Iron Age in India

In the prehistory of the Indian subcontinent, the Iron Age succeeded Bronze Age India and partly corresponds with the [w:[megalith|]]ic cultures of India. Other Iron Age archaeological cultures of India were the Painted Grey Ware culture (1300–300 BCE) and the Northern Black Polished Ware (700–200 BCE). This corresponds to the transition of the Janapadas or principalities of the Vedic period to the sixteen Mahajanapadas or region-states of the early historic period, culminating in the emergence of the Maurya Empire towards the end of the period.

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
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C

• The role of the Aryans [seems] to have forced scholars into a position where their primary concern has been to correlate the early Indian data on iron to some diffusionary impulses through the north-west.
  • D.K. Chakrabarti. 1993-94. "The Iron Age in India: The Beginning and Consequences." Puratatwa 24:12-25. quoted in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 9

E

• The traditional view, that iron was brought into the subcontinent by invading ‘Aryans’, is wrong on two counts: there is no evidence of any knowledge of iron in the earliest Vedic texts, where ayas stands either for copper or for metals in general, and the idea that the aryas of the Rigveda were invaders has become just as questionable.
  • Erdosy, George; 1995; ‘The Prelude to urbanization: ethnicity and the rise of Late Vedic chiefdoms’; in The Archaeology of the Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States, Allchin, F. R. et al (eds.), pg. 75-98; Cambridge University Press; Cambridge; 1995, page 83-84. Also quoted in What is the Aryan Migration Theory? by V. Agarwal.

P

• The iron age is more of a continuation of the past then a break with it.
  • Gregory Possehl. 1999. "The Early Iron Age in South Asia." In The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian World (153-175). Ed. V. Pigott. University Museum Monograph 89, MASCA Research Papers on Science and Archaeology Volume 16. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. Quoted in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 9