The State and Varna Formation in the MId-Ganga Plains: An Ethnoarchaeological View

This book is an extended archaeological study of the genesis of the state and complex society in the mid-Ganga plains. The importance of such a study was recognised by Professor R.S. Sharma as far back as 1983 in his book Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. This book, The State and Varna Formation in the mid-Ganga plains: An Ethnoarchaeological View, gives further impetus to that study and reviews the part played by the pre-iron/NBPW cultures in colonising the mid-Ganga plains and in paving the way for the advent of the historical period. It underscores the key role of iron in forwarding clearance, settlement and productivity. The spread of the later Vedic culture and of the elements of the Painted Grey Ware culture in the central Ganga plains is seminal to any discussion of the social formations in the mid-Ganga plains. Also ethnological analogies are used to suggest the causes of the unequal distribution of resources and agricultural surplus giving rise to the state and varna system.