DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

264 MOTHER GODDESSES OF UNIQUE NAMES [8.5
Defence Academy’s museum, Khadakwasla). These bits, made with a
delicacy of touch and control of the material creditable even for a jeweller,
caij only be meant as surgical instruments, for careful dissection of the
sacrificed victim for divination, or some blood-rite operation upon the
devotee. The real spread of the flints is along a broad band on the hillside,
much nearer the bottom than the top. Here, the average technique is
much better, but the “surgical instruments” have now become flakes of
22 mm length. No pottery or larger stone tools are found in association ;
the finc!:-are cm the surface, not uniformly scattered but in clusters a
mile or so apart. No real stratigraphy is possible by digging. Lime nodules
in the. soil caused a ‘floor’ to develop, and the stone artifacts sank
through the mud on top. With deforestation the topsoil was all washed
away, and only the hard lime-impregnated floor, resistant to erosion
and to vegetation remained, upon which the tools remain exposed.
Wherever a pocket of any size occurred the stratification is at least partially
inverted ; the ‘white earth’, however, also contains tools of the same type
and size for as much as six feet below the exposed Surface, but never in
clusters.
The microliths can be “raced uninterrupted along the hillside, from
the passes that lead to the west coast, to the larger hand-axe area near
Pandharpur, and beyond. The best concentrations are to be found
wherever there occurs a cult-spot which is still in use, but far away
(generally over a mile) from the nearest village. These cult-spots mark
ancient camp-sites at the junction of two or more tracks where the
primitive groups met periodically. A remarkable number still represent
mother-goddesses, the usual shapeless lumps of red-daubed stone.
Many (e.g. Warsubai, Udalai, Mhatryai, Bolhao, Karajar, Injabai, and a
very rare male like the Dhapaya of Karjat) have unique names, each
found in just one place, without meaning or plausible etymology. These
are surely deities of ancient petty tribal groups loner since extinct or
absorbed into the general population. The tracks, modified by modern
deforestation and cultivation survives as sheep-drovers’ rounds (usually
300 to 400 miles, covered every year) ; the greatest is the pilgrimage
route to Pandharpur. The steady movement down to the river-side is best