The Ashmounds of Kupgal
There are basically two hypothesis concerning the mobility of cattle herds implied in the structure and location of ashmounds. One is the seasonal movement of herds from one location to another to adjust to the symbiotic requirements of the farmers and the herders. This is best illustrated by the case of Sanganakallu reported by Fuller. In Sanganakallu village there are two ashmound sites, one of which is a small hilltop mound on a peak between the two hilltop settlements and the other consists of a group of three substantial mounds at Kupgal. According to Fuller the archaeology associated with these ashmounds suggests shorter periods of habitation and much less, or no, processing of seed foods. They are likely to represent seasonal camps were cattle where penned (and dung accumulated) and some people camped near them. It is likely that such seasonal gatherings occurred during the period of harvest after the monsoon (October-November), when additional labour may have been needed to help with the harvests, and cattle could be grazed on the stubble of recently harvested fields. Conversely, the herds would have been kept away from the fields during the growing season when they might have damaged crops. The harvest season was probably a time of festivals and the apparently ritual burning of dung at the ashmounds is likely to have occurred during this period. In the winter months as the dry season approached, the cattle herds probably dispersed with the pastors into the wider territories around the villages. At some stage during the dry season, the pastoralists seem to have camped at isolated points on the landscape where their cattle were again penned, the dung accumulated and ritual burning took place. The remnants of these dispersed camps can be found in many isolated ashmounds, distant from any permanent Neolithic villages as in the case of Kudatini. [Fuller, 2000 : Ashmounds And Hilltop Villages - The Search For Early Agriculture In Southern India, Archaeology International, 4, 45]
It is the other hypothesis that is of interest to us : the long distance movement of cattle herds over a year. Of interest to us are the cattle caravans that moved between the Sindhu-Saraswati plain and the Deccan. These movements too were probably dictated by seasonal availability of pastures in their place of origin and their destination, and the locations enroute. These probably would be large herds with a large number of pastors. The herds had to be directed to avail of best possible pastures and protected from predators. What is more interesting is the possibility that these were not driven purely by a search for fresh pastures, but also were a part of a trading link between the two destinations; they carried produce of the Sindhu-Saraswati plain to the markets in Deccan, and vice versa. As we saw last time gold from Kolar could be one important item of this trade; some semi-precious stones like quartzite, lapis lazuli and agate could also be among their ware. Besides of course exchanging a variety of household goods from the two divergent cultures. Wheat and barley must have been carried by these caravans from the Sindhu-Saraswati valley to Deccan.
As these cattle caravans crossed and re-crossed Narmadā over two millennia or more, definitely they dispersed the elements of one culture into another; and the exchange was not just of ideas and beliefs, but also of cattle and humans. That is the reason I surmised last time : The cattle caravans probably explain not only the spread of the cattle but also of the spread of the Indo-Gangetic kshatriya into the Deccan.
