Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 24, 2002
Introduction: A missing link form
pre-Harappan history lies buried in Kunal village, Haryana. Mukesh Bhardwaj
finds out just what we are missing out on
In the district of Fatehabad in
Haryana, close to the border with Punjab, lies the village of Kunal. A
dirt track on the outskirts of the village, running through fields of wheat,
leads to a nondescript mound spread over a few acres. Only a fence, a Department
of Archaeology board, and the shards of pottery scattered all over reveal
the presence of this most enigmatic of Harappan sites.
The site is much smaller than the
sprawling metropolis of Rakhigarhi or Dholavira, perhaps it is just a small
village, but it promises to connect pre-Harappan findings with the more
evolved Harappan period. It is a hamlet that boasts of the oldest Harappan
artefacts found anywhere in India. Though no work has taken place here
for the past three years - the fund-strapped state Department of Archaeology
was unable to cough up the Rs 1.5 lakh required annually for excavations
- the Centre has now agreed to pitch in. While a lot of attention has been
focused on sites like Dholavira, it is Kunal that might prove critical
to a proper understanding of the Harappan civilisation.
Prior to the discovery in Kunal,
it had seemed that the Harappan civilisation had sprung out of nowhere,
a mature finished product, out of sync with the numerous so-called pre-Harappan
sites (located mostly in Pakistan), where there was no evidence of seals
or script nor evidence of elaborate city planning. The findings of the
excavations at Kunal are wondrous: Seals, bichrome pottery bearing naturalistic
motifs - including the pipal leaf and the peacocks that the Harappans were
so fond of and, most wondrous of all, inscriptions on pottery, marked after
the firing, some of which are exactly like characters in the Indus Valley
script.
"The discoveries at Kunal have striking
similarities with finds excavated so far in Pakistan and dated to the pre-Harappan
period", claims the team of archaeologists comprising Dashrath Singh Malik,
Deputy Director, Madhav Acharya and Jagvir Singh Khatri, Assistant Directors
with the state Archaeology Department. They are not the only ones. Adds
Ashvini Agrawal, Chairman, Department of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology,
Punjab University: "The Kunal culture complex goes back to the middle of
the 4th millennium BC. This would make it the earliest of its type anywhere
in India."
In fact, a carbon-dating exercise
carried out by the University of Pennsylvania dates some of the artefacts
to 3100 BC. Archaeologists are confident that the date will be pushed back
to 3500 BC.
Not all the inscriptions found on
the Kunal pottery made it to the script, but a good 36 of the 417 characters
in the Indus Valley script have been found here. Kunal, perhaps, is a vital
link in the development of the script from its beginnings in graffiti.
For all that, Kunal is no accidental
find. In the 1980s, the Archaeology department carried out an extensive
survey through the districts of Hissar and Jind, which then included Fatehabad.
Over 250 sites were identified, Kunal was the most promising. Work began
just in time. Recalls Madhav Acharya, "The top layers had already been
levelled by the farmers and they were planning to level, the whole mound
just before we took over. Luckily, we got there in time."
Mounds develop when new settlements
are built on the remains of the old ones. The Kunal remains indicate that
the earliest inhabitants lived in pit dwellings dug into the ground. The
second phase revealed moulded mud bricks which were initially used for
lining the dwelling pits. The third phase unearthed square and rectangular
rooms, besides kitchens and toilets.
Other evidence suggests Kunal's
links with manufacturing and trade. One of the most interesting finds was
a pot containing 5,500 lapis lazuli beads, ornaments and a neatly folded
silver crown.
The presence of seals, too indicate
trade; the nearest source of the lapis lazuli, for instance, was Baluchistan.
Furnaces and crucibles indicate that the inhabitants smelted copper, which
must have come from Rajasthan.
All these raise tantalising questions
that will require further research to answer. There is yet no information
on the disposal of the dead in the township. There is also a debate raging
over the presence of circular and triangular fire pits at the site: Proponents
of the Hindutva-inspired theory that the Harappan civilisation is in digenous
see it as evidence of Vedic rituals being performed in the ancient town.
But as Ashvini Agrawal, Chairman,
Department of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology, Punjab University,
points out, "A fire hearth in a dwelling leads us to believe that Kunal
had a Jeweller's workshop." Perhaps the answer to the Indus puzzle lies
in the dispassionate study of this most ancient site.
