Painted Grey Ware

Also called: PGW · Topic: Janapadas, Mahajanapadas and the Second Urbanisation · NCERT: Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"

Meaning

Painted Grey Ware (PGW) is a fine grey pottery with designs painted on it, usually in black. It is the marker pottery of the early part of the 1st millennium BCE in the upper Ganga-Yamuna region. At Hastinapura its layers are dated c. 1100-800 BCE [4].

It matters because PGW sites show us the first big spread of farming villages into the Ganga plains. That spread later gave rise to the mahajanapadas and the first cities of the Second Urbanisation.

Explanation

Background: why new settlements appeared

• Iron came first. Iron tools were in common use by the late 2nd millennium BCE (roughly 1200-1000 BCE).
• Iron opened up new land. Iron axes and tools helped people clear and till larger areas of land.
• More land meant more food and more people. In the Ganga region the number of settlements rises sharply during the 1st millennium BCE.
• Many of these new settlements share one kind of pottery: PGW.

Main features of the pottery

• Colour and finish: grey, thin and well made. It was fine tableware, not rough cooking pots.
• Decoration: simple patterns painted on the surface, usually in black. Lines, dots and circles are common.
• What is found with it: at PGW-phase sites, diggers find:
• iron implements (tools and weapons)
• a wider variety of grain than before

• PGW together with other pottery types [2][3]

• So PGW works as a label for a whole way of life: iron-using farmers living in growing villages.

How it changed over time: from PGW to NBPW

• The PGW stage: settlements spread eastwards into the upper Ganga-Yamuna valleys [2].
• The move to cities: by the second quarter of the 1st millennium BCE (c. 750-500 BCE), this spread had given rise to the first cities [2].
• The NBPW stage: NBPW (Northern Black Polished Ware) generally appears at the end of the PGW phase [2][3]. NBPW is a glossy black "deluxe ware" (costly fine pottery).
• Order to remember: PGW (villages spreading, iron farming) → NBPW (cities, kingdoms, rich people).

Results

• A denser population in the doab. The doab is the land between two rivers, here the Ganga and the Yamuna.
• A food surplus. Spare grain could feed people who did not farm, such as soldiers, priests, traders and craftsmen.
• The base for the janapadas and mahajanapadas. The janapadas were early territories ruled by a clan. The mahajanapadas were the larger states that grew out of them.
• Historians generally link PGW to the area and period of later Vedic culture. But a pottery type cannot by itself prove who the people were or what language they spoke.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: early 1st millennium BCE. The Hastinapura PGW deposit is dated c. 1100-800 BCE [4]. These dates are approximate and vary from site to site.
• Region: the upper Ganga-Yamuna doab and the valleys next to it. This is roughly western Uttar Pradesh and the land around it.
• Sites where PGW is found with other pottery: Khalaua, Sonkh, Kaseri, Alamgirpur and Hastinapura. PGW was also excavated at Atranjikhera, Noh and Jodhpura [2][3].
• Hastinapura (Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh) is the key site:
• It was excavated in 1950-52 [4]. The dig was led by archaeologist B.B. Lal.
• It gave the first Cultural Index for the upper Ganga basin [4]. This is a dated ladder of layers that other sites could be matched against.

• A great flood about the 9th century BCE devastated the site [4].

• How we know:

• Archaeology: pottery layers, iron tools, grain remains and counts of how many settlements there were.
• Texts: literary sources of the period describe the same things the digging finds. They speak of expanding farming, more grain and more kinds of crops, especially paddy (rice). When pots and texts agree, the conclusion is firm.

Don't confuse with

• NBPW (Northern Black Polished Ware): a glossy black luxury ware from the middle Ganga region (Prayagraj to eastern Bihar), c. 600-200 BCE [3]. It comes after PGW. PGW is grey and painted, and belongs to the upper Ganga-Yamuna doab.
• Black-and-Red Ware (BRW): pottery that is black inside and red outside. At Rajgir it is found together with NBPW in the lowest layers [3]. It is not the grey painted ware of the doab.
• Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP): an earlier pottery of the Ganga-Yamuna doab from the 2nd millennium BCE. It comes before PGW, so do not mix up the order: OCP → PGW → NBPW.
• The iron-tipped ploughshare: it spread from about the 6th century BCE in the Ganga and Kaveri valleys. That is later than the main PGW phase, so do not date PGW by the iron plough.

Prelims Hooks

• The PGW deposit at Hastinapura is dated c. 1100-800 BCE [4].
• Hastinapura is in Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh. It was excavated in 1950-52 and gave the first Cultural Index for the upper Ganga basin [4].
• A 9th-century BCE flood devastated Hastinapura [4].
• PGW sites: Atranjikhera, Noh, Jodhpura, Alamgirpur, Hastinapura, Sonkh, Kaseri, Khalaua [2][3].
• Chronology trap: OCP → PGW → NBPW. NBPW generally appears at the end of the PGW phase [2][3].
• Region trap: PGW is from the upper Ganga-Yamuna valleys. NBPW is from the middle Ganga region (Prayagraj to eastern Bihar).

Mains Points

• PGW as evidence of the road to the Second Urbanisation:
• Iron tools let farmers clear more land, which produced a grain surplus.
• More settlements appeared, and they spread eastwards. These are the PGW sites.

• By c. 750-500 BCE this spread had given rise to the first cities [2]. Use PGW to show that cities grew out of a slow build-up of farming villages, not a sudden change.

• Reading society from pottery:

• PGW marks iron-using farming villages in the upper Ganga-Yamuna valleys.
• The NBPW that follows is costly ware, probably used by the rich. It shows social difference had grown.

• The move from one ware to the other tracks the change from villages to cities and kingdoms.

• Limits of the evidence (the debate):

• PGW is often linked to the later Vedic period and to places named in the epics, like Hastinapura.
• But pottery shows a material culture, not a people's identity or a story. A firm answer needs texts and archaeology to agree. On farming growth and paddy they do agree. Claims that the epic stories really happened stay uncertain.

Related concepts

• Iron technology
• Northern Black Polished Ware

Read more

• Iron, agriculture and the new material culture