DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

Ixiv COMMENTARY TO ILLUSTRATIONS
6. Black polished ware, of the famous ‘ rouletted’ from R. E. Mr. Wheeler’s
excavations at Arikamedu, near Pondichery (p. 51). This basic discovery provided for
the first time a fixed date for the pottery index. The imported Roman ware is generally
labelled with the maker’s name and thereby accurately dated. It went out of fashion
about A. D. 50 ; the Satavahana imitations ceased soon afterwards.
7. S&tavahana jug, from the Deccan College excavations at Newasa.
GROUP II : Production (8-26)
8. “Gilgamesh” on Indus seal. The prototype is common at all stages of cylinderseal
manufacture in Mesopotamia, the bearded, naked (but for a belt), lion-killing athlete
identified with the Sumerian hero. The Indus specimen is ungirt, comparatively anaemic
(though another, cruder seal is known of this sort), and the animals strangled may be
tigers. This seal and the next point to a common stratum of tradition between Mesopotamia
and India (p. 57) as well as trade.
9. “Enkidu” : The bull-man is a friend of Gilgamesh in the epic, and frequently
depicted in Mesopotamian seals, but hitherto found on just one seal of Indus manufacture
(p. 58).
10. Persian water-wheel, worked by a donkey and a small humped bull of Kathiawar
type ; miniature in the British Museum. The Persian wheel was known in the 7th
century (Har. 94, 104), but apparently introduced much earlier to the west Punjab by
the rascally Metrodorus of Constantine (McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 185).
11. Indus humped bull. The glyptic is more impressive than in the photograph, for
the seal is on two planes at an angle, so that the head is fore-shortened in the picture.
12. Temple bull with embroidered cloth ; his main function is to haul the palkhi of
Jnanesvar from Alandi (p. 47) to Parwjharpur and back in the great annual procession.
The procession is supposed to have gained in size and importance from the days of
Haibat Baba about the end of the 18th century, but the sacred pilgrimage was certainly
practised long before then, and the route passes through sites of clear neolithic
occupation. Bulls with painted horns and similar caparison are exhibited during navaratra
(nine days from October new moon), when there is a parade of garlanded and decorated
bulls in most villages ; this probably derives from ancient sacrifices.
13. Sarwia bull, Banaras 1940; dedicated to Siva (p. 207) ; this animal is branded on
the flank with a number as well, apparently to distinguish him from strays.
14. Water-buffalo (p. 138) relaxing. Heavy, dark, sluggish, hardy, fertile, productive
with little care, far cleaner than it looks, docile enough to be led by a child, but
suspicious of innovations and perfectly capable when roused, of charging a tiger or a
locomotive, the buffalo would be a fitting national symbol for India.
15. Ploughing scene on Gandharan relief, of the Ku$ana period, in the Lahore
Museum. The scene depicted young Gotama’s first meditation