Consider the following pairs: 1. Northern Black Polished Ware: Mauryan Age 2. Painted Grey Ware: Rig Vedic Age 3. Ochre Coloured Pottery: Later Vedic Age Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?

  • Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) Ware Culture is found in northern India dating to the Chalcolithic period. The OCP pottery has red slip appears ochre in colour and hence, it is called Ochre Coloured Pottery. It has black painted designs. The OCP comes in the form of jars, storage jars, bowls and basins. OCP culture dates to 2600-1200 B.C.E. and is found in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and may have had some associations with early Vedic culture. • OCP culture is seen as an impoverished Harappan culture and some scholars see it as unrelated to the Harappan culture. The OCP sites produced copper figures and objects, and therefore, it is also known as ‘copper hoard culture’. It is a rural culture and has evidence of the cultivation of rice, barley and legumes. They also had pastoralism and evidence of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses and dogs. The villages had wattle and daub houses. They used copper and terracotta ornaments. Animal figurines have also been found. • Iron Age in North India coincides with the Painted Grey Ware Culture. The painted grey ware is dated to from 1100 to 800 B.C.E. Pottery was fine grey in colour with painted geometric designs. The painted grey laid the foundation of the early political formations. It correlates with the Kuru-Panchala kingdom known from the Vedic texts. • Painted Grey Ware sites reveal the development of agriculture and pastoralism, and the settlements of this period grew in dimension. They show a large scale population increase in the northern part of India. Iron Age in North India was coeval with Painted Grey ware Culture, and in South India it was associated with Megalithic burial mounds. • Painted Grey Ware cultural phased in followed by Northern Black Polished Ware culture, which is associated with the Mahajanapada and the Mauryan periods.