[INDOLOGY] brick-making communities

Thu Nov 8 15:57:38 UTC 2018

I have come across one case of incredible continuity from the Indus Civilization to the present day. On a mature Harappan potsherd from Amri in southern Indus Valley one can see two images of crocodiles who instead of hind legs have a 90 degrees sideways projecting extension reaching the “ground”. I found an explanation to this puzzling picture from the crocodile cult of fifty tribal villages in southern Gujarat — area once inhabited by Harappan people: wooden images of crocodiles installed on wooden posts are worshipped in sanctuaries that are now becoming neglected but are documented by Eberhard Fischer and Haku Shah in a booklet entitled “Mogra Dev, tribal crocodile gods” (Ahmedabad 1971). 
See pp. 25-29 in:
Parpola, Asko, 2011. Crocodile in the Indus civilization and later South Asian traditions. Pp. 1-57 in: Toshiki Osada & Hitoshi Endo (eds), Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past: Occasional Paper 12, Kyoto: Indus Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. Reprinted 2012 as “Current Studies on the Indus Civilization, vol. IX. New Delhi: Manohar.
Very briefly with two images (the Amri pot & Fischer’s photo of Devlimadi sanctuary) pp. 184-6 in:
Parpola, Asko, 2015. The Roots of Hinduism, New York: OUP.

Best regards, Asko

> On 8 Nov 2018, at 16.30, Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
> 
> thanks, I'll look into Chattopadhyaya.  I've actually got the book(s) at home.
> 
> --
> Professor Dominik Wujastyk <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk>,
> Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity,
> Department of History and Classics <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>,
> University of Alberta, Canada.
> South Asia at the U of A: sas.ualberta.ca <http://sas.ualberta.ca/>
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 7 Nov 2018 at 03:19, Lubomír Ondračka <ondracka at ff.cuni.cz <mailto:ondracka at ff.cuni.cz>> wrote:
> To O. P. Jaggi's multi-volume work (mainly on medicine) we can add some books by Debiprasad Chattopadhyay. True, he was concerned more with science (and philosophy of science) than technology, but e.g. in his book History of Science and Technology in Ancient India (KLM 1986) there are several chapters devoted to bricks and brick-making.
> 
> Best,
> Lubomir
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, 6 Nov 2018 19:15:21 -0700
> Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
> 
> > It's very tempting to look at today's brickmaking castes and make the leap
> > to Indus technology.  I've done it myself.  But then one must remind
> > oneself of the vast depth of time we're considering.  It seems impossible
> > that this craft could really be genetically connected with practices 4500
> > years ago.
> > 
> > That's why I'm asking about history, really, to see how far back the
> > current practices are documentable.
> > 
> > As for the Needham Project, O. P. Jaggi had a go at it.  Not that good, but
> > sometimes one is surprised.
> > 
> > Best,
> > Dominik
> > 
> > --
> > Professor Dominik Wujastyk <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk>>
> > ,
> > 
> > Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
> > ,
> > 
> > Department of History and Classics <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/ <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>>
> > ,
> > University of Alberta, Canada
> > .
> > 
> > South Asia at the U of A:
> > 
> > sas.ualberta.ca <http://sas.ualberta.ca/>
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Tue, 6 Nov 2018 at 10:07, Matthew Kapstein <mkapstei at uchicago.edu <mailto:mkapstei at uchicago.edu>> wrote:
> > 
> > > Dear Dominik,
> > >
> > > I recall reading somewhere that the sizes of bricks of the Indus
> > > civilization seem to have been standardized, in which case this is a very
> > > ancient industry in SA. In Bihar, it seems, the bricks of Nalanda and other
> > > viharas have been mined for centuries, and the use of brick in the
> > > Kathmandu valley extends to Licchavi times. So there must be some
> > > literature about this
> > >
> > > It's time to do for SA what Needham sought to do for China .....
> > >
> > > Best, Matthew
> > >
> > > Matthew T. Kapstein
> > > EPHE, Paris
> > > The University of Chicago
> > >
> > > ------------------------------
> > > *From:* INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info <mailto:indology-bounces at list.indology.info>> on behalf of
> > > Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>
> > > *Sent:* Tuesday, November 6, 2018 5:53:04 PM
> > > *To:* Indology
> > > *Subject:* [INDOLOGY] brick-making communities
> > >
> > > Travelling in India, especially by train, one occasionally sees large
> > > mounds of bricks, or maybe they are kilns or sun-drying piles.  There are
> > > workers at these places, making bricks.  Is there a scholarly *historical*
> > > literature about these communities and the practice of brick-making in
> > > earlier Indian history?
> > >
> > > With thanks,
> > > Dominik
> > >
> > > e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaNIydpOYYk <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaNIydpOYYk>
> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kobW9nj-wQ <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kobW9nj-wQ>
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Professor Dominik Wujastyk <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk>>
> > > ,
> > >
> > > Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
> > > ,
> > >
> > > Department of History and Classics
> > > <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/ <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>>
> > > ,
> > > University of Alberta, Canada
> > > .
> > >
> > > South Asia at the U of A:
> > >
> > > sas.ualberta.ca <http://sas.ualberta.ca/>
> > >
> > >
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