Burzahom of Kashmir: A Heritage Site

By Ghulam Nabi Khayal. Dated: 9/16/2017 11:21:01 PM

With the solid support of unchallengeable evidence and historical finds, it has now been authenticated that Kashmir has a history covering a long period of not less than 5,000 years. In view of this averment, Kashmiri can also be considered as the oldest language of this Himalayan region in the north of India. This is but natural because the language the first-ever inhabitants of Kashmir spoke could only be a local one-Kashmiri-and no other dialect or language.
Burzahom, a combination of two words-burza (birch) and home (ghar or residential house)-is located about 10 kilometers in north-east of Srinagar, the capital city of Kashmir, on the northern shores of the world famous Dal Lake.
It was as early as in 1935 that De Terra, heading the Yale-Cambridge Expedition, went for a trial excavation at the Burzahom site. Much to his surprise, he found numerous rare finds confirming the fact that the excavated remains belonged to a large span of time ranging from the era of New Stone Age to the early historical period of 3,000 B.C.
The excavations found revealed that the inhabitants of Burzahom lived in pits dug below ground-level with stone tools and their sides were plastered with mud to give them strength and durability. These underground pits obviously were their choice to protect themselves from the blues of severe winter.
Burzahom was the ideal habitat for the Burzahomis because, being on the shores of Dal Lake it provided fish in abundance, clean drinking water and adequate hunting grounds in the forest on northern plateau at the foothills of Mahadeva mountain.
S. L. Shali writes:
In addition to life style, habitat, cultural patterns and other activities of the early Kashmiris, these remains provide a valuable and interesting insight into their capacities and skills which they employed in making bone tools and implements to control the forces of nature and to kill wild animals for purposes of food and fat which they used to protect themselves against cold and as fuel for lighting and heating respectively.1
These oval or round shaped pits, being narrow at the top and wide at the level below, also became their graves. Skeletons of the Burzahomis were found there buried right in these pits. Interestingly, along with them, skeletons of animals like wolves, antler-like deer, ibex and dogs, sheep and goats were also found lying side by side with deceased persons most probably having been sacrificed as a religious rite. The seven skeletons of Burzahomis excavated from different burials of varying depths measured from 3 feet 9 inches to 10 feet and 7 inches, exactly like human creatures of gigantic size. One of the skulls of a dead body was also trepanned with six holes drilled intro it. According to an explorer, B. Allchin, ‘This must have been done for some surgical purposes before the death of the person.’2
Some other scholars believe that these holes were made into skulls immediately after the death of a person. His brains were drained out of his skull and then used for experimentation for some magical purposes. Dr. Anek R. Sankhayan and George Weber tell us more about this practice saying, ‘No instruments that could have been used in trepanation were found at the Burzahom site. However, other flint and bone instruments (but no bronze instruments typical of the roughly contemporaneous Indus civilisation to the south) have been recovered. It is possible that drills of various diameters were used on the skull; cutting or scraping is less likely. It is an attractive but purely speculative thought that at least some of the trepanation on the skull could have been performed by an Indus civilisation surgeon with his own bronze instruments.’3
De Terra and his party had revealed a large quantity of earthenware which included highly polished blackware and potsherds with incised geometric designs assignable to a period ranging from 3,000 to 1,800 B.C.
Among the unearthed finds a wonderful piece of a stone slab attracted one and all. The slab depicts the scene of a hunter chasing a deer holding a spear in his right hand and another person tries to kill him with an arrow. There are images of a dog and the sun.
The picture of the sun carved on many pieces could be a testimony that these earliest Kashmiris must have been worshippers of sun.
Ten human skeletons discovered between 1961 and 1968 were of several cultural stages including Neolithic, Neolithic-Megalithic and some other cultures of an early history.
Most interestingly, during the 1964 excavations, one huge stone was found over there the inscription of which, when studied minutely, discovered that it defined the lighting and shattering of the most ancient star, Supernova. This disclosure was made by Dr. Wahia, an astronomer in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. This discovery is enough to ascertain that 5,000 years ago dwellers of Burzahom were well-versed in the astronomical science.
The digging by De Terra was abandoned in face of fast approaching silt from the adjoining natural karewa which would play havoc with the excavation and Burzahom remained an enigma for man for years to come.
The Kashmir Department of Archaeology then assigned the continuation of Burzahom excavation to T N Khazanchi, a Kashmiri archaeologist, who was the superintendent of the department. He took great pains to personally supervise the work between 1960 and 1971 and his tiresome task bore fruits when astonishing discoveries at the site revealed that Kashmir history dated back to nearly 3,000 BC when eight-foot tall inhabitants existed on this plateau in Kashmir. He said proudly, ‘Being the son of the soil, I have had the proud privilege of stepping on the footprints of our earliest ancestors who settled on the soil of Kashmir after it had been drained out and the soil was fit for habitation.’4
Khazanchi himself elaborates on these finds saying, ‘The earliest level of occupation is characterised by Dwelling Pits. This is first period at Burzahom. Our joys knew no bounds when we struck at the first settled home of our ancestors. So we had got him and caught him after a gap of about 5,000 years. These dwelling pits were devised by the earliest Kashmiris who had evolved sufficiently to fashion a settled way of life. Till then he was on a prowl and almost roaming like an animal. The battle for survival had borne fruit. The dwelling pits were like fixed structures, narrower at the top and wider at the base, probably for accommodating family. The largest pit measured 2.74 meters at the top, expanding to 4.75 at the base and the depth being 3.95 meters. The Neolithic character of the site was established during the excavations.’5
Besides the inscribed huge stone slabs, the finds included almost all kinds of household goods used by the Burzahomis in their daily acts of usual activities. They included pointed stone spears, axes, round balls, bone tools, needles, small and long harpoons, borers, daggers, horn picks, and personal ornaments like pendants, beads and also combs. All these articles had been made with the kind of skill and masterly art which the Burzahomis undoubtedly had been taught by nature and no one else.
After Khazanchi’s task was accomplished, the priceless finds belonging to prehistoric eras were sent to Calcutta for further chemical examination to ascertain the exact period of the excavations. The finds have not been returned to Kashmir till date. The then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, G.M. Sadiq, had publicly declared that after the return of the artifacts back to Kashmir, a worthwhile museum would be set up right at Burzahom which would attract visitors and tourists from all over the world. This declaration too has yet to take a practical shape.
Meanwhile, the state Ministry of Tourism in its major initiative in August 2012 approached the Union Ministry for Culture for retrieving its centuries-old artifacts excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at a number of pre-historic and historical archeological sites, especially the Neolithic site of Burzahom, Srinagar and Buddhist site at Harwan. The request of the Government of Kashmir is bound to be opposed by the central government citing the security reasons. The artifacts requested by the Kashmir government include some very ancient and oldest Vedic manuscripts in the world. The scholars, scientists and the students of the archeology, along with Hindu organisations, are most likely to oppose the move.
Presently, most of the excavated finds of Burzahom have probably been kept in the National Museum, Kolkata.
References:
1. Kashmir: History and Archeology, pp.61-67
2. The Birth of Indian Civilisation, Penguin Books
3. Net input
4. Kashmir and Its People, ed. M K Kaw, APH Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, 2004, p.ll
5. Ibid, p.14
—(Courtesy: Miraas)

 

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