Who were Rajasthan's Aharians—metallurgy masters with cultural ties to Central Asia?

The Print

26-05-2025

The Ahar culture has been identified at 111 sites in the region, including Balathal, Gilund, and Ojiyana. These settlements reveal a vibrant Chalcolithic tradition, characterised by advanced metallurgy, pottery, and a sophisticated social structure centred around copper, lead, zinc, and silver mines. This makes it a strategically important contributor to the broader Bronze Age economy of the subcontinent.
Few are aware that just outside the city centre, near the historic cenotaphs and across the street from the Ahar Archaeological Museum, lies a protected archaeological site of great significance. Excavations carried out at the site in 1961 unearthed evidence of an indigenous culture rooted in the Copper Age that predates the Harappans, and also coexisted with them. The site, named 'Ahar' after the river it is situated on, has become synonymous with the Chalcolithic cultural complex of south-eastern Rajasthan, also called the Ahar culture.
Udapiur, the City of Lakes, is a tourist destination known for its palaces and narrow lanes full of art and culture, defined by Mewari imprints. The city takes pride in its royal roots, but for archaeologists, the antiquity of the region goes as far back as the mid-fourth millennium BCE.
The findings reveal a parallel world of Aharians, who played a pivotal role as exporters of copper and other minerals, establishing a cultural lineage that remained unbroken for thousands of years.
Tambavati Nagari
Characterised by the use of copper and stone, the Chalcolithic period derives its name from the Greek words chalcos (copper) and lithos (stone). It marks the transitional phase between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.
Though the Chalcolithic period in the Indian subcontinent is overshadowed by the Harappan civilisation, it was far more geographically widespread and regionally diverse than the latter. Southeast Rajasthan is one of the regions where this diversity finds its imprints, first identified at the ancient mound locally called Dhulkot, later rechristened Ahar.
The site was first documented by archaeologist RC Agrawal of the Rajasthan State Department of Archaeology in 1954. Archaeologist HD Sankalia of Deccan College, Pune joined Agrawal in 1961-62 and began digging at the site. Their efforts revealed a two-fold cultural sequence. The first period was the Chalcolithic period, dominated by copper objects. The second period was marked by the introduction of iron tools and Northern Black Polished Ware, characterised by a glossy surface—dating back to the third century BCE.
During the Chalcolithic period, a myriad of pottery including grey ware, buff-slipped ware, lustrous red ware, and black burnished ware was in use. But it was the black and red ware that stood out to Agarwal, who initially labelled this culture as 'the BRW culture'.
Predominant forms of BRW are bowls and small jars. Some were also painted using a white pigment to create designs with lines, dashes, dots, and latticed diamonds. It is important to note here that throughout the timeline of Indian history, BRW was widespread—spatially and temporally. It is also one of the markers of the Iron Age/Megalithic period in South India.
Beyond the chronological sequence of the site, a key objective of the 1961 excavation was to understand the sociological background of the Chalcolithic society. And this was only possible because Sankalia excavated the site horizontally. While vertical excavation yields the chronology of a site, it can also disregard the horizontal relationships and spatial contexts necessary for sociological interpretation. According to archaeologist MK Dhavalikar, Sankalia was free from the vertical excavation syndrome of his time and could avoid this problem.
The excavation revealed plinths of houses made of blocks of schist that used black and brown sticky soil as mortar. The walls of these houses were made of clay mixed with cow dung and quartz nodules, while the floors were prepared by firmly ramming the soil. According to the excavators Agrawal and Sankalia, the houses were large, often nine metres in length and partitioned into smaller rooms. Rectangular chullahs (earthen stoves) were found along with storage pots sunk into the floor.
According to Dhavalikar, Ahar was the Tambavati Nagari—a settlement of copper metallurgists—indicating a flourishing copper smelting activity. This was further proven by the presence of heaps of slag at the site during the Chalcolithic phase. According to the excavators, both copper and iron were smelted at Ahar. Objects such as celts, rings, bangles, and knives were found. A metallographic study conducted by KTM Hegde on one of the axes shows that it was cast in a crude, unventilated sand or earth mould and was left in the cast condition.
According to Hegde, the copper ores were extracted from Khetri mines in Rajasthan, suggesting that copper was sourced locally, from which objects were manufactured at Ahar. So, it was likely copper that attracted the inhabitants of the Banas valley thousands of years ago.
Also read: Buddha's gems at Sotheby's shows Indian govt doesn't have an eye on 'colonial loot'
Ahar culture
Following Ahar, excavations were conducted at Gilund, Balathal, Ojiyana, and other sites. These excavations confirmed a strong presence of a distinct Chalcolithic complex in Rajasthan. They also suggested that the Ahar culture was likely the earliest agrarian–based culture in Rajasthan since the findings from Balathal and Gilund date as far back as the mid-fourth millenium BCE. In fact, at Gilund, the precursor of the Copper Age, characterised by microliths, was dated to around 5500 BCE. This timeline places these indigenous cultures at the same time as pre–Harappan sites such as Kot Diji in Sindh and the Ravi phase at Harappa itself.
The Balathal excavation from 1993 to 2000 offered even more fascinating discoveries. Among them was the evidence of public architecture consisting of a fortified enclosure and a boundary wall around the settlement, indicative of organised community planning and defence strategy. Notably, a few burial sites were also found inside the fortified enclosure. Among these was an individual buried inside a stone enclosure bearing pathological markers of leprosy. This burial dates back to 2000 BCE, which makes it the earliest documented case of leprosy in India.
In 2003, during the excavation at Gilund, one seal found was of utmost importance—it bore a striking similarity with the seals found at Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex sites in Central Asia. The similarity suggests possible cultural exchanges worth investigating.
This legacy, therefore, offers a profound glimpse into the complex and technologically advanced society that mastered copper metallurgy and established domestic and long-distance cultural interactions. Despite these insights, there is a lingering sense that this barely scratches the surface. As archaeologist DK Chakrabarti rightly observed, we still understand very little about the authors of the Ahar culture.
Future excavations and explorations may offer more clues about the lives of the people who were as mighty as the Harappans. They may have even played a crucial role in the rise of the Harappan civilisation. It is, therefore, all the more disheartening that this regional early culture remains absent from collective memory.
Disha Ahluwalia is an archaeologist and junior research fellow at the Indian Council Of Historical Research. She tweets @ahluwaliadisha. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)