COMPLEXITIES OF THE BEGINNING OF FOOD PRODUCTION IN NON- HARAPPAN INDIA

• The process of the growth of food production in non-Harappan India is complex and involves multiple strands focused around individual crops.
• The earliest evidence for rice cultivation comes from Koldihawa in the Belan Valley (UP), an area with a rich prehistoric sequence extending back to the mesolithic (e.g., Chopani Mando).
• Wild rice has been noted in the mesolithic level of the area, with domesticated rice found in the earliest, metal-free level of Koldihawa in a context with wattle-and-daub houses, polished stone celts, microliths, and handmade pottery.
• The second level of the site is chalcolithic, showing evidence of continuity with the earlier phase through cord-marked ware.
• The last phase of the site shows iron but also continuity from the previous chalcolithic phase.
• Radiocarbon dating from Koldihawa includes early dates (7505–7033 BC, 6190–5764 BC, 5432–5051 BC), which suggests the possibility of an early rice-cultivating level.
• Evidence of early adaptation to agriculture in the Rajmahal hills of modern Santal Parganas (Bihar), with microliths and buff-red ware found at Panchrukhi.
• In Mayurbhanj (Orissa), Kuchai shows a stratigraphy from mesolithic to neolithic, with a similar assemblage from Baidipur yielding rice.
• In south India, evidence points to the beginning of food production, especially tubers, legumes, and millets, around c. 3000 BC, particularly in Karnataka and Andhra.
• In Ladakh, Giak shows a neolithic stage with a 6th millennium BC date, while a nearby site, Kiari, has much lower dates, not much earlier than 1000 BC.
• The evidence from each region is perplexing due to uncertainties in the data and dates.
• The transition to food production and village life in non-Harappan India is more complex and multilineal than the early cultivation of wheat, barley, and domestication of cattle, sheep, and goats in Baluchistan.
• Evidence for domestication of cattle, sheep, and goats from Adamgarh and Bagor in the 6th millennium BC shows that this process was independent of the Baluchistan region.
• The transition to food production in non-Harappan India raises tantalizing questions regarding the role of the Harappans.
• The Harappans interacted with regions outside their own distribution area, possibly for raw materials and finished goods, beginning in the early Harappan times.
• The Harappans could have influenced the cultural flow of central India, upper Deccan, and the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.
• Archaeological evidence supports the hypothesis of the interaction between Harappan plough-agriculture and the incipient agricultural regime of the hunter-gatherers in inner India, leading to the neolithic-chalcolithic transition in these regions.
• The chapter discusses this neolithic-chalcolithic transition, which refers to the early village stage in non-Harappan India.
• Though the term neolithic-chalcolithic is not ideal, it has been long used to describe this early stage in non-Harappan India, and the term will be retained for this context.