. The book under review is a happy exception.
Professor Vidula Jayaswal is a senior and well-known archaeologist who treads prehistory, protohistory and early historical archaeology of India with equal ease. The ten essays comprising this book are her offerings to the memory of nine outstanding Indian historians and archaeologists of yesteryears (Jayaswal calls them ‘Navaratnas’) who were associated with reputed universities in the country or the Archaeological Survey of India and greatly enriched Indian Archaeological Studies through their research and teaching. They are KP Jayaswal (Vidula’s own grandfather), BB Lal, HD Sankalia, AK Narain, A Ghosh, C Sivaramamurti, VS Wakankar, JP Joshi and GC Pande. With the exception of the last essay (it is in Hindi and written in memory of GC Pande) which is being published for the first time, all other essays represent republication of memorial articles which Jayaswal published over a period of 35 years since 1987. What is new in these writings is that each one is introduced with a brief prefatory note or what Jayaswal prefers to call Shabdanjali in which she feelingly recalls the guidance, fatherly affection and blessings she received from the ‘Navaratnas’ and acknowledges that they ‘cast a deep impression and have been a source of inspiration to my academic pursuits…’.
The essays in the first two chapters are about Palaeolithic prehistory. In the first essay, Jayaswal gives an estimate of the pebble-tool and bifacial stone technologies of Africa and their Indian counterparts. The second essay is a welcome move away from the ongoing descriptive and metrical studies of stone tools. She brings together the results of her prolonged field investigations including excavations of the Stone Age sites of the Acheulean Culture from the Paisra Valley of Kharagpur Hills in South Bihar and ethnographic study of the native Koda hunter-gatherer community. Jayaswal presents a well-argued reconstruction of the total way of life of the Acheulean hunter-gatherer groups of the Valley and their preference for Valley floor occupation, functionally differentiated site types, types of rudimentary shelters raised by them, use of spring-based surface water sources and seasonal mobility within the Valley, exploitation of various locally available wild plant and animal foods, etc. The third essay is also about prehistory and deals with the microlithic cultures (terminal stage of hunting-gathering way of life) of the middle Ganga Valley and the Vindhya-Kaimur Hills south of the Ganga, and seasonal mobility of the hunter-gatherer groups across the Ganga. We are also told how some 5000 years ago some of these hunter-gatherer groups shunned the newly introduced village farming way of life and instead retreated into the Kaimur Hills, giving rise to the present-day simple human groups occupying the area.
The next three chapters are devoted to archaeological history of the Varanasi area. Based upon the results of her own field studies in the area spanning two decades, Jayaswal provides a detailed account of the settlement history of this area covering the later Vedic, Mahajanapada, Maurya-Sunga, Kushana and Gupta periods. The one distinguishing aspect of this reconstruction—again a welcome departure from the big-site approach—concerns the important role played by the agricultural and craft production contributions made by the rural settlements of the surrounding area towards the growth of Varanasi as an urban centre. These chapters also contain valuable information about the hierarchy or size-range of settlements in the region and culture-sequence of the area based upon changes in pottery and fabrics.
The next two chapters are about the archaeological remains of the greater Varanasi zone covering Sarnath and Saidpur-Ghazipur area on the left bank of the Ganga and Vindhya-Kaimur Hill zone on the southern side. These contain information about a lesser-known Gupta temple at Bhitari in Ghazipur district and stone quarries at Chunar and other places on the southern side which supplied sculptural and architectural elements to Sarnath and other places. Then there is a short essay on the clay bull figurines from the early historic period at Hastinapur which, according to Jayaswal, formed part of fire rituals or yagnas.
The concluding essay, a tribute to GC Pande, once again sketches the various stages in the evolution of Varanasi as a major religious and pilgrimage centre in the country. Here one would have expected Jayaswal to make at least a brief reference to the writings of the great Indologists James Prinsep and Diana Eck, the American specialist in comparative study of religions.
This volume is a welcome addition to the literature in Indian archaeology and is a reminder to younger scholars that historiography has its importance and that the final test of scholarship in archaeology lies in presenting meaningful and interpretative accounts of mute archaeological remains in terms of the lifeways of ancient societies.
K Paddayya is Emeritus Professor and former Director, Deccan College (Deemed to be University), Pune.