History

Kutch was also inhabited by the man right from the Early Stone Age just like Saurashtra and some other parts of Gujarat, though the Middle and Late Stone Ages and through the first two to two and a half millennia before Christ. In fact, both Kutch and Saurashtra give much fuller and well connected prehistory than Northern, Central or Southern Gujarat.

The surprising thing is that man should have existed in Kutch in the distant past in the geological time scale known as ‘Middle Pleistocene’. As stated in geological history, Kutch was long submerged under the sea and surfaced later. On the other hand, it can be said that this was happened during the Tertiary period. In Kutch, one witness the same remarks of the river configuration and erosion as elsewhere in peninsular India and the most important of all, the earliest traces of man in the form of his stone tools are found in the stony or large smooth rocks with the river deposit.

These tools and accessories consist of large thick flakes made from local dykes, basalts and they were found in the river Surkhi placed at a few miles in the north-east directions of Nakhatrana Taluka. Afterwards, the pointed hand-axes and large grinders or scrapers were also found. The earliest resident of Kutch must be a hunter and food gatherer and living upon fruits, cooked roots and wild animals.

Now, it is proved that this Early Stone Age Man lived all over Kutch or only in the north-west parts and also in Bhuj and Nakhatrana Talukas. It can not be said with any sureness, but the tools of his descendant are found practically all over in Kutch, as a result of more systematic search made for his traces. The most important reason for it is that the tools which this man used were comparatively small so that they could be carried them from one place to another place easily or imported them in regions where no appropriate rocks were available. These small tools point to the change which had come over this man. Though he was still a hunter and roaming from place to place after the animals, he could exercise horrible weapons like spears, the shafts of which were smoothened with small stone scrapers and hafted with small and well pointed stone flakes as well as flat nodules themselves used as spearheads. The age of this second Stone Age man should be about 30,000 years ago because from comparable stored information, similar Stone Age tools along with carbonized costume of Arjuna trees were found in Maharashtra. The C14 date for last mentioned tree is around this time.

A few trees of the third and the succeeding Stone Age man had been reported some thirty years ago. These consist of tiny stone blades of excellent materials like chert, agate, carnelian etc. From these thin blades, the man manufactured sharp pointed arrow, harpoon heads and sickle teeth. These were placed in the narrow waterway of a bone or wooden knife and made firm by applying glue. Hence, compound tools were come into use. These are the precursors of copper, iron and steel arrow-heads and sickles. With these tools and weapons, the man could cut naturally growing grasses as well as exercise a twist over. This was taken as a major step towards an independent food-collecting cum producing life. The exact date for this stage of man in Kutch is not yet known, but in the neighbouring Gujarat area at Langhnaj near Ahmedabad. This culture has been placed by C14 determination at about 2500 B. C.

Proto Historic Period:

Soon Kutch and Saurashtra witnessed a increase forward. At present, the immediately former stages are not known even in Sindh, where a city civilization had been developed slightest by 2600 B. C. The holder of this civilization known as the ‘Harappan’ civilization had come to Kutch either through invaders and traders and spread in the west at Deshalpar, Kotada and Todis in Nakhatrana Taluka, Jhangar Kotada and Pirwada Khetar in Anjar Taluka and in the south-east directions at Kerasi, Lakhapur, Pabumath and Surkotda in Rapar Taluka in the east and at Kharika, Khavda in Taluka Bhachau. This was the first migration ante-dating the earliest historical ones mainly known as the Iranian, Indo-Greek, Saka ad Abhira.

Moreover, these ten to twelve sites, there is possibly more showing the profession of the entire region by the Harappans. We do not yet know whether there were any local or original cultures on the higher step of the ladder than hunting and fishing. If the future research does not expose anything then, the Harappans will have to be credited for introducing civilization in the true sense of the word an organized and well-ordered life, villages and towns with laid out roads, brick-built houses with the indirect knowledge of existence of agriculture. Unlike Mohen-Jo-Daro and Chanhudar, houses in Kutch were built on stone foundation as stone was easily available. Moreover, at Deshalpar, Kotada and Surkotda, we have some important proofs of a stone fortification.